Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach
This blog chronicles a teacher’s experience instructing upper-grade students about the things she learned, taught, and valued during her teaching adventures.
The fundamental psychology is that students who believe their teachers genuinely care about them as individuals and are willing to address their needs and concerns perform better in class.
Furthermore, an instructor who is sure that her students are paying attention will teach effectively. Thus, for efficient teaching and learning to occur, both the teacher and the students must share responsibilities equally.
Learning is a social process. Academic performance is enhanced when students build a sense of community with their peers and teachers and take responsibility for classroom activities. We are all aware that change is never instantaneous.
Being an effective teacher entails a long-term battle to convince students that your class objectives are rational and worth investigating.
It is important to remember that a teacher cannot control every aspect of the environment, the school, or even the class.
“Finger-pointing” is ineffective.
Universities place the blame on secondary schools. Teachers in high school place the blame on middle school teachers. Middle school educators place the blame for elementary school educators. Teachers in elementary schools place the blame on preschools and parents. Parents point the finger at schools and teachers.
Rather than blaming one another for what has failed, one must seek out and implement ideas and practices that will make a difference.
How to make this difference?
As stated previously, this can only be accomplished through the collaboration of teachers and students.
A teacher can make this distinction by identifying a pupil’s learning potential and bits of intelligence. She should bend in order to teach by taking into account all of their bits of intelligence.
By effective Teaching: Effective teaching is the result of preparation, effort, knowledge, insight, and a positive attitude on the instructor’s part.
Additionally, it encompasses broad issues pertaining to the teaching process, such as respect, preparation, time management, and voice control.
Dialogues that a teacher should avoid saying in front of a class
“My time is far too precious. I will not spend it preparing for my Algebra lecture. I am so intelligent that I can enter a classroom and wing it. Additionally, students will benefit from witnessing a mathematician think quickly.” It is true that the majority of us can walk into a room and mostly wing it. However, the majority of us will fail miserably if we do so.
On one of the first days, after the lecture had concluded, a student raised his hand timidly and posed a question. “This is the most ridiculous question I have ever heard in my life.” This will lock the student.
“We don’t have time to address all of your concerns; these types of questions will not be asked during the exam.”This will disincentivize the student from posing questions.
The other tedious aspect is that students will be required to write down all of the points that the teacher dictates in class. Otherwise, students will be dismissed from class.
Alternatively, the student can be asked to jot down all pertinent points. This will increase the number of time students is engaged in class. Thus, they will develop doubts and discuss them with their teacher or peers.
A single page of notes containing the key points and also briefly listing your motivating ideas is a good idea.
Over preparation, on the other hand, can actually diminish the effectiveness of a lecture or class. The teacher, on the other hand, must be knowledgeable and approachable. One cannot overstate the importance of preparation if one wishes to deliver an engaging class. However, the more preparation one does, the more spontaneity one loses.
You must strike a balance between being able to “talk things through” with your audience and knowing the material thoroughly.
According to my own experience, each type of course requires a “reasonable amount” of preparation. I want to be confident that I will not make an error during the lecture, and that I will be approachable if I do. However, as I present the ideas, I want to be actively thinking them through.
I want to have the impression that my lecture or class is cutting-edge. It is possible to over-prepare.
Continuing to prepare after you have sufficiently prepared is akin to hitting yourself in the head with a hammer because stopping feels so good.
One must be confident enough to field questions on the spot, to adapt your lecture (again on the spot) to changing circumstances, and to tolerate a diversion to address a raised point.
A teacher should always attempt to convey to her students that she is more than willing to devote time to any question or concern and is not in a hurry. That she is sincere in her desire to address their concerns and thoughts.
The ability to perform these tasks competently is largely a function of experience. However, one can cultivate this ability as well.
The ability to play the piano cannot be acquired by chance. And one does not acquire the capacity for effective teaching by chance.
A teacher must possess the knowledge necessary to design activities that are appropriate for the students’ abilities. As is well known, a class can contain individuals.
For instance, if a teacher is creating a quiz activity, she should take into account the students’ performance.
If a class has 30 students, the quiz activity must contain 30 questions (assuming that each child is assessed by one question). Thus, if the questions are extremely difficult to answer, they will demonstrate only the teacher’s performance, while the student’s performance is required.
And if all the questions are easily prepared, the class will be noisy, the students will perform well, but the management will believe the teacher performed poorly due to a lack of class control. And the teacher will lose her job after a few days.
As a result, the teacher should keep track of each student’s performance and tailor the questionnaire accordingly.
As a result, Teaching to Learn and Learning to Teach become synonymous.
