I was in my car briefly, so I only caught part of the middle of the interview. Despite that (or maybe because of it), the comments I heard provided more food for thought.
Interestingly, this exchange was happening on one of my sports-talk shows. I missed the entire background, but apparently, the guest had somehow gone from the business world to coaching, and particularly to teaching, primarily with athletes, perhaps. I wish I had more details.
Shortly after I tuned in, the host/interviewer asked the guest for any connections he saw between the business world and that of teaching. Essentially, his answer boiled down to two conclusions: 1) Both the business world and the field of teaching could afford to listen to each other more, and 2) “It’s still presentation. I was presenting in business and I’m presenting to youngsters.”
Devoid of context, I was/am intrigued by both answers. For today however, I’ll focus only on the second topic: “It’s still presentation.”
I suspect the guest was saying that he was teaching people in either situation, which is a nice insight. So, I run the risk of being overly pedantic here, but there are some important and informative differences in terms that are worth noting.
One of the dramatic changes in education over the past few decades has been the ever-increasing awareness that presenting is not necessarily the same as teaching (in either direction). Closely related is the awareness that teaching is not necessarily identical to learning (in either direction.)
An example of both differences at once: I’ve been giving a lot of ‘presentations’ lately about my 2016 Adventure exploring the entire Missouri River by car (and the coffee table book that resulted from that trip.) These presentations are often to civic clubs, libraries, senior groups, and even a 4-week non-credit class about the River to a group of adult learners in Columbia, MO. In all these cases, I am/was definitely ‘presenting’ – doing all the talking, backed up by my PowerPoint. My feedback is that many of the attendees enjoy the ‘presentations’, and ‘learn’ a fair amount in the process. But does it make sense that I never feel like I’m ‘teaching’? The goal is always to share, have fun, and re-create an amazing trip, never expressly to ‘teach’.
Now move that exact situation into, say, a fifth-grade class where the same information is in a dictated (geography or social studies, say) curriculum. Suddenly, the situation is simultaneously identical and dramatically different! Suddenly we’re dealing with a different audience, a different set of interests – and motivations – and a different result; they’re liable to be tested over this, which could be the biggest threat there is. At this point, I could ‘teach’ a lot harder (whether presenting or not) and much more consciously, and still end up with much less ‘learning’!
By the way (with apologies for the detour), this is the dilemma of every teacher in almost every subject in almost every classroom, on almost any day. There are always things to teach to those who aren’t anxious to learn. It is another reason that teachers do much more than just ‘present’ and must work much harder at it. And we still don’t think they’re heroes? (Sorry, you can remove the soap box now.)
Presenting. Teaching. Learning. All closely related, all needed/desired in many places, but all so often legitimately different. Understanding these differences can help all of us as we all work together to help educate our students.
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