Teaching what you don’t know
Ever thought an Art History professor would teach Math or that Marx would be taught by Mathematician. Its true, at the tiny and esteemed St. John's College, the President requires professors to teach what they don't know. The rationale? "Learning is born of ignorance."The college makes Bart Simpson seem very old school.
A New York Times article, quotes President Chris Nelson saying, "Every member of the faculty who comes here gets thrown in the deep end. I think the faculty members, if they were cubbyholed into a specialization, they’d think that they know more than they do. That usually is an impediment to learning."
It goes on to describe how, "Hannah Hintze, who has degrees in philosophy and woodwind performance, and whose dissertation concerned Plato’s “Republic,” is currently leading classes on observational biology and Greek."
A freshman at the college comments, "Some might not find that acceptable, but we explore things together. We don’t have someone saying, ‘I have all the answers.’ They’re open-minded and go along with us to see what answers there can be.”
St. John's seemingly radical approach to inquiry driven learning is exactly what we need in the twenty-first century. It is characterised by these key elements:
You can't know it all: St. John's fosters life-long learning by surrounding its students with people who are always learning. When teachers don't teach from a specific expertise, their own process of learning is naked and apparent for students to see. Teachers and students learn together, embroiled in learning that is not about right answers but is steeped with inquiry and curiosity. These elements make for life-long learning. This is only but appropriate in an age that is brimful of information that cannot all be learned.
When a Philosophy professor (and might we even call her that any longer?) teachers observational biology and Greek, she implicitly tells her students that it is possible for anyone to learn anything, even when they think they are an expert in one area. She teaches them to take risks and remain flexible.
Collaboration: Teachers and students explore, inquire and learn together, engaging in higher-level thinking skills. They put two and two together. The students are actively involved in the construction of knowledge. In the process, they all learn how to learn, a skill that goes across subject areas and life stages. And, they do it collaboratively, learning what it means to inquire, construct and understand together.
Integration: When an Art History professor teaches Mathematics, she looks at the subject with a new perspective. She integrates her ways of thinking and blends them to a subject that is not readily treated with an alternative angle. She implicitly integrates ways of thinking that often get pigeon-holed with each subject. Thinking and perspective taking becomes more fluid.
St. John's approach doesn't seem radical to me when its characterisitcs are laid out and understood in the light of the kind of education we need in the twenty-first century. It does however beg a radical change in attitude from teachers, administrators and parents. As one professor at the college put it, “You have to not try to control things,” Mr. Dink said, “and not think that what’s learned has to come from you.”