Since learning about different, more student-centered ways of teaching I’ve asked a few people whose opinions I respect and also will speak from my own experience about changing how I teach.
1) Lack of exposure to different ways of teaching
Many teachers I have spoken to at the college level are unaware of the kind of effective training that reaches students who otherwise are not really learning. When I mentioned “Teaching Student-Centered Math” by John Van de Walle et al., I’m often shocked that elementary/primary or secondary school math teachers have never of it. I was referred to this book by a teacher at a top school for math. They use it for their internal Professional Development and I have subsequently found out it is being used in teacher training by the Jamaican Ministry of Education as they transition to teaching critical thinking.
I think anyone who teaches should read the first 100 pages of the Level 1: K-Grade 2 version of this book.
2) Habit
Even when I started learning about new ways of teaching, it was HARD to do in practice. To create students used to answering questions that they had never seen before, I started asking students to try to do questions before I showed them how to do it. The results of this over time have been varied with the up side being very, very high. Particularly beneficial to me, students come up with different ways of doing things than I had previously conceived. Every semester, I learn from my students. The downside is painful. What happens when students are asked to try a question they haven’t seen and they do absolutely nothing. This has happened and it’s very hard not to give them answers. I try to give hints. Some classes need more hints, but I have also out of HABIT reverted to just telling students the answer or standard solutions. When I do this, I feel like I’m doing something wrong. I no longer think it is healthy for educators to do this. It’s easier for us to stick with what we know, but if we want to change the world as we know it, we have to get students to try to solve the problems they haven’t seen, since we know that’s the world they’ll face.
To be continued!!