Harry Potter Pedagogy: What We Learn about Teaching and Learning from J. K. Rowling
Being a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is not very magical. Despite all of its charms, Hogwarts still asks its students to attend class, read books, write exercises, take tests, and be graded on a competitive scale. The teachers do not use veritaserum to check students' homework or studiousness. Nor do students magically transfer information to their minds or accio copies of the tests out of teachers' offices. Whether tested in a duel with Voldemort or in an OWL exam, the learning of the students falls solidly on their own shoulders. In the Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling creates a learning culture which imbues students with responsibility and positions them to evaluate their teachers' performance, supplement it with their own research and practice, and become their own teachers.
For J. K. Rowling, teaching ends up having very little to do with the instructors of record....
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