While dissecting the various sources and cases to uncover the how the author or "source" thinks that people learn and how the develop competency, it is inevitable that a preservice teacher would find ideas that they agree with, or ideas and practices that they despise. To come up with an individual idea of how people learn and how they develop competency in the subject area, a preservice teacher must reflect on how they learn, as well as how others learn, and what would provide them with assurance that their learners had become competent in the area. This combination of methodology and assessment allows a teacher to ensure that students are learning factual information, as well as formulating their own ideas and theories, which is important in a "good teacher".
If an educator has positive, "correct" ideas on how people learn, that apply to the general population of learners, then it is possible to educate learners and have them develop competency in the specific area, as well as skills that can cross disciplines.
If a teacher employs a wide variety of learning activities throughout the daily lesson, then students will become engaged and involved in the lesson because by varying the activities, the teacher can access different methods of learning and be more effective in imparting information to the students.
JP,
ReplyDeleteExplain what you mean by an educator's idea about learning being "correct". Is there one correct definition of learning? Are you talking about moral correctness? More details please.
GNA
In the context of what I said, I'd say that I was speaking subjectively, and really meant my own "correct", meaning that an educator uses various approaches aimed at the most common, most effective ways of learning. This doesn't preclude any "outliers" in the group of students, where it is important to figure out if any particular students do not respond to the "majority" approach to learning and to work with them in other ways. I guess it was really just about the correct way for the individual students.
ReplyDeleteJP,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your use of, and understanding, that teaching the majority of students using a variety of instructional strategies is a good choice and then taking time to attend to the outliers with specific attention.
How would you approach outliers who are on the top side of content knowledge? Those kids who get done with their work quickly, always exceed expectations, etc.?
GNA
Outliers that are above the majority of students are almost more of a challenge. Its not as if you can just let them sit idly by while you work with other students, but you also can't single them out for persecution and ostracization by labeling them as "nerds". I think these type of students would benefit from some type of self-directed project that would occupy their spare time in the classroom.
ReplyDelete