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4 pages about teaching and teachers
What is Teaching? What are the purposes of teaching? Is the teacher the source of knowledge? Is teaching a one-way or two-way venture? How will you decide what to teach? Do you consider yourself a teacher of students, or of content, or both? Is teaching better described as a set of skills and knowledge, or as a set of values and attitudes? What is it about teaching that you most look forward to, and that you most fear? What is your metaphor for the teacher? What are your ethical responsibilities as a teacher? How will you contribute to the profession of teaching?
What is Learning? What is knowledge? If you teach and students don’t learn, whose problem is that? How will you know when students have learned something? Are students empty vessels into which you will pour knowledge? What does learning mean for students of different abilities or ethnicities or genders or economic status? How will your classroom be responsive to the multiple communities represented in your students? Do all students need to learn the same thing? How important is classroom environment to learning? How will you decide what content to teach?
What is Schooling? What are schools for? How is schooling in a democracy different from schooling in a totalitarian state? What responsibilities do you have as an employee of the public, and what happens when you disagree with public policy? What about when you disagree with parents? What are your goals for your students?
