Worthy Teaching

When we started talking about this subject in class, I knew that there would be many takes on this particular topic. What I did not realize however, would be the diversity with which the class took to classifying worthy teaching. Each of my classmate's understanding of the topic seemed to hold different meaning of not only the question of what worthy teaching is, but what was expected from asking this question. This discussion covered many facets of the work as well as facilitated progress away from the act of teaching and towards the teacher; a somewhat natural movement I now recognize given the make up of our classroom occupants. Moreover, the tandem quality of these two areas is telling of the topic of worthy teaching in that each is valued in conjunction with the other and each facet is important to the other's success.

My first thoughts concerning what worthy teaching was, was teaching that created an environment that facilitates and encourages exploration and innovation. I feel as if this notion arises from my studies in world literature. Being an interdisciplinary area of study—often grouped under the heading of comparative literature—world literature allows those that study it to approach texts from many different angles and communicate those findings in multiple ways. While this is something aided by the subject matter, I feel that this approach to teaching is something that should be valued by in every area possible. By playing to students’ fortes, a completely new working environment can be created in the classroom. An interdisciplinary classroom is enriching not only for students but for the teacher as well. It gives students the chance to become the teacher and express their research, interests, projects, etc. in a way which allows them to gain authority over their own learning. A classroom which allows everyone to have something new and interesting to contribute changes the dynamics of a classroom for the better.

Even in my explanation of worthy teaching, I find myself making the same divergences I noted before, by moving to thoughts of teachers and students. Worthy teaching, for me, is something that not only in practice, but in theory, encourages people to think not only of the act of teaching but those affected by it, and I feel that interdisicipinarity does exactly that, and is, without question, a part of worthy teaching.