Terry Freedman has some useful reminders on how not to make an educational technology lesson boring.. Actually, he’s written a pretty good reminder of how to plan good lessons.
Here’s a piece of the well written and quite handy post:
The teacher spends too much time talking
Most people learn by doing. Even teachers mostly learn by practising
teaching, not reading about it or listening to someone else talk about
it. Yet I have observed lessons in which, out of a 55 minute lesson,
the teacher spoke for 45 minutes. It gets worse. In those sorts of
lessons, the teacher loves his own voice so much that the 10 minutes
the pupils actually get to do something do not come in one chunk, but
in two or three blocks of a few minutes each. Typically, the teacher
says, “OK, now I’d like you to try that yourself. Remember, you select
the text and then click on the B to make it bold.” This leads on to
another characteristic of such lessons, that of boring activities.”It may sound harsh, but as another consultant said to me recently,
quite often teachers prevent learning, and that they should get out of
the way and allow the pupils to learn!
When I started teaching and giving conference presentations, I used to feel like I was "cheating "when I would introduce an idea or a concept and then give the students or conference participants time to actually get their hands dirty with that idea, either through a simulation or a time for hands on work. Since I wasn’t filling the session with me, it sometimes felt like I wasn’t performing in the proper role of a teacher. Of course, I was wrong, even though sometimes I still feel that way. I find, though, that I get the most positive feedback when I do the least amount of talking.
Weird, huh? It seems almost counter-intuitive — but it works.
I encourage you to check out the full post.
The old “teacher” mindset is that of sage with a bevy of students surrounding them under an oak tree as they learn the wisdom of the ages. Socrates and Plato originated this method and for some reason it permeates our mentality. I guess it had to be that way when paper was expensive/nonexistent and much of learning was verbal.
However, now, there is simply no excuse for a teacher talking for 50 minutes. If I have to “talk” I use the Socratic method and teach by asking questions — they talk as much if not more than I. However, I more often like to venture onto our wiki space, blogs, or if a demonstration is involved, assign the demonstration to student pairs so they do the talking and I fill in the gaps.
Interestingly, the only students I have “trouble” with are those whose parents are retired teachers. They’ve asked me when I’m going to “teach” and why they are doing all the “teaching.” It is an old mindset that I take issue with. When I “teach” the majority of the time students don’t “learn.” When I make them active participants in “teaching” they become active “learners.”
I agree with you 100% Bud. I wonder how many college professors to educators model effective “teaching” such as this.
What an awesome post. I remember my point of reckoning on this one. I called myself a constructivist as I engaged students in my instructional tech courses at the College of William and Mary. Then I took a Educational Technology Planning course from Dr. Gene Roche. http://www.generoche.net/blog/ and it rocked my world. I realized at that moment–I had talked about constructivism mostly from my podium. Gene– he lived it. His class truly redefined my self-concept and has changed my teaching forever. Now my students do most of the teaching and we learn together.
Hi,
Thank you for the advice. I am a pre-service teacher, and this point is emphasized so much in my classes. I responded to this blog on my blog, if you would like to read it and post any more ideas that would be GREAT.
Just a side note, I am in Sheryl’s tech class at William and Mary. She is one of the biggest advocators for constructivism.
Thanks for a great post, Pam