Category Archives: Reflection

Constructivism

Posted on February 4, 2011 | Leave a comment

In teaching Science and Math, there has been ongoing debate about how much time and resources educators should devote into teaching cold facts relative to that devoted for learners to construct their own knowledge. For instance, how important is it to memorize the multiplication table when our phone can be our calculator? How much time should a teacher allow for students to make up stories to explore math concepts? How should the relative importance of recalling cold facts and the ability to apply concepts to synthesize a product be reflected in the assessment, if the amount of learning achieved can be measured?

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Successful Teaching

Posted on January 9, 2011 | Leave a comment

I was reading an article about critical thinking and educational technology, and came across the following aspects of a successful teaching program:

  1. Motivated – the student should be deliberately practising in order to improve skills
  2. Guided – the student should have some way of knowing what to do next
  3. Scaffolded – particularly in early stages, there should be structures preventing inappropriate activity
  4. Graduated – tasks should gradually increase in complexity
  5. Feedback – the student should have some way of telling whether a particular activity was successful or appropriate

I believe this is true not only for online teaching, but for teaching in any occasion. Keeping these aspects in mind, I can be more confident that I’m teaching the students, not the subject.

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