As a high school math instructor, one of my primary roles is to help young people learn how to problem-solve; how to form, organize, and connect different mental structures; how to make sense of the world from a mathematical perspective. To do so, I must teach the language of my discipline, but I believe I must also model how to learn, how to approach the world as a curious and engaged learner. Current studies indicate that knowing and understanding content is key to developing expertise (Eccles, D. & Feltovich, J. 2008) – and I believe that is true – but my experience has taught me that I am most effective when I share with my students my own quest for knowledge, my own creative questions, my own sense of wonder at the world.
How do we, as instructors, move from teaching simply content to modeling curiosity and wonder? How do we teach our students to take initiative in their learning? To make mistakes? To strive for excellence in not only an area of interest but in all areas of learning? There are no easy answers to these questions. I believe what is important is to acknowledge that the enterprise of teaching is a dynamic and life-long journey. As men and women called to help mold the next generation of learners, we must be in a continual dialogue with our internal selves, with our colleagues, with current pedagogical practices. If we cannot live our own talk, how can we expect our students to do the same?
