In my graduate class on integrating the arts and the nature of language and literacy, we had an extensive discussion about a teacher's internal pressure (some driven by external expectations) to produce products in order to show in a concrete way what we have done in the classroom with our students. Meanwhile, we also have a strong desire to give students the learning experience through the process of doing and making things. In an ideal world, we would love to deliver both product and process to our students, but unfortunately, in the reality of time, something's gotta give.
This is really not an exclusive challenge faced by teachers, this kind of balancing in life is really a constant struggle that can be found everywhere and in everyone's everyday life. Rather than becoming increasingly stressed and overwhelmed trying to come up with a perfect solution in this on-going search, I actually felt inspired by the discussion from class and began to recognize that I find comfort in the upkeep of this very blog. As a student teacher, I must admit this is a place where I have gained tremendous satisfaction and insights about my teaching and learning through the PROCESS of writing these reflective postings. At the end of each posting, this process has given me an extremely self-fulfilling PRODUCT that is both alive and ever-evolving, and can be appreciated by both others and myself.
With that said, I guess there must be a way for us, teachers, to help our students gain knowledge through a meaningful process while making progress on the development of a product. The next step will be to figure out how, with the help of time and experience.
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Products are important when they serve purposes that matter to us, like communicating something we want to say, or demonstrating what we are able to do. But there are times when an emphasis on product really does seem to get in the way of learning. One is when we do something that is already easy for us, just to make sure that the product is pleasing to ourselves or to others. Another time is when someone else does most of the work that it takes to make sure that the product is pleasing. In either case, we are not stretching ourselves to learn. Most importantly, we are not engaged in the kind of thinking and problem solving that is the key to learning with good understanding.
As learners, we are often unhappy if we've worked hard on something and we still don't have a product that serves our purpose well, even if we've learned a lot in the process of trying. But a good teacher can help us get to a product that works well, without keeping us from learning by doing most of the work for us.
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