Old 08-04-2006, 06:33 AM
  # 30 (permalink)  
brigid
body ~ mind ~ spirit
 
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Geelong, Australia
Posts: 582
Equus I am a teacher, or used to do it full time. Now I am into my phd (am still sorting out if it is really what I want) and do some teaching, I understand what you feel about teachers in your past. It is confronting for a person to be challenged by someone with a truly inquisitive mind, particularly if that person is more inquisitive. It challenges the whole self concept of the person on the other end, what if they can't answer or understand the question? How will they appear to everyone else? In the teachers position it may affect their percieved role in the classroom, standing/superiority/authority.

People do tend to see the world through their own eyes and are proud of what they know and can do and find it a bit of a downer when someone else knows more or thinks more or understands more. NOT EVERYONE .. but my experience is to not challenge most people too much and they are happy in their zone, gently, gently if I want to widen that zone.

I did honours presentations last year .... I know that people really need little information without too much detail and can't digest as much as the knowledge I have built up all in one sitting. It takes me time to get my understanding and I can't give it all to someone else at once, I have to respect my own intelligence. I STILL wanted to present ALL the details ALL at once!!!! I so HAD to cut it all down and not presume that everyone was on my level. They were on my level in their own areas, just not on my level in my area .... I was excited by my stuff and to get that across I have to get others on side and present an interesting main points summary, a little humour, a little light, a little complicated. BUT definitely not all the details that I find so intriguing.

Luckily my supervisor made numerous suggestions and revised with me. It was interesting for me though ... after teaching you would think that I would have learnt that lesson well, but not when I really wanted to make an impact.

The human mind can remember about 7 new things. Leave the details out and questions may make them come out. Remember that you have an audience and present for them, not for you. Too, people have attention spans and the whole time issue needs to be addressed. Enthusiasm is a great thing in a presentation, in my mind .... one of the other students presented the othed day, he was so into his stuff, much better than some dead pan, boring presentation. It was a little long though.

Here on SR though, write for you, that means you should be as wordy as you want, I think writing is very therapeutic and if you need to investigate every angle of an issue then that is the way you are. Nothing wrong with that at all, the world needs thinkers!!

love and peace,
Brigid
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