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United States24342 Posts
Teaching: An Understanding By micronesia I recently wrote a TL Knowhow article on the topic of preparing to teach classes, with an emphasis on classroom and especially public school teaching (You can read it Here). Many people have requested I write something that focuses on how to teach. This is much more difficult. Whatever I write will be controversial and difficult to justify. Regardless I decided to compile some suggestions that focus on helping another learn, and are applicable to a much larger audience than my previous article. Instead of discussing classroom teaching this article addresses much more generally how to help another person understand something. It is as applicable for private tutoring or discussions between friends as it is for working as a professional school teacher. It is my opinion that everyone falls into the demographic of this article, although some people need to heed its advice more than others. Disclaimers: + Show Spoiler +- Much of this is common sense. It might even seem unnecessary for me to discuss many of these points. However, you would probably be surprised how even the most basic of suggestions I make here are regularly disregarded by people trying to explain/teach something.
- Some of my suggestions seem like they are applicable to teaching young children but unnecessary for teaching adults. I can't deny this 100% but I'm confident that this is much less true than most readers will initially believe.
- The way humans learn is a highly researched area with many competing theories as well as new studies being published regularly. I am not going to discuss in many cases why a teacher's actions result in enhanced learning since it requires a highly academic investigation of a field with very little consensus.
- There are many generalizations here that I cannot prove. An action that I identify as being problematic could work when implemented by a specific teacher... so there are very few absolutes here. You need to use your own judgment to incorporate my suggestions into your own teaching and explaining.
Without further ado, here are my suggestions for how to help others learn, as well as some insights I have made through experience and observation: Clarity:Being clear in your meaning is one of the most important aspects of teaching (most of the time). This does not just mean to be clear when explaining content, but also when giving instructions, identifying expectations, or providing justifications. If you want your learner to figure something out on their own, that's fine, but make sure information is either given to them or withheld from them rather than somewhat given in an unclear manner. Minimizing unnecessary confusion is very difficult and usually takes a lot of experience to accomplish. Information given to your learner(s) in passing is often ignored or quickly forgotten. If you and your student carefully come to a conclusion together, it's fine to expect them to recall and apply it a few minutes later. However, if while the student was working on something you also mention a useful additional fact, don't expect them to recall it later. This may seem obvious but teachers tend to do this all the time. A more frustrating example is when a professor doesn't write down a due date for an assignment anywhere and then mentions at some irrelevant moment how (s)he expects it handed in on a certain date. Then the date comes and the professor is wondering why so many students don't have the assignment completed... Put yourself in the learner's shoes:It can be difficult but you need to anticipate what will be challenging about the learning process for a given lesson (and for a given student). What would be the necessary thought process of the student in order to accomplish the lesson objective(s)? Is that a realistic thing to expect of your student? My experience has been that usually students diverge from the thought process you planned more quickly than in your worst nightmare! That's okay, so long as you are prepared for it though, and are often checking to see what the student's thought process actually is at any particular moment. Can you reasonably expect students to learn the new 'thing' based on their prior knowledge? This also takes experience to develop: both measuring the student's prior knowledge quickly, and reasonably determining how much help the student needs to apply it to the new material. Try not to assume students will effortlessly recall things they learned a long while back, even if they were quite skilled at it. There was a period of time when I could integrate sin^2(x) very easily. Today I needed to do it for a side project and it took me a few minutes to figure out what method I was even supposed to use! If I had been working with an experienced teacher they would have quickly identified that I did indeed learn the relevant math methods and just needed a small push (or some time) to figure out the procedure. They would not have told me how to do it immediately, nor would they have been surprised that I couldn't quickly solve the problem. Avoid giving information when possible:If there is a way for a student to come up with an idea on their own (such as the formula for average speed), try to help them come up with it themselves. In some respects this is the most challenging and most important part of teaching (and sometimes the most rewarding). Giving information is not teaching. Helping the student to teach themselves (I don't mean to imply a laziness on the part of the teacher here) is preferable. If students will learn the years that world war 2 started and ended, let the student figure it out using another resource besides your voice, your powerpoint, your whiteboard, or just generally you. This won't be possible for every factoid, but should be strived as much as you can allow. Explaining things:Even if you try to do the right thing and teach through guidance rather than pure explanation, there are times when you need to explain things. My observation, depressing as it may be, is that most people are bad at explaining most things, most of the time. The pitfall is that people tend to focus their attention almost entirely on the topic they are trying to explain, rather than focusing a good deal on the learner's intake of the explanation. Similar to putting yourself in the learner's shoes, you need to think about how you can word your explanation in order to help the learner understand whatever it is you want them to get. It's quite difficult to simultaneously extract information from your brain and think about how to implant that information effectively into someone else's mind. Nobody said teaching was easy. Well actually, many people did, but they are usually bad teachers... and they are probably bad at explaining things. Identifying misconceptions:Before teaching or explaining something you should try to determine what are the most common misconceptions people have that might get in the way of the learner understanding the new material. In other words, probe your student before starting a component of a lesson to see where they stand. If you do identify misconceptions, try to deal with them sooner rather than later. Without going into too much detail or education theory, people who learn things incorrectly cannot 'unlearn' them. They instead 'pave over' the old knowledge with new knowledge, leaving traces of the misconceptions or error behind. A musician and educational expert I knew said he originally learned to play the piano without having a teacher. He came up with his own system for how to cross over his fingers when playing scales. Unfortunately, it was a bad method that makes it really difficult to play harder pieces later. Eventually he got a teacher who showed him the proper method to choose which fingers to hit each key with. When this guy gets drunk enough however, he finds if he sits at a piano and tries to play pieces he ends up reverting back to his original fingering scheme, crossing his fingers over at the wrong time. This is literally decades later and he is still susceptible! I'm pretty sure that alcohol is not the only reason why this could be a problem, but you should get the idea. You are the master learner:When you are teaching something new to another person, it's better for the learner to think of you as the master learner. What this means is that a veteran student of the content is helping a novice student of the content become a veteran themselves. By being the master learner instead of the 'teacher,' you are more similar to your student. This will sometimes make it easier for your student to receive help from you than if you were their learning 'supervisor.' I think it's easier to take someone's learning advice when they themselves once needed it (learner) rather than they were born with the knowledge (teacher). Obviously this isn't true, but it's how students often perceive teachers without meaning to! This master learner concept can be applied to a public school classroom teacher as much as it can to a friend tutoring a classmate. The teacher is no less a student of the content than the lesson's target is... they are just further along in their studies. Ask questions:Asking questions is an important part of teaching. Usually, phrasing something as a question instead of a statement helps your students to think about it (more active learning). On the other hand, when you phrase something as a question (or if you actually want to ask a question), pause sufficiently for students to process the question and think about it. If possible try to make it obvious (without explicitly stating it) whether your question is rhetorical or you are actually interested in a response. Like other parts of teaching, clarity is very important for questions. Be as specific as possible. For example, instead of "so what happens if mass distribution is less symmetric" (vague) try "how are the perturbations affected by a decrease in mass symmetry?" (more specific, without leading too much) Avoid asking questions that don't make conversational sense. For example "are there any questions?" is strange because you are asking a yes or no question as to if someone has a question. Do you want a student to respond "no" or even "yes"? "What questions do you have?" is better because it elicits the actual questions from the students. I've heard from distinguished educators that there is actual research which shows that the latter phasing gets more responses from students. In summary make sure your phrasing asks questions in the way you want them answered. Instead of "do you know the equation for a circle" try "what is the equation for a circle?" unless you want students to yell out "yes" or "no" which you probably don't. Most 'smart alec' responses from students are an indication that you should have worded your question differently. Be polite when students give wrong answers:Be diplomatic when a student gives an incorrect answer. While not every student needs to be coddled... especially if they already know you don't think they're stupid/uneducated, a little leniency goes a long way. Try to find merit in the student's response even if it isn't the correct answer to your original question. If you ask a student what the cause of World War 1 was, and the student replies "to prevent the Holocaust" they are wrong for at least two reasons. Obviously, the Holocaust overlapped World War 2 instead of World War 1. Also, the Holocaust wasn't really the 'cause' of World War 2. Some teachers/tutors would respond to that answer with "wow, you are way off" or "no" which is just about the worst thing you can do. The teacher may not even mean it as any type of a negativism, but the best way to stop a learner from learning is to make them feel bad/stupid. You could instead respond "you're thinking of a different world war!" and let them come to the realization of their mistake if they can. This may seem like a trivial difference with just saying "not the correct answer" devoid of all emotion. However, you have given their answer credence... it just isn't the answer to your specific question. Notice it wasn't necessary to address both mistakes at the same time in the reply. Suppose the student responded "oh, yea, that was WW2, um, oh yea WW1 had to do with tons of alliances and some assassination" it is better than you initially responding "no, actually WW1 was caused by a large number of alliances and a relatively small assassination which triggered an increasing scale of events." You could then move on from there to help the student get a better picture of what happened. At some point if you came to revisit WW2, instead of saying "you thought the Holocaust was the cause of World War 2, but it wasn't really; it was when Nazi Germany started invading other countries" which is just giving them information they may or may not already know, try "you said before that the Holocaust was a cause of WW2 ( little white lie; they said it was THE cause), but there were others. What other causes were there?" It is almost impossible to overestimate the insecurity of most learners, and the power of the ego. Be careful when trying to demonstrate something:Using a demonstration (whether it be a cool piece of equipment, java animation, or video) can be very helpful when teaching something new, but make sure you are clear how it relates to what is being learned. If someone needs to learn about hyperbolic trigonometric functions, you might tell them to look at http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Hyperbolic_functions-2.svg and it might be a very helpful picture for learning sinh/cosh. However, don't assume that because you gave a rudimentary explanation of what sinh/cosh are, and showed the picture to the learner, that the learner now understands what a sinh/cosh is and how it relates to sin/cos. Effort needs to go into helping the student interpret the picture and checking to see what the student does/doesn't understand about the picture. Think of it this way: if I interviewed your student right when you were showing them that picture and asked them "why is your tutor showing you this picture?" what would the student respond? The student doesn't need to be able to explain hyperbolic trig functions at that point, but they should be able to identify what role specifically the picture serves. In contrast, there are times where you show the student something and want them to figure out what the purpose of showing it was. This is okay so long as it is your intention, and thought has gone into why this is how you are proceeding with the lesson. Helping the learner visualize something can be difficult, and usually fails when you 'wing it':This segues on the previous section since you are using a demonstration, however I want to specifically focus on quick sketches and illustrating configurations using your fingers/hands. If you are "winging it" your sketch or hand demonstration is probably very confusing. Most of the time when someone tries to explain what something looks like, pauses to think for a second, and then starts fake drawing something on a table with their fingers, I have no idea what they are trying to show me. Even make-shift diagrams are often really confusing... especially if things aren't labeled. An example of poor attempts to help with visualization is when someone tries to give directions to me for how to drive to a particular location. The exchange may go like this: Me: How do I get from building x to building y by car? Them: Okay, so you... oh you make a left out of the lot and then fork right where the... ok let's say HERE is Bay Blvd draws random line on table with finger and you're coming THIS way moves finger in random curve along table ...you should see the administration building HERE taps table with finger in random spot which tells you you just missed the right fork for the road which goes to building y. Me: what someone looks like after they are killed in the movie "The Ring"Give students time to process, think, and try new things:Be reasonable about how much time a student will need to complete a task, whether it be thinking about the answer to a question, reading about new material (it's slower than when you read it to review it), or completing a written/physical task. If you want your student to calculate the sin values of 0, pi/6, pi/4, pi/3, and pi/2, you might think they need about 5-10 seconds for each one, but it will probably take the student a while to interpret each question (like, what does each of those angle mean, and what does it look like on a unit circle, and how to I do sin again?). Don't cut them short after 20 seconds assuming they did it all. If you don't want them spending a good minute on that activity, don't give them the activity. If you think the student will be able to finish much more quickly that's fine, so long as you are prepared for the case where they won't. Most importantly, when you ask questions and the student doesn't respond, pause before saying anything. Answering questions is actually very mentally taxing. You ears needs to convert the sound waves into a signal, turn the signal into words, turn the words into sentences, interpret the sentences, and only THEN start thinking about the new material and what the answer to the question might be. A question that you are expecting is easy to process, and you probably already know the answer. A question asked by your teacher often is unexpected, difficult to process, and on TOP of that requires much more time to come up with an answer. If a student comes up with a ridiculous answer, don't freak out. They might have just goofed in one of the many steps involved in answering a question, and with a little more time will come up with a less ridiculous answer. Whatever you do don't criticize the student for giving such a ridiculous answer as most of the time this will make it harder for them to learn. If you can't help but laugh at an answer, do your best to let your learner know that such a moment is normal and sometimes happens when discussing a topic such as the current one. I see this all the time, both in real life and even on TL.NET: overracting to a bad/dumb answer and criticizing the person for it. It only makes sense if you legitimately have malicious intent. AssumptionsYou've probably noticed a great deal of overlap between all of the topics here, but a little redundancy for the most important points is probably a good idea. A danger when trying to teach or tutor is to make incorrect assumptions. To an extent this is unavoidable, but you should try to minimize it. Here are some examples of assumptions you should try to avoid as much as possible: - The learner is already fully comfortable with prior topic X so I can assume they know it as they learn topic Y
- I was a little unclear, I suppose, but the learner understood what I meant anyway, I'm pretty sure
- The learner understood what I was alluding to / implying
- The learner can take it from here; they won't need any more help to reach this next objective (note: it's okay to let them try it, of course)
- The learner examined all available information as they were supposed to
- The learner knows why I am asking them to do thing X (this one is really important!)
Conclusion:The most important thing you can do to improve your teaching is to be reflective. What this means is to think about how your recent lesson/tutoring session went. Feel free to get feedback from your student. What they say or recommend isn't necessarily true, but you should give it some credence. If they say something was confusing, it doesn't matter how confident you are you explained it as clearly as it has ever been explained... there is room for improvement. It's not even your fault necessary. Every lesson ever implemented has had moments where students were unnecessarily confused. A little bit of confusion isn't always a bad thing, as it's actually somewhat authentic (happens in real life situations). However, clarity in instructions, expectations, and purposes is paramount.
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Italy12246 Posts
Thanks I do lots of tutoring for high school kids and usually get really good results, this will definitely help!
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good article. a good summary about the fundamentals. i like it
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Some really good points even if you aren't a teacher. At some point in your life you need to be able to teach something to someone.
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United States24342 Posts
One or two segments of text seem to have gotten dropped by the html process... hopefully it will be fixed soon.
I'm glad to see some of you are finding this helpful.
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Thank you, I have a question!
Do you feel that I can work with this knowledge to tutor a 7 year old child? I feel that his mentality will definitely not reflect that of a teenager or an adult but I feel like I can make modifications to teach him better.
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United States24342 Posts
On November 18 2012 09:11 Lakarah wrote: Thank you, I have a question!
Do you feel that I can work with this knowledge to tutor a 7 year old child? I feel that his mentality will definitely not reflect that of a teenager or an adult but I feel like I can make modifications to teach him better. I can't boast experience working with children that young, but I'd say the principles are exactly the same. The difference is going to be the "putting yourself in the learner's shoes" theme... you will obviously need a different approach in many aspects of teaching.
You also have to have realistic expectations overall. The difficulty of the content is not the only thing that is different when teaching a young child (as I'm sure you know). They have reduced vocabulary, attention span, etc.. It's a challenge I'm not up for personally, but best of luck to you!
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Nice article!
I liked how general it was so that a teacher of any subject can apply it. Any possibilities of another article focusing on math/physics, your forte?
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United States24342 Posts
On November 18 2012 17:27 Kishin2 wrote: Nice article!
I liked how general it was so that a teacher of any subject can apply it. Any possibilities of another article focusing on math/physics, your forte? Tricky, but I will think about it.
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Katowice25012 Posts
This is pretty interesting, an enjoyable read. This whole subject is really complex, I look forward to anything you can do in the future.
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On November 19 2012 00:54 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On November 18 2012 17:27 Kishin2 wrote: Nice article!
I liked how general it was so that a teacher of any subject can apply it. Any possibilities of another article focusing on math/physics, your forte? Tricky, but I will think about it.
Don't know if I will have time for this, but feel free to ask me questions in PM etc. It's my first year as a highschool math teacher so if I can be useful it's great.
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Good knowhow micronesia. I'm studying to be a teacher as well, and I agree on almost all of your points (if not all). This is an excellent read for anyone interested in teaching. It's quite hard to apply in the class of course, it takes practise. A lot of things here that I didn't realize before, or think about before, such as how to phrase my questions, and perhaps assuming that the students know something when they very well may not.
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On November 19 2012 00:54 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On November 18 2012 17:27 Kishin2 wrote: Nice article!
I liked how general it was so that a teacher of any subject can apply it. Any possibilities of another article focusing on math/physics, your forte? Tricky, but I will think about it.
Please do one on tutoring one on one with maths. Ideally it'd be late-high-school level.
I help my friends with their first year university math courses (and their Chemistry/general science literacy too), and since I wanna do a PhD --> University Research, I want to be decent at tutoring/teaching. Also, I would be quite happy to be able to get paid a bit for helping kids at the local high-school, but for that I need expertise and practice.
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United States24342 Posts
On November 21 2012 21:42 bITt.mAN wrote:Show nested quote +On November 19 2012 00:54 micronesia wrote:On November 18 2012 17:27 Kishin2 wrote: Nice article!
I liked how general it was so that a teacher of any subject can apply it. Any possibilities of another article focusing on math/physics, your forte? Tricky, but I will think about it. Please do one on tutoring one on one with maths. Ideally it'd be late-high-school level. Teaching physics requires you to be able to teach some math also, but the experience isn't really the same as being a math teacher. I can definitely comment and provide insight into tutoring high-school level math, but I don't think I could make a viable Knowhow article out of it.
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Well there's lots of hella good tips you've already mentioned, so not necessarily another entire knowhow, maybe just a post (here). That being said, my/our satisfaction and benefit is directly proportional to the breadth and depth of what you choose to put up here, so the more the merrier.
Again though, thanks for doing these, they are a great resource to empower TLers to greater heights of awesome. In terms of subject matter, high-school math would be the money-maker, but possibly basic thermodynamics + energy potentials, and QM would be as far as I'd consider developing.
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Nice, you sound like the best teacher ever. Need more teachers like this.
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As a teacher of secondary school ive read your post and its just an idealistic view, Yes this is what should be done, and i understand you have tried to say this in your disclaimer BUT this only works if you are met 50/50 by the child. Our school has been in the inadequate - good ratings over the last 10 years and all down to the way ofsted want lessons.
good-outstanding lessons now HAVE to have (uk this is)
have plenty of review, peer/self assessment, commented and updated work and differentiation for all classes taking into account any SEN/Catchment area / and fee school meals. Thgey must know their current target and know clearly how to improve to their next sublevel (there is much more . . in one hour you have to get all this in) my question is . . when does the lesson actually start?
in other words you have 1 hr to teach 3 lessons in one to 23 kids . .5 times a day (in our school) Personally. its stupid. Im a qualified game designer/programmer/software engineer/audio composer (yes ive retrained so many times when i worked in industry) all of the above comments ONLy work, as i said, when the kid is willing to meet you half way . . but i would take a 5th of the way.
Right now every kid has the right to be taught but im finding more and more every year some kids just dont want to learn and that brilliant idealistic method above cannot even be applied . .and this is most of the time. you would have to get an outstanding school to come in, teach lesson, get work back which is tried for and then go we can go home.
Schools atm are target driven at the moment. Your kids MUST get their target grade or you as are teacher are in a world of shit. So, lets apply all of those things above . . brilliant. Great teaching but . . .you are now probably 2 months behind on simply getting the work done.
I taught a database unit last month to a bottom half class. we went over it 5 times during the lesson and i was confident the kids could create a query, return a list and validate input data. Everyone could do it. 2 weeks later when the time came to apply it (this is next lesson, we have 2 different lesson sets over a fortnight) noone could do the 5 minute starter task of what the last lesson was about. the 5 minute have a go task ended up taking 40 mins. I havent done any of the above of what i said and this deadline is in 4 weeks, the last lessons seem to be a waste of time. it makes no sense to me how you can teach a set of kids, then have them forget everything the next time they come in and then have your line managers giving YOU shit because those kids CANT complete assignments to deadlines. I love teaching, its better than programming and game developing and all the other stuff i did BUT the edu system at the moment is heavily flawed and too aggressively target driven. dont hit targets, get no money, get laid of, get shut down. the above is a great guide in what you should do, in reality it only works in very very small places in edu!
too much time in edu atm is wasted with low level disruption and me, as a very easy going guy who expects it now and doesnt let it get me down cant help but wonder there must be something we can do to get this to a better climate. I hate coming how or doing a lesson where i feel nothing got done, i try harder for next lesson planning a 40min lesson over 2 hrs, (x5) every day . . you get no time to do anything. if everyone would actually see it from our point of view and do know and oblige the OP's comments everyone would get a really good education and teachers can go back to inspiring kids
sorry for this mini rant but i love this job and reading that above made me agree to the end of the earth . . its just it rarely happens like that
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United States24342 Posts
On November 25 2012 05:48 StatixEx wrote: As a teacher of secondary school ive read your post and its just an idealistic view, Yes this is what should be done, and i understand you have tried to say this in your disclaimer BUT this only works if you are met 50/50 by the child. Our school has been in the inadequate - good ratings over the last 10 years and all down to the way ofsted want lessons.
good-outstanding lessons now HAVE to have (uk this is)
have plenty of review, peer/self assessment, commented and updated work and differentiation for all classes taking into account any SEN/Catchment area / and fee school meals. Thgey must know their current target and know clearly how to improve to their next sublevel (there is much more . . in one hour you have to get all this in) my question is . . when does the lesson actually start?
in other words you have 1 hr to teach 3 lessons in one to 23 kids . .5 times a day (in our school) Personally. its stupid. Im a qualified game designer/programmer/software engineer/audio composer (yes ive retrained so many times when i worked in industry) all of the above comments ONLy work, as i said, when the kid is willing to meet you half way . . but i would take a 5th of the way.
Right now every kid has the right to be taught but im finding more and more every year some kids just dont want to learn and that brilliant idealistic method above cannot even be applied . .and this is most of the time. you would have to get an outstanding school to come in, teach lesson, get work back which is tried for and then go we can go home.
Schools atm are target driven at the moment. Your kids MUST get their target grade or you as are teacher are in a world of shit. So, lets apply all of those things above . . brilliant. Great teaching but . . .you are now probably 2 months behind on simply getting the work done.
I taught a database unit last month to a bottom half class. we went over it 5 times during the lesson and i was confident the kids could create a query, return a list and validate input data. Everyone could do it. 2 weeks later when the time came to apply it (this is next lesson, we have 2 different lesson sets over a fortnight) noone could do the 5 minute starter task of what the last lesson was about. the 5 minute have a go task ended up taking 40 mins. I havent done any of the above of what i said and this deadline is in 4 weeks, the last lessons seem to be a waste of time. it makes no sense to me how you can teach a set of kids, then have them forget everything the next time they come in and then have your line managers giving YOU shit because those kids CANT complete assignments to deadlines. I love teaching, its better than programming and game developing and all the other stuff i did BUT the edu system at the moment is heavily flawed and too aggressively target driven. dont hit targets, get no money, get laid of, get shut down. the above is a great guide in what you should do, in reality it only works in very very small places in edu!
too much time in edu atm is wasted with low level disruption and me, as a very easy going guy who expects it now and doesnt let it get me down cant help but wonder there must be something we can do to get this to a better climate. I hate coming how or doing a lesson where i feel nothing got done, i try harder for next lesson planning a 40min lesson over 2 hrs, (x5) every day . . you get no time to do anything. if everyone would actually see it from our point of view and do know and oblige the OP's comments everyone would get a really good education and teachers can go back to inspiring kids
sorry for this mini rant but i love this job and reading that above made me agree to the end of the earth . . its just it rarely happens like that I don't mean to sell short the impact many of the limitations you point out can have on your ability to teach effectively, and your students' ability to learn. I've been through many similar things. However, the tips in the OP are mostly general (they aren't even limited to just classroom teaching; they can be used for day-to-day exchanges for anyone) and applicable in almost any lesson, no matter how corrosive the learning environment is made by the 'system.' It's impossible to heed everything I suggested all the time, of course.
If you wouldn't mind, could you point out a couple of examples of these overly 'idealistic' suggestions?
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Most of it really, im not here to argue, the post caught my attention, i have my PGCE, im sure you have as well(or you better have, i looked quick for what your actual credentials and couldnt find. Im a good with outstanding features teacher . . yes of course you'd have to take my word for it) what you have done is just explain theoretically how to teach . . and like you say, "its common sense" most of this with no examples of how you have applied it. Its kinda like Starcraft2. I could tell you how to play the game (not disclose my rank) but the issue comes when you mechanically try to do it. This is the barrier ( kids ability) we have. I know you are reading this thinking im knocking what you have done, im not, im just saying all of your post is precisely what teaching is. Giving students think time, respecting their answers but you have to be careful with that. Errors and misconceptions are the bane of any teachers life The kid generally listens to his peers so if a lot of messing around is done over your key learning point. Its like this, something happens and the kid takes away maybe the students wrong answer as it stuck in their mind. They havent listened properly and upheld their end of the bargain of learning from my demonstration but because charlie fell off his chair while Shirley was explaining her wrong answer, cloe mentally placeheld shirleys wrong answer, the rest of the class missed the answer entirely. (of course this doesnt happen all the time but there is always some crap going on just stopping the pure learning experience.
Ok i think ive just read this and gone into work mode . . . i read it and it offered no things i could take a way so got a bit annoyed i read it all. sorry man, its a good post. maybe we could plan a cultural lesson together (im assuming u american) and lets how our lesson structures differ.
[troll alert] and putting understand as a title and or lesson obkjective is a weak taxonomy as its not quantifiable! . . only messin dude!
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United States24342 Posts
On November 25 2012 07:28 StatixEx wrote: Most of it really, im not here to argue, the post caught my attention, i have my PGCE, im sure you have as well(or you better have, i looked quick for what your actual credentials and couldnt find. We have a different certification system but yes, I am certified in my state. The requirements for my level of certification include 3 or more years of classroom teaching plus a masters degree in a relevant subject (science, education, etc), plus passing certain teacher certification exams.
what you have done is just explain theoretically how to teach . . and like you say, "its common sense" most of this with no examples of how you have applied it How you apply it depends on the circumstances in which you are teaching. You will apply it differently when teaching a class of 30 eighteen year olds differently than when tutoring your 7 year old cousin. The same general principles apply, but the same actions just won't work in the other case. I hope I made this much clear from the OP.
Giving students think time, respecting their answers but you have to be careful with that. Errors and misconceptions are the bane of any teachers life The kid generally listens to his peers so if a lot of messing around is done over your key learning point. Its like this, something happens and the kid takes away maybe the students wrong answer as it stuck in their mind. They havent listened properly and upheld their end of the bargain of learning from my demonstration but because charlie fell off his chair while Shirley was explaining her wrong answer, cloe mentally placeheld shirleys wrong answer, the rest of the class missed the answer entirely. (of course this doesnt happen all the time but there is always some crap going on just stopping the pure learning experience. Yea, things like this can definitely happen (especially as a classroom teacher), although still the same principles generally apply. It's rarely better to not be diplomatic than to be diplomatic when responding to an incorrect answer, (for example). Dealing with the situation you described above, where kids got the wrong idea due to some kind of a distraction is something that a classroom teacher has to learn to deal with. This is very important, but outside of the scope of this guide.
Ok i think ive just read this and gone into work mode . . . i read it and it offered no things i could take a way so got a bit annoyed i read it all. sorry man, its a good post. maybe we could plan a cultural lesson together (im assuming u american) and lets how our lesson structures differ. There will be at least a few readers who already know most/all of this... obviously I didn't intend to be patronizing towards experienced/qualified educators. This is intended to be a very general guide, applicable to most readers. On the other hand, even you or I who feel we understand these points well probably violate them without realizing it in our own teaching!
[troll alert] and putting understand as a title and or lesson obkjective is a weak taxonomy as its not quantifiable! . . only messin dude!
I actually didn't write the title (or choose the pictures); that happened during the editing process.
I want to emphasize that your point StatixEx is not lost on me: even armed with all of the ideas of this guide, it still won't be easy to accomplish simple goals in many learning environments. I've pointedly avoided writing a guide on how to be an effective teacher overall. I don't believe a decent one has been written by anyone, to date.
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Well, i think this is a great article. I came across your first and read it out of mere curiousity, i liked the organizing part. The fact that most reaserchers go into teaching i assume is for the economical factor, as it is pretty difficult to make a living when you are pouring your time into improving your knowledge on a given subject so i think many people could read your article and benefit from it. And it is very different, knowing a subject and teaching it. and to who is very important also. Some people are good at learning and have a really broad knowledge on a subject. Others are really good at teaching. Some are good at both. In the end i believe we are all students and all teachers, like you said some more along the way than others.
I' ve been trying to explain Starcraft Broodwar to a relative. Suddenly i found that something of which i have a broad understanding, was extremely difficult for me to explain to this person. I found myself struggling when they asked me, what is a strategy game? Later i though about it, and realised i needed to think more about what this person knew about strategy games and video games in general. I though hard and luckily being a member of my family i had somewhat inside intel on what that person knows. I tried a different approach next time, explaining the history of Protoss and how the Xel' naga related to it. Suddenly this person started to understand much more about it and could relate to it. In the end, i might not have been able to explain a 5 factory push off two bases, but i sucseded in my objective, to bring this person closer to my world and hopefully having a better understanding of the game i love.
And i realize the reason now that i read your article, to put oneself in the other person' s shoes. And these basics seem really useful and really important to me.
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How long have you been teaching? I wonder how you are like in the classroom? Writing about teaching and actually teaching are two different things.
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On November 28 2012 09:28 XX wrote: How long have you been teaching? I wonder how you are like in the classroom? Writing about teaching and actually teaching are two different things. I agree 100%. I have taught in public school for five years plus my preparatory experience. In addition I have done private tutoring and taught review classes at a local community center.
Writing about anything and being good at that thing is generally two different things. Being good at this thing doesn't necessarily mean what you write about it will be helpful, and being bad at that thing doesn't necessarily mean what you write about won't be helpful.
This is pretty much the same as teaching: being an expert on a topic doesn't mean you are a good teacher of it. Of course, if you are really bad at something then you probably shouldn't be teaching it, even if you generally are good at teaching, but people tend to exaggerate this too much when it comes to things like credentials. The problem is it's very difficult to measure how good of a teacher somebody is (almost impossible, actually).
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You never really talked about the student aspect of teaching. Like someone before me has pointed out that what you described is under extremely ideal conditions. If you are a teacher teaching in a rough area and the kids have 0 interest/respect in school, none of what you said matters. So you cannot just go on with the rhetorical approach, in reality a lot of factors come into play.
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On November 29 2012 12:42 Franthier wrote: You never really talked about the student aspect of teaching. Like someone before me has pointed out that what you described is under extremely ideal conditions. If you are a teacher teaching in a rough area and the kids have 0 interest/respect in school, none of what you said matters. So you cannot just go on with the rhetorical approach, in reality a lot of factors come into play. This is about the essence of teaching, not specifically classroom teaching. Of course you are not wrong about how important it is to consider the difficulty of teaching real life classes of kids, but I wouldn't say that makes this guide "ideal conditions."
I challenge someone to write a legitimate, reasonably complete knowhow article on how to teach classes. As I said, I believe it to be virtually impossible, and there's a reason why I haven't attempted it myself.
I just want to highlight a line from the introduction to this knowhow article:
Instead of discussing classroom teaching this article addresses much more generally how to help another person understand something.
Please take me seriously when I say this.
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On November 29 2012 13:27 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On November 29 2012 12:42 Franthier wrote: You never really talked about the student aspect of teaching. Like someone before me has pointed out that what you described is under extremely ideal conditions. If you are a teacher teaching in a rough area and the kids have 0 interest/respect in school, none of what you said matters. So you cannot just go on with the rhetorical approach, in reality a lot of factors come into play. This is about the essence of teaching, not specifically classroom teaching. Of course you are not wrong about how important it is to consider the difficulty of teaching real life classes of kids, but I wouldn't say that makes this guide "ideal conditions." I challenge someone to write a legitimate, reasonably complete knowhow article on how to teach classes. As I said, I believe it to be virtually impossible, and there's a reason why I haven't attempted it myself.
I just want to highlight a line from the introduction to this knowhow article: Show nested quote +Instead of discussing classroom teaching this article addresses much more generally how to help another person understand something. Please take me seriously when I say this.
Well, everybody's approach to teaching is different. Some prefer to use humor, some prefer to use technology,etc... For someone to write a perfectly sound knowhow article on how to teach a class. I think no one can do it for the reasons I have listed above. it depends on the teacher, it depends on the students and it depends on the environment.
Your article is good but like I have mentioned that you didn't address the student aspect, if you can edit your article and write about the student aspect, like how to deal with trouble some students, students with emotional trauma, etc... Then your article is as good as any research paper on how to teach a class.
Obviously, I think you gonna need a lot more experience to complete this article. So just put it on hold and continue teaching. Come back to this in 10 years time or something.
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On November 30 2012 11:03 Franthier wrote: Your article is good but like I have mentioned that you didn't address the student aspect, if you can edit your article and write about the student aspect, like how to deal with trouble some students, students with emotional trauma, etc... That is getting rather specific and I don't think I can do as good a job with that as I can with the more general areas I chose to focus on. Some other things I could talk about (besides what you already suggested) would be a good way to revisit material as review or how to motivate a topic/lesson/student. This guide is definitely not comprehensive, and it was not intended to be. I don't see how dealing with 'trouble' students is the missing link in the article, though, as you have implied. It's another very important thing to consider when teaching... mostly when classroom teaching, which again, was not a focus for this.
Obviously, I think you gonna need a lot more experience to complete this article. So just put it on hold and continue teaching. Come back to this in 10 years time or something. I actually am on the fence about this issue in general. I think it's obvious someone who has no experience with something shouldn't be lecturing about it, but 15 years of teaching experience doesn't necessarily mean you are better at teaching, or better at teaching how to teach, than 5 years of experience.
It seems like common sense that more experience = better, but I have two counterpoints, with regard to classroom teaching (it's less of a factor for the more general word 'teaching'):
- My observation is that there is not a direct relationship between experience and quality of teaching for most teachers beyond the 3-5 year mark. Some of the best lessons or comments from students I've noticed were from teachers who were catching their stride after getting over the initial hump (historically 3-5 years). There is often teacher burnout on the other end of the spectrum. For many teachers, they get better at the administrative/preparatory aspects of teaching, but not necessarily the pure teaching aspects.
- It's hard to relate to a new teacher if you don't remember what it was like to be learning how to teach. Everything just comes naturally and it's hard to express how or why you do what you do. This makes you great to observe but not as good for trying to directly share your ability with someone else. Similar to the 'master learner' concept I mentioned in the article, it's easier to learn from someone who can be considered a learner (of the art of teaching) themself rather than a master (teacher).
But more experience definitely helps with conveying the core underlying principles of teaching and learning, which was a major part of what I did in this article. On the other hand, claiming I don't have enough experience for what I attempted to accomplish here isn't fair without criticism of the accuracy of what was presented... if I am off target anywhere please let me know. If nothing else it could help me with my own teaching during this next 10 years
edit: I forgot to mention, I completely agree with your reasoning in why we can't write a one-size-fits-all guide to how to teach classes. In fact, we have probably only scratched the surface with why but your reasons are good ones.
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I agree your article does serve a good introduction to teaching for teachers that are just starting. This is like teaching 101, and I was just referring to more specific issues. Nevertheless, it is good.
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Nice article, I work part time at my university as a tutor and I'm gonna definitely try to keep some of these points in mind when I tutor.
I was just wondering, what would you do if you encounter a student who is trying to learn, but really can't seem to grasp the material at all? There is a student I've been seeing pretty regularly for the last year and a bit, and the sessions went well as it started, but recently as the content gets more and more complex, I can see he is struggling immensely to keep up. I've been trying as many tactics as I can to get him to understand, but am running out of ideas. It's getting to the point where it's frustrating for both me and the tutee. Do you have any suggestions?
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On November 30 2012 13:23 Draconicfire wrote: Nice article, I work part time at my university as a tutor and I'm gonna definitely try to keep some of these points in mind when I tutor.
I was just wondering, what would you do if you encounter a student who is trying to learn, but really can't seem to grasp the material at all? There is a student I've been seeing pretty regularly for the last year and a bit, and the sessions went well as it started, but recently as the content gets more and more complex, I can see he is struggling immensely to keep up. I've been trying as many tactics as I can to get him to understand, but am running out of ideas. It's getting to the point where it's frustrating for both me and the tutee. Do you have any suggestions? You might want to help them plan what studying/work they do aside from your tutoring sessions (or at least find out what is already happening). Attending class + doing homework + attending tutoring will often not be enough for students who are generally finding the material very difficult... they need to put in some additional independent effort. If you help them plan how to study this particular material independently it might make the tutoring more effective.
It's hard to provide more specific help without knowing the type of course, type of content, type of student, etc.
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uh man. I just only finished high school and taking my final exams of my life, if this thread exist earlier I maybe would have better results during school days :p
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another good read. as a longtime high school tutor (8 years on and off), onetime summer teacher, and soon to be university TA, I definitely appreciate all the work you've put into trying to explain all the nuances and complexities of teaching.
i'm hoping you can provide more specific examples of how you've accomplished some of the things you discuss. in particular, the "not winging it" part about making sure you plan your visual examples and explanations--can you give an example of how you prepared a particular lesson? i often am caught by surprise by some of the questions my students ask me (which is a good thing, of course), but as a result I find myself putting together an explanation on the fly. just wondering what your prep strategy is for those explanations.
i'm also curious about how you pick up on student needs and generally how you're putting yourself in their shoes--what is your mindset, what cues are you watching for? I try my best to pay attention, but I guess I've been spoiled by one-on-one tutoring, so it's hard for me to track more than a few students' understanding of and response to the lesson at once. currently, I just ask the class, and usually there's a few vocal enough to help me figure out how certain students of certain levels are doing, but i'm certainly missing a lot of information. i'm hoping you have some tips or advice for me here, i'm going from one-on-one tutoring to a class of 30 students in about two months.
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On November 30 2012 18:22 6xFPCs wrote: i'm hoping you can provide more specific examples of how you've accomplished some of the things you discuss. in particular, the "not winging it" part about making sure you plan your visual examples and explanations--can you give an example of how you prepared a particular lesson? Any time you have planned ahead of time to show students something, you want to have it saved/printed/whatever, decide exactly when you are going to show it, decide what questions you plan to ask or statements you plan to make as you show the thing (picture, animation, video, diagram, whatever), and think about how it might be confusing. I'll try to give an example at the end of the post.
i often am caught by surprise by some of the questions my students ask me (which is a good thing, of course), but as a result I find myself putting together an explanation on the fly. just wondering what your prep strategy is for those explanations. If the question is something you didn't anticipate, then there isn't much you can to prepare except generally be more knowledgeable on the content/equipment/etc. As you gain more experience teaching this class/topic, the questions will catch you by surprise less. One thing you probably already know but should keep in mind is that it's okay to not have an answer to a question... when you are completely caught off guard, you can simply say as much and promise you will get back to them next time. For example, if they ask why apparatus A has to be on its side, you might be thinking "wow, you know, I'm actually not sure about that." You can just say "Good question; I'm not sure, but I will find out." There's no need to spend 10 minutes trying to think about it and explain it right then and there if it's going to be a problem. Next class after you've looked into it you can start by saying "Last time <student x> had a good question about why we need apparatus A to be on its side. What forces is the sample exposed to with the way we had the equipment set up last class?" From there, you can use whatever your normal teaching methods are to have the student help you answer the question instead of just answering it for them. If the question really isn't relevant to what students are learning though, then feel free to skip over this process and just give a brief answer (as a time saver).
i'm also curious about how you pick up on student needs and generally how you're putting yourself in their shoes--what is your mindset, what cues are you watching for? I try my best to pay attention, but I guess I've been spoiled by one-on-one tutoring, so it's hard for me to track more than a few students' understanding of and response to the lesson at once. currently, I just ask the class, and usually there's a few vocal enough to help me figure out how certain students of certain levels are doing, but i'm certainly missing a lot of information. i'm hoping you have some tips or advice for me here, i'm going from one-on-one tutoring to a class of 30 students in about two months. A few things I do, before I have started to teach the class, that help:
- I inspect the planned content/activities (often before the course has even begun) to see exactly what students will need to learn, and what information/observations they will have access to in order to learn this material. From this I can tell what prior knowledge generally is necessary to succeed, and what I will probably need to supplement (or at least check) even though it's not technically in my job description for this class.
- I plan how I am going to assess prior knowledge, again, before class has ever started. I look into what classes the students have already taken, if possible, or other information about them that is available. For example, if I am going to be teaching physics 2, I look at the curriculum physics 1 and find out about how physics 1 went last semester, who taught it, etc. From this I might even be able to find out where the students are strong/weak, or that the previous teacher completely skipped topic X due to time constraints and had neglected to tell me this.
- I mistake I see instructors make a lot is to decide to ask a question to check for understanding, see that the class is clearly confused since nobody is willing to try to answer, and everyone has a face like you are speaking another language, then (s)he panics and tries to explain the current topic over and over and it sorta spirals out of control. In this type of situation you have a couple of choices. If the students are relatively mature (especially college) you can just poll the class for things like "how confusing is this part compared to what we've done before" and "which is the last thing we did that made a good deal of sense so far" and just find out what the source of the confusion is (it might take a good deal of effort to illicit out of students why they are confused, but it is worth it). Another option is to mention that you will revisit the current topic, move on, and carefully plan outside of class how to address the problem you faced today (it's much easier to think about what went 'wrong' when you aren't standing at the front of a class). Obviously you can't always get away with this if the next thing to teach follows strongly on the part the students are still confused about.
Dealing with a larger class (of 30) of course poses challenges that you don't get used to tutoring 1 on 1. It's harder to keep track of each student's progress and needs, so you need to rely more on data. What I mean is, you need to give tasks for students to attempt that you can review outside of class. Only an expert teacher (and even then not necessarily) can tell at the end of a lesson how each student was doing, but if the end of the lesson featured a short assignment that was carefully designed to check for understanding (not an easy task either), you can grade it and use the grades as a brief indicator of which students are comfortable with the lesson.
As promised, let me try to explain how I would prepare a visual/demo when teaching an actual lesson. Suppose I was teaching a mechanics (physics) class and we had covered one dimensional motion, and inclined planes already. I then find out I will have access to the following apparatus next class:
This is a great tool for thinking about how forces in different directions affect motion, and how velocity and acceleration differ. It can also be a great motivational tool in that it makes the activity into a 'game/competition.' Some classes/students will appreciate this more than others. You might want to read the description on this page if you aren't familiar with this device: http://www.physics.umd.edu/lecdem/services/demos/demosc2/c2-11.htm
In the situation I described, some instructors would say "Oh good, I'll do that at the beginning of the class now that students have learned about inclined planes. Let me start planning the next topic." This means that they have failed to plan how they are going to use the visual/device. In contrast, I would address the following:
- Would the device be visible as students come in, or would I whip the device out at some point after?
- What would I say/do to introduce it and explain what exactly it is that I'm asking students to do?
- How do I want students to provide their predictions for which marble will reach the end of the track first, as well as their explanation for why?
- After I run the device, how do I ensure students understand the result? How does this help them think more scientifically the next time they are posed with a scenario with more than one possible outcome?
- How do I even explain the result? I need to prepare this as I prepare to teach any other theoretical topic.
For the activity I've laid out, here's how I might do the lesson:
- The device would be prominently displayed on the desk as students enter the room. The marbles would be secretly in my pocket so students don't start playing with it (you'd be surprised how even adults will do this lol)
- When students asked me about it I would ask them what they thought. They would guess what the point of it is. If they are getting warm I will admit they are right and subtly congratulate them.
- Once class is started I would ask a student (probably one who already showed they knew the answer) what the purpose of the track is. I would confirm this, add anything that may have been left out or worded confusingly by the student, and then ask students to start thinking about which marble will reach the end first.
- Depending on the class, I might ask them to write a couple of sentences explaining why one marble will reach the end first, or why both will reach at the same time. Time permitting I might let students discuss their result with another student.
- When I'm satisfied, or have to move on, I run the experiment, and give students a moment to process what the heck actually happened.
- I would ask students to explain, based on what they observed, why we had the result we did. Most likely by now I kinda have to 'move on,' so a point will be reached where I will supplement their explanations with my own, however this isn't necessarily required if I have enough time to dedicate to the activity. Most likely my explanation would involve drawing a free body diagram (force diagram) for the ball on the lower track, so I should try drawing it before I teach the lesson to make sure I know how I want it to look.
I think I hit upon a lot of important points there, but of course no lesson goes exactly the way you plan. One class will seem to understand why the lower track is quicker, while another class might not believe you even after you show it to them! In cases like these involving cool/fun demos you need to be flexible as much as possible.
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As a veteran math teacher that's taught in high school and college, and a teacher mentor that's mentored beginning teachers, I'd like to say your article was so good.
I'm glad you make a point to give general best practices in your original post. Especially in teaching, it is so easy to be distracted from the core fundamentals and start going into detailed "what if..."'s that distract. What you've said lines up with the best practices I've been trained in and see working in my classes.
And, I think you are so correct that most of it is common sense. This is precisely why so many don't improve as teachers. They "know" the common sense things to do, but they don't do them.
Anyways, your article served as a good reminder for me to stop and think about how I've been teaching Thank you!
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Wow, just wow. Very nice article, I've been teaching martial arts for 10+ years now and it's the most rewarding and difficult thing i can imagine. Personally your second point of 'put yourself in their shoes' is the biggest point for me. Clarity is definitely important, but I teach a variety from 5 to 75 years old. People far smartest then I could ever hope to be and special needs students. Everything from ADHD to autism. All of your points are very useful, and hard to remember/implement all at once even thought they are common sense. I find that I can always use some improvement and this article has reminded me that it is up to the teacher to get through to the students.
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My experiences that involve doing a good job teaching basically come down to explaining everything without missing ANY logic steps along the way. I think most of the time a work or logic step is not clear and leads to a huge amount of confusion. This means that the teacher needs to be well versed in every argument or logic step in the whole process. Generally when I am explaining something i try my hardest to keep this in mind: The listener is completely ignorant of any process you are talking about so be sure to start from the very beginning and dont skip anything.
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good article, i make a lot of homework help myself and for me it is always very important, that my "students" learn the results by themselves, i really like the Concept of the Master learner, i think i will try it out next time when i do homework help.
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Great post. I feel you covered the basics in a great way.
The only thing i would add is the method of going from very simple real life applications to apstract models. Motivation is a big factor in learning and teaching in public schools can be difficult. If a child gets the feeling that it is unable to understand the matter it is very hard to get them back on track and no matter how good your presentations and animations are, the child will not follow.
In combination with clarity and helping kids not feel bad about answering wrong, i feel it is the key to successful learning.
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This is an amazing guide. I particularly like the emphasis on trying to understand the position of the learner because I think that's the right mindset to actually figure out what you need to do when teaching and it emphasizes advance planning, which is great.
I do have one quibble. I've personally never had difficulty remembering something after a teacher wrote it down on a chalkboard and I put it in my notes. So if a teacher ever did something like try to get me to figure out the dates of World War II as in your example (assuming I don't have access to wikipedia at that moment) I would be extremely annoyed. I think it would be different if you were trying to explain the annexation of Czechoslovakia followed by the invasion of Poland and the outbreak of World War and trying to get the students to understand the flow of events. But I think teachers should differentiate between the important and the banal. History teachers wasting everyone's time figuring out dates they could have written down in 3 seconds (or better yet, on a timeline printed out before class and available to each student) is an example of poor teaching imo.
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Loving these knowhow guides
If it wouldn't be too much trouble, I think a lot of us would be extremely interested additionally in a guide on how to learn more effectively as well hehe. Strategies to better understanding/long-term comprehension based on your experience that kind of stuff. Thanks for doing these <3
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Thanks to all of your for providing the feedback and nice comments.
On December 01 2012 01:00 arcHoniC wrote: My experiences that involve doing a good job teaching basically come down to explaining everything without missing ANY logic steps along the way. I think most of the time a work or logic step is not clear and leads to a huge amount of confusion. This means that the teacher needs to be well versed in every argument or logic step in the whole process. Generally when I am explaining something i try my hardest to keep this in mind: The listener is completely ignorant of any process you are talking about so be sure to start from the very beginning and dont skip anything. Haha, yes! As a student I always find skipping over logical/mathematical steps creates confusion! It's worth spending a bit of extra time to keep the progression of a lesson clear, in my opinion.
On December 01 2012 04:09 s.a.y wrote: Great post. I feel you covered the basics in a great way.
The only thing i would add is the method of going from very simple real life applications to apstract models. Motivation is a big factor in learning and teaching in public schools can be difficult. If a child gets the feeling that it is unable to understand the matter it is very hard to get them back on track and no matter how good your presentations and animations are, the child will not follow.
In combination with clarity and helping kids not feel bad about answering wrong, i feel it is the key to successful learning.
Yes, and motivation plays such a huge role. I can definitely emphasize that, although I actually think this subtopic is deserving of its own guide and discussion. There's so much to go into regarding how to link learning new things to applications, and how to make both learning and assessment authentic. I'm definitely giving thought to anything else I might write in the future that addresses these great suggestions.
On December 01 2012 05:11 Anarion55 wrote: I do have one quibble. I've personally never had difficulty remembering something after a teacher wrote it down on a chalkboard and I put it in my notes. So if a teacher ever did something like try to get me to figure out the dates of World War II as in your example (assuming I don't have access to wikipedia at that moment) I would be extremely annoyed. I think it would be different if you were trying to explain the annexation of Czechoslovakia followed by the invasion of Poland and the outbreak of World War and trying to get the students to understand the flow of events. But I think teachers should differentiate between the important and the banal. History teachers wasting everyone's time figuring out dates they could have written down in 3 seconds (or better yet, on a timeline printed out before class and available to each student) is an example of poor teaching imo. You make a great point. Giving students a printed timeline is a perfectly valid way of accomplishing what I was going for... I don't mean to imply that every fact in class requires legitimate independent research... that would be unrealistic.
As for separating the important from the banal: I do think dates tend to get overemphasized in history classes, for the most part. However, I think the years of World War II are important to know, unlike many other dates in American History (approaching this from the perspective of my country, of course). How to get every student to remember these years is tricky; what worked for you won't work for everyone, most likely. This is where you really need to judge your students; if I had a class full of you, I would probably be best off doing exactly what you suggested.
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Well I wrote this a couple of months prior, but nice coincidence anyway. I enjoyed reading your essay, by the way.
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Thanks for this! I'm a university freshman and applying to be a computer science TA next quarter. I found this to be a great read and I wonder if you have any more tips to give
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On December 02 2012 03:43 writer22816 wrote:Thanks for this! I'm a university freshman and applying to be a computer science TA next quarter. I found this to be a great read and I wonder if you have any more tips to give Are you going to be a grader, or actually instructing a class? I was a TA while an undergraduate which made for some interesting experiences.
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On December 02 2012 03:45 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On December 02 2012 03:43 writer22816 wrote:Thanks for this! I'm a university freshman and applying to be a computer science TA next quarter. I found this to be a great read and I wonder if you have any more tips to give Are you going to be a grader, or actually instructing a class? I was a TA while an undergraduate which made for some interesting experiences.
If I am accepted, then I will be teaching section once a week for 1 hour/week and grading homework assignments, midterms and finals.
I thought your point about teaching vs explaining to be particularly acute. I had never thought of it before like that, but I do think it's nice to let students try to figure things out with occasional guidance rather than just going full-on lecture mode. I do think that I am pretty good at explaining things though.
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Quite amazing to see the in-depth articles that you've been writing here related to teaching. Keep up the great work!
I'm currently in my fourth year teaching Math at an inner-city school in Louisville, KY and I do love it. It's a labor of love and the job isn't easy, especially considering the fact that when it comes to Math, it's a subject that students have a strong view positively or negatively of the subject. You have your set of students who love math or think that they are naturally talented at Math, then you have your students who hate math or think that math is impossible or that there is no way to be good at it.
It's interesting as well as there is a huge push for more inquiry based learning in Mathematics which I think is great if you have the right set of students and the right level of motivation but for the students I have it just turns them off.
Inquiry based learning is essentially the idea of having students solve problems in groups using prior knowledge and prior ideas to learn something new. The way that is traditionally done with the math curriculum we have is that a series of problems are given to the students and they are then asked to work together to figure out what's going on without your more traditional formal lectures. Notes are given in the book which are intended to be a guide to review prior topics, etc..
However, for more of my students who don't have a strong set of basics, inquiry based learning can just frustrate students and with a subject like Math, a frustrated student will turn it off.
It's pretty interesting with the set up that we have going at our school. We teach Algebra 2 double blocked with two teachers. This implies that we have our students for 90 minutes every day, and the students rotate back and forth between my partnering teaching and myself. We each do the same lesson each day and we are constantly talking to see how things are going. We generally set up the lessons with notes at the beginning, then a short lecture(generally no more then 15 minutes, 30 minutes top) and then the rest of the time is given to the students to practice the work with a worksheet/extra problems, etc.. thus giving the students as much time as possible to work together to figure out the math at hand and to ask questions. We've noticed that the students seem to react much better when they see how to approach a topic on a given day by breaking it down step by step and then building confidence through their practice. I've always told my students that I will never skip steps and will always write out every step because skipping steps leads to possible mistakes and also makes it harder for us to understand where a student went wrong. I don't know how many times I have heard this year from students who have said that "Math was like a fog before this year." To me, a lot of this fog comes in the curriculum of this "Discovery Based Learning" or what they call Inquiry based learning.
The other team does a very strict inquiry based approach. The teachers do a tiny lecture at the beginning implying what problems need to be done and then the students work in groups to figure out a series of more complicated problems without a ton of guidance. Questions are asked and the response given from the teacher is often another question or the infamous reply: "ask your group members." The student then goes back to their group where they don't know where to go and they shut off, get frustrated and ultimately get turned off from the math and then use group work as a social avenue.
Again, teaching is all stylistic and you need to develop a style that you feel comfortable with. Ultimately as well, as a teacher you're constantly analyzing your craft and constantly working on finding ways to improve it. So therefore, I think this is a logical segue, especially in an article like this.
To me, the inquiry based problems shouldn't be used as the sole means of teaching a curriculum. They are wonderful supplements to help build on knowledge and to build on key concepts. However, if a kid can't solve a two step equation in Algebra, how can you possibly expect a kid to all of a sudden read a word problem and solve a system of equations? It's an interesting issue with the curriculum(CPM) that they have set up.. we've had "master teachers" come in and tell us that they don't lecture at all, just let the lessons go. In my opinion, you need to know the basics first and this more inquiry based approach that many schools are going to, in my view just frustrate your mid to lower level learners. You need to have a more balanced approach to make this work.
So, after all of that.. I'm just curious to hear what others think. What do we think overall of the inquiry based approach of learning? I know if you're a high school/middle school teacher, you're dealing with this in some way either through Connected Math, Inquiry based problems in Science, etc..
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On December 02 2012 10:42 SpaceDominator wrote: So, after all of that.. I'm just curious to hear what others think. What do we think overall of the inquiry based approach of learning? I know if you're a high school/middle school teacher, you're dealing with this in some way either through Connected Math, Inquiry based problems in Science, etc.. This is one of those areas where there are many conflicting schools of thought, as I alluded to in the OP.
My personal take (with regard to classroom teaching) seems similar to yours in that inquiry needs to be in your arsenal, but it shouldn't be the sole driving factor in your teaching. Ideally everything would be inquiry, but classes/lessons are some of the furthest things from an ideal environment. Too often there are problems like you described where teachers hide behind the potential merits of inquiry, and kids don't learn and get turned off. To actually incorporate inquiry into a lesson well is very difficult, and depends on the class.
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I think this is a great article. I like teaching because it a great way to reaffirm how well you know material. I will try my best to apply some of these things while I am teaching. Even though I will never be able to work as a teacher, I don't mind doing it from time to time to give back to the community.
I would also be interested in a possible math/physics/engineering based approach to teaching. A big thing that I have noticed is that there are quite a few people who want to work in the sustainable energy field but they lack the necessary fundamentals of engineering to do it through an engineering approach. One thing I would actually like to be able to do is condense the necessary theory about thermodynamics to be able to be understood by your average not-hard science major in college, so that this could then be applied to the energy conservation industry.
Also, I have noticed that during demonstrations (in Physics) I always have trouble taking the "experiment" in real life, and understanding what equations and why the professor is putting them on the board. Any recommendations on how I could remedy this as a teacher?
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Thanks! I'm a University sophomore who's going to be teaching "computer science" to middle school kids next semester. I'll make sure to take all these things into account.
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This is a blessing, that you so much.
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Beautiful post! I absolutely support a comprehensive teaching style that engages the learner actively. Passive learning needs to go! It's especially not compatible with modern day realities of active-participation media.
You probably already know of McLuhan. He talked about how television media is going to change learning by books. And now we're in the age of internet with people creating works and engaging online.
<3
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On December 03 2012 11:28 plogamer wrote: Beautiful post! I absolutely support a comprehensive teaching style that engages the learner actively. Passive learning needs to go! It's especially not compatible with modern day realities of active-participation media.
You probably already know of McLuhan. He talked about how television media is going to change learning by books. And now we're in the age of internet with people creating works and engaging online.
<3
Imagine captcha with information questions, where you first have to deduce the question and then provide a knowledge answer. Wonder how much more educated people would get.
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teaching is an art which u basically said yourself, i dunno why people are tryiong to get worked up.
these are good tips but in the end some people have what it takes to be a grest teacher and some dont. rarely does it have anything to do with learning howto teach.
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I am in no way a teacher, but i regularly learn people things widely varying. You can think about training people at my job, giving one of my sisters advice on school work or music. Things like that. That said, i am taking those things seriously, in the sense that i try my best to teach in the best possible way.
My experiences are very similar to what you've described here. Especially the parts about being clear, not implying too many things and assuming certain knowledge are painfully familiar.
I teach people mostly in 1 on 1 situations. Sometimes for a longer period of time (few weeks; that's long for me ). In those cases i notice it is very beneficial to come back to the points you were trying to make as well as actively taking responsibility for communicational issues. That way slowly but surely a coherent picture of what you try to say is forming. Most of the times i learn things myself as well, which makes teaching all the more awesome.
Again, i am a very inexperienced teacher; even calling myself a teacher feels a bit arrogant (can't really find the right word). I really hope what i said sounds familiar, if even a little bit.
All in all, a great post! It certainly helped me, either in phrasing what i knew (?) or giving new insights.
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Good work! And really easy to understand!
Identifying misconceptions: As you can point out the problem off not beeing able to 'unlearn' thinks and fall back into old habbits, are you able to give a solution on what would be the best way to deal with the problem, besides reviewing new knowledge constantly?
Also, i thought a lot about this problem, as i'm facing it myself. But i never thought that this is a common problem. Therefore i have to thank you!
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On December 03 2012 00:41 dannystarcraft wrote: Also, I have noticed that during demonstrations (in Physics) I always have trouble taking the "experiment" in real life, and understanding what equations and why the professor is putting them on the board. Any recommendations on how I could remedy this as a teacher? I don't understand what you mean by taking the experiment in real life. As to the problem of students not understanding what equations and why the professor is putting them, a few ideas I have:
1) If you are using an equation from a previous part of the course, or from a previous course, be specific about where it is from (physics 103, chapter 2, whatever), and review the origin of it if necessary. Of course, it can be difficult to tell if it is necessary to review it or not. If I was teaching graduate physics students and wanted to calculate the average speed of an object, I can assume they know to divide the distance by the time. If I was going to utilize the equation for the Magnetization of a 2-state paramagnet, I might want to double-check if students remember the key aspects of the formula, and where it comes from. It's a combination of using your judgment and 'polling' your students to determine when a prior formula can or can't be used, or what preparation is required to reintroduce it. There comes a point where you can't afford to spend time reviewing, I realize.
2) Ask questions. Why am I using this formula? Why can't I use that other formula? Questions not only check to see if someone knows, but reiterates these points for everyone else who is listening (hopefully all students).
On December 06 2012 07:21 Striker.superfreunde wrote: Identifying misconceptions: As you can point out the problem off not beeing able to 'unlearn' thinks and fall back into old habbits, are you able to give a solution on what would be the best way to deal with the problem, besides reviewing new knowledge constantly? The best thing I can think of as the learner is to be cognizant of these problems. Understand clearly what your prior misconception was and why it was a misconception. As the teacher you will want to help students achieve this.
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Thanks! I will work on it! But i guess the most situations can't be trained, they have to happen in someway.
Anyway, your stuff looks quite promissing!
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Wow this has helped me immensely, micronesia you are my god!
Ive taught young children in an early years setting all my career (1-7 yr olds) and recently moved over to sri lanka where me and my wife took the decision to teach english and basic IT skills as private tutors (english as a second language, so still pretty basic stuff) up to a high school level (In fact we're helping a friend of the family with A-level revision next week too) and to be honest i feel a little over my head - even though going through all the necessary information seems easy enough, i wasn't sure on how to actually deliver the lessons and structure them well enough for our students to understand. This article has helped me straighten out a few things.
Thanks a lot for writing this chap!
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Thank you very much for the great read. As a professional guitar player, teacher and professional student (music and philosophy at university, computer programming at college atm.), I couldn't agree with you more. I've put a lot of effort in my teaching as there is a big difference in being a musician and being a teacher. Whenever you start teaching you take up a new specialization that is as important as your bread and butter passion/trade/area of expertise. Without proper teaching methods, you just can't pass the message through. The most important things I learnt as a teacher is that is takes good will, empathy, proper teaching methods and a mastery of the subject matter taught, to vulgarize greatly the art of teaching.
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I tutor in high school also. Thank you, this will come in handy.
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The amount of work you put into this is actually amazing. I actually tutor some high school students, and this will help me a lot! I'll forward this to other tutors I know and spread the word!
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This was a good read A lot of this stuff I definitely remember knowing is important as a student
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As someone that's godawful at teaching but still has to do it pretty often;, this was a helpful guide, thanks <3
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I think many people in this thread are rubbed the wrong way b/c it does not deal specifically with the issues of classroom management and dealing with students that are difficult due to their behavior, learning issues, or general attitude towards school/teachers/authority. I would say that though these issues in reality are inextricably linked to "teaching", there is still much to be gained about thinking of "teaching" in the more abstract and pure sense, in one where there is no question as to the general attitude or willingness to participate of the student. It provides a way to examine the fundamental goals and obstacles that we are dealing with. Perhaps someone should write an article on classroom management or student motivation?
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By the way, I'm not sure many people caught your title, but it's amazing LOL.
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On January 14 2013 14:57 sdecker32 wrote: I think many people in this thread are rubbed the wrong way b/c it does not deal specifically with the issues of classroom management and dealing with students that are difficult due to their behavior, learning issues, or general attitude towards school/teachers/authority. I would say that though these issues in reality are inextricably linked to "teaching", there is still much to be gained about thinking of "teaching" in the more abstract and pure sense, in one where there is no question as to the general attitude or willingness to participate of the student. It provides a way to examine the fundamental goals and obstacles that we are dealing with. Perhaps someone should write an article on classroom management or student motivation? It would be difficult to write an article on that topic that would be appropriate in the knowhow section. It is too controversial, and there are too many different perspectives.
On January 20 2013 12:31 ZERG_RUSSIAN wrote: By the way, I'm not sure many people caught your title, but it's amazing LOL. I didn't write it XD
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great read.
this exetly points out why i hate some of my teachers teaching, becouse they basicly yust do the opposite of whats in this guide roflXD
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Very good read. Although I'm not a teacher, but as a computer technician, it is quite useful to have teaching skills to help customers out.
I follow my own points such as:
1) put myself in their shoes 2) explaining concept in simple english, avoid jargon. Aim > Process > Result 3) apply pictures if possible or at least visualisation 4) don't sidetrack 5) write it down/type it up
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any teacher can do an awesome job given motivated students. They basically can self teach the materials. For any student, motivated or not, It is more important to teach them how to acquire new knowledge by using new subjects as example on how to learn. That way you are teaching them how to fish instead of giving them the fish, so they can use that skill to learn what ever they want later on in their life.
It doesn't matter how well a teacher can articulate the lesson, if the students aren't motivated it or down right disruptive there will be very little learning to be done. Student management in essence is to help as many students as possible at the best of the teacher's ability, do whatever it takes, bribe them, make a deal with parents if nothing else works. in then end if nothing works for a kid, then clearly the teacher have done everything it can be done, it's time to spent efforts on other students.
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On February 23 2013 09:16 rei wrote: any teacher can do an awesome job given motivated students. They basically can self teach the materials. For any student, motivated or not, It is more important to teach them how to acquire new knowledge by using new subjects as example on how to learn. That way you are teaching them how to fish instead of giving them the fish, so they can use that skill to learn what ever they want later on in their life.
It doesn't matter how well a teacher can articulate the lesson, if the students aren't motivated it or down right disruptive there will be very little learning to be done. Student management in essence is to help as many students as possible at the best of the teacher's ability, do whatever it takes, bribe them, make a deal with parents if nothing else works. in then end if nothing works for a kid, then clearly the teacher have done everything it can be done, it's time to spent efforts on other students.
Current political and social pressure does not align with this view. Communities are demanding that teachers do more to engage their students. Creating interesting lessons is part of being a teacher. At this stage in my career I feel like the job is 90% planning. If you plan well, most of the other elements fall into place.
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I've been reading and using this advice since shortly after it was written, and I want to pause to say thank you. I've been tutoring in my free afternoons/evenings for roughly 7 years. The principal students are high school students in very poorly staffed public high schools. I focus on the math and science subjects and have a reputation for explaining things clearly, but I didn't know before now how much was accident and how much was not helping.
It took me a couple years of tutoring to realize your point of giving students time to process. This is particularly true if they just throw out the first thing that comes into their heads with the expectation that you will give the "correct answer" right after. I don't overreact and give encouraging responses if they address me. The second thing that helped me was the visualization point. I started out giving probably the worst first-brush diagrams to my students on concepts. Unit circle, quadratic equation solving, asymptotes and everything. I have a good memory and stocked up on the ones that just confused students and the ones that very clearly illustrated the point. You helped me realize that no on-the-fly visualization is a good idea; only think it through for some minutes apart from the lesson before settling on the introductory visual.
If you have more stuff to dispense in this series, by all means keep it going! I really liked this one! ~Engineer, Amateur Educator
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