Students as Teachers

“There are three things to remember when teaching: know your stuff; know whom you are stuffing; and then stuff them elegantly”
-Lola May

So I've been meaning to blog about this, but I keep forgetting. Through conversations with my RA's, I've stumbled upon an excellent (and to my knowledge, unique) opportunity that UC-Berkeley bestows upon its students. Apparently students are allowed to design and teach their own classes, under the advisement of a full time professor. Both the teacher/student and students who take the class can earn credit toward their degree. So far I've heard of students teaching classes ranging from "Gender Issues in Sex & the City" to "Studying Creatively in Biology." There was even talk of a class centered around Harry Potter! (For those of you who know me very well, I'm sure you can imagine my reaction to this news.)

I think the concept of student becoming teachers is absolutely amazing. I'm sure that there are limits to this opportunity, as I can't see a first year student having the capacity to teach his peers. However, the opportunity UC-Berkeley affords these students falls in line with developing its students intellect as described in Perry's Scheme of Intellectual and Moral Development.

For those of you who are not familiar with this theory, it identifies roughly three stages that college students move through. The first, Dualism, describes most freshmen. They typically only see things in black and white, right and wrong, and rely heavily on authority figures (professors/administrators). Multiplistic students are typically be sophomore, juniors, and seniors. These students can reason that there are many sides to an issue, but since there are many sides their opinion counts just as much as all of the others...even if it doesn't really relate to the issue. Relativisitc students are typically senior and graduate level students, who are able to recognize differing opinions on issues, evaluate them based on evidence of the arguments, and come to a reasoned conclusion. They also see authority figures more so as a base of knowledge, but understand that their views/opinions may be wrong too.

By allowing students to teach classes, students are taught to value each other's opinions...moving dualistic students into the multiplistic stage...and potentially moving multiplistic students into the relativistic stage. Its also a great way for students to demonstrate how they synthesize the knowledge they have gained through other classes. For example, the Sex and the City class demonstrates the student coordinators knowledge of women's studies, media studies, and probably some forms of psychology.

From an organizational theory perspective, the concept of students teaching classes falls directly in line with the culture of Berkeley. As the source of the free speech movement, Berkeley seems to use the Student-Teacher concept as a symbol to affirm their commitment to free speech and students' opinions.

Well...that's all I have for today. BTDub's, the pictures don't really relate to my blog topic today, but I thought I would add them anyway. Earlier today, I went with a few of my RA's to the Lawrence Hall of Science. These pictures were taken there. The top one is of me, Isaac, and Daniel on the top of a whale statue, the one below is of Daniel, Chandni, and Isaac in front of a man-made waterfall.

Cheers!