After a lengthy discussion regarding weaknesses in Athenian democracy, I asked the class to share what they understood to be the strengths of Athenian democracy. Kat raised her hand and stated that the separation of church and state was a strength of Athenian democracy. I froze. I had no clue where she obtained this information. As a class, we have not discussed ancient Greek religious practices and there is no language about religion in any of the instructional texts. I was so thrown off by her comment, and I feared that perhaps I was missing something. Was she picking something out of the text that I didn’t notice? I wanted to explore her comment further, because I did not want to discourage the class from making creative connections. But, I also worried about taking our discussion completely off track and potentially somewhere that might not even be supported by the historical record.
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Maria
Ancient and Medieval Civilizations
Preservice Teaching Year
- What is the teacher's dilemma? Consider the teacher's goals, possible actions, beliefs about the situation and the students, and their own self-perceptions.
- Complete or modify the following sentence in a way that captures the teacher's central tension in the situation: "While on the one hand, the teacher believed/wanted/felt/did __________, on the other hand, they believed/wanted/felt/did __________."
- Thinking about your own classroom, how do you handle situations where students make claims that might be inaccurate, but you are unsure about your own content knowledge?