How about, for an answer, "because I can personally develop from teaching." This can indeed be true and if we can achieve this it may be that little something we all need to get more job satisfaction out of what we do.
Here at the IF, the majority of us are given an opportunity that other institutions do not provide. We get to teach abroad. Teaching to students abroad can be a great source of knowledge for us.
Teaching to students abroad, regardless of the programme and the level of studies, can be a challenge we all learn from. Besides understanding better the culture of these monocultural cohorts, we can receive a good number of useful pieces of information about the countries in question, the mentality of doing business there, the specific companies where the students (especially at master's as well as MBA level) work.
I am more than certain that we all get to add to our knowledge little things that emerge from the discussions we hold with our students in class abroad. Perhaps we have never thought about it, but we do learn.
Possibly the challenge for us, now, is how to do this in a more methodical and organized manner, improving our knowledge and even attempt to disseminate this to our other classes, both abroad and in Thessaloniki.
In-class discussions, or marking assignments of students abroad may lead to a better understanding of specific industries, corporations, rules and regulations, and not only. All this could be perceived by us as mini cases (mini case studies and examples that we can easily develop into valuable source of information both for us as teachers (knowledge-wise and teaching-techniques-wise) and why not let others know, also. And I am not referring just to our other students elsewhere, but to colleagues at the IF. In this way, a Knowledge Management system can evolve among the members of staff.
The bottom line is that we all do so, but in an ad hoc and a not-so-systematic way. Now is the time to put such issues into perspective and ensure that our teaching, our topic/subject knowledge, and our capability to handle students in different settings, continues to develop and along with that we personally develop too.
Chris Liasidis
Possibly the challenge for us, now, is how to do this in a more methodical and organized manner, improving our knowledge and even attempt to disseminate this to our other classes, both abroad and in Thessaloniki.
In-class discussions, or marking assignments of students abroad may lead to a better understanding of specific industries, corporations, rules and regulations, and not only. All this could be perceived by us as mini cases (mini case studies and examples that we can easily develop into valuable source of information both for us as teachers (knowledge-wise and teaching-techniques-wise) and why not let others know, also. And I am not referring just to our other students elsewhere, but to colleagues at the IF. In this way, a Knowledge Management system can evolve among the members of staff.
The bottom line is that we all do so, but in an ad hoc and a not-so-systematic way. Now is the time to put such issues into perspective and ensure that our teaching, our topic/subject knowledge, and our capability to handle students in different settings, continues to develop and along with that we personally develop too.
Chris Liasidis
BAED
I really like this kind of "self reflection" on teaching abroad post of yours Chris and your idea of disseminating these experiences and knowledge in a more systematic way among IF staff and students.
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