April Borsack

What is the purpose of education? How does this belief influence your pedagogy?

I believe that the purpose of education is to learn. It seems simple enough, but I think it often gets ignored. Going through a chapter and finding answers to text explicit questions isn't learning. A student that copies another students work, or zones out during class, isn't learning. Furthermore, just because a student gets a passing grade doesn't mean that they are learning either. For a student to learn, they need to be engaged with the material, and that's not something that can be forced using the traditional carrot and stick approach. (With grades most often being used as both carrots and sticks). The way that this influences my pedagogy is that I try my hardest to present information that is useful, interesting, and engaging. I try to structure the class so that students want to attend to the information, and try to make the learning environment as safe and fun as possible. I also try to let the class flow as organically as possible, with the student's interests and questions helping to guide the curriculum of the class. I also try to allow the students some choices in how they learn. For example, after reading a book, they have a wide variety of ways from which they can choose to express their thoughts, feelings, reflections, and knowledge gained.