July 14, 2000
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THE UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA July 14, 2000 |
 Excellence in Teaching — Educationby Robie Liscomb “The function of knowledge and teaching is to put us in closer touch with our humanity,” says Dr. Thomas Fleming (curriculum & instruction), recipient of the inaugural faculty of education award for excellence in teaching. Looking back at his high school years, the education historian remembers feeling mystified by the nature, direction and purpose of his courses. “Rarely did I feel responsible for my own learning. Never did I feel in control of the curricula before me,” he says. “It was as though our instructors were attempting to fill some vast void within us without ever fully disclosing to us the nature of our insufficiency. We proceeded mostly on faith and always in fear of not ‘getting it.’” Those experiences taught Fleming that the first task of teaching is to involve students in setting out the ground rules about who is responsible for what, and how — and upon what basis — assessment takes place. “My intent, and I trust my practice, has been to provide students with freedom, choice, and control, along with responsibility, over what and how they learn,” he says. “The only meaningful differences in our roles is that I’m an older and somewhat more experienced student of the discipline than they, that it is my vocation to assist them in understanding, and that I have institutional and social obligations to monitor and evaluate their development as teachers and scholars.” Fleming earned his BA and MA in history and a diploma in education at UVic, and he credits some of his teachers here in the history department for helping him realize that teaching goes far beyond mastery of the subject matter. “Teachers give you a sense of your self that goes far beyond the content of any course,” he explains. “Over 30 years of teaching, my views have changed greatly,” he says. “The longer you teach, the less central subject matter becomes. It gets supplanted by interest in the character of the students, their sense of purpose, their humanity, and how you behave with them.” Fleming uses the struggles of educators in the past to show students how their humanity is an objective to be pursued in every class they teach. “In this way, students come to see for themselves that the act of learning, in all its forms, prompts them to consider how personal and professional relationships in everyday life provide opportunities to demonstrate their own capacity for compassion and understanding.” |