Teaching as an Art and Science

You must know your subject, which implies that you grasp not only the material that you currently are presenting in class, but also the core of the subject, and what researchers are discovering at the frontiers of the discipline. In an age devoted to empirical research, you'll find yourself doing independent study to prevent personal obsolescence. You don't want to plead ignorance on too many of your students' questions.

You, and any teacher, will avoid such work unless you like your subject and enjoy interacting with students. To devote hours of study beyond the demands of duty requires a commitment to a discipline and the company of the young, both of which can be provocative masters. You have already made a commitment that reflects a love of study and pleasure in working with youth. These categories actually mirror two basic themes that are at the heart of this book: the teacher as a professional and the teacher as a person.
Musing about the art of teaching, Cohen (1992) described the lives of five veteran secondary school teachers and concluded that common to them all was a passion and enthusiasm for the subjects they taught. Particularly interesting was her finding that they were not locked into any single teaching style. They had developed their own unique and, for them, effective styles, which they constantly modified. In many ways, they never lost the perspective of a novice: always wanting to try something new, to seek constantly for improvement. As Cohen noted, they were "originals." These innovative, flexible teachers undoubtedly performed as artists in their classrooms.
Considering teaching strictly as an art, however, is too limiting. Given the knowledge that we have acquired about the nature of instruction and about the methods of inquiry into any discipline, we should explore the notion that teaching also be considered a science.
You'll find that you, knowingly or not, adopt-and adapt-the scientific method in your work. You'll adopt the role of experimenter as you try new instructional methods and classroom procedures (even something as simple as changing the seating arrangement). A quick rundown on your role of teacher-as-scientist will include the following four steps:

1. Identifying the problem. You must decide exactly what you want your students to learn.
   
2. Formulating a logical series of steps to reach a goal. You'll decide not only which topic to present but how you'll do it.
   
3. Gathering the data. You'll conclude just what student behavior is to be assessed and then the best means of measuring it.
   
4. Interpreting the data. You'll judge if your students' performance has achieved the desired goal.

By following the "scientific method" in instruction and by your involvement at various levels of scientific inquiry, you'll act as a scientist: you'll identify objectives, devise strategies, gather and evaluate their data, and communicate their results.
Thus, teaching is both art and science, a needed combination for today's changing classrooms and for enacting effective teaching-learning interactions.