Teaching Philosophy: Learning, Skill, Mastery, and Knowing the Difference
Learning is more than the ability to recite facts and figures. Learning is acquiring then using the context of our lives to understand those facts and figures. When we do this, we open the door to understanding data in the context of the world, the very nature of “fact making” itself. This ability to contextualize information, borne of equal parts observation and understanding, develops the critical thinking skills that encourage life-long connection, discovery and assessment. Within any ethnic, social or contemporary study (which includes disciplines as specific as Native American Studies), critical thinking is vital. Within such scholarly pursuit we concern ourselves with the past and contemporary lives and living, of a group of people. Here, “Skill” includes the knowledge and conceptual understanding of history, but “Mastery” is something else. “Mastery” happens within a stable state of flux, understanding or shifting perspective as needed, sometimes while also applying stable concepts strategically as the discipline’s subject grows/shifts/adjusts/becomes. In such a world as this, it can be easy to get lost in the historical data and miss the point entirely.
For more information, click here to download April's Teaching Philosophy
For more information, click here to download April's Teaching Philosophy