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In writing this "philosophical" statement, I will purposefully omit any detailed discussion of my teaching practice. In the teaching materials, statements from my colleagues and former students, and my own accounts of my teaching that comprise the bulk of my teaching portfolio, I trust readers will find concrete evidence of how my teaching practices embody the three principles stated here.
The theories of learning upon which I draw in my teaching imply considerable freedom and responsibility for students and teachers. Human beings construct knowledge and abilities through their interactions with texts, other people, and their own critical reflections. This knowledge and these abilities necessarily vary according to learners’ backgrounds, values, needs, and desires. Constructivist pedagogy therefore implies the validity of diverse kinds of knowledge, not only the knowledge that the teacher or the authors of course texts construct.
At the same time, constructivist pedagogy does not, as some fear, imply that "anything goes" in teaching and learning. Learners are responsible to others in their learning communities. The knowledge constructed by each individual or group must therefore be articulated in discussions and writings and thereby made available for respectful and critical engagement by others, including fellow students and the professor.
For the professor this pedagogical principle complicates the acts of teaching and of assessing learning. For example, it renders impracticable concepts of "correct" answers (and therefore of forced-choice exams) and thus requires more complex assessments of students’ learning, chiefly through sustained spoken and written discourse. The benefit that makes constructivist teaching worth the extra trouble is that students truly learn. Constructivist approaches to learning restore dignity, intensity, and lasting value to the acts of teaching and learning and thus counteract the legacy of F. W. Taylor and his principles of "efficiency" and "scientific management" that infuse the dominant "factory model" of education.
Every teacher is responsible for preparing students for active and productive participation in the public sphere. By "public sphere" I mean the world of public discourse ("democracy" in all its forms) and of public and private enterprise ("capitalism" in all its forms). The public sphere demands certain qualities from each of its citizens, including that they:
Consciously and explicitly, I teach to help my students develop these qualities.
Those of us who teach future teachers--and so far, at least, every student I’ve taught at Illinois State University has been a prospective teacher of some kind--have special responsibilities regarding the public sphere. Unavoidably, the teachers we educate will pass on whatever principles and practices they learn from us to their students. Since education is the taproot of democracy, teacher educators bear a double responsibility to shape their practices according to the needs of the public sphere. This responsibility is especially urgent in a cultural and historical moment in which everything "public" is under attack from those who maintain a historically and theoretically blind faith in the capabilities and benevolence of private enterprise.
As a chronically serious person, I am constantly re-educating myself in the crucial role of humor, play, and desire in teaching and learning. Since learning always begins with intention, or desire, I have learned to tap into my students’ yearning for vivid, fully human lives. By relating personal experiences--sometimes humorous, sometimes dramatic--I work to show myself as the professor to be accessible, trustworthy, and fully human. My students are urged to link their course projects to their interests, goals, and needs. I encourage joking, playfulness, and drama in the classroom insofar as it creates a relaxed, trusting, pleasing, surprising atmosphere for learning. I strive constantly to link the goals and materials of the courses I teach to my students’ desires for personal fulfillment, professional success, stimulating experiences, and a more just and peaceful world.
Attention to these "affective" dynamics makes learning more enjoyable, but it does much more. Nurturing playfulness and desire makes learning meaningful, makes learning more complete, indeed makes learning possible.