Page 163 - Šolsko polje, XXX, 2019, št. 5-6: Civic, citizenship and rhetorical education in a rapidly changing world, eds. Janja Žmavc and Plamen Mirazchiyski
P. 163
m. cestnik ■ experiences in teaching rhetoric as an elective course ...
only one of the speaker’s tasks – a very important task, actually – and that
before their performance, the speaker had to undergo a certain path and
complete a complex mental process, which was not mentioned during pre-
vious seminars. It was as if we had only covered the framework at the pre-
vious seminars and that the image this frame was supposed to frame re-
mained almost completely ignored. For the most part, we discussed how
to present the content, but not what should be presented. I realised that
we always achieve the final version of a speech with a completely elabo-
rate idea of w hat we are going to say, and that we have to build this idea
gradually, with careful planning and intensive study of both the content/
topic of the speech and the proper use of rhetorical principles (Žagar, Ž.
et al., 2018, p. 38).
I also realized that rhetoric is indeed an ancient art. However, because of
the lack of continuity in the school curriculum, there is no broad idea in
Slovenian schools what rhetoric is all about. This, of course, is connected
to the teacher’s knowledge. Since we have not been trained in the formal
education process to teach this course, it is crucial to acquire knowledge
and develop skills for teaching pupils.
At the Educational Research Institute, I received basic knowledge
that opened my eyes as to what rhetoric is all about. The seminar, which
took place twice and lasted for three days, introduced me to the basics and
gave me a real idea of what rhetoric actually is. But this knowledge was far
from enough for quality classroom teaching. We received quality infor-
mation at this seminar, practiced public speaking and received good feed-
back on our performance: in a way, we have undergone the process that
pupils have to go through. Nevertheless, we lacked a lot of knowledge:
for example, how to pass all this knowledge to 14-year-olds that we, as
teachers and as adult learners, have acquired, what to evaluate and by what
criteria. Therefore the didactics of teaching rhetoric was needed. This is
where the establishment of new grounds began. Teachers of rhetoric are/
were not connected, we were unable to exchange experiences, share good
practices and discuss how to successfully achieve the goals in the class-
room, which goals are more difficult for pupils to adopt and such. Rheto-
ric teachers were thus left to self-inquiry and their own motivation to up-
grade and complete their working methods.
I teach the Slovenian language, a subject in which we also teach pub-
lic speaking, where speaking is one of the communication activities and
developing speaking skills is one of the important activities. In teaching
rhetoric, I thus helped myself with the experience gained from Sloveni-
an language courses and vice versa. Many of the things I learned from
161
only one of the speaker’s tasks – a very important task, actually – and that
before their performance, the speaker had to undergo a certain path and
complete a complex mental process, which was not mentioned during pre-
vious seminars. It was as if we had only covered the framework at the pre-
vious seminars and that the image this frame was supposed to frame re-
mained almost completely ignored. For the most part, we discussed how
to present the content, but not what should be presented. I realised that
we always achieve the final version of a speech with a completely elabo-
rate idea of w hat we are going to say, and that we have to build this idea
gradually, with careful planning and intensive study of both the content/
topic of the speech and the proper use of rhetorical principles (Žagar, Ž.
et al., 2018, p. 38).
I also realized that rhetoric is indeed an ancient art. However, because of
the lack of continuity in the school curriculum, there is no broad idea in
Slovenian schools what rhetoric is all about. This, of course, is connected
to the teacher’s knowledge. Since we have not been trained in the formal
education process to teach this course, it is crucial to acquire knowledge
and develop skills for teaching pupils.
At the Educational Research Institute, I received basic knowledge
that opened my eyes as to what rhetoric is all about. The seminar, which
took place twice and lasted for three days, introduced me to the basics and
gave me a real idea of what rhetoric actually is. But this knowledge was far
from enough for quality classroom teaching. We received quality infor-
mation at this seminar, practiced public speaking and received good feed-
back on our performance: in a way, we have undergone the process that
pupils have to go through. Nevertheless, we lacked a lot of knowledge:
for example, how to pass all this knowledge to 14-year-olds that we, as
teachers and as adult learners, have acquired, what to evaluate and by what
criteria. Therefore the didactics of teaching rhetoric was needed. This is
where the establishment of new grounds began. Teachers of rhetoric are/
were not connected, we were unable to exchange experiences, share good
practices and discuss how to successfully achieve the goals in the class-
room, which goals are more difficult for pupils to adopt and such. Rheto-
ric teachers were thus left to self-inquiry and their own motivation to up-
grade and complete their working methods.
I teach the Slovenian language, a subject in which we also teach pub-
lic speaking, where speaking is one of the communication activities and
developing speaking skills is one of the important activities. In teaching
rhetoric, I thus helped myself with the experience gained from Sloveni-
an language courses and vice versa. Many of the things I learned from
161
