Job Discussion Forums

[gaijinalways]

Okay, I need to ask, what is a life experience teacher?
I have seen this exhibted by most teachers; does a teacher who looks down on sharing world knowledge think that this information is irrelevant?
That, and I don't see this 'model' of only doing that, teaching /sharing 'experience', being practiced anywhere.


I admit, smells like a grammar fetish to me !

[MotherF]

I've only heard the term "life experience" applied to degree mill type of places. You know, teach EFL for ten years with no degree and you hit a ceiling where you can't get better jobs because you don't have a degree--no problem, we will caculate your life experience and issue you a "degree" for that. For a couple of hundred dollars or more.

[Denizen]

Life experience teaching is just that - substitute teaching for a school, training employees how to stack clothing/scoop ice cream/restock shelves, teaching people how to use software, etc.

[gaijinalways]

Wow , use a big enough net, and you may get lots of junk (but not what you were fishing for).

No, what I was referring to was claims by some teachers that they meet teachers who only teach using their life experiences; i.e mo grammar, no lesson plan, etc. I have never met these teachers, even in so called converation where a text is used and any free conversation usually has to be noted as requested by the student.

So my question remains, where are these 'experience' teachers?
And should we just forget what we know even if it will help the student?

[Sashadroogie]

'Life experience' is what untrained people, with no explicit knowledge of language, its grammar, how to teach it, or teach generally, usually offer language schools as a reason for hiring them. That and 'teaching culture' or critical thinking skills. 'Personality teacher' is a closely related phenomenon.

Sadly I have met many of these specimens, in interview and outside. They exist in Russia, but don't usually last too long if they don't have something concrete to offer the learners. They usually drift out again, though presumably with even more 'experience' to impart on unsuspecting learners elsewhere. I am surprised, not to say a little envious, that you have not met any such types in Japan. From what I'd heard there were plenty there and the Far East generally.

[naturegirl321]

I taught with a guy with life experience and only a HS education. Wonderful teacher actually. He had four kids, very patient, came to China is his late 30s. He and his wife were from NZ. He had worked a variety of jobs, always happy, always smilling. All the teachers, kids, parents and admin loved him.

[fladude]

Life Experience can run the gauntlet. For the most part, it means someone without a degree who is trying to get a job that they aren't qualified for on paper, but which they claim to be able to teach by virtue of having worked in the field. In most cases this claim is not valid. In a few cases, it can be valid.

Lets look at some examples.

Example 1 (probably the most common), you have someone who has no degree but has backpacked/partied around the world for 10 years. This dude or chick is probably clueless as to anything but bong smoke, but they have "life experience" (like escaping town ahead of the cops), so now they believe this qualifies them to teach your kids.... I've run into these people even in the USA.

Example 2: Someone who runs a successful business for 10 years, but who has no degree in business. Yet this person could teach a small business class based purely on "life experience" and could probably teach a better class than someone with an MBA but no business experience. After all this person actually knows how to run a business, as opposed to the theory behind it.

Example 3: a backpacker/teacher similar to the person in Example 1, but who is actually good at teaching, but just never had the time/money/patience to finish a college degree. This person probably can teach kids as well as someone with a degree, at least in conversational English.

Extreme example 4. Bill Gates has no college degree, but could teach computer programing based on "life experience." This one is tossed out there just as an extreme example. Obviously you probably won't encounter someone like this, but there are geniuses who do things and could teach things even though they don't have a degree. A surprisingly large number of inventors have no degree, for example. They like to "do" and not study.

[JZer]

[JZer]