Rogers Perspective:
What Does It Mean To Teach?

According to Rogers (1983), most people think that teaching involves keepingorder in the class, teaching students facts, usually through lectures andtextbooks, giving quizzes and tests, and most importantly, giving grades. Rogersbelieves that that type of teaching is long overdue for a face lift.

Thus, Rogers (1983) believes that teaching should involve the following centralthemes:

1. The primary task of the teacher is to permit the student to learn.Students need to explore and nourish their curiosity, instead of simplyregurgitating facts.
2. As Rogers (1983) said, "Learning how to learn is the element thatis always of value, now and in the future. Thus, the teacher's task isdelicate, demanding, and a truly exalted calling. In true teaching there is noplace for authoritarian, nor the person who is on an ego trip."

3. "Teaching is more difficult than learning because what teachingcalls for is this: to let learn. The real teacher, in fact, lets nothing else belearned than - learning. His or her conduct, therefore, often produces theimpression that we properly learn nothing from him or her, if by learning we nowsuddenly understand merely the procurement of useful information. The teacher isahead of his or her students in this alone, that he or she still has far more tolearn than they - he or she has to learn to let them learn" (MartinHeidegger, What is Called Thinking? 1968).

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