Our education system creates a harmful hierarchy in the classroom. It assumes teachers are the only source of knowledge in a learning experience.

That assumption has big implications for how learning happens.

For one it puts teachers at the center. In college, they are the subject matter experts, so this hierarchy expects them to do the heavy lifting in lectures and in class discussions. Students expect it too, because that's what they're used to, and they push back when they're asked to share the burden.

Being vulnerable with your students can be a good way to start to dismantle this hierarchy. It can be as simple as admitting mistakes or saying something like: "I’m human just like you and I’ll make mistakes. That’s a normal part of learning, so don’t be afraid to make mistakes either." It can also be as structured giving students a voice in making decisions about how the course is constructed (grading, deadlines, class norms, etc.)

Lessons for Content Creators?

This is something that carries over to content creation. 

My friend Bonni Stachowiak, who hosts the popular Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, once told me a story about the importance of being vulnerable with her audiences. It's stuck with me many years later.

It was her first year of hosting the podcast and she was interviewing Ken Bain, author of What the Best College Teachers Do, a hugely influential book. He started dropping some names and terms she wasn't familiar with. Long story, short: Her notes auto-corrected one of the words to "Manure" – which she repeated over and over until her guest gently corrected her.

In editing, Bonni’s instincts were to cut that part out. In the stuffy world of academia, where a lack of knowledge has traditionally been seen as a stigma, perhaps the best thing to do was to cover up her knowledge gaps.

But she decided to keep it, in part because she saw herself as being on a learning journey with her guests and listeners. Learning happens when you make mistakes and she wanted her listeners to see and understand that as well.