Teaching

What is learning and what makes a good student? What is teaching and what makes a good teacher?

In todays class we taught each other small skills like using the terminal on your computer, folding a shirt in a special burrito like way, sketching a hand or constructing a fancy geometric shape. During this experiment I realised that everyone was at least a little bit curious about what we were about to learn. Also everybody was somehow proud to share and teach his skill. So I think everybody likes to exchange knowledge. But why do some people hate going to school or hate teaching? For me factors that motivate this are the following:

1. Difficulty – teaching or learning stuff that is too easy, or to challenging) => the flow moment
2. Relatability – teaching or learning something that is related to you.
3. Amount of information – not only difficulty but also the amount of knowledge influences the fun
4. Progress - when progress is seen
5. Priority - there are times in your life, when acquiring a new skill is not the most important thing to do

For me a good student and a good teacher are persons that are able to dose the different factors. Patience and will are then the resources that are needed, whether those factors are not right dosed.

Readings

Ackermann, Edith K. 2016. “Learning to Code: What is it? What’s In It For The Kids?— A Tribute to Seymour Papert". Trans. version from publication in Tecnologie didattiche (TD 27-2002).

Moriwaki, Katherine & Brucker-Cohen, J. 2006. “Lessons from the scrapyard: creative uses of found materials within a workshop setting”. In AI & Society. 20:4. 506-525.