“Real learning requires doing, not listening, or observing only. Yet what do we find in every public school and university? Teachers talking, talking and talking while students listen, daydream and doze. We call this lecture.” That is a segment from the article below and it really hits home with me because I know that I learn best by doing, if you give me a project where I need to research and carry out some kind of experiment, etc., I will retain that knowledge for the rest of my life because I earned it, it wasn’t just given to me. Alternatively, if you just stand at the front of the room and tell me that rockets fly due to propulsion and then go onto explain the details, I might be able to regurgitate the information on a test but it will soon be forgotten. The article below talks about this in more detail and I feel is a valuable read for any teacher.
This posting was originally posted by Edutopia and can be found HERE:
In a conversation on LinkedIn, one person asked, “What are the characteristics of an effective teacher?” I read quite a few excellent remarks that describe what such a teacher does to be effective. I couldn’t help thinking about some of my best teachers.
I had an amazing psychology professor in college. He was on fire every class period and his enthusiasm was contagious. But the things I remember most are the psychological experiments in which we participated. I remember every detail and the supporting theories because I experienced it.
My psychology professor was an effective teacher because he provided experiences that created long-term memories. In response to the LinkedIn comments, I penned the following:
“I appreciate all of the comments that have been made so far. Yet I feel there is one thing still missing. One characteristic of an effective teacher is that they …