I have not taught any class yet, but I have heard lots of stories about teaching since my grandmother and my mother are both teachers. My grandmother used to be a mathematics teacher in a middle school. The school had requirements for each teacher such like the average score of the class should reach 85. And math is such an important subject because all kinds of high school have this subject in their admission exam and everyone tried to gain a higher score. My grandmother was a very harsh teacher and always gave many assignments. She complained that some students were lack of motivation especially those who had poor performances. She found that hard to raise their interests and made them involved in the learning process. My mother is a music teacher in another middle school. I would say music class would get more active interactions with students because it’s a more “fun” subject than math. My mother arranged some of the classes to get students share the music they liked. These classes were the most popular part because all the students feel involved. In order to make the classes more fun, my grandmother adopted the method like my mother used to get students share some puzzles regarding specific chapter. Students got very excited about this procedure and lots of discussion were occurred after the share meeting.
In Professor Fowler’s article, he/she mentioned: Always engage with your students; do not do something “to” them, or “for” them, or “at” them”. I think this is a key factor that every teacher should pay attention to. Teachers may always consider how to get their voice be heard in the class and neglect that the students also prefer to be heard. It is not very different to prepare a syllabus and the slides for lecture. The challenging part is to give the class in an interesting and efficient way.
I also find the tips mentioned in Professor Fowler’s article very helpful, especially the performance of teaching part. It may be helpful to consider myself as a student and consider what I want to obtain from a class. Teachers always want their voice be heard in the class and require students to make notes about each key learning point. On the other hand, students also want their voices be hear. If teachers could handle it better, the learning process would be far more fun!
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I really like your example of your grandmother learning from your mother to make her class more exciting and engaging for students. Thanks for sharing!
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— In Professor Fowler’s article, he/she mentioned: Always engage with your students; do not do something “to” them, or “for” them, or “at” them”. —
Exactly. I’m glad you picked up on this notion.
I see it a bit like chewing food. Some things in life can only be done by the recipient — you can’t do it for them. Or, at least, you can’t do it for them well.
The secret to teaching is only the student can do it for the student.
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These are very powerful examples you provide, Chang. I am heartened that your grandmother was willing to observe your mother’s method and try it herself. That has also been a way that I have expanded my teaching practice: to find good teaching examples and follow their lead. I feel like this is both easier to do as a college professor – in that you have more time to seek out and observe others’ teaching methods – and more difficult because so many college level educators have so little formal exposure to pedagogy and method. At least in K-12 there are often opportunities to meet mentor teachers and work with them, if you so choose, although there is not a whole lot of time to do so.
There is are several theories that help to understand human behavior and learning. Here are two that may help construct a philosophy about teaching that is student-centered:
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: helps one to realize how significant basic human security is to being able to learn, and what motivates one to reach beyond a particular level.
(note: Maslow believed that each level (bottom up) needed to be satisfied before the next one could be achieved)
Bloom’s Taxonomy: provides a framework for eliciting more engaged understanding, response and product from students based on what is asked of them.
Self-determination theory: humans are innately primed to learn if they feel a sense of Autonomy (freedom to learn in their own way), Competence (know how to learn and what is relevant), and Relatedness (feel as if they ‘belong’ or are contributing in some way).
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I feel if the subject matters too! Like your mother’s and grandmother’s experience. Almost everyone likes music (though perhaps different types of music), but only a few people will like math at the very beginning! Besides trying to feed students what knowledge in the way they want, I think let them feel a sense of achieve is the key. After all, no one wants to do something that he/she cannot get recognized or good comments! A little bit encouragement really goes a long way! That’s my belief! I like your examples!! Thanks for sharing 😀
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Some students can be introvert, and hence it can be difficult to let them express the problem during the class. Solving the issue in a face-to-face setting after the class is the best solution. I always feel that office hours is a great way to enhance the teacher-student bond since one-to-one experience can be a little bit more private, and students are more willingly to talk. I really appreciate that nowadays school and university are offering all kinds of opportunities to facilitate the student-centered learning, since every feedback is valuable in the learning process.
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I really enjoyed reading your post! And I really appreciated the examples that you provided of your mother’s and grandmother’s experiences. What cool examples! As you think about your own teaching voice in a classroom, how might you teach a class in an interesting way and how might you encourage students’ voices to be heard?
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As someone who is in mathematics, I appreciate teachers like your grandmother. So many people have told me that the reason they don’t like math is because of a bad teacher from when they were young. Because it started young, they’ve carried the dislike their entire life. Sometimes I feel like it’s hard to be interactive in STEM but from your grandmother’s experience, it looks like it just takes a little creative thinking and inspiration from other fields!
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I totally agree that a student’s voice needs to be more prominent in the classroom! Even students who are shy and don’t often participate would likely enjoy a class more if they had some element of their voice heard. As we’ve read in other weeks, lectures aren’t always bad, but sometimes interactive activities aren’t that much better if student interest isn’t heard. Your mother’s music class sounds like a fun time, and it’s really cool that your grandmother got to learn from her!
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