Teacher commitments: Love and duty in science education

Abstract

A teacher was teaching a science lesson about electricity, where the class were doing some practical work on electrical circuits. The students were working in groups. One group of girls was not cooperating, so the teacher was trying to motivate them to work together; one group was trying to get the teachers’ attention because they needed a new light bulb, so the teacher replied: “I’ll get it in a minute!”; and suddenly a boy in the third group turns off the lights so only the circuit light bulbs light up the room. “Oh, it’s like Christmas!” The teacher smiles and tells the student to put on the lights again, as he turns back to the female student to continue the discussion of the different consequences of serial and parallel connections. Suddenly a student proclaims: “I need a new notebook!”; “Me too,” another adds. So, after leaving the discussion to the girls group, and giving group two a light bulb, the teacher decides to leave the room to get the books. Out in the hallway, he sees the school janitor, screwing a screw, one screw, into the wall… “We sure have different jobs.”.