Hansen,+David+T.+Exploring+the+Moral+Heart+of+Teaching

by David T. Hansen**
 * Exploring the Moral Heart of Teaching; Toward a Teacher's Creed

Hansen declares his reasoning for writing this book. He wishes to discuss the question, what is good teaching? He references his previous work, //The Call to Teach//, in which he discusses his strong belief that teaching is "a vocation or calling." (p. ix) It is not just a job or occupation. A good teacher is aware of this, and Hansen wishes to address "..what it means to strive toward a teacher's creed." (p.xii) "Teachers cannot be made to see their work as a calling, anymore than a person can wake up in the morning and decide to have a calling." (p. ix) "To treat teaching as a calling can help teachers hold true to these core aspects of the work and to resist forces that bear down on them to lower their expectations, to cut corners in the name of expediency, or, in the worst cases, to lose heart." (p. x) "I examine why teaching constitutes a moral and intellectual practice with a rich tradition." (p. x) "My premise here is that teaching is a longstanding human endeavor that has a distinctive identity and a distinctive contribution to make to overall human flourishing." (p.x) "The chapters ahead seek to shed light on what it means to strive toward a teacher's creed." (p. xii) "__Good teaching__ involves enriching, not impoverishing, students' understandings of self, others, and the world. It means expanding, not contracting, students' knowledge, insight, and interests. It means deepening, not rendering more shallow, students' ways of thinking and feeling. And it entails paying intellectual and moral attention as a teacher. Good teaching does not imply moral and intellectual apathy, indifference, or inattentiveness to students and the curriculum." (p. ix) __creed__ - "describes a set of beliefs, convictions, and commitments that serve as a guide through life or through one of life's endeavors. A creed is like a compass. It provides direction, pointing the way toward some courses of action and away from others." (p. x)
 * __Preface__**
 * Summary** -
 * Key Passages** -
 * Key Terminology** -

In the book, “Exploring the Moral Heart of Teaching,” David T. Hansen emphasizes teaching as a moral and intellectual practice, with a rich tradition. He points out that teaching is a moral, not only academic relation between the teacher and student and that relation produces the opportunity to “construct” meaningful experiences of teaching, and learning and cant be “constructed” if teaching is the object of discussion. The magnitudes of teaching requires an Intellectual attentiveness (which is focusing on what a student thinks and feels toward a subject and broadening their knowledge about it) and moral attentiveness (which requires being diligent and observing to a student's different responses to present opportunities to grow as people.) Hansen also focuses on a great deal of the Conceptions of Teaching throughout the book. The four main conceptions are influencing how teachers feel and handle their work, shaping what explorers and researchers inquire, determining what a student anticipates from their teacher and how all types of people (administrators, business people, parents, etc.) observe and judge teachers. Hansen also entails that these conceptions of teaching matter are divided into a “Focus on Means” and a “Focus on Ends.” A “Focus on Means” is centered around the kind of activity teaching is presumed to be while a “Focus on Ends” emphasizes the activity a teacher should produce and the results they should encourage. To promote the ideas of the conceptions of teaching, Hansen also goes on to say that they derive from the ideas of “Practice and Tradition.” Practice shows the importance of the role of the teacher and how a given practice can either be manipulated into some other factor or transformed into a different method of living. Tradition on the other hand, is something that sticks together, even in drastic moments of change. Agreeing with Jaroslav Pelikan, tradition has the, “capacity to develop while still maintaining its identity and continuity.” Teaching and its qualifiers are also mentioned in the first chapter. A qualifier is "constrctivist teaching, indirect teaching, reflective teaching," which highlight the particular ends or means that give teaching its identity, direction and warrant. The first chapter of the book is basically an overview of what is to come, and gives Hansen a chance to display the importance of the given conceptions and how they play a major role in emphasizing how teaching is in fact a moral and intellectual practice.
 * __Chapter 1: Overview; Teaching as a Moral and Intellectual Practice__**
 * Summary** -

"...tradition has the capacity to develop while still maintaining its identity and continuity." -Jaroslav Pelikan
 * Key Passages** -

"Practices blossom and wither, a given practice cannot always contain an emerging set of internal or external aims or pressures, it is either folded into some other endeavor or transformed into a new way of living, but teaching has endured for a long time."

"[Tradition] evolves as a result of the initiative and imaginatin of teachers, part of whose task is to respond to external pressures and social demands."

A focus on means- the kind of activity teaching should be, the three conceptions are:
 * Key Terminology -**
 * a job (tasks are clear cut and obvious)
 * occupation (established and valued set of group of activities carried out by a group of trained people)
 * profession (perform specialized activities based on preperation that is accredited, systematic and continuing)

A focus on ends- emphasizes the activity they should produce and the outcomes they should promote
 * outcomes - academic learning, socialization, readiness for work, political agency and understanding cultural identity

Practice- presumes and promotes the importance of the individual in the role of the teacher.

Tradition- tradition in teaching symbolizes a dialogue across human generations

Intellectual attentivness- focusing on what students know, feel and think about a subject and continuing their knowledge

Moral attentivness- being alert to a student's responses to opportunities to grow as people

Qualifier- emphasizes phases in the ongoing, complicated process of teaching and learning

__**Chapter 2: Person, Conduct, and Moral Sensibility in Teaching**__ Person, Conduct, and Moral Sensibility are key roles in determining a teacher's understanding, knowledge, initiative and receptivity. “The person” in the role of the teacher is a subject that people normally take for granted because they assume that this person thinks, feels and attains knowledge like themselves, but “the person” has a significant support on how a teacher would interact with a student. Most people tell others what they would like them to do, but teachers assign a problem to a student and ask them to figure it out themselves, only guiding them, not telling them the answer. Transitioning from “the person” to conduct is learning to harmonize them in conduct. Conduct reveals the individuals character and the way they treat others. Conduct is the flow of continuity and unity of a person's actions, and without conduct there is possible disconnection. Hansen also describes conduct as “a medium through which people influence each other,” and how it commences a person's will, thoughts and intentions. Dewey is quoted as saying that conduct is, “potentially the entirety of our conscious life.” I take this to mean that conduct is almost a necessity and our lives are centered around this idea. The moral sensibility of teaching has three components which all come together to embody a person's inclination towards life and the people and events they encounter. Moral sensibility plays a major importance in the way a teacher acts and thinks, other than what they say or do. One of the components of moral sensibility is moral being where teachers guide their students to form their character as a person. Another aspect is moral grace where teachers employ that devotion, concentration, joy and love can come from commitment. The last component is moral presence where most students put their faith into the judgment of the teacher. They want to know what the teacher thinks and feels and the student feels comfortable approaching them. All of these are examples of how teachers can influence moral sensibility. Hansen concludes in this chapter, that in order to enter a world of meaningful activity, “person, conduct and moral sensibility are terms that highlight the dispositions, knowledge and practical wisdom that an individual brings to life in the role of a teacher.”
 * Summary** -

"As a person, the teacher intends to promote student learning, feels joy in helping students learn, imagines how tomorrow's activities will play out and how students will respond to them, and re-imagines last year's class and learns from her past experiences."
 * Key Passages** -

“...person, conduct and moral sensibility are terms that highlight the dispositions, knowledge and practical wisdom that an individual brings to life in the role of a teacher.”

"A person is not born with moral sensability, they cultivate it, deepen and refine it over the course of a lifetime."

moral being- teachers help form students character as a person
 * Key Terminology** -

moral grace- teachers every word and gesture express how to love and how to devote oneself to the study and reveal its wonders to other people

moral presence- most students are morally receptive to their teachers and put their faith into the teacher's judgement and example


 * __Chapter 3: An Image of a Growing Person That Can Guide a Teacher's Work__**
 * Summary** -Chapter three’s primary focus was growth. Throughout the chapter, there were four descriptive key attitudes a growing person will have. Growth was letting go of the features of the self as much as possible, then cultivating new disposition, knowledge, attitudes, and outlooks. Furthermore, a growing person would exemplify these traits, or as Dewey, would call them “moral traits,” or “personal attitudes,” toward thinking and acting in the world. These traits included straightforwardness, open-mindedness, integrity of purpose, and responsibility. Last, the teachers should indirectly teach the students by means of the environment which lead the reader into chapter four.

"There is not, in fact, any such thing as the direct influence of one human being on another." "Instead of being technicians, teachers pre- eminently have to care about what they convey.. They more than anyone else have to be representative of what they believe in, and therefore they first of all have to be those who love what they teach, the principle advocates of the curriculum." - Paul Smeyers
 * Key Passages** -


 * Key Terminology** -

Straightforwardness: Also known as directness, straightforwardness was not to be confused with “self-confidence.” It is a person who pursues what he or she has to do in order to realize and aim or purpose.

Open-mindedness: This is the flexibility of the mind and the willingness to consider, or even seek out contrasting view points and different ways of tackling a task. I ntegrity of purpose: Also known as whole heartedness, which literally means a matter of giving one’s heart and mind over to the endeavor at hand, rather than, say, doing the deed, but thinking of something else while doing it.

Responsibility: This is when a person is able to see something through, consider the consequences, and accept them.


 * __Chapter 4: Teaching Indirectly and the Dynamics of an Educative Environment__**
 * Summary** -

Chapter four was centered around Rousseau’s conception of indirect teaching and on Dewey’s reconstruction of it. Rousseau believed that it was the teacher’s job to teach the students while respecting their individuality. Furthermore, as a teacher, you’ll need to honor student’s dignity, agency, and autonomy, even while working hard to educate them. Eventually, allowing individualism will lead to a child reasoning the process of moral regulation which will produce self-disciplined individuals. Dewey furthers Rousseau’s belief and adds that the environment should support teaching and learning. He provides details of how a teacher can bring such an environment into being. Also, he emphasizes on activity and believes that a teacher should engage students in these activities. David Hansen believes that hearing lectures and learning are different, and that teachers should give the children something to do not something to learn.


 * Key Passages-**

"No one can think about anything without experience and information about it. Nevertheless, there is such a thing as readiness to consider in a thoughful way to subjects that do come within the range of experience, a readiness that contrasts strongly within the disposition to pass judgement on the basis of mere custom, tradition, prejudice, ect., and thus shun the task of thinking. The personal attitudes that have been named are essential constituents or this general readiness." "Dewey emphasizes that the young 'live in some enviroment wheather we intend it or not, and this enviroment is constantly intracting with what children and youth bring to it, and the result is that shaping of their interests. minds, and characters either educatively or mis-educatively.' ''

Indirect Method: "a difficult art..., that of governing without percepts and doing everything by doing nothing," in other words natural.
 * Key terms:**

Time wisely: developing a sense of timing. lose time: when to hold back, be patient, to be able to not force the issue. gain or use time: being able to know when to seize the day and intervene actively

Simplified enviroment: featured objects which are " fairly fundamental and capable of being responded by the young."

Inculcate: out of place.

Summary -** The main focus of chapter 5 is Hansen's idea of using discussion as an instructional method, which he calls Focused Discussion. He talks about the importance of dialogue through lessons rather than simply lecturing. He goes on to explain that this includes talking with students, listening to their ideas, allowing each other (the teacher and student) to express their thoughts out loud, and also questioning concepts as well each others ideas. He discusses how the Focused Discussion is not limited to the classroom. The discussion goes beyond classroom walls; it includes meetings in his office, hallways, and orientation sessions. In short, it includes all interaction with his students. He then goes on to further explain and support his idea in three points. First, Focused Discussion clarifies what is meant by teaching indirectly. Second, the method of focused discussion is inspired by past educators such as Socrates and Confucius who stressed that "talking //with//, rather than //at//" (page 80) someone can be more beneficial in the learning process. It can create a new understanding of concepts and ideas and either replace or confirm pre-conceived notions. Thirdly, he explains that even though he favors conversation and discussion, he does recognize the positive aspects of other methods such as lecture, working in groups, working on projects individually, and work experience in particular fields. The chapter is then broken into sections. The background of Focused Discussion, Inside the classroom, and the conclusion which discusses the promise in teaching indirectly. The section on the background of Focused Discussion discusses recent studies that support his beliefs done by Harriet Cuffaro, a present day educator in early childhood, and also in the works of John Dewey. Inside the classroom is an analysis of the use of focused discussion in a course that he teaches. The course is an introductory course on teaching and curriculum for master's degree students studying to become high school teachers. He goes through the semester talking about how focused discussion was incorporated, how it was received by the students, and its outcome. The conclusion confirms through his views as well as those of John Dewey the positive influence teaching indirectly has. "I try to enact a pedagogical approach that I call focused discussion. As the name implies, the approach centers around discussion as an instructional method." p.80 " Second, focused discussion takes inspiration and form from a longstanding human commitment to dialogue as a medium for learning, as names such as Socrates and Confucius attest. That commitment has endured because people have realized that talking //with//, rather than //at//, one another can yield meaning, knowledge, and, sometimes, even wisdom." p. 80 "Cuffaro and Dewey emphasize that teaching and learning in the classroom constitute a social undertaking." p. 82 "Focused discussion contributes to an environment conducive to communication. It spurs participants to formulate, to cultivate, and to heed ideas, interpretations, knowledge, emotion, insight, questions, and more." p. 82 "The rubric I employ pivots around the idea of readiness to teach. The idea emphasizes that teacher candidates must be active in their learning rather than expecting me, the readings, or other sources to hand out what they need to know. Consequently, participation in class discussion is required." p. 95 "...the quality of participation matters more than the quantity." p. 95 "Teachers can take action to shape the environment so that it promotes teaching and learning. They can try to control, regulate, and design the environment." p. 108 "The approach (focussed discussion) allows better arguments and broader understandings to emerge, rather than ceding the terrain to the opinion of any one person, including the teacher." p. 108 "Focused discussion takes time, effort, persistance, and faith in the possibility of purporseful, trustworthy, human relations." p. 113
 * __Chapter 5: Shaping an Environment for Teaching and Learning__
 * Key Passages** -

Focused Discussion - An idea to promote conversation and involvement with students to promote a positive learning environment. The importance of participation in classroom (and also outside the classroom) discussion. Pedagogical - the teaching profession (pedagogue = an instructor). Focused discussion is a pedagogical approach to learning. In chapter six, Hansen discusses the significance and influence that tradition holds in the process of education and it's teachers. He breaks it down into two main aspects. First, what it means to speak of a "living" tradition and second, how tradition influences a teacher. He explains a "living" tradition as the recognition of the past as a means of learning and appreciating those before us, but also as a guide to the future. A teacher practicing a "living" tradition is constantly evaluating their work and is open to change. Also referrred to as a "serious minded teacher", one who practices a "living" tradition is not stuck in the past and does not see tradition as a mold to form to. The influence of tradition on a teacher is quite strong. This is stressed in Hansen's reference to Harold Bloom who conducted a study on how artists, writers, and poets are influenced by their "precursors" (p.120). Bloom found that one "cannot "choose" whether to take his precursors seriously or not." (p.120) The past is what it is and cannot be changed. It will influence you in some way. In the conclusion of the chapter, Hansen sums up what tradtion means to him and to education. He stresses that it is not to be taken as strict pattern to follow. It is constantly changing and is a tool for teachers to learn from one another about their practice. "No teacher is an island unto herself." p. 114 "Every teacher's work is saturated with tradition." p. 114 "Serious minded teachers routinely ponder, characterize, and question the everyday work they and thier peers perform. They are constantly interpreting bothe the significance and terms of teaching." p. 116 "And they (serious minded teachers) perpetuate tradition in teaching precisely by enacting it, by reflecting on it and by discussing with peers how best to achieve it." p. 117 "Tradition serves as more than the source of a beginning. Phrased differently, tradition is more than that which is imitated." p. 120 "According to Bloom, without tradition and the precursors who have generated it, a person cannot become a poet - or teacher, thinker, reader, and so forth." p. 120 "Tradition does not describe that which remains identical or frozen or that which should be blindly accepted. Tradition is not traditionalism." p. 122 "The sense of tradition keeps teachers tethered to the terms of the practice, just as their efforts keep tradition tethered to human creativity, insight, imagination, and hope." p. 123 "I have suggested that through engrossing themselves in the practice, thinking about their precursors, and talking with their peers, teachers make tradition into a partner in a generative transaction." p. 123 "The sense of tradition helps teachers form a community of interpretation as well as a community of hope." p.136 Tradition - "an overall orientation or outlook on teaching" (p. 115) "...a background set of commitments, activities, questions, concerns, and aspirations that continuously evolve as individuals in one generation respond to the efforts and projects of those who preceded them in the particular practice." p. 121 Serious minded teachers - those who "interpret the work from inside the practice" (p. 116), "They are not specatators of teaching and learning" (p. 116) "In short, they __participate__ in tradition." (p. 116) Precursors - those who come before us. Teacher learn about teaching from their "precursors". Summary -** In chapter seven, Hansen illustrates the dynamics of a sense of tradition by showing why it differs from knowledge of history. He states that a person can develop a relationship with the past that differs from common knowledge of what people have said, thought, and done. He further develops ideas from John Dewey and Hans- Georg Gadamer on how to approach the testimony of the past, by looking at teacher's engagment with tradition in teaching.Hansen then dicusses how teachers can develop a sense of tradition in teaching. He depicts that a sense of tradition cna help teachers appreciate that their work has meaning in its own right, rather than solely because it is socially sanctioned activitity or because it leads to socially approved outcomes. "Teachers can shape conditions in the classroom that fuel thinking, questioning, and wonder. One of those conditions is the voice of tradition, as represented in the various subjects, themes, and texts in hte curriculum." p.143 "When a teachr was compared with a gardner, it could mean things ranging from violent mastery to tender regard; similiarly, a student was imagined in different ways when compared with a seed, a plant, or soil. On the one hand, such comparisons suggested that the teacher/gardner could plan and cultivate the pupil's mental garden for greater profit. On the other hand, such analogies also conveyed resistance on the child's part, for they granted the child a specific property or nature that the teacher/gardner could not alter" - Bushmell p.145 "...the practice and its tradition choose teachers to join it, rather than the other way around.The practice embodies a voice that can question and enlighten all who teach about what the work entails, a voice that can be discerned the moment one begins to take seriously the efforts of precusors." p.156 Traditonalism - unquestioned obedience to past customs and beliefs, while the sense of tradition rejects unquestioned obedience to present customs and beliefs. p.155 Summary -** In chapter eight, Hansen dicusses the position of ideals in teaching, and whether or not they belong. He goes deeper beyond the two most obvious answers he dicusses in the first page, that one, ideals have no place or a very limited place in teaching, because teaching is a well-defined occupation with well-defined goals, and that on the other had ideals have a place, that teachers must have ideals, and that their ideals must reach beyond social expectations. He talks about how Kant, Hillesum, and others show that it is possible to think and to talk oneself into acting in better rather than worse ways. "The teacher whose ideal is for all students to learn, and enjoy learning, may not need a tap on her shoulder to remind her of how challenging, or perhaps impossible, the ideal is to realize." p.159 "Ideals can inspire people on the basis of passion rather than of careful foresight." p.160 "They may all turn out to be (in some sense) true, or they may all be convicted of some error or obscurity. But with conclusions of this sort we are not now concerned. What concerns us is that each is itself a human utterance expressing a human understanding of the character of a human being, and that the capacity to make such utterances, whether they be true or false, itself postulates a man who is something besides what these, or any other such statements, allege him to be. They postulate what I shall call a 'free' man. 168. "Tenacious humility" - staying the course, not giving up on students or on oneself.p.167 Humility - one of the most central of all virtues, expanding and deepening one's person, one's conduct, and one's moral and intellectual sensibiity. p.167
 * Key Terminology** -
 * __Chapter 6: Teaching and the Sense of Tradition__**
 * Summary -**
 * Key Passages -**
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 * __Chapter 7: Cultivating a Sense of Tradition in Teaching__
 * Key Passages -**
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 * __Chapter 8: The Place of Ideals in Teaching__
 * Key Passages -**
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