Teaching
or Learning, What’s Your Focus?
As an educator, do you focus on
teaching since you’re a teacher or do you focus on learning?
For me, I focus on learning which is student-centered verses teaching
which is teacher-centered. A focus on
teaching is focused on the teacher, what the teacher is doing, the teacher as
the center of attention, and the teacher as the gatekeeper of information. Students often develop an attitude in a
teacher-focused classroom that the teacher needs to teach me; in a
student-centered classroom students become empowered and take more ownership
over their learning.
So what does a focus on learning
look like?
A focus
on learning considers the students: what the students are doing, if they are learning,
and what can you as a teacher can do differently to help them learn better or
more effectively. A classroom focused
on student learning employs active learning strategies like peer instruction,
mastery learning, project-based learning, and inquiry-based learning. The teacher is there to assist students in learning
and is often working one-on-one with students or in small groups. The teacher does not care if the students
learn from him/her but only that they are learning. This means students could be getting help
from another teacher, peers, watching videos on the material that are not made
by their teacher, reading a textbook, researching material online or learning
via something online. Who or what the
students are learning the material from is irrelevant as long as they are
learning. However, if a student is not
learning for whatever reason, the teacher is then very concerned and looks for
ways to help learning get going again.
A
teacher that is focused on student learning is always looking for way to
improve student learning. I have four
main ways that I use to try to improve my student learning. The first and primary way I do this is by
surveying and listening to my students.
Sometimes I survey my students anonymously using a Google Form survey;
while other times I dialogue with my students face to face towards the middle
and the end of course. Students often
have good ideas on how to improve our courses and learning. When you take their input and implement
their ideas, it really makes them fell valued and respected. When students feel valued and respected, they
tend to value your class more and put more effort into the class and more
learning will occur. Plus, their ideas
that you implement for improving the class tend to improve the learning. So this is a win-win situation. Here is a quote from one of my students, “I
so appreciate how helpful and responsive you are to our ideas, concerns, and
needs. It makes this difficult course less stressful and the ability to learn
the material easier. Thank you for the extra effort you put in for your
students. It truly makes a difference!”
A second
way that I try to improve learning in my classes is by attending various
conferences. For me being a math
teacher, I find our state mathematics conference very valuable. Sometimes I learn things at various sessions
that I can implement. There have been
several times that I show up to a room early to get a good seat from the
session that I am interested in but the prior session is just finishing. I sit down, and even though I was not initially
interested in the session that is just finishing up, I pick up a great
idea. That happened twelve years ago
when I picked up the idea of guided notes (a basic outline of all the
vocabulary and all the math problems so that students can focus on the math
rather than trying to copy everything down) that I then ended up implementing
my classes and my whole department ended up implementing. Many times when I am at a conference I learn
things that can improve my students’ learning, not from the various sessions
but by networking and one-on-one conversations with different teachers I
meet. A second conference that I have
found to be very beneficial to improving my student learning is FlipCon’s
annual conference on flipped learning.
A third
way is to listen, observe, and learn from my amazing department
characters. See “Amazing Department” blog from February 10, 2014, for the entire
story. By working and sharing with your
colleagues, good ideas become great and a culture of student-centered learning
can be built.
My
fourth and final way to improve my effectiveness as a teacher is social media
(reading various blogs and following key educational leaders on Twitter like
Jon Bergmann and Eric Mazur). Again, the
idea of sharing and learning is the key; as teachers we must be willing to take
risks and learn ourselves if we ask our students to do so every day.
What lead me to focus on learning?
My former superintendent of twelve
years, Dr. Wendy Shannon, brought the idea of continuous improvement to our
schools. I have taken this continuous
improvement approach to trying to improve my effectiveness as a teacher. Dr. Shannon also had a strong focus on
student learning with our school’s vision under her being “Maximizing Learning
Opportunities for All” from which I adopted the personal vision of “Maximizing
Learning for All.” I want to help all
students learn and do whatever I can to get learning to occur. Sometimes this is just providing an
opportunity to learn and letting students choose that opportunity. When students are not choosing opportunities
to learning, I work to give then some choices.
Choices always have consequences, positive or negative, and students
often make choices with the positive consequences which still empowers them
because it is a choice they are making.
Additionally, see the immediate and
long-term benefits over the last few years has encouraged and motivated me to
keep working to provide the best learning opportunities I can; because I
embrace continuous improvement, there is always something more to be tried to
be just a little be better.
What are the results of focusing
on learning?
Students
are actively involved in the learning process.
Students are often less stressed.
Students typically learn the material better and take much more
ownership of their learning. Students
appreciate being treated as a valuable person rather than just a body in a desk
for a certain class period. When
students see the teacher working hard at improving the learning, they are often
more willing to put in equal effort in learning the material themselves. It shows the teacher cares enough to also be
working which motivates the students to work.
I view the purpose of education to
help students learning material rather than merely to teach any particular
lesson. So rather focusing on teaching
(I could give that “great” lecture or lesson to an empty room but that would be
meaningless), I focus on students’ learning and improving student
learning. If you focus on student
learning, your students will appreciate and learn more, plus your person
satisfaction with your job will increase.
A teacher's focus should be on learning (student-centered) rather than
on teaching (teacher-centered). Because our students’ futures are so unknown,
we must prepare them to be self-motivated and self-reliant; we must prepare
them to be active and dynamic learners, not just passive consumers. Their futures depend on it.
