I feel that most educators go into teaching because they want to inspire and help students foster a love of learning. How we go about doing this, within the framework of the subject area that we teach, can be a true challenge when considering all the variables within a classroom setting. What subject matter are you teaching? How will you teach it? Can you achieve that within the means of your classroom? And when students enter the equation there is a completely new set of obstacles to consider. Will they care about your subject matter? How can you help them to care? How do you help them to work hard and self motivate? How do you build up the 21st century skills that are so important to our ever changing workforce? Amongst all these questions, and hundreds more, it would seem reasonable that we could try to use the scientific method to theorize, test, observe, and repeat what approach would work best for all students; however, what works best for all students is likely the issue as students are all so different.
As, Willingham (2012) stated, “There are other vital questions in education for which the scientific method is wholly inappropriate…Who is ultimately responsible for children’s education: parents, teachers, or children themselves, and does the answer to this question change as kids get older? Educating children raises dozens of questions, and, powerful as the method may be, science is applicable to just a fraction of them.” (p89) Educating children is so much more than just how to add, compose an essay, or learn about the civil war. And because teachers, students, administrators, community members all have a voice in the education system there are many differing opinions about how to best teach our children. When talking with my mentor teachers, they mention that how to best educate children has gone in cycles with one style of teaching being best when they first started, to something different, and then back to that original method now. And thinking about teaching now with all the divisive opinions that are only reaffirmed through everyone’s own confirmation bias bubble it is even harder to ensure that students are getting the best, well-rounded education.
I am only through half of Willingham’s book and there are so many ideas that resonate with me, some of which I mentioned above, but even more questions that I have - for example, how can I know what is best for my students? When can I trust the facts presented to me? I am hoping the second half of the book begins to answer some of these really difficult questions.
Resources:
Willingham, D. T. (2012). When can you trust the experts?: How to tell good science from bad in education. John Wiley & Sons.
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AuthorMarissa McGregor, high school math teacher extraordinaire. I love my husband, daughter, and family dearly. Archives
August 2022
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