tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14410967.post1334635992207424299..comments2023-11-05T01:57:23.149-06:00Comments on The Constructive Curmudgeon: How to be a Bad TeacherDouglas Groothuis, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08766692378954258034noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14410967.post-29480832788840258032014-05-12T12:27:56.925-06:002014-05-12T12:27:56.925-06:00My favorite: enslave yourself to the "learnin...My favorite: enslave yourself to the "learning styles" of your students.<br /><br />I share your belief that learning styles are bogus.<br /><br />Since human nature is universal, we can count on at least two constants in education: (1) the mind will learn when it is focused and interesting (2) one effect of the fall is that nature makes it difficult to learn-- ie., sometimes concepts are tough to master and other times students are just lazy/undisciplined in their thinking.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16480673743399740136noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14410967.post-33203528172357547792014-05-10T21:32:53.743-06:002014-05-10T21:32:53.743-06:00This is (mostly) a great list!
The myth of 'l...This is (mostly) a great list!<br /><br />The myth of 'learning styles' is one of those zombie ideas that serve zero useful purpose, yet never seem to die. There is no support for the idea of learning styles in the educational research literature or the scholarship of teaching and learning. They seem to be propped up by a huge industry dedicated to selling all sorts of learning styles inventories and promising rewards for teachers who try to teach according to students' self-reported learning styles.<br /><br />Towards the end of your list, however, you mention two things that I think do not belong on this list.<br /><br />Lecturing should be mostly abandoned, not because it is cool to do so, but because listening to a lecture is a poor way to learn. Like teaching, learning is hard work, and if we want to maximize learning, we need to focus our efforts of what students <b>do</b>, not on what teachers do.<br /><br />Also, teaching online does not make a teacher ineffective. Certainly there are those who teach poorly online, just as there are those who teach poorly face-to-face. Researchers have all but given up on trying to compare online and face-to-face teaching contexts because the vast majority of well-designed studies find no significant difference between the two. In my experience in providing faculty development courses and resources for higher ed faculty transitioning to online teaching from face-to-face teaching, I have found that the degree of preparation required to teach well online only helps faculty in their face-to-face classroom. Faculty need to think deeply about constructively aligning their intended learning outcomes with how they are assessing their students. They need to structure the environment to encourage high quality, educative interactions between students and faculty, students and their peers, and also metacognitively within individual students as they restructure their cognitive models.<br /><br />It is terribly unfortunate that 'online learning', with its rich history, has been dragged into the trough of MOOCs by Ivy League bandwagonners with more money than sense.<br /><br />Finally, and with all due respect, if teaching online makes one a bad teacher, why would anyone blog? Colin Madlandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09096567704713672660noreply@blogger.com