Sharing ideas on Education, Leadership and Life



Thursday, February 3, 2011

Bottom Line: Good Teaching is Good Teaching

Last week I read an article by @plugusin titles “Good Teaching Trumps Good Tools”. Which basically said that you could have all the technology in the world but if you are not using it to teach the skills that our students need then you are doing worse than a teacher meeting those skills and needs with less technology. Here is a quote from the article "Effective teachers have discovered is that good tools can make learning more efficient.” The article ends with the following quote “The key to finding tools you can't live without is to think through the kinds of skills your students can't live without.

Here is a link to the article: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb11/vol68/num05/Good-Teaching-Trumps-Good-Tools.aspx

Then today Tom Whitby (@tonwhitby) sent out the following tweet with a link to a video that honestly challenged many of my educational beliefs.

RT@tomwhitby A video to talk about: "Learning Styles Don't Exist"http://bit.ly/ceC4sp #Edchat #EduCon-

The video shows that according to Professor Daniel T Willingham the age old assumption that some students are visual learners vs. auditory, doesn’t really exist the way many teachers have assumed it does.
I think the video definitely gives one cause to think and reflect but that is not the purpose or topic of this post. What struck me was how the video ended.

Here is the final quote “Good teaching is good teaching and teachers do not need to adjust their teaching tot the individual students learning styles.” Professor Daniel T Willingham Dept of Psychology University of Virginia

Well I am not a big fan of coincidences, and the common denominator is that Good teaching is the key and what is really important.

Yes we need to use Technology and other tools like voice threads, blogs and Google docs just to name a few.

But at the end of the day all of these tools don’t replace good teaching. Give me good teaching over good technology any day.

10 comments:

  1. I found that quote about teachers do not need to adjust their teaching to different learning styles interesting. I assume it means that a great teacher just does that automatically without it being a planned part of the lesson. I agree that we need to be good teachers. All the tech in the world will not help you ( and in turn the students) if you aren't addressing the skills.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cindy
    Thanks for the comment. I believe he says that since learning styles don't really exist the way we have always assumed they do we don't need to worry about it. You should check out the video

    Again thanks for the comment
    Akevy

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm wondering if they meant meant that good teaching automatically includes many different styles of learning... so that students learn through multiple modes? Interesting.

    I agree with what you say, Akevy. It's just so difficult to quantify "good teaching" for some.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AS a student teacher what I take from your post is that teachers can and do make a difference.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Michelle,
    Thanks for the comment.
    As i said I don't know what my feelings are about Professor Wllingham's statement that learning styles don't exist. The video did cause me to think but I liked the first part of the quote.
    I agree that is is hard to quantify. Perhaps it is similar to what I said about "Effective Teaching" that we have to look at the more amorphous qualities and not the traditional ones with are easier to quantify.
    Thanks again for the comment
    Akevy

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nice post Akevy - Good teaching is when a student feels safe and comfortable to take risks in an effort to embrace lifelong learning. As Michelle said, it is extremely difficult to quantify what "good" teaching is, but as this post states, tools will never be able to completely replace a passionate and effective educator. Thanks for keeping the concept of "good teaching" a top consideration.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for the post Akevy. If learning styles is thought of in a traditional sense then maybe...but I know that if you think of how I demonstrate my learning as part of the learning process then I'm not sure I agree with him. When students are allowed to use their talents and creativity (learning style?) to show-what-they-know the results are amazing. I think good teachers absolutely adjust to the needs of the individual learners they teach...that's good teaching! Good teaching now would have to include good technology...at least now it would. I agree that good teachERS over good technology any day. If I'm jogging, just because I don't call it exercise doesn't mean it isn't. Thanks!
    Tom

    ReplyDelete
  8. Justin,

    Thanks for your comment!
    Yes I agree with you and Michelle
    At the same time as an administrator when I walk into a classroom you just know good teaching when you see it
    Thanks again
    Akevy

    ReplyDelete
  9. Tom
    Thanks for the comment
    To be honest I am not sure how I feel about the idea of learning styles that he mentions in the video but it did make me think. what struck me was his quote that "Good Teaching is Good Teaching"

    Thanks again
    Akevy

    ReplyDelete
  10. "Give me good teaching over good technology any day." Amen, brother.

    ReplyDelete