I've had many
opportunities to teach throughout my life. I have also had countless
opportunities to be taught. I feel fairly qualified in my ability to
determine an effective teacher for me vs. an ineffective teacher. I know the
types of teachers that I connect with and I can almost instantly know if my
time spent learning will be tedious or enjoyable. But other than my own
personal feelings about the type of teaching style motivates me to learn,
what is the more general idea of a good teacher. I've been told over and over
again throughout my college career that good teaching is more about the way a
student learns than it is about how one teaches. So how does one individual
teacher, teach a classroom of students that all learn differently? In
reading about the different approaches to teaching, I am no closer to
determining a general description of an effective teacher for all students
universally.
These are the
three (general) approaches to teaching I've been familiarizing myself with:
• The Executive: To me this style of
teaching reminds me of my fourth grade teacher. He was the
"authority" on all things that 9-year-olds should know. He
always came to class wearing a tie and suit jacket. Class always started on
time and we worked according to a pre-set schedule. I don't remember it
exactly, but I do remember that there was a time for math, a time for science,
a time for reading and so on. It felt very structured. Time in class was
filled with lectures and handouts and assignments. Homework was assigned everyday
and collected on time the next day. Most of the teachers in my elementary
years, approached the classroom setting in this way.
• The Facilitator: If I had to pick one to
teach me, this guy would be the one. This approach to teaching finds ways
of connecting to his students on a more meaningful and relevant level than just
stating the facts from a textbook. By attaching student experiences to
the topic, this type of instruction captures the learner and instantly makes
learning more personal. Because this approach focuses on the student, the
teacher also comes across as having a personal relationship with each of his
students in which he believes they have great potential and can succeed in
whatever environment they are in.
• The Liberationist: When I try to picture the
type of teacher that takes this approach, I again go to stereotypes. I
believe that Robin Williams portrayed this type of teaching method in the film Dead
Poet's Society. Here was a teacher that encouraged the students to
think for themselves and to explore all the possibilities, rather than just
accept the common. This approach teaches in "questions" and
expects the answers to be discussed and debated. His job is to open up the
minds of the students to allow them to explore the answers not written in the
books.
I don't think that
anyone way is the absolute "right" way to teach. In fact, I'm pretty
sure that there is a need for all of them and sometimes they need to be
combined and mixed together. My most effective teacher didn't follow a set
pattern or rule for teaching. He had qualities and traits and methods that were
pulled from each of the above approaches. I think that the best approach is a
personal collection of the teacher's experiences and then she must evaluate the
students she is teaching and if need be adapt to meet the needs of the
individual learning styles. There is not just three approaches to
teaching... I would argue that the number of approaches to teaching are
infinite.
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