Part 2: Making of an expert teacher
How Knowing Compliments Beauty
First, let’s watch a short video where the famous physicist Richard Feynman talks about how “science only adds to the excitement, the mystery, and the awe of a flower.” It’s a short animated one, and you can read the text too, down below.
I have a friend who’s an artist and has sometimes taken a view which I don’t agree with very well. He’ll hold up a flower and say “look how beautiful it is,” and I’ll agree. Then he says “I as an artist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing,” and I think that he’s kind of nutty.
First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me too, I believe. Although I may not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is … I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time, I see much more about the flower than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it’s not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimeter; there’s also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes. The fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a flower.
It only adds. I don’t understand how it subtracts.
Feynman is one of the greatest scientists, and as you can notice, he is also a master explainer.
Feynman’s artist friend can only see the superficial part of the flower - the shape, the color, the size. And based on his subjective perception, he could appreciate the beauty, the aesthetics of the flower, and claim, “Oh such a beautiful flower”.
However not only can Feynman see all of those external features of the flower, he can also see beyond the superficial details.
He has the capacity to zoom in and zoom out, to see outside and inside, and to explore intricate details while scanning the outer structures.
While the artist only has a general/subjective understanding, Feynman possesses more: a deeper/objective understanding.
So What Does it Mean?
You might ask, “What does this have to do with teaching and expert teachers?”
A lot.
In short: experts know MORE and see MORE than non-experts.1
Let’s talk about this in the context of classroom observation.
If you are a non-teacher, chances are that you will only be able to see what’s happening in the classroom. You will be able to see what teaching and learning looks like from the outside.
You might also end up comparing ‘great’ teaching with those portrayed in several hollywood/bollywood movies.
And your interpretation will based on your superficial knowledge of what teaching is. You will see the outer appearance. Like the appearance of a flower. The external features. The colors. And just like the artist that judged the beauty of the flower based on the external features, you too will judge the ‘greatness’ of teaching (or a teacher) based on those external/visible features of teaching.
But an expert teacher knows more and sees more while observing a class.
For instance, an expert teacher knows that there are at least four different layers of learning process happening in a class at a single time; and thus can easily separate the visible parts from the invisible parts.
Likewise, an expert teacher knows that attention is the most expensive currency in the learning process, and can swiftly gauge the attention level in the class.
And similarly, an expert teacher knows the difference between “student engagement” and “student learning”, and can see whether the students are really learning.
So, Back to Feynman:
The difference between Feynman and his artist friend is that Feynman simply knows more and because of his background knowledge, he is able to think more, imagine more and appreciate the beauty of the flower more.
Building expertise in teaching also requires knowing more - about the content, appropriate pedagogy and common sense. It also requires being able to act on “insights” efficiently and automatically.
More on these in the next part.
“Novices see only what is there; Experts can see what is not there.” With experience, a person gains the ability to visualize how a situation developed and to imagine how the situation is going to turn out. (Seeing the invisible: Perceptual-cognitive aspects of expertise. Klein & Hoffman, 1993)