Knowing your Content Area is not enough
Traditionally, students have trouble thinking of subjects beyond right and wrong answers. For example, students will see a history class as a set of dates and events that need to be memorized in order to answer questions correctly on an exam. They fall short of seeing the broader picture or the impact that history can play on the present world or their own lives. Similarly, students miss the broader aspects of mathematics and science. They rely on formulas and procedures to solve the instant problem, but fail to see how the formulas and procedures are actually based on larger concepts that apply universally to the physical world.
If a teacher can connect a subject to the student’s own life, that student will achieve a better and more deeply-rooted understanding of the subject. For example, in history, a teacher can introduce subject matter by involving the students in debate which draws upon the students’ own experiences. This creates a more personal connection with the student and subject matter. In mathematics, a teacher, through the use of models or physical demonstrations, can link a student’s basic understanding of numbers with larger mathematical concepts. This approach replaces a traditional teacher’s dependence on just abstract concepts of numbers. With physical sciences, a teacher can take advantage of a student’s common, intuitive understanding of the physical world to show physical laws in action.
No matter the class subject, research has consistently shown that effective teachers must understand how a student learns. However, effective teaching approaches in one subject do not necessary translate to another subject. A teacher must tailor lessons so as to maximize the effective...
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... for a teacher to possess, a teacher must also be able to understand how best to teach a student at their level. Another trait that I share with the examples discussed in this chapter is a willingness to put additional time and effort into a lesson. All too often, teachers end up depending on past lessons due to complacency, fear, or an unwillingness to try a new approach. This dependence creates a staleness that inhibits learning
As teachers, we must be willing to keep up with new methods in our craft that are geared towards learners in this generation. We must be willing to apply what we learn from teacher conferences and professional development classes to our classroom. I understand that it takes time to develop new lessons, however if a teacher does not try new approaches then he or she will never grow better at teaching to this new generation of learners.
...simply reuses the same approach and methodology each year, his class is likely to become boring and ineffective. In order to properly educate students, a teacher must always be looking for ways to improve his course—methods of making the knowledge seem more interesting and relevant to students. Originality and innovation not only maintain students’ attention, but also help keep teachers interested. Any subject matter will seem boring if an instructor teaches it the same way for twenty years. In order to maximize the effectiveness of their teaching, educators constantly must be in search of new methods of presenting content. Complacency, after all, is the first step on the road to ineffective instruction. Teachers, like their students, must always remain motivated by the desire to improve. Without this desire, the process of education becomes stagnant and empty.
Nowadays, students are being spoon fed information in the classroom instead of actually “learning”. Teachers, who should be inspiring students to be individuals and going out to seek and learn are instead basically giving students the information just to make it easier upon themselves. Although it may be easy now, in the future when the same students that have been fed information have to go out and actually learn and find information, they won’t be able to. Students are too reliant on teachers giving them information so they won’t have to do work. Students in this generation are being complacent in a “short-cut” society and take the easy way out in everything they possibly can.
Before a teacher can impart knowledge to a student, the teacher must first understand how this can be done. The teacher should know the various ways people learn, and she specifically must seek to understand her own students’ intellectual strengths. Using Howard Gardner’s Th...
Effective teaching is not merely assessing learners’ skills. It is also knowing which elements of individual approaches and methods to adopt with different students and in different circumstances
Because of the constant changing, it is hard for students to grasp the meaning behind a certain topic. But, if you use your own experiences and trials by creating and testing models to learn about a topic, you understand how it works better. Ellen Granger the head of the Office of Science Teaching at Florida State University, published a study in 2012 that compared teacher- based teaching versus student-based teaching(learning by doing projects or hands-on activities). She ran this study on fourth and fifth grade students understanding space-science concepts. The text states in paragraph 27 that the researchers found that learning outcomes were higher for students who enrolled in science classes that were student-centered. Granger also ran a test later on and found out that hands-on learning also helps throughout all grades not just elementary or middle schools. Because of Edison's famous quote our schools have changed the way that students are being taught and help the students to learn new subjects more
After examining my use of effective classroom practices through the self-evaluation of current teaching practice worksheet, I identified several areas of teaching that I could improve in. The area that I chose to focus on was “students are carefully orientated to lessons.” Within that broad area I focused on the question if I communicated the objectives of the lesson to all students and checked to see if the students understood the objective. I posed the research question: What will the effect of clearly communicated objectives and expected learning outcomes be on the student mastery of the lesson objective?” By posing this question I expected the students to learn the objective and show mastery of the lesson objective.
..., where the emphasis is on teachers teaching and not on students learning (Freire, 1970). Throughout my experience as a teacher I realized that in order for students to engage in the learning process they must have the courage to make mistakes, they must feel secure in the relationship with their teacher, in order for students to feel secure there must be a connection (Dewey, 1938-1997). The teacher wields a great deal of power over her students, due to the fact that you control their destiny for up to six hours each day, five days a week. When students have a relationship or connection with the educator, they are not afraid to make mistakes and explore learning in a fashion that promotes the creative process along with assimilating knowledge. The implications of my research will validate the importance of relationships between students and educators.
Lang, H., Evans, D.(2006). Models, Strategies, and Methods for Effective Teaching. USA, Pearson Education Inc.
Math has a lot of misconceptions that can really affect how a student performs in the subject throughout their educational career. As a teacher, I plan on building on student’s strengths and allowing them to grow in confidence in the subject of math. According to Hwang, Morano, and Riccomini (n.d.) “With careful design, independent math practice can build students’ confidence and proficiency and help them move from novice learners to expert learners.” As a teacher I plan on building upon my students strengths, and assessing their learning in order to organize my content. Using hands-on materials, and differentiating instruction so that each student can build upon their knowledge will do this and will allow students to succeed. As a future
The students’ eyes: this lens establishes just how congruous the teacher’s assumptions about effective learning correspond with those of the students in his or her class.
Thought out our lives, we are faced with many different learning experiences. Some of these experiences have made a better impact than others. This can be attributed to everyone’s different multiple intelligences or learning styles. A persons learning style is the method though which they gain information about their environment. As a teacher, it is our responsibility to know these styles, so we can reach each of our students and use all of the necessary methods.
The resulting high failure/drop-out rate in the first two years of university has enormous cost to society, although the students who do persevere and graduate clearly have or develop the requisite skills.Students’ ability to do analysis and synthesis seems to have been replaced by rote memorization and regurgitation in both the sciences and the humanities. This problem is reflected in the learning approach of most students, which has changed along with their test performance. All term, students were asking me when I was going to teach them what they need to know for the exam, as though physics has only a fixed number of facts or kinds of problems that need to be memorized and fed back to the instructor.There is always a certain amount of material that must be memorized, but knowledge of facts makes up only a small component of one’s learning. More important is the ability to relate these facts in new ways, to see them in a new light, and to bring quite disparate ideas together to solve new problems or create new forms of
In order for learning to take place in the classroom the teacher has to put in place an effective teaching and learning strategy. Being an effective teacher is not something that can be achieved instantaneously but rather something that has to be continuously developed and improved upon over time. Petty mentions how good teachers are not born but rather make themselves and that effective teaching comes from learning from your mistakes and successes. Petty, p. 516, 2009. This process involves teacher reflection and assessment of the effectiveness of different teaching strategies used in the classroom. It is only then that teachers can learn and advance themselves.
The one belief I had about teaching that has changed since I began this unit, is that all teachers, more or less, taught in the same way. Perhaps this is a belief that I had formed from my own time at school, where all my teachers taught in the same way; some were more or less effective, but I wasn’t aware of them using theories or methods as such, more that they were or weren’t kind people. This belief has changed and it has really opened my ideas to the many creative models, and instructional methods a teacher can use.
Being a teacher is not an easy task as many people could think. To be a teacher does not only imply to know the subject to be taught, it also includes being willing to constantly improve oneself integrally, as much as updating the resources and materials one uses in teaching. Reflecting and analyzing over and over again the best way to teach to learn and how to make students to extend what has been learned. The many hours spend in the classroom will never be enough to plan lessons, prepare materials, review pupils tasks and exams, as well, all the administrative requirements one has to cover for whatever institution we work. Besides all this a good teacher, a professional one, will have to find the time to keep preparing to improve oneself.