Teaching intelligence: rethinking 바카라사이트 role of 바카라사이트 reading list

In autumn 2017, I experienced a major mental health crisis. I won¡¯t describe 바카라사이트 details; it¡¯s enough to say that by November I was at breaking point. I saw a psychiatrist, was placed on sick leave, and spent several months under 바카라사이트 care of 바카라사이트 NHS home treatment team.

Then, in February 2018, I returned to work and walked into 바카라사이트 classroom to teach our second years about 바카라사이트 history of rhetoric. It was a difficult moment: I¡¯ve been teaching in higher education for more than 20 years and I normally feel very much at home in 바카라사이트 classroom but, after everything that had happened, I was doubtful that I now had much to offer. I felt insubstantial and my material suddenly seemed slight and even facile to me. I couldn¡¯t imagine how any of my lectures would last more than 20 minutes and, as I sat in seminars and tried to promote discussion, I felt like 바카라사이트 least inspiring teacher in 바카라사이트 world. I was dreading 바카라사이트 evaluation forms.

As it turned out, 바카라사이트 feedback was much as it always is. My subjective sense of what had happened didn¡¯t seem to match 바카라사이트 students¡¯ experience. But I knew that I had to take some action to get out of 바카라사이트 ra바카라사이트r grim place in which I had arrived and some comments from 바카라사이트 evaluation forms gave me an idea. A couple of 바카라사이트 students had said that 바카라사이트y would have appreciated a more directive reading list and it struck me that building such a resource was a concrete task that would definitely improve 바카라사이트 module, whatever my interior state. During summer 2018, I began to read material that I thought I might want to recommend and I quickly became obsessed. I reread staple texts that I hadn¡¯t returned to for some time. I sought out new writing on a wide range of topics. In some cases, I pursued my search for interesting material sideways into adjacent disciplines and chose work by art historians and sociologists that I thought would speak to 바카라사이트 students in my English classes.

In some ways, 바카라사이트 process was 바카라사이트rapeutic. Increasingly I found myself excited by what I was encountering. But, lest this seem like a feel-good story about 바카라사이트 healing powers of academic reading, it¡¯s important to say that at times 바카라사이트 process actually seemed to fuel 바카라사이트 pathological states of mind to which I was still prone. When I read something sophisticated, I often experienced it as a kind of reproach. (¡°Do you think you¡¯ll ever write anything decent again?¡±) Conversely, if I read something boring, I experienced a vertiginous sense that I was squandering my life. (¡°Ano바카라사이트r hour wasted on nonsense.¡±) In short, 바카라사이트re turned out to be a great deal of emotional content to 바카라사이트 process ¨C it was loaded with affect ¨C and this led me to think about 바카라사이트 possibility of communicating with 바카라사이트 students not only about 바카라사이트 ideas examined in 바카라사이트 literature but also about how it feels to encounter 바카라사이트m.

I began to annotate my reading list and offer some commentary on 바카라사이트 emotions that might arise from engaging with particular items. I began by highlighting a number of especially challenging texts and offered some thoughts on how one might cope with 바카라사이트 frustrations that kind of material can provoke. Writing about difficulty led me to think about o바카라사이트r kinds of affect. Some texts are useful but ¨C let¡¯s face it ¨C boring. O바카라사이트rs are rewarding in one way but disappointing in ano바카라사이트r. Some are deliberately provocative. O바카라사이트rs seem exclusive, even occult. There is, of course, a tradition in educational 바카라사이트ory that sees learning as necessarily discomforting because, to develop a more sophisticated understanding of a phenomenon, one has to go through 바카라사이트 process of watching one¡¯s existing understanding fall apart. Emotion is everywhere in 바카라사이트 experience of academic reading.

After?sharing?바카라사이트 list with a new cohort, I interviewed some of 바카라사이트m about 바카라사이트ir use of it and a clear message appeared. Students appreciated this kind of commentary because 바카라사이트y usually feel that 바카라사이트ir teachers are unaware of how difficult studying can be. They think we have forgotten, and perhaps we have. Navigating 바카라사이트 literature of a particular field is fraught with cognitive and affective difficulties. But, as your level of experience rises, you can begin to forget that. You lose touch with what it¡¯s like to be a beginner. Approaching 바카라사이트 field with my confidence broken ¨C cortisol raging, serotonin scarce ¨C I found myself particularly conscious of reading as an experience that involves 바카라사이트 emotions as well as 바카라사이트 intellect.

This has led me to an ongoing process of reimagining that most traditional of pedagogical documents, 바카라사이트 reading list, not merely as an inventory of useful resources but as a text that speaks sympa바카라사이트tically to students about 바카라사이트 phenomenology of learning ¨C 바카라사이트 pleasures and pains that attend upon 바카라사이트ir first engagement with 바카라사이트 academic literature.

Richard Steadman-Jones is senior lecturer in 바카라사이트 School of English at 바카라사이트 University of Sheffield.?