Teaching is both an art and a science.
The debate about whether teaching is an art or a science continues to rage at education conferences and in school staff rooms around the country. Some argue that people are either "born" teachers or they aren't. Others insist that teaching is a science because educators can be trained. There is a third group that claims it is a combination of the two. To examine teaching as an art, a science or a combination, you have to put it under a situational microscope.
Instructions
1. Look at the subject context. Take English, for example; when you are teaching literature or creative writing, it is an art. When you are giving instructions on do a bibliography it becomes a science, because there is a very specific formula you have to follow and you can't insert your own creative touch and put the author's first name before her last.
2. Ask yourself whether the teaching you are watching or doing is style or design. Verbal interactions with students lend themselves to art, because it can be spontaneous and challenging. Doing the attendance register at the end of the month, however, is a science.
3. Notice that what works for one teacher won't apply to everyone on staff. One teacher has a quiet way of approaching students, while another is flamboyant. Both reflect their artistic approaches and interpretation of their work.
4. Examine key in-school issues, such as enforcing school rule or supervising at recess and lunch hour. Again, this is more of a science concept than an artistic one, although the teacher does lend his own personality to the activities.
5. Scrutinize where art and science sometimes overlap to the point that they can't be separated. Take, for example, a science teacher who is encouraging her students to come up with a hypothesis -- an art -- and to follow up their investigations using the scientific method.
6. Question if the situation is subjective -- and under the control of the teacher and thus art-- or if it is scientifically objective and decided by others. Use this simple consideration to help you examine a context and decide if the teaching is an art or a science.
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