The
unquestioned role of a student is to learn as much as possible
through whatever means it takes to ingrain that knowledge
in the individual student. Teachers and professors are human
beings and are therefore not perfect. No one knows the correct
answer to every question even when you limit the questions
to a certain field of study. Having a certain skepticism
about what they are being taught can help students to make
the teachers and professors even better by clarifying correct
answers or correcting mistakes and misinformation.
Students
certainly have a huge role in their own abilities to learn.
Teaching faculty should act more as guides along the way
rather than trying to force each student to learn whatever
it is that they are studying. The best teachers in the world
cannot teach an unmotivated student. If the teacher, for
whatever reason, cannot motivate the student, then the student
must somehow find a way to motivate him or herself. One
method of doing this is by become an active rather than
a passive student. The more the student involves him or
herself in the act of studying, the better he or she can
learn. One of the best ways to become more active is simply
to ask the teacher or professor questions. Students who
passively sit in a classroom and take everything that the
teacher says for granted are not fully using their mental
capacities to learn. Better education comes from teachers
who are able to get their students to think about a subject
rather than merely absorb a certain amount of information.
Having a healthy skepticism can improve a student's ability
to both think and absorb knowledge in a learning situation.
Students
should practice a certain amount of skepticism in the classroom
as a means of fostering better communication between the
teacher and the students. To sit passively receiving and
digesting information from a teacher or professor would
be to assume that everything that the teacher says is absolutely
correct. Teachers are human beings and no one is one hundred
percent right all of the time, even in a classroom situation.
No professor or teacher is infallible. Perhaps a teacher
would simply unconsciously say the wrong word or pass on
some misinformation that the teacher truly believed was
correct. Simply asking a question by the student could prevent
an entire classroom from becoming confused or misinformed.
In
my own education, I have had at least two experiences that
showed me the value of being somewhat of a skeptic at times
in a classroom situation. In my younger years, a grade school
teacher told the class that it was wrong for people of different
races to intermarry because the children would grow up confused
about their "real" identity. Although it seemed
wrong at the time, because I was so young and impressionable,
I thought that the teacher must be right because he was
the teacher. Looking back now, I realize just how wrong
he was and that a healthy skepticism even at a young age
can be a valuable tool in education. In another example
of the value of questioning a teacher, we had an inexperienced
first-time teacher teaching our second language class. Although
she tried very hard, it became obvious that she was making
many mistakes. I began asking questions (in a helpful manner)
and found out that the book that she was using was full
of mistakes. She appreciated the feedback and we all had
a better learning experience by watching for mistakes from
the book. Without a little skepticism, we would have been
pronouncing and using many words incorrectly.
There is of course a fine balance between a student having
a healthy skepticism and just being a downright cynic. But
with the proper attitude toward learning and a little skepticism,
both the student and the professors or teacher can improve
upon the learning process and maximize learning efficiency.
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