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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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EPT
