Teach or Learn?

The language of learning is not the same as the language of teaching

I have been introduced to the work of Gert Biesta* who has developed some clear thinking and analysis around the difference between the ‘language of learning’ and the ‘language of teaching’.

He makes the case that the language of learning has gradually achieved pre-eminence within education (for a range of reasons but with no single agenda) and this shift has gradually eroded the importance of the teacher as teacher, moving more towards teacher as a ‘facilitator of learning’.

I think, quite rightly, the distinction between “learn from” and “taught by” shapes quite different dynamics between student and teacher and especially “learn from” reduces the teacher’s need to exercise judgement.

Judgement, Bestia says, is not merely technical but normative, i.e., judgements about the ‘why’ of teaching as well as the what and the how.

 *For example: Gert J.J. Biesta, Giving Teaching Back to Education: Responding to the Disappearance of the Teacher, Phenomenology and Practice, Volume 6 (2012), No. 2, pp. 35-49

Jacob Jordaens – two men seated at a table - 1616

In my book Why We Teach I do not put it as elegantly as Bestia does but, nevertheless, I am arguing for teacher-student relationships that position the teacher as teacher.  There are important capabilities we need that are created within the interplay of this relationship and “learning from” is not sufficient, the teacher must teach, exercise their judgement, not respond automatically or treat the student as object rather than a subject in their own right.

Many teachers do this already but, as I point out in my book, many do not.

John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation. At the core of this work is the practice of encounter.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

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