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It has almost been eight years since I earned my bachelor’s
degree from my Alma Mater, and now a very good friend of mine is about to
accomplish the same thing (hopefully) in the next three to four months. According
to my friend, one of the people standing between him and his diploma is his Philippine
Constitution professor whom I shall call Madam Sand Chest.
Madam Sand Chest has a knack for testing her students’ knowledge
of things she did not bother telling them to study for. Whenever a good number
of people fail to answer her questions, she usually goes on a lengthy rant
about students limiting themselves to topics they were told to read.
Now, I am no stranger to the world of academe. Having worked
as an instructor in an international college and an online teacher to foreign
students, I have encountered my fair share of Madam Sand Chests, both as an
educator and as a student. And in my experience, most Madam Sand Chests got
their education from a state university where spoon-feeding is a no-no. In
connection, they hold scholars ng bayan (students in state universities) like my friend to a very high standard because they are supposed to be products of the same
system.
In the world of tertiary education, the word spoon-feeding
gets thrown around a lot by professors to warn students that the said teaching method
is almost non-existent at the college level. The term is pretty much self-explanatory,
but in the context of teaching methods, it is not something the average elementary
or high school Filipino student is familiar with, despite the fact that it is
what their teachers do to share information with them.
CollinsDictionary.com describes spoon-feeding as treating,
instructing or informing in a manner that destroys initiative or curbs
independent thought and action.[i]
With this method, the teacher provides pupils with everything they need to know
for a particular subject or course. It is very effective for sharing
information to a large audience and favors teachers because they get to dictate
the pace of their lessons.[ii]
Going back to Madam Sand Chest, I guess what annoys her is the possibility that
her students want to be spoon-fed.
Perhaps, Madam Sand Chest wants her students to be more
independent when it comes to learning stuff because it will help improve their
problem-solving skills and teach them how to think outside of the box. Fair
enough. I am all for that. But how does she expect them to immediately solve
problems that have not been brought to their attention until the last second?
How does she expect them to complete tasks before they were given? How does she
expect students to answer questions on the spot involving topics they have yet to read or learn about?
In a perfect world, every student would be a wide reader. If
you ask them to read the first to the twelfth page of a book, they will most
likely read ten more pages for good measure. But we are not living in a perfect
world. These kids cannot be bothered to read beyond what they have been told
to, especially when they also have to worry about their theses and tests in
other courses. Unlike you Madam Sand Chest, who have the luxury of focusing on
Philippine Constitution and talking about something that you like, your
students have to study other subjects that are not related with each other. If
you have not heard of the words information overload and burnout, then look no
further than what your students are going through. I am not saying it is
entirely your fault, but you are definitely a part of their problems.
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You see, Madam Sand Chest, telling someone what to do is
different from showing someone how to do it. Where I graduated from, I was
blessed with a great Philippine Constitution professor and an equally
remarkable lecturer for my Laws of Mass Media course. Those guys told me and my
classmates what books to read and what topics to look up but they never
interpreted laws for us. Instead, they gave us the freedom to interpret laws
and their significance on our own. They encouraged us to talk among ourselves
on how a law should be interpreted and applied. And in the event that we are
going about things the wrong way, they tell us and have us figure out why we
are wrong.
How would you feel if you were in the shoes of your
students, Madam Sand Chest? How would you fare if a Computer Science major asked
you how to convert numeric String to int in Java, after being told to read a
primer on C+ + the night before? Can you demonstrate how to reverse engineer a
cheap smartphone after an hour’s worth of introduction to electrical
engineering? I am sure what you did to your students were not as grave but I am
also sure you get the gist of what I am saying. Besides, you cannot expect your students to know as much as
you do or share your interest in Philippine Constitution. If every college
student in the Philippines have those characteristics, people like you will
definitely be out of the job.
I am not saying you should start spoon-feeding your
students, Madam Sand Chest, but there is a difference between providing them
with everything that they should know from telling them what they should know. Do
not be afraid to facilitate learning. It is not spoon-feeding when you are
merely showing them the right path. Taking them to that path, however, is a
different story.
Of course, an argument can be made that no one gives you helpful hints in the real world and that you should learn to think and decide on your own. That is true in general because life will keep throwing curve balls at you for as long as you live, and no one can prepare you for those things. However, when it comes to your career, which is what college is supposed to be preparing you for, rest assured that someone, be it in the form of a colleague, supervisor, team leader or manager, will show you the ropes and entertain your questions, just so you can get your primary duties done. You will have to figure out everything else on your own the rest of the way. If that is how it works in the workplace, what is wrong with emulating it in the classroom?
Let me wrap this up with this final suggestion, Madam Sand Chest. If you are truly passionate about educating the
youth about the Philippine Constitution, the next time your students fail to
answer your questions, have them hit the books until they find a solution to
the problem you presented. That is a lot more productive than allocating time for
your rants.
How about you? What do you think of Madam Sand Chest’s
teaching method? Have you experienced being the student of a Madam Sand Chest?
