The dynamic of the Republic is different from that of the other dialogues by Plato we have encountered so far, in that Socrates is engaging with multiple people at once, leading him to constantly change his tactics as he interacts with each individual student. Socrates possesses a kind of charisma and ability to understand the people around him to a degree in the Republic that is only hinted at in other dialogues.
This leads me to wonder about the degree of personalized learning and the relationships between students and educators in our own context. Learning, in my opinion, happens best when it takes place in an atmosphere of trust and respect, two factors which I think are missing in a lot our public schools, for various reasons. Do to factors in how our compulsory education system is structured, many students are never able to engage with their peers and educators, and unfortunately never experience the kind of intellectual pursuit, in a spirit of camaraderie, that Socrates and his partners in conversation are taking up in the Republic.
A few questions I am considering:
Is it possible for the kind of learning environment present in the Republic to take place in large classes?
To what degree should teachers seek to personalize their lessons for each individual student, and when does that pursuit become impractical?
How do the power dynamics of traditional classrooms contribute to an open learning environment?
I think there is always room for learning in the style of the Republic in large classrooms. The though I believe is that the classroom is too structured like you said. We teach to the objective and one grade instead of teaching to teach knowledge. I believe that many teachers want to personalize their work and teach each student the same, but with evaluations based off of only the objective grading of how the students are doing, it is very hard for them to take the time to personalize their learning. I believe though in practice this method can be extremely beneficial for individual learning among students.
ReplyDeleteI also can't help but think that learning environments today(that we are most familiar with) are structured in such restrictive ways in part because of the students, not solely the educators. The students who engage Socrates in sunasia are actively and willingly doing so, whereas students today are often forced by external factors to participate. (Societal/parental/financial factors) The respect for both parties is made far more mutual during a discussion if both voluntarily participate, however, when one party is labeled as teacher, and the other as mandatory student, that level of respect shifts to one where the teacher no longer needs to shape their teaching method for individual learning,(considering they are in complete power of the class) and the student no longer needs to be interested.
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