I greatly enjoyed the first meeting of Psych ED 401. I felt the overall dynamic between the students and the teacher and student to student was good. The part of the new material that I found to be the most interesting was the discussion between the three main styles of teaching. These include: 1. Expository - This is the traditional method of teaching. The teacher lectures about new material, students take notes and ask questions and then the students practice the new material. 2. Interactive and Collaborative - In this method of teaching the instructor generally does not lecture for extend periods of time. Instead, students work together in order to achieve understanding and share knowledge. 3. Discovery and Inquiry - In this method students use their background knowledge in order to discover answers to previously unattainable questions and most importantly, ask question of their own and then develop strategies to answer them.
There was quite a bit of buzz after we were introduced to these ideas and we broke off into small groups for discussion. Our task was to, "Pick the teaching strategy that you think is the most effective." Surprisingly, or perhaps no so, nearly every group said, "All of them!" Having taught high school math for the last two and a half years I starting thinking about the really good lessons I have taught and also about the great ones I have seen others teach. They all had one thing in common. Namely, that they used all three types of teaching methods.
My burning questions are these:
1. How can we as teachers effectively implement all three teaching methods more often?
2. What percentage of each style should be taught in order to achieve the best results?
3. Does this percentage vary from subject to subject and if so, how could we go about evaluating this?
You pose some interesting questions, Aaron. As someone who has a strong interest in research, my first response is to say that we should set up some studies and find out. However, I find it unlikely that findings in this area would not produce consistent or satisfactory results. Certainly some subjects lend themselves to some styles over others, for example art caters to discovery while spelling is often fairly rote and expository. However, in the classroom, we face another variable that is nearly impossible to nail down: the students. The mix of students who you find in your classroom will be constantly changing and confounding any sure results you get. I think this is why teachers need to be versed in multiple styles and have as many tools in their tool box as possible. We need to be deliberate in our approach and consider how each lesson should be structured before moving on. You may have noticed the small adjustments that I have made to the lessons and what I have chosen to focus on or not focus on. This is a definite reaction to our community. I would hate to think that I ever taught the exact same lesson twice!
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