The Essence of Effective Teaching
Introduction
A two year old child is an inquisitive child, he is curious about the world, always asking why? He is on a quest for knowledge and has a real love of learning. Why is it that soon after this same child starts going to the one place that is supposed to provide him with lots of knowledge, i.e. primary school, that learning becomes a chore and his enthusiasm dwindles? Perhaps the teacher is at fault or maybe the content of the curriculum doesn’t appeal to him or perhaps he just finds it too hard. Would we be better not sending our children to school and allowing them to continue to teach themselves through their natural inquisitive nature? After all Maria Montessori said “He has the power to teach himself” (Montessori, M, 1967, pg.6). Surely through maturation, a natural process which will happen regardless of any intervention from the outside world, he will learn all that he needs to know. Maturation can account for a certain amount of learning, however in order to bring the child to a higher level, effective teaching is required.
What then constitutes effective teaching? There are many elements to effective teaching which I will discuss in detail in this essay and I will conclude that when all these elements are in place the teacher will have brought all her students irrespective of their abilities from where they are to a higher level in all aspects of their development.
The elements of effective teaching that I am going to discuss are, preparing a learning environment, recognising learning styles, following the child, strategies and methodologies, teacher preparation and reflection, and applying a cosmic approach.
One might associate the importance of preparing a learning environment with the 3 to 6 year old classroom, but it is equally important in the 6 to 9 and 9 to 12 year old classrooms. The environment looks different, the tables and chairs are bigger, there is less floor space, the materials and resources are different, and there
A two year old child is an inquisitive child, he is curious about the world, always asking why? He is on a quest for knowledge and has a real love of learning. Why is it that soon after this same child starts going to the one place that is supposed to provide him with lots of knowledge, i.e. primary school, that learning becomes a chore and his enthusiasm dwindles? Perhaps the teacher is at fault or maybe the content of the curriculum doesn’t appeal to him or perhaps he just finds it too hard. Would we be better not sending our children to school and allowing them to continue to teach themselves through their natural inquisitive nature? After all Maria Montessori said “He has the power to teach himself” (Montessori, M, 1967, pg.6). Surely through maturation, a natural process which will happen regardless of any intervention from the outside world, he will learn all that he needs to know. Maturation can account for a certain amount of learning, however in order to bring the child to a higher level, effective teaching is required.
What then constitutes effective teaching? There are many elements to effective teaching which I will discuss in detail in this essay and I will conclude that when all these elements are in place the teacher will have brought all her students irrespective of their abilities from where they are to a higher level in all aspects of their development.
The elements of effective teaching that I am going to discuss are, preparing a learning environment, recognising learning styles, following the child, strategies and methodologies, teacher preparation and reflection, and applying a cosmic approach.
One might associate the importance of preparing a learning environment with the 3 to 6 year old classroom, but it is equally important in the 6 to 9 and 9 to 12 year old classrooms. The environment looks different, the tables and chairs are bigger, there is less floor space, the materials and resources are different, and there