Elements of Effective Teaching

Effective teaching is a reflective, never-ending process.  Educators are expected to refine their practice through feedback, assessment, evidence-based strategies, and continuous professional development.  My teaching philosophy implies beliefs about my role as an instructor and the responsibilities of students.  My philosophy influences which teaching methods I employ and reveals why they are effective. 

            Our experiences as students shape what kind of teacher we become.  I strongly identify with the visual learning style.  When I study, I read, highlight, notate, paraphrase, outline, and work with the words as part of my learning process.  Because traditional classrooms are designed for this type of engagement, I have been academically successful.  It also explains why my favorite aspect of teaching is planning the lessons more than their actual delivery!  Because of my comfort in these methods, I have to be careful not to dominate the classroom with lectures, power-points, and teacher-led discussions.  I also encounter resistance from students because they’d rather avoid lengthy reading and writing assignments, especially as a generation that is casually, continuously stimulated with appealing graphics online.  It is essential to incorporate technology effectively and present the content in a way that is relevant to the students’ lives.  It is easy to get caught up, lost, or overwhelmed with the amount of content available in the information age.  Showing students how to navigate, verify, break down, and bring together resources to achieve their specific goals is a more practical approach (Svinicki & McKeachie, 2011, chapter 17).    

            I consider myself somewhat creative.  My personal hobbies include painting and creating scrapbooks.  These projects require more time and effort, but the reward is a sense of pride and ownership.  I incorporate this hands-on approach in my teaching style through projects at the end of thematic units (Svinicki & McKeachie, 2011, chapters 14-15).  They serve as a mental break from the left-brained structure and stimulate the right brain processes as another way to integrate the lesson as memorable and meaningful.  The assignments that stick out in my mind are tactile ones such as dressing up as a Native American, holding a debate of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, making a video of The Canterbury Tales in twelfth grade, and even a band concert in which we sat in huddles on the darkened, smoky stage with special lighting effects in sync with the music, sans chairs in rows with a central director.

These activities are also similar to the symbolic framework because they serve as a transition between units, seasons, or types of literature.  Students are highly distracted before the holiday break, so a tangible activity helps focus their energy on engaged learning.  We concluded our study of plot elements by illustrating each term on a caboose (per group), which we combined to display in the hallway as The Polar Express.  For mysteries, students had to review resumes of Sherlock Holmes and Nancy Drew and then interview them to determine who they would hire to solve a crime.  To examine elements of propaganda, they created posters relevant to adolescent issues such as bullying, drinking and driving, depression, and peer pressure, which they distributed around the school.  As an undergraduate student, we held a Jewish Seder, complete with food, decorations, and ritualized prayer which was a more powerful impact than a descriptive paragraph on a page.  The challenges in promoting student-centeredness are making the time in the compact curriculum of required standards, structuring them to maintain behavioral management, and motivating students to expand learning beyond their restrictive classroom “norms.” 

My administrators would agree that inquiry-based dialogue is a strength in my teaching style (Svinicki & McKeachie, 2011, chapter 5).  Personally, when I am facing conflict or decision-making, I talk about it.  By wrapping the feelings, outcomes, actions, or context into words, I am able to come to a conclusion and clarity.  Therefore, my classroom is a little louder than most.  I encourage conversations directed at conceptual transformation, which have the potential to provoke deeper learning that lasts (Weimer, 2013, p. 33).  Even when they get off topic, there is a learning opportunity and freedom for fresh ideas to emerge, which shows value and respect for the students’ contributions.  Monitoring and facilitating smaller groups permits informal assessment or redirection while encouraging students to develop team-oriented skills via exposure to interpersonal dynamics (Weimer, 2013, pp. 81-82).  On my classroom wall, there are lists of a million question stems reflecting the various degrees of Bloom’s taxonomy and critical thinking (Svinicki & McKeachie, 2011, chapter 21).  We should teach students how to ask the right questions to build their levels of understanding.  It is the foundation of the Socratic Method as well as the Scientific Method!  By probing introverted students, I get them to express how they are making sense of the lesson, and I have to be cautious not to assume that they aren’t engaged when they are quietly observing.

Finally, the role of the teacher is to be a model for the students, providing structure and opportunity for them to step into their role as self-directed lifelong learners.  At the end of the day, the student has to combine skills with will to perform the messy art and work of learning.  The teacher can explicitly demonstrate thought processes, present material in engaging ways, hold high expectations, create a positive, supportive classroom community, and build rapport through personal connection.  The teacher is responsible for holding students accountable and empowering them in a manner that honors their efforts and development.  Ultimately, however, the student must make the choice to take action. 

References

Svinicki, M.D. and McKeachie, W.J. (2011).  McKeachie’s teaching tips:  strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers. (13th ed.).  Belmont, CA:  Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Weimer, M. (2013). Learner-centered teaching: five key changes to practice (2nd ed.).  San Francisco, CA.  Jossey-Bass.