Fundamentals
of What Every Teacher Should Know About Learning
What
makes a teacher successful?
Having an expertise in reading, writing, math or
science is necessary, but the ability to transfer that knowledge into another
person is what makes an excellent instructor stand out. What good is it if a
teacher has all the facts, but cannot communicate them in a way that others can
comprehend?
Aside from comprehending the curriculum content,
teachers should have a basic understanding of how people acquire and absorb
knowledge. The following list highlights 20 principles of learning every
teacher should know.
1.
Students Learn Differently
It may seem obnoxiously obvious, but how many
classrooms are currently designed with one learning style in mind?
Worksheets and flashcards work well for students who
absorb knowledge visually, but for a child who needs to hear the information in
order to grasp it, traditional methods of teaching force him or her to use a
physical sense that is not as well-developed.
The visual learner doesn’t have the same opportunity
to stretch his or her other senses. If a teacher comes to the classroom with
the basic knowledge that students learn differently, they will be better
equipped to arrange the lessons in such a way that all senses are activated.
2.
Use It Or Lose It
Using information is how it becomes knowledge.
Revising knowledge over a lifetime is how it becomes
wisdom.
Learning can’t be about coverage, and is not “set it
and forget it.”
3.
Consider Kinesthetic Learning
Of the different learning styles, the kinesthetic
learning is the hardest bunch to teach in a traditional setting. This learning
is about movement–touching, feeling, and moving through knowledge, which
requires space and opportunity that many traditional classrooms do not allow
for.
Kinesthetic learning benefits from students trying
something, watching it fail, and taking that knowledge forward. While this can
be difficult logistically with a large class, implementing kinesthetic
strategies will not just help a few kids, but your own approach to how students
learn.
4.
There Are Seven Learning Styles
How exactly “learning styles” should be used depends
on who you speak to. It is true that learning styles are among the most
misunderstood facets of modern education. It isn’t true that there are
“kinesthetic learners,” but is is true that there is “kinesthetic learning.”
Key difference.
Taken from Learning Styles
Online.
Visual: Using sight
Auditory: Using songs or rhythms
Verbal: Speaking out loud the information
Kinesthetic: Using touch and taste to explore the
information
Logical: A more mathematical approach to concepts
Interpersonal: Learning in groups
Intrapersonal: Learning alone
5.
Make It Relevant
Information is only stored permanently when it
relates to day-to-day living. For example, math concepts must be reinforced in
real life examples or the student will have no reason to absorb the information
beyond the exam.
History is one of the more difficult subjects to
bring into the present, since it mainly deals with past events, dates, and
people. Finding strategies to bring it to life will help with learning.
As much as possible, history should be experienced through
first-hand accounts, museums, field trips and other enrichment activities.
6.
Failure Is a Fabulous Teacher!
People learn from failure. In fact, ask any major
successful person what helped them and usually it will involve a story that
harkens back to a big “mess-up”. Failure teaches even better than a perfect
score on a test.
Classic grading systems don’t help with this theory,
as grades have become inflated, feared, and used as judge and jury about who
learned what. Contrary to popular belief, learning from failure is
anything but easy. It’s not just about “reflecting” upon what you did.
If you’d like to read about failure and learning,
check out this
Harvard Business Review article – the article is mainly about
organizations but its lesson apply as much to classrooms.
7.
Integrate The Curriculum
Rather than keeping each subject separate,
curriculums that use thematic units work well to blend knowledge together in a
way that is useful and memorable.
For example, a unit on Egyptian history could
incorporate history lessons, a unit on linguistics and language (with the
hieroglyphics), a science unit (physics and the building of the pyramids), a
writing unit (a report on a child’s favorite Egyptian monument), and reading a
book about the ancient culture.
8.
Define “Learning”
The word “learn” has various definitions. In the
classroom, it can be the ability to spout back facts and information on a test.
While this is one form of learning, there are other forms of learning that are
just as important. Taken from Route
Ledge Education:
Memorization
Acquiring facts or procedures
Understanding reality
Making sense of the world
9.
Care For Introverts
When Susan Cain released her book, Quiet:
The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, earlier this
year, it drew a lot of attention onto an important topic: introversion vs
extraversion. The debate, of course, reached the classroom and according
to an Edweek article, teachers might be against their introverted students.
Are you?
It’s easy to assume that “group work” is always the
best approach. That students who raise their hands are attentive. And that
students who prefer to work alone are loners. All of which, are not necessarily
true.
10.
Create Space
This is a psychological and logistical suggestion.
Creativity is the birthplace of true learning, where a student can initiate
thoughts, ideas, problems, and make connections between concepts.
Creativity requires the activation of the right side
of the brain. Space allows the opportunity for creativity to ignite.
Logistically, give students a place to stretch out, move away from a desk, or
gaze at the sky outside. In the context of a lesson, allow for brainstorming
sessions. Leave gaps in the order so students can create their own projects
using the facts and theories in the lesson.
A teacher enables a student to learn when he or she
becomes a quiet mentor on the sidelines, rather than the dictator of every move
or step.
11.
Brief And Organized “Bites”
When a person wants to memorize a phone number, they
divide the digits into easy to remember patterns.
This is because the brain struggles to hold onto a
long list of numbers, but can do so when they are organized meaningfully. The
same principle applies to lectures. A 30-minute lecture that is not structured
with categories, or organized into easy-to-recall bullets, will not be as
effective.
Using another example, the media produces the news
in sound bytes because they know they only have a small window of time in which
to grab a person’s attention; teachers would do well to study the marketing
techniques of media in order to assemble information that is retainable.
12.
Use Several Different Angles
(Hi, Taken from the Mohanlal’s film “Life is
beautiful”!!!!!)
For example, if a science teacher is lecturing on
photosynthesis, the students will benefit from hitting the same concept at
different angles.
First, the teacher explains the overarching concept.
This provides framework and context. Second, he explores each part of the
process in greater detail. Third, he explains the whole process again, this
time encouraging students to ask questions. Fourth, he asks the students to
explain it back to him.
Finally, he takes the process and inserts it into a
relevant everyday situation that stretches the students to apply the
information in a real life example. As he reinforces the concept with different
angles, the brain is better able to organize the information. Trying to hit all
of the points in one explanation will overwhelm most students.
13.
Proper Method For The Material
In the quest for “deeper” learning, some professors
might dismiss the concept of shallow learning; the simple recall of theories,
facts, and rules. However there is some validity to rote memorization and the
ability to regurgitate rules and facts, depending on the information.
For example, to learn the multiplication tables from
0-12, shallow learning is helpful (flash cards, timed quizzes, etc.). However,
implementing this technique for a history lesson will not serve the subject
matter.
A student may know all the dates of important world
wars, but without understanding the social themes and lessons learned from
these atrocities, have they really absorbed the importance of studying history?
14.
Use Technology
Never before in human history has there been such
unparalleled access to knowledge and information. With the tap of a tablet or
smartphone, a student can get instant answers to questions that used to mean a
trip to the library’s dusty encyclopedia section.
This means that memorization is no longer as
necessary as it once was 100 years ago. Oral traditions and the passing along
of information verbally are nearly extinct. Rather than resist the advance of
technology, teachers can take the opportunity to go deeper with students, since
they do not have to waste time trying to drill facts that are a fingertip away.
Rather, explore themes, study deeper sociological
issues, teach the art of invention and creativity, discover the philosophy of
critical thinking, and encourage innovation.
15.
Let Them Teach
One of the most effective methods for absorbing
knowledge is to teach the knowledge back to another. Provide students with
ample opportunity to give lectures, presentations, and develop lesson plans of
their own.
Teachers can instruct students to create a lesson
plan for a much younger child, even if the concept is difficult. This forces
students to simplify the theory, find relatable stories and real life examples,
and deconstruct the concepts into bite size pieces.
16.
Create Hunger And Curiosity
When students are interested in a subject, their
ability to learn greatly increases. They have more focus, tenacity, initiative,
engagement, and investment in the material. Teachers can give students the
freedom to choose their own topics, which enhances a class that may be stuck in
a rut or lacking motivation.
Learning how to whet a student’s appetite for
information sets them up to go after the answer with a sense of hunger.
17.
Brainstorming Not Always Effective
The age old saying, “Two heads are better than one,”
is very true. Brainstorming is thought to be the birthplace of profound ideas.
But new studies suggest that that
may not be true. Brainstorming introduces groupthink – a psychological
phenomenon where the group forms its own beliefs – and when it doesn’t, the
most charismatic individual tend to take over.
In fact, Jeremy Dean of Psyblog wrote about
the subject,
“… Why not just send people off individually to
generate ideas if this is more efficient? The answer is because of its ability
to build consensus by giving participants the feeling of involvement
in the process. People who have participated in the creative stage are likely
to be more motivated to carry out the group’s decision.”
In other words, groups are not where ideas are born.
Groups are where ideas are evaluated.
18.
Forming Habits
Psychologists agree that it takes approximately 30
days for a new habit to form. Parents who are teaching children a new routine
(like brushing their own teeth) have to help their child for at least 30
consecutive days before the brain turns to “auto-pilot”.
This is the point at which it becomes a regular
habit.
In learning, the same concept applies. Teachers can
explain to students the importance of daily study rather than cramming information
the night before. The small, incremental, and daily rehearsing of information
paves a path in the brain that remains permanently.
Study habits can become regular with guided
encouragement to keep going while the brain catches up to the new norm.
19.
Learning Feedback Matters
In the same way that failure stretches a person, learning feedback is
crucial to how students learn. When they can understand their strengths and
weaknesses, accept and receive constructive criticism, and be redirected to the
areas that need assistance, the overall process of learning is enhanced.
That much you probably already know.
But studies have shown that when you give
feedback matters
just as much as what feedback you give. Imagine taking a pill now and
being able to see its effect in 5 years vs in 24 hours.
20.
Teach How To Learn
“Learning” is an abstract concept to many. By helping
students understand the art of learning, the techniques of learning, as well as
the different learning styles, they will be empowered by the process. It can be
discouraging when a new topic or theory is evasive or difficult.
Students who understand how to learn will have more
patience with themselves and others as they grasp new material.
