Teaching

I always thought I would be a good teacher, but now I am not so sure. I am still confident that I would be a good lecturer--I'm good at breaking down complex concepts into more digestible bits as well as structuring content so that it flows smoothly. But there is so much to being a good teacher than explaining stuff to students. Getting students to engage with the class is a bigger challenge and I am not sure I do a good job. I have also realized that I do a lot of teaching in tutorials, which is probably not the point of tutorials. I am not entirely sure what the point of tutorials is but I am sure it is not meant to be a mini-lecture. A lecture is a monologue whereas a tutorial is ideally supposed to be a dialogue among students mediated by the tutor.  When you lecture, you push the students to understand a concept from your perspective rather than encouraging them to think critically. 

Today, I filled in for someone who was filling in for my supervisor, and I struggled. I realized I hadn't even noticed that the two questions of the tutorial were near-identical. I realized it was a discussion-oriented tutorial but I didn't do a good job of steering the discussion. I tried asking them a few questions but that seemed to confuse them even more. Since it was a topic  I wasn't fully familiar with, I was on shaky ground as it is. And, to be honest, I was not adequately prepared for the tutorial. I turned the last bit of the tutorial into a mini-lecture and I was making up the lecture on the  fly. Which is possibly  fine for a seasoned hand, but as a novice, I struggled. I don't know if the students noticed my stumbles, but I know I did. I should have done more, although I would have had to do a lot to be prepared as it is a new topic for me. 

I have great respect for courses that push students to think critically, because in economics it is so much easier to teach formal and tidy mainstream economics rather than its alternatives.