I am a person of few words who does not like to ramble on about things so I like to get straight to the point.
I was a little confused about the concepts between Teacher A, B, and C and I really couldn't tell much difference between B and C. I know a lot over other students blogged about their experiences in those teaching methods during K-12, however, for me that was 10 years ago and I could not recall the methods my teachers used. It seems most people use methods were they want you to memorize the information and remember it for test, but according to this book that isn't the most efficient method. According to this book a person should know more than just facts and memorizing data to become experts. Patterns and chunks seem to be the key.
Part of me has to wonder while it's important for us to know how to become better learners why must be all think like experts? I think we (society) tries to hard to be perfect and fix everything by making people be "the best they can be," yet, isn't it our imperfections that make us unique. I know, a little off topic but at the same time this textbook makes me consider these thoughts. It is a relieve to know that there isn't one perfect way of learning/teaching--too much pressure.
I think Teacher C was supposed to be superior because (s)he let the students have some creative control in their project. The students were excited enough about the subject that they wanted to take the project in a new direction, and the teacher allowed it. (S)He is ensuring that the subject matter will stick with the students for longer, and that they will have a deeper understanding.
ReplyDeleteIt's like that real-life example of the teacher who asked students to imagine and write about what it would be like to be in Hamlet's place before he even mentioned Hamlet or Shakespeare. Doing things like that makes the students get more involved in their education.
-Caitlin W.
The way I understood the expert/novice thinker dichotomy was that experts approach problems with a different mindset and pay attention to different things than do novices. It isn't that we expect all students to be experts at everything (after all, we are not giving them the 10,000 classroom hours on any one topic to become experts!) but that in helping them see the big picture, think creatively, and identify important information earlier, we as teachers could better equip them to be effective learners and problem solvers.
ReplyDelete-Carmen P.
I had my mental red pen poised when I read about Teachers A, B, and C. I didn't feel that the anecdotes did a clear enough job delineating the differences/relative values of each.
ReplyDelete