In their first lecture, students are meeting two strangers—the lecturer and the subject. I feel that teaching is not just about a lecturer facilitating the learning of a subject. It is perhaps more significantly about the lecturer’s relationship with the subject. Many of us are motivated to become teachers because we feel a deep kinship with a subject and we find it meaningful and fulfilling to bring our students into that relationship. More broadly, we hope that students will, through their experience with us, appreciate the joys of seeking knowledge for its own sake. In this brief paper, I want to share some of my beliefs and associated goals in my own efforts to engage students in that relationship with my subject—transport.

Spirit of enthusiasm and exuberance

When a lecturer is seen to enjoy doing work in his/her field and is excited about sharing this passion, it has the effect of raising students’ interest and curiosity. The spirit of exuberance for learning, if visibly demonstrated, can have a contagious effect on students. Likewise, lecturers who actively participate in their subject in various ways, through research, community work, consultancies or other avenues and who bring insights of these experiences to their class are capable of adding much value to their teaching. Students become really interested and take pride in knowing how their lecturers have helped to directly bring about improvement in the human condition, beyond just raising the awareness of the problems and issues in the classroom context.

Lecturer as a facilitator of learning

In the conventional approach to teaching, lecturers show students how something works within their subject. While quite a lot of ground can be covered using this approach, little creative and critical thinking takes place and whatever is learnt is quickly forgotten. In the constructivist approach, lecturers guide and assist students in discovering for themselves how something works. It builds on the existing knowledge and experiences of students, using various problem-solving and inquiry-based learning activities. The approach works best when students are put together in groups to collaboratively formulate their ideas, develop inferences and make presentations of their knowledge.

An exclusive reliance on this approach however, has its limitations as students may lack sufficient knowledge to begin with and consequently, only a few topics can be covered as the process can be time-consuming. Therefore, a good balance has to be struck between active/independent learning and a more directed learning that provides ground rules and preliminary insights.

In my own teaching, I use a mixture of the conventional and constructivist approaches, assisting students to discover the foundations, giving them preliminary ideas and material and then getting them to intuitively form their views and conclusions. I have found that students often come up with innovative ideas and frameworks that are quite inconsistent with what is observed in the real world. Explanations are sought to account for these discrepancies and a more authentic learning takes place in this process. In this way, students have some opportunities to take ownership of their own learning. I often learn new ideas and perspectives from my students and make it a point to tell them when this happens so that they can feel a sense of accomplishment.

Breaking the anxiety barriers

If you are in the teaching profession, I believe that it must be partly because your own experience as a student was enriching and fulfilling. By telling little stories of my past student life, snippets of the joys as well as the tribulations, I introduce brief moments where I relate to my students more as a friend than as a teacher. I have found that sharing my student experiences calms the students, reduces their anxieties and opens up the space for learning.

Another means of opening the space for learning is to instill in students a deeper sense of belonging to the class. In this direction, it helps if you know the names of your students. This has been a big challenge for me especially in big classes. In my first discussion session, I get my students to say something about themselves, particularly what they like and dislike about university life. I take notes and try to remember their names through association with what they have said. I feel that when students are called by their names, a more authentic connection is established with them. They feel that they matter and there is also a greater sense of responsibility to the class when they are no longer seen as anonymous.

An interactive learning space

The best learning environment is one that nurtures interaction not just between the lecturer and students but also among students themselves. For this to happen, the learning space has to be well-managed and hospitable, “not to make learning painless but to make the painful things possible, things without which no learning can occur—things like exposing ignorance, testing tentative hypotheses, challenging false and partial information, and mutual criticism of thought” (Palmer, 1993: 74). In my modules, I usually spend some time talking about the need to embrace a culture of constructive criticism and feedback.

Criticism can affect self-esteem and can bring about either rash defensiveness or fearful detachment. Thus I feel it is important to ask students to take criticism in a good spirit, as it is directed at a viewpoint rather than at the person expressing it. A process of well-coordinated interactive learning environment that allows for debate and discussion can help to nurture the students’ confidence and acceptance of alternative viewpoints. Students get to appreciate that ‘one size does not fit all’ and that there are limits to the application of models, benchmarks or best practices to contexts with different cultures and conditions.

Beyond the classroom

Engaging with the real world means moving beyond the traditional classroom. It is therefore useful to bring the class to the field, and if that is not possible or feasible, to bring the field to the classroom, through slide shows, videos and seminars by guest speakers from the industry. Students actually like to experience a variety of activities in their learning environment. The experience of going into the field, engaging with the practitioners and seeing the real world of transport, give new meanings to descriptions and explanations learned in class. In their assessment, I give the students a variety of exercises that involve independent and group assignments, but I try to include at least one that allows the students to express and see themselves in their work.

Keeping a focus on the more responsive students

There will be the occasional students who appear disinterested or uninterested when you are conducting a lecture or discussion. Such students are physically present in your class but seem otherwise preoccupied with other things. Unless they are actually disrupting the class in some way, I do not let such students intimidate or detract me. I shift my focus instead to those students who express attentiveness and eagerness to learn. If you believe that you have something meaningful to impart and remain committed to that purpose in your practices, over time, at least some of the students will appreciate your attempts to connect with them, and will reciprocate with a more concerted effort to listen and learn.

Conclusion

We all have different teaching styles and goals. We preferentially focus on different types of instructional tools, tend to emphasise different learning outcomes and involve different levels and modes of interaction with students. Similarly, students have different personalities, learning styles and interests. Sometimes there is a mismatch and we are left wondering if these students would have chosen to take our module if they knew what they were in for. We must recognise that it is possible that our efforts may only touch a small segment of the class, but still we should try to take comfort in our little achievements and persevere on, especially if we love what we do.

References

Palmer, P. J. (1993). To Know as We are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco.