Learning Effective Teaching Strategies
Being a good teacher means much more than just repeating facts and telling children to read things. Each teacher should have effective teaching strategies to impart information to children in such a way that the children can absorb and remember that information. It sounds easy when put like that, but sadly, life is never easy. Out of a class of say 30 children, one teaching strategy may only work for half of them! Teachers in schools are under pressure of course and whilst they do their best to manage a whole class, having children of different abilities and aptitudes in the same class makes applying wholesale teaching strategies very difficult.
Some teachers adopt an old school disciplinarian style, believing in an approach that demands absolute obedience. Other teachers take a much more laid back approach, giving their charges more freedom, believing that learning will find the child. The best teachers, in my opinion, are those that are flexible in their approach. With large class sizes, I am not sure that any other approach will be effective.
My personal experience with teaching comes from sports coaching. If a pupil does not understand something, then that skill or element needs to be repeatedly broken down into simpler steps until it is understood. If you reach the lowest level you can, then the subject of the lesson needs to be explained differently. I take the view that if a child does nor understand something, it is the teacher's job to find a way to make it understood. I appreciate the time constraints of teachers, but the basic premise remains the same.
One potential hazard to teachers is if children have some form of learning disability. Behavioural problems at school often have their root in some sort of difficulty like dyslexia for example. Many years ago, children were branded as being simply stupid, when in fact they suffered from dyslexia. Teachers must always be open to the possibility that reasons exist for the perceived lack of progress in a child's learning.
Fortunately, there are lots of effective teaching strategies to help children with learning difficulties. Some of these strategies involve the use of word lists, phonics rules, mnemonic devices, and many other educational strategies. With this kind of help, these kids can all learn to read. In fact, some of these methods are equally good at teaching any child, not just those with learning difficulties.
Another hazard for teachers is the constant change in recommended methods for teaching children. Over the years, many 'experts' examine the methods used for teaching certain things, especially mathematical skills, and devise new and 'simpler' methods for teaching these skills. Whilst these new teaching strategies may have merit in their own right, having a multitude of methods being taught only causes confusion, and children never learn any effective way to deal with problems. It is far better, in my opinion, to find a generally effective method, and to teach it thoroughly so that children have confidence in a way to deal with problems.
As children get older and develop their skills, the teaching methods can change. Children can be helped even more when they are challenged and forced to question things. In this way, they can learn to think on their own and to learn to solve their own problems. Some children require more structure in the way they are taught, so it is imperative that a teacher finds strategies that can raise the level of education of the whole class and not a select few.
