I am going to be a bit brash and give a quick and dirty formula to use to bypass all the courses and advice people get about teaching.
This formula appears foolproof, but it is not easy to do what's best for students when using it or any other tool in ever-growing bag of teaching tricks. So in this sense, the formula is not exactly foolproof. The formula is practical, however, and at the same time powerful. It will help disclose learning such that students can acquire, practice, and demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Here goes, and I am addressing those who wish to build better and better ways of teaching, and especially learning. A visual aid for this discussion is the attached model for teaching where the focus at the center is student learning and success in accomplishment.
First, before we get into the details, know these rules of thumb.
1. Stating what you want a learner to learn and demonstrate is the key. If you are not clear about this, s/he might end up learning somewhere else. S/he will work on and try to give you evidence of something other than what is the reasoned aim.
2. A learning activity is one that best helps the learner acquire, practice, and demonstrate a worthwhile aim or objective. The challenge and creativity that is good teaching, or tutoring, is to find or design that best, most effective activity. Why should teachers or students bother spending time with anything else?
It is clear from these rules that the business of learning can be wild and exciting, a journey with a desired end and reward when concluded. Teachers and students can have a good and interesting time together on the path to discovery and competence.
What these rules of thumb also clearly show is that the primary learning activity that the student need not always face is a teacher talking.
Where does this developmental or discovery process begin for teachers and students? I will talk about the teacher perspective on these matters first.
Subjects to learn have aims, large and small, and their reasons for being. In chemistry you need to know and be able to use the periodic chart of elements because without this, nothing can come together in nature or the lab. Plus incompetent use of what is available can blow up in your face. Kind of gross generalizations, but you get the idea.
Large aims are goals. Smaller aims are objectives--statements about specifically what is to be learned or demonstrated and how. Here is a goal--to appreciate and be sensitive to the differences among us. This might be a goal for a Cultural Studies course. An objective: to be able to paraphrase what another person has said to that person's satisfaction. Note both the behavior and the measure in the objective. Another slightly higher level objective might be to be able to use Maslow's hierarchy of needs to explain the presence or absence of art in publicly financed homeless shelters. Each of these objectives, the lower and slightly higher, are not particularly difficult, but they depend, of course, on other objectives. For example, knowledge objectives having to do with paraphrasing and Maslow's hierarchy.
Should the second objective be met? A bit strange or unique, perhaps. This is to say that the teacher has to be careful and strategic in setting objectives. And in turn teaching demands that learning activities and their objectives need to have reasons, good ones both in terms of the subject or field of study and in terms of what students can and should be able to do.
Given pretty good learning objectives, two questions then face the teacher.
1. Can students meet the objectives already?
2. How will you know?
The terms in the formula or model are assessment and evaluation. Assessment is where is the student now in a possible series of learning steps to meeting an objective. Evaluation is a judgment about sufficient evidence indicating that the objective has been met. Sometimes teachers prepare measures, like tests, to help see where a student is and whether or not s/he is finished. These are sometimes called pre- and post-tests. Pre-tests are informative and guide learning. Post-tests are, at least they are supposed to be, decisive. The student knows or can do this.
A teacher helping students learn, practice, and demonstrate needs to, well, help. One way of helping is to give information about progress. As students work with a subject, say in acquiring information or evaluating knowledge, teachers need to give feedback indicating yes or no, you are progressing or not. Feedback is ideally non-evaluative, however, in the sense that this is information to guide learning, not to say whether or not or how much s/he has.
A teacher's job, up to this point with specific reference to the formula, is not much about what we usually think of as teaching behavior. There are aims or goals, objectives, rationales, assessments and evaluation, and feedback. Pretty methodical or formulaic stuff.
It is not true that if a teacher does all these things students will learn. It is also not true that if the teacher selects or designs student learning activities and the resources to support that learning that students will learn.
But it is the enterprise of education and schools and teachers (and training) to facilitate, that is to make easy the acquisition of knowledge and skills. At least it is that, sometimes more than that. The basic idea is that learning will more likely occur if the teacher does these things with students. And education, schools, and teachers have a legitimate role to play if their expectations for learning and how to learn are more clear than not.
Well, now for the fun part. What can the student do that will most likely and effectively and efficiently help him or her achieve worthwhile educational objectives? Here is the real challenge and the source of creative joy in teaching. Given a learning objective, assessments, etc., the teacher, and sometimes students themselves, select or design whatever it takes as learning activities to enable or demonstrate proficiency. It's best if these activities are challenging, fun, engaging, age appropriate, suitable for particular learning styles. There are probably other criteria for great and appropriate learning activities, but here again you (should) get the idea.
This is the core of what we usually think of as teaching. But realize one thing. Teaching here is not teacher behavior or teacher activities but what the learner can experience to develop his or her own competence, often cognitive in formal educational settings, but not exclusively so. (Skills training, for example, can have their origins in psychomotor or kinesthetic domains.) This then, plus all the above parts of the model, shows the teacher as manager or coordinator or facilitator of learning. Pretty simple, huh?
Well no, not really. But this formula or model abstracts the key aspects of what needs to be in place for leaning to happen beyond the likelihood of chance.
Does chance or serendipity or an unanticipated learning outcome happen in schools and classrooms or in self study? Yes, and they should. We cannot specify in advance all the good and appropriate learning that can take place while we are in relationship with students. Nor should we. If education is to bring out the genius that we all have already inside us, going back to the root of the word educate, then institutionalized education, that which is planned and documented, is only part of what it means where and when you can learn. There is always more and something else that we learn in, say, school--in addition to what the course descriptions and other official documents about learning say.
For example, one of the best traditional students I have had recently said, "I can't wait till school starts again. I miss all the people and the things we do together." Seems like this student hasn't read the university catalog or the course requirements. He is here for apparently different reasons than many teachers and educational programs wish to promote.
Which brings up the part I haven't addressed yet, the all-important student's perspective. Students, realize that whether your teacher makes it clear or not, you are being processed in the education factory along the lines of the model presented here. If and when things are not going according to this outline, raise your hand and question and start to discuss what is going on. You are at the center of the enterprise. If you are not, you need to take charge of your learning such that you get as much as you can out of this great and good thing called school. It's your education.
Realize at the same time that even though the model looks like a formula and should work most of the time, the actors are human, and in this, like planned an unplanned learning experiences, anything can happen. And that is the best education you can have, the planned along with the unplanned.
In summary, whether you are a student or teacher or a student of teaching, when you are asked to supply or experience a learning activity, ask. Does this experience have a high likelihood that it will lead to acquiring, practicing, or demonstrating a worthwhile learning aim? and will it be fun, interesting, and/or challenging such that learning will last beyond any tests or exams? If the signs are Go, such learning and an education is not foolish and will prove useful, rich with better and better stuff--to learn.
Approx. 1500 words
Originally posted on June 22, 2006. This revised version is dated 23 June, 2009.
This formula appears foolproof, but it is not easy to do what's best for students when using it or any other tool in ever-growing bag of teaching tricks. So in this sense, the formula is not exactly foolproof. The formula is practical, however, and at the same time powerful. It will help disclose learning such that students can acquire, practice, and demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Here goes, and I am addressing those who wish to build better and better ways of teaching, and especially learning. A visual aid for this discussion is the attached model for teaching where the focus at the center is student learning and success in accomplishment.
First, before we get into the details, know these rules of thumb.
1. Stating what you want a learner to learn and demonstrate is the key. If you are not clear about this, s/he might end up learning somewhere else. S/he will work on and try to give you evidence of something other than what is the reasoned aim.
2. A learning activity is one that best helps the learner acquire, practice, and demonstrate a worthwhile aim or objective. The challenge and creativity that is good teaching, or tutoring, is to find or design that best, most effective activity. Why should teachers or students bother spending time with anything else?
It is clear from these rules that the business of learning can be wild and exciting, a journey with a desired end and reward when concluded. Teachers and students can have a good and interesting time together on the path to discovery and competence.
What these rules of thumb also clearly show is that the primary learning activity that the student need not always face is a teacher talking.
Where does this developmental or discovery process begin for teachers and students? I will talk about the teacher perspective on these matters first.
Subjects to learn have aims, large and small, and their reasons for being. In chemistry you need to know and be able to use the periodic chart of elements because without this, nothing can come together in nature or the lab. Plus incompetent use of what is available can blow up in your face. Kind of gross generalizations, but you get the idea.
Large aims are goals. Smaller aims are objectives--statements about specifically what is to be learned or demonstrated and how. Here is a goal--to appreciate and be sensitive to the differences among us. This might be a goal for a Cultural Studies course. An objective: to be able to paraphrase what another person has said to that person's satisfaction. Note both the behavior and the measure in the objective. Another slightly higher level objective might be to be able to use Maslow's hierarchy of needs to explain the presence or absence of art in publicly financed homeless shelters. Each of these objectives, the lower and slightly higher, are not particularly difficult, but they depend, of course, on other objectives. For example, knowledge objectives having to do with paraphrasing and Maslow's hierarchy.
Should the second objective be met? A bit strange or unique, perhaps. This is to say that the teacher has to be careful and strategic in setting objectives. And in turn teaching demands that learning activities and their objectives need to have reasons, good ones both in terms of the subject or field of study and in terms of what students can and should be able to do.
Given pretty good learning objectives, two questions then face the teacher.
1. Can students meet the objectives already?
2. How will you know?
The terms in the formula or model are assessment and evaluation. Assessment is where is the student now in a possible series of learning steps to meeting an objective. Evaluation is a judgment about sufficient evidence indicating that the objective has been met. Sometimes teachers prepare measures, like tests, to help see where a student is and whether or not s/he is finished. These are sometimes called pre- and post-tests. Pre-tests are informative and guide learning. Post-tests are, at least they are supposed to be, decisive. The student knows or can do this.
A teacher helping students learn, practice, and demonstrate needs to, well, help. One way of helping is to give information about progress. As students work with a subject, say in acquiring information or evaluating knowledge, teachers need to give feedback indicating yes or no, you are progressing or not. Feedback is ideally non-evaluative, however, in the sense that this is information to guide learning, not to say whether or not or how much s/he has.
A teacher's job, up to this point with specific reference to the formula, is not much about what we usually think of as teaching behavior. There are aims or goals, objectives, rationales, assessments and evaluation, and feedback. Pretty methodical or formulaic stuff.
It is not true that if a teacher does all these things students will learn. It is also not true that if the teacher selects or designs student learning activities and the resources to support that learning that students will learn.
But it is the enterprise of education and schools and teachers (and training) to facilitate, that is to make easy the acquisition of knowledge and skills. At least it is that, sometimes more than that. The basic idea is that learning will more likely occur if the teacher does these things with students. And education, schools, and teachers have a legitimate role to play if their expectations for learning and how to learn are more clear than not.
Well, now for the fun part. What can the student do that will most likely and effectively and efficiently help him or her achieve worthwhile educational objectives? Here is the real challenge and the source of creative joy in teaching. Given a learning objective, assessments, etc., the teacher, and sometimes students themselves, select or design whatever it takes as learning activities to enable or demonstrate proficiency. It's best if these activities are challenging, fun, engaging, age appropriate, suitable for particular learning styles. There are probably other criteria for great and appropriate learning activities, but here again you (should) get the idea.
This is the core of what we usually think of as teaching. But realize one thing. Teaching here is not teacher behavior or teacher activities but what the learner can experience to develop his or her own competence, often cognitive in formal educational settings, but not exclusively so. (Skills training, for example, can have their origins in psychomotor or kinesthetic domains.) This then, plus all the above parts of the model, shows the teacher as manager or coordinator or facilitator of learning. Pretty simple, huh?
Well no, not really. But this formula or model abstracts the key aspects of what needs to be in place for leaning to happen beyond the likelihood of chance.
Does chance or serendipity or an unanticipated learning outcome happen in schools and classrooms or in self study? Yes, and they should. We cannot specify in advance all the good and appropriate learning that can take place while we are in relationship with students. Nor should we. If education is to bring out the genius that we all have already inside us, going back to the root of the word educate, then institutionalized education, that which is planned and documented, is only part of what it means where and when you can learn. There is always more and something else that we learn in, say, school--in addition to what the course descriptions and other official documents about learning say.
For example, one of the best traditional students I have had recently said, "I can't wait till school starts again. I miss all the people and the things we do together." Seems like this student hasn't read the university catalog or the course requirements. He is here for apparently different reasons than many teachers and educational programs wish to promote.
Which brings up the part I haven't addressed yet, the all-important student's perspective. Students, realize that whether your teacher makes it clear or not, you are being processed in the education factory along the lines of the model presented here. If and when things are not going according to this outline, raise your hand and question and start to discuss what is going on. You are at the center of the enterprise. If you are not, you need to take charge of your learning such that you get as much as you can out of this great and good thing called school. It's your education.
Realize at the same time that even though the model looks like a formula and should work most of the time, the actors are human, and in this, like planned an unplanned learning experiences, anything can happen. And that is the best education you can have, the planned along with the unplanned.
In summary, whether you are a student or teacher or a student of teaching, when you are asked to supply or experience a learning activity, ask. Does this experience have a high likelihood that it will lead to acquiring, practicing, or demonstrating a worthwhile learning aim? and will it be fun, interesting, and/or challenging such that learning will last beyond any tests or exams? If the signs are Go, such learning and an education is not foolish and will prove useful, rich with better and better stuff--to learn.
Approx. 1500 words
Originally posted on June 22, 2006. This revised version is dated 23 June, 2009.
