Page 16 - Yanai ebook

יאני סרפ לארשיל יגולונכט ןוכמ - ןוינכטה תיתביבסו תיחרזא הסדנהל הטלוקפה | קינסלט קרמ ח”פורפ The term I choose to use is learning philosophy, rather than teaching philosophy. Most people learn best by one of two methods: by doing or by teaching. Since it is our students who are expected to be the learners, I strive to give them the opportunity to learn by both of these methods. Teaching is about energy and stimulating discourse. The energy input by a teacher • entices students to become involved in the discussion and to ask questions. I try to .make my classroom a discussion, and I try to leave no question unanswered A progressive engineering education should, in my opinion, incorporate into the standard curriculum, among other things, aspects of: • Use of appropriate engineering tools, analytical and practical. I call this hands-on engineering abilities. • Impact of his/ her engineering activities on society. I call this social conscience/ engagement in engineering. • Teamwork, interdisciplinary challenges, communication skills, professionalism. I call this leadership qualities. I believe that each of these aspects of an engineering education should and could be integrated into a proper curriculum. More importantly, these aspects should be given a platform, within and outside the Technion campus. If an attempt were made, each of these aspects could be integrated into any and all courses taught at the Technion. I have tried to integrate different aspects of my learning philosophy into different teaching and educational activities at the Technion. Some of the attempts succeeded, some have failed. Like most university lecturers, I have had no formal teachers’ training. During my first year at the Technion, I was given a book called “The first days of school: How to be an effective teacher” by Wong and Wong. Every few years I re-read the book. Each time I learn a bit more about what I do right in the classroom and, more importantly, what I do wrong. Among the things I have found to be true, three have always stuck out: - The first. Respect the pupil, he will respect you back. It works! - The second, no less important and I work on it all the time: the mediocre teacher tells; the good one explains; the superior one shows; the great one inspires. - The third. People learn by doing and people learn by teaching. One of the concepts unique to studies at the Technion is the concept of ליגרת. It consists of a teaching assistant (TA) standing in front of a class and solving example problems which may or may not be similar to problems that have once been on an exam. In my opinion, a real/ effective tutorial is one where a group of students works together to solve problems. This fulfills the concept of learning by doing and learning by teaching. The students teach one another, explain to one another how, why or why not. They develop problem-solving tools by working together rather than memorizing solution techniques. I believe that the situation we are facing is not the fault of the students. I think that in some way we, the teachers, have conditioned our students to this behavior. In order for the true tutorial style of learning to succeed, it must be imposed in a wide range of courses at the same time. Otherwise, students will never understand that struggling with a problem is the best way to learn. 14