Notes on Teaching delivers utterly relevant guidance, lucid explanatory commentary, and helpful examples that will help anyone become a better teacher .
Table of contents
- Communication and Effective Teaching
- What is teaching? A definition and discussion
- Top 4 Tools Your Students Need to Really Understand What They Read
- Communication and Effective Teaching
- Communication
Luckily, we can draw on a range of things to support us in our efforts — video clips, web resources, textbooks, activities. It is inevitable that we will be called to teach in areas where we have limited knowledge. One of the fascinating and comforting things research shows is that what appears to count most for learning is our ability as educators and pedagogues. A good understanding of, and passion for, a subject area; good resources to draw upon; and the capacity to engage people in learning yields good results. It is difficult to find evidence that great expertise in the subject matter makes a significant difference within a lot of schooling Hattie On the other hand, it can be used to generate enthusiasm and interest; to make links; and inform decisions about what to teach and when.
Having a concern for learning — and, in particular, seeking to create environments where people develop as and, can be, self-directed learners — is one of the key features here. At the centre of teaching lies enthusiasm and a commitment to, and expertise in, the process of engaging people in learning.
Communication and Effective Teaching
This is how John Hattie He was part of the shift in psychology in the s and early s towards the study of people as active processors of knowledge, as discoverers of new understandings and possibilities. People, as they develop, must take on and build representations of their experiences and the world around them. Representations being the way in which information and knowledge are held and encoded in our memories. An idea, or concept is generally encountered several times. At first it is likely to be in a concrete and simple way. As understanding develops, it is likely to encountered and in greater depth and complexity.
Crudely, it means simplifying complex information where necessary, and then revisiting it to build understanding David Kolb talked in a similar way about experiential learning. Basically, it entails creating a framework, and offering structured support, that encourages and allows learners to develop particular understandings, skills and attitudes. The final element — making specific interventions — concerns the process of taking defined and targeted action in a situation.
In other words, as well as having a clear focus, we try to work in ways that facilitate that focus. Thinking about teaching as a process of making specific interventions is helpful, I think, because it:. Focuses on the different actions we take. As we saw in the definition, interventions commonly take the form of questioning, listening, giving information, explaining some phenomenon, demonstrating a skill or process, testing understanding and capacity, and facilitating learning activities such as note taking, discussion, assignment writing, simulations and practice.
Makes us look at how we move from one way of working or communicating to another. Interventions often involve shifting a conversation or discussion onto a different track or changing the process or activity. It may well be accompanied by a change in mood and pace e.
The process of moving from one way of working — or way of communicating — to another is far from straightforward. It calls upon us to develop and deepen our practice. Highlights the more formal character of teaching. Interventions are planned, focused and tied to objectives or intentions. Teaching also often entails using quizzes and tests to see whether planned outcomes have been met. The feel and character of teaching moments are different to many other processes that informal educators, pedagogues and specialist educators use.
Those processes, like conversation, playing a game and walking with people are usually more free-flowing and unpredictable. Teaching, however, is not a simple step-by-step process e. We may well start with an intervention which then provides us with data. In addition, learners might not always get the points straightaway or see what we are trying to help them learn. They may be able to take on what is being taught — but it might take time. As a result, how well we have done is often unlikely to show up in the results of any tests or in assessments made in the session or lesson.
What is teaching? A definition and discussion
Earlier, we saw that relatively little attention had been given to defining the essential nature of teaching in recent years in the UK and North America. This has contributed to confusion around the term and a major undervaluing of other forms of facilitating learning. The same cannot be said in a number of continental European countries where there is a much stronger appreciation of the different forms education takes.
Reflecting on these traditions helps us to better understand teaching as a particular process — and to recognize that it is fundamentally concerned with didactics rather than pedagogy.
Top 4 Tools Your Students Need to Really Understand What They Read
Children were often put in their charge at around 7 years and remained with them until late adolescence. As such pedagogues played a major part in their lives — helping them to recognize what was wrong and right, learn how to behave in different situations, and to appreciate how they and those around them might flourish.
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- Faith and The Future.
- The Beaten Path?
- Notes on Teaching: A Short Guide to an Essential Skill?
He was more important than the schoolmaster, because the latter only taught a boy his letters, but the paidagogos taught him how to behave, a much more important matter in the eyes of his parents. The schoolmaster had no such close contact with his pupils. The distinction between teachers and pedagogues, instruction and guidance, and education for school or life was a feature of discussions around education for many centuries. It was still around when Immanuel Kant explored education. Education includes the nurture of the child and, as it grows, its culture.
The latter is firstly negative, consisting of discipline; that is, merely the correcting of faults. Secondly, culture is positive, consisting of instruction and guidance and thus forming part of education. Guidance means directing the pupil in putting into practice what he has been taught. Hence the difference between a private teacher who merely instructs, and a tutor or governor who guides and directs his pupil.
The one trains for school only, the other for life. Didactics — certainly within German traditions — can be approached as Allgemeine Didaktik general didactics or as Fachdidaktik subject didactics. Probably, the most helpful ways of translating didaktik is as the study of the teaching-learning process. It involves researching and theorizing the process and developing practice see Kansanen The overwhelming focus within the didaktik tradition is upon the teaching-learning process in schools, colleges and university. Within this tradition fields like informal education, youth work, community development, art therapy, playwork and child care are approached as forms of pedagogy.
Indeed, in countries like Germany and Denmark, a relatively large number of people are employed as pedagogues or social pedagogues. While these pedagogues teach, much of their activity is conversationally, rather than curriculum, -based. Within this what comes to the fore is a focus on flourishing and of the significance of the person of the pedagogue Smith and Smith In addition, three elements stand out about the processes of the current generation of specialist pedagogues. First, they are heirs to the ancient Greek process of accompanying and fostering learning.
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Second, their pedagogy involves a significant amount of helping and caring for. Indeed, for many of those concerned with social pedagogy it is a place where care and education meet — one is not somehow less than the other Cameron and Moss In other words, they animate, care and educate ACE.
Woven into those processes are theories and beliefs that we also need to attend to see Alexander We can see from this discussion that when English language commentators talk of pedagogy as the art and science of teaching they are mistaken. As Hamilton has pointed out teaching in schools is properly approached in the main as didactics — the study of teaching-learning processes.
Pedagogy is something very different. It may include didactic elements but for the most part it is concerned with animation, caring and education see what is education?
Communication and Effective Teaching
Within schools there may be specialist educators and practitioners that do this but they are usually not qualified school teachers. Instead they hold other professional qualifications, for example in pedagogy, social work, youth work and community education. Pedagogues teach, for example, but from within a worldview or haltung that is often radically different to school teachers. Some of the teaching we do can be planned in advance because the people involved know that they will be attending a session, event or lesson where learning particular skills, topics or feelings is the focus.
Some teaching arises as a response to a question, issue or situation. However, both are dependent on us:. Scaffolding learning — providing people with temporary support so that they deepen and develop their understanding and skills and grow as independent learners. Differentiating learning — adjusting the way we teach and approach subjects so that we can meet the needs of diverse learners. Teachers — certainly those in most formal settings like schools — have to follow a curriculum. They have to teach specified areas in a particular sequence. As a result, there are always going to be individuals who are not ready for that learning.
Having a sense of their needs and capacities we can respond with the right things at the right time.
Informal educators, animators and pedagogues work differently for a lot of the time. The direction they take is often not set by a syllabus or curriculum. Instead, they listen for, and observe what might be going on for the people they are working with. They have an idea of what might make for well-being and development and can apply it to the experiences and situations that are being revealed. They look out for moments when they can intervene to highlight an issue, give information, and encourage reflection and learning.
One of his interests as an educationalist was the way in which certain things have to be learned in order for people to develop. When the timing is right, the ability to learn a particular task will be possible. It is important to keep in mind that unless the time is right, learning will not occur. There are times of special sensitivity when learning is possible. We have to look out for them, to help create environments that can create or stimulate such moments, be ready to respond, and draw on the right resources. The main thing here is that teaching, like other parts of our work, is about relationship.
We have to think about our relationships with those we are supposed to be teaching and about the relationships they have with each other. Creating an environment where people can work with each other, cooperate and learning is essential. It is not surprising then, that on the whole cooperative learning is more effective that either competitive learning where students compete to meet a goal or individualistic learning Hattie As teachers, we need to be appreciated as someone who can draw out learning; cares about what people are feeling, experiencing and need; and breathe life to situations.
This entails what Carl Rogers in Kirschenbaum and Henderson This involves caring for learners, but in a non-possessive way and recognizing they have worth in their own right. It entails trusting in capacity of others to learn, make judgements and change. In practical terms this means we talk to people, not at them. We seek to connect and understand. We trust in their capacity to learn and change. We know that how we say things is often more important than what we say. Scaffolding entails providing people with temporary support so that they deepen and develop their understanding and skills — and develop as independent learners.
Like physical scaffolding, the supportive strategies are incrementally removed when they are no longer needed, and the teacher gradually shifts more responsibility over the learning process to the student. This is a good time to teach some transition words of time or of addition. An important concept related to summarizing is changing the summary significantly from the original. Model changing the grammar and vocabulary of the sentences, and have the student help with this as much as they can. This is a good way to help expand their vocabularies.
The teacher can refer back to the Titanic example at this point as needed: Or would you use different words that mean about the same thing? Teach the language of summaries. Put any needed final touches on the summary, such as an overarching idea to lead with.
Communication
Also teach concluding sentences that restate the main idea. Give out another short reading selection. Have students work on reading and marking the selection and then writing their summaries by themselves this time or in pairs. It might be helpful at this point to instruct students to first do the reading and marking, and then close the reading, and without referring to it, tell their partner what it was about.
The partner can take notes on the retelling, and then they can compare it to the original, making adjustments, such as adding missed main points or deleting details. However, it is a skill worth the time and effort as students will use it throughout their academic careers and the benefits it provides in reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. If you enjoyed this article, please help spread it by clicking one of those sharing buttons below.
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How to Teach Summary Writing. Get the Entire BusyTeacher Library:. We have seen how we can improve the overhead projector transparencies we use, if we write them carefully. The same is true of the handouts that almost all teachers prepare for their students. What is a handout? It is not a photocopy of a journal article, or of some pages out of a textbook.
It may be a summary of important points to be learnt; or a guide to students on work they have to do, or references they have to look up. Teachers may use handouts for students to refer to during a lesson, and students will definitely use them in their self-study time. Because handouts are such an important way of communicating with students, they must communicate effectively. These days many teaching institutions have websites where teachers put their handouts for the students to find. It doesn't matter whether the handout is on paper or on a website - it still needs to be well written.
All health workers need to communicate well, if they are to do their work well. Unfortunately, many are never taught how to do this. Teachers of health workers, therefore, also have to teach their students to be better communicators. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Journal List Community Eye Health v. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Open in a separate window.