Before I start I would like to discuss a bit “What is that “teaching experience” itself?”
It seems to me that this is still one of the questions that humanity has not been able to find an answer to. Although there are a lot of pretty reasonable assumptions on this topic:
H C Morrison:- Teaching is an intimate contact between the more mature personality and a less mature one.
Jackson:- Teaching is a face to face encounters between two or more persons, one of whom ( teacher) intends to effect certain changes in the other participants ( students).
B Hough and James K Duncan:- Teaching is an activity with four phases, a curriculum planning phase, an instructing phase, and an evaluating phase.
This definition presents the organizational aspect by which we can describe and analyze the teaching process.
N.L.Gage ( Democratic point of view ):- Teaching is interpersonal influence aimed at changing the behavior potential of another person.
Clerk:- Teaching refers to activities that are designed and performed to produce in students behavior.
And the list of such definitions of the teaching process can be continued indefinitely and we can talk about this endlessly. Until today, I have not been able to fully join any of them.
But from all the years of my work experience I am gaining the deepest belief that:
TEACHING is not just a mechanical explanation of the material without emotions, gestures and love. Teaching is an act of Love by itself. And just love sees teaching as an art where we explore different ways of connecting to subject matter and to students. Love brings patience and understanding, which are so important in teaching.
In this regard, I remembered an unforgettable case from my teacherhood what turned out to be a vivid example of the above, especially of my deepest belief. When one day I opened the classroom door to enter the lesson I heard the applause of my students standing on their feet. I felt an ocean of different feelings. But the biggest one was the feeling of happiness that I could build a trusting, close and sincere relationship with my students.
That moment has left an indelible mark on my memory forever.
Zh. Aşkın
