Abstract

"In the end, education has to do with fashioning certain kinds of individuals - the kinds of persons I (and others) desire the young of the world to become. I crave human beings who understand the world, who gain sustenance from such understanding, and who want - ardently, perennially - to alter it for the better." (Gardner, p 19, 1999)

The first class I ever taught was in the Fall of 1993. Having just moved to Greeley, Colorado to begin my doctoral studies, I was still unpacking when the Department Chair asked me to teach an undergraduate Rehabilitation Counseling class called Helping Skills. I had 2 days to prepare for the first day of class! In retrospect, it is strange to think that anyone would unleash a person with few teaching skills and no experience on a class of unsuspecting undergraduates,

I think it is a shame that professors aren't required to take classes to learn to teach. I suppose it is assumed we somehow glean this ability by observation over the years, but unfortunately, that presumes that we have good models to follow and we know that isn't always the case. The way we have learned often affects the way we teach and, in my opinion, that is why some teachers are less than ideal.

At any rate, after almost 10 years of teaching, I have learned a lot from this on-the-job training experience. Developing 15 courses, numerous seminars and teaching in 3 different departments in a University has been a wonderful learning experience. It was also been an excellent preparation for the most important element of my education as a teacher - my experience during iMET.

Prior to iMET, I thought I was heading in the right direction. All my lectures were well thought out with PowerPoint slides and appropriate activities. I even bought my own In-Focus projector and carried it to all my classes so my students could "see" what I was talking about by viewing all the slides I had laboriously created. Yet, it seemed to me something was missing.

After I started iMET, I figured out what was missing. In all my preparedness, I lost sight of one simple principle: people learn best when deeply engaged in things that interest them. While I was trying my best to be interesting and entertaining, I wasn't providing enough of an opportunity for my students to discover their own interest in a topic. I learned first hand during iMET that project and problem based learning involving constructivist theories that have been around for a long time (see Piaget, Dewey, Bruner, Taba, etc.) is a far more effective condition for students to "take charge of their own learning and create their own knowledge from a great variety of sources of information" (Aufdenspring, 2000).

I am transformed as a teacher as a result of iMET. I don't see things the same way and that means more work recreating how I structure my classes. Having utilized project-based learning for 3 semesters now, I am convinced that it is a good way to enhance learning. But it is not the only tool at my disposal as a teacher. As a result of iMET, I learned about models of teaching such as concept attainment, inquiry based learning, synectics, advance organizers, and many other useful models of teaching. All of these models are tools that I add to my collection. Teaching is much like counseling; you need to decide what strategy works best given the situation and the people. I am grateful for my experience in iMET; it has enriched my skills as a teacher and, again, it has made all the difference. Hopefully, my students share this sentiment!