2018 Tue Mar 20

Took on the teacher role yesterday. Topic was about delivering change to master branch in a project. Thinking about the exchange. Noted that resistance/stubborness from the student probably should not be met with authority or call to seniority. For example "trust me, just do x". Or "no, you're wrong, I've been doing this for years and its like x". Either you can convince the student with rationale on-the-table debate or you cannot. If you cannot it might be the teacher's problem, not the students'. It seems like a useful default for the teacher is that its always their fault and that the ownus is on them to genuinely convince through rationale debate. Of course sometimes the student will be closed, blinded by ego, carry some implicit or explicit bias, etc. however this cause of communication failure, when it happens, should not be the rule used by the teacher but rather the exception. Further, upon failure or even without it, the teacher should be open to their being in fact wrong, with insight coming from the student. In other words teaching should be seen as a collaboration between student and teacher. This lowers the standing of the teacher in hierarchical terms but increases their credibility with the student and makes possible a learning that is closer to the student's needs and context rather than a one way didactic monologue which risks being lost upon the student.