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There is that offensive line that " those who can't, teach " , meaning

they cannot practice their trade so they choose to teach it instead. I

have already made the case that I think teaching is an independent

profession from TCM and does not overlap, per se. The most

knowledgeable subject matter experts are not necessarily effective

teachers. the one who devotes his time to research and scholarship

will be this person. Likewise for the experienced clinician. the

most effective clinicians whose skills are a result of experience will

be those with the most experience. That means that teachers need to

accept that there are other outside the field who are better at certain

things. I don't mean anyone who primarily practices will be more

effective in clinic than one who primarily teaches. You still need

aptitude and you need to have read the right books. So even the best

clinicians depend to some extent on teachers and scholars. Likewise

scholars learn from the experience of clinicians and may have been set

upon their path by a teacher.

 

the role of the teacher is to teach, which includes motivation,

assessment of student needs and performance, creation of objectives,

lesson plans that carry them out, encoding of memory and evaluation of

the final results, which taken together are called Instructional

Design, a professional graduate level field of study. The dean at PCOM

as well as the president have advanced degrees in Instructional design

and have applied these principles in developing the curriculum. In a

program that involves practical skills, it is necessary that teachers

have a high degree of clinical competence if they work in this arena.

However, they need not be the leading clinicians in america in order to

effectively fulfill this role. Students are being prepared for

practice, not for mastery.

 

You need to be able to convey to your students all they need to know to

practice effectively. but you don't need to know every detail or

idiosyncrasy of CM in order to do this. You do need to learn how to

apply the principles of instructional design, though. As for

scholarship, again it is necessary that you fully and deeply know all

that you need to convey to your students. But it is not necessary that

teachers be the leading subject matter experts (SMEs) in their fields.

Teachers need to be familiar with the consensus of leading SMEs and be

sure to convey ideas in this context and be willing to defer questions

until checking with another SME, when necessary. That, in fact, is a

key purpose of this forum and one I have used it for frequently.

Scholars may sometimes lose sight of practical matters or not see the

forest for the trees and thus end up shooting way over the heads of

their students before fundamentals are firmly established.

 

I have great respect for both clinicians and scholars, yet frequently

have encountered others in our field who believe those who can't,

teach. Or even worse, those who do not primarily run private practices

have no right to teach at all. This so completely turns logic on its

head, that I can't even dignify it with a response. And for the

record, this post is not directed at any one. It, like usual, is

merely a reflection of a few passing thoughts stimulated by numerous

influences. It is rare that a message on this list is the sole

instigator for me to post. It is far more likely that a post or series

of posts happens to topically converge with other inquiries and

explorations of mine.

 

 

 

Chinese Herbs

 

 

 

 

 

 

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