One of my favorite parts in You Gotta BE the Book was the part about teacher researching. I feel it is very important for teachers to pay attention to their students. I feel like a good teacher is concerned about their students, and will do anything they can to make sure they are learning. I liked how it said teachers should be on the lookout, and almost studying their students to find out what they are feeling. For example if a student is understanding the material, if a student is upset, if a student is refusing to do homework, etc. I feel like these components are all things that can effect a student's education, and it is the teacher's job to try to help the student's if they are struggling like this. Any teacher can go in, teach the material, and leave. It takes a special teacher to care about their student's success on a deeper level.
I think this research is also important to understand how to teach the class. If more students are hands on learners, then the teacher should try to incorporate a lot of hands on activities. If there are more students in the class that are visual learners, then the teacher should prepare presentations with a lot of pictures and videos. I feel like it would even be helpful if the teacher prepared a few different options for activities to accomadate different learning styles based on what they have observed from their students. I know from personal experience that being taught in a way that is not reflective of your learning style is not beneficial and makes learning very difficult. I have a professor that only shows slides with words for 2 1/2 hours and only reads what is on the sides, and it is honestly torture. I am a visual and hands on learner, so I feel I do not learn until I go home and study myself because all I can think about is how bored I am.
This is a link to a website that shows some strategies for different learning styles:
http://ectutoring.com/resources/articles/learning-style-important
Amanda, I can distinctly remember some college classes that were just like what you described...too many slide shows with no real learning. Fortunately, as you're going into teaching, you've already had the opportunity to think about what is effective in a classroom and what is not, and you're correct that it often depends on the students you want to reach. In higher ed, some of the instructors don't think about engagement as a component of learning, but students who are not engaged (interested, paying attention, entertained, involved) struggle to learn.
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