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Teaching Methods
Teaching is extraordinarily important, complex, and demanding work, and a teacher's workday consists of making hundreds of decisions that promote high-level student learning. The work is and should be daunting. Grounded and concise, this first edition text provides readers with theory-based practices that will illuminate the art and craft of teaching. Through specific examples and sound theories that help teachers build successful classrooms, "Teaching Methods "presents instruction as a complex profession requiring high-level cogitative work from each teacher. The book successfully synthesizes theories, observations, and research into practical guidelines for instructional planning focused on the emerging needs of the 21st Century. Part 1 describes the foundations of educational practice: what we know about important learning, and how that learning is assessed, how students learn, and how they are motivated to work hard and engage in high-level learning. The theoretical grounding of high-level teaching, from developmental psychology, cognition, and curriculum and assessment planning, are presented in simple, but not simplistic, language. Part 2 translates the principles of Part 1 into specific guidelines for instructional planning. It outlines how the big ideas of student learning and cognition may be converted into setting instructional outcomes, developing assessments, and designing learning experiences to promote high-level learning for students. Part 3 addresses teaching responsibilities beyond the classroom, from grading student performance to communicating with families and participating in a professional community.
192 pages, Paperback
First published September 25, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 6, 2013
This may have been the best book that I've read in pursuit of my master's degree.
It's recommendable for all teachers, whether you're taking grad classes or not.
The book is clear, concise, and free from the teachery-jargon that plagues so many M.Ed. books. Also, it's highly academic, but it's also free from the jargon of academia. I especially liked chapter 3: "What We Know About Student Learning."
Some thoughts:
"It's not, then, that teachers must motivate students to learn; they are already intensely motivated. The challenge is to channel children's natural energies toward productive ends, toward conceptual understanding of important content, toward the acquisition of lifelong skills."
The sections on Behaviorism and Constructivism were particularly enlightening. "In schools following a behaviorist tradition, learning was thought to consist of instructing students so that they could provide the correct response (answer) to a stimulus (question). The students' minds were not thought to be "actors" in this process; rather, they were empty vessels to be filled. Along similar lines, teachers were not considered to be active players, but rather conveyors of information. Thus, scripted lessons and "teacher-proof" materials could be developed by experts and provided to teachers for implementation."
On Constructivism: "What is known does not consist of a response to a stimulus, manifested in behavior, but that which is understood or constructed by the individual. ...Understanding, from a constructivist perspective consists not of the repetition of facts and procedures, but the application of knowledge from one situation to another that is unfamiliar."
As I've maintained, one of the difficulties teaching today is in light of the fact that, "Of the two views of learning (Behaviorist and Constructivist), the weight of research in cognition has, in the past several decades, decisively swung to the Constructivist perspective..." teachers are still forced to teach to tests based on Behaviorist theory. Those tests often drive the curriculum, and as such, they are holding the curriculum back. Ultimately, I try to do what is best for my students, and I'm lucky to work under an administration that understands a lot of the silliness teachers are forced to work around.
Again, it's a great book. A lot on motivation, cognitive and ed theory, assessment. A quality read.
It's recommendable for all teachers, whether you're taking grad classes or not.
The book is clear, concise, and free from the teachery-jargon that plagues so many M.Ed. books. Also, it's highly academic, but it's also free from the jargon of academia. I especially liked chapter 3: "What We Know About Student Learning."
Some thoughts:
"It's not, then, that teachers must motivate students to learn; they are already intensely motivated. The challenge is to channel children's natural energies toward productive ends, toward conceptual understanding of important content, toward the acquisition of lifelong skills."
The sections on Behaviorism and Constructivism were particularly enlightening. "In schools following a behaviorist tradition, learning was thought to consist of instructing students so that they could provide the correct response (answer) to a stimulus (question). The students' minds were not thought to be "actors" in this process; rather, they were empty vessels to be filled. Along similar lines, teachers were not considered to be active players, but rather conveyors of information. Thus, scripted lessons and "teacher-proof" materials could be developed by experts and provided to teachers for implementation."
On Constructivism: "What is known does not consist of a response to a stimulus, manifested in behavior, but that which is understood or constructed by the individual. ...Understanding, from a constructivist perspective consists not of the repetition of facts and procedures, but the application of knowledge from one situation to another that is unfamiliar."
As I've maintained, one of the difficulties teaching today is in light of the fact that, "Of the two views of learning (Behaviorist and Constructivist), the weight of research in cognition has, in the past several decades, decisively swung to the Constructivist perspective..." teachers are still forced to teach to tests based on Behaviorist theory. Those tests often drive the curriculum, and as such, they are holding the curriculum back. Ultimately, I try to do what is best for my students, and I'm lucky to work under an administration that understands a lot of the silliness teachers are forced to work around.
Again, it's a great book. A lot on motivation, cognitive and ed theory, assessment. A quality read.
April 18, 2010
Good overview of the research and philosophy surrounding teaching
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews