Guest Lecture Reflection: Dr. Elizabeth Gould
Michael Ippolito
Sept. 25, 2016
Dr. Veblen
Dr. Elizabeth Gould
Dr. Elizabeth Gould had some very interesting and insightful things to say during the guest speaking. One thing that stuck out to me as interesting was her theory on teaching. Dr. Gould said that teaching is impossible. Now from what I remember it was not fully explained as to why teaching is impossible. However, by taking parts of what she said throughout the guest speaking we can think about it ourselves. For example, Gould talked about the difference between theories and opinions. Opinions tend to be biased whereas theories tend to be based on facts. I feel like this relates to teaching as teachers may often express their opinions to their students on certain topics studied in class. This can cause students who disagree with the teacher’s beliefs to decide that their class is of no concern to them. This is one of her points that I feel goes back to teaching being impossible. There were many other interesting parts of Dr. Gould’s presentation. For example, she talked about teaching as a whole as well as progressive education. Her speaking got me to think more in depth about teaching and progressive education. Some questions I would have asked are: If you could say one thing that is universal between all teachers and teaching styles, what would it be? The second one would be: How effective do you feel progressive education has been so far and do you feel that it will get more or less successful as time goes on. The reason why I ask the first one is because of what I wrote at the beginning of this paper. I stated that teaching could be considered impossible because of all the differing opinions between teachers. So I would like to know if there is something universal regarding teaching that no teacher disagrees on. The reason that I would ask the second question is solely because I enjoy gathering as many opinions as I can on these subjects. I would have liked to get more of Dr. Gould’s opinions on this matter. One last thing that stuck out to me was what Dr. Gould said about education. She described education as a collaboration. She talked about how the student cannot not learn without the teacher and how the teacher cannot teach without the student. I found this very insightful and would have definitely asked her to elaborate more on that. All in all, it was a very interesting class session and I look forward to all of the other guest speakers because of this.
Michael Ippolito
Sept. 25, 2016
Dr. Veblen
Dr. Elizabeth Gould
Dr. Elizabeth Gould had some very interesting and insightful things to say during the guest speaking. One thing that stuck out to me as interesting was her theory on teaching. Dr. Gould said that teaching is impossible. Now from what I remember it was not fully explained as to why teaching is impossible. However, by taking parts of what she said throughout the guest speaking we can think about it ourselves. For example, Gould talked about the difference between theories and opinions. Opinions tend to be biased whereas theories tend to be based on facts. I feel like this relates to teaching as teachers may often express their opinions to their students on certain topics studied in class. This can cause students who disagree with the teacher’s beliefs to decide that their class is of no concern to them. This is one of her points that I feel goes back to teaching being impossible. There were many other interesting parts of Dr. Gould’s presentation. For example, she talked about teaching as a whole as well as progressive education. Her speaking got me to think more in depth about teaching and progressive education. Some questions I would have asked are: If you could say one thing that is universal between all teachers and teaching styles, what would it be? The second one would be: How effective do you feel progressive education has been so far and do you feel that it will get more or less successful as time goes on. The reason why I ask the first one is because of what I wrote at the beginning of this paper. I stated that teaching could be considered impossible because of all the differing opinions between teachers. So I would like to know if there is something universal regarding teaching that no teacher disagrees on. The reason that I would ask the second question is solely because I enjoy gathering as many opinions as I can on these subjects. I would have liked to get more of Dr. Gould’s opinions on this matter. One last thing that stuck out to me was what Dr. Gould said about education. She described education as a collaboration. She talked about how the student cannot not learn without the teacher and how the teacher cannot teach without the student. I found this very insightful and would have definitely asked her to elaborate more on that. All in all, it was a very interesting class session and I look forward to all of the other guest speakers because of this.