I really enjoyed chapter four as it began to examine teachers as humans teaching other humans and passing on a passion for learning. Rather than focusing purely on curriculum, this chapter instead instructs the teacher to look at the student’s needs and work toward engaging the learner. There must always be a balance between teaching to the students and teaching a well thought out curriculum. This chapter explains teacher attitudes and beliefs which enable student growth. Another interesting element was that the chapter discussed the importance of maintaining an equal work load for all students. While it may appear logical to give less homework to a struggling student and more to a student who understands concepts, this is actually far from beneficial. The student who is struggling is given less work, yet she is also given less practice, and thus not able to develop a proficiency in the topic. At the same time, the student who understands the topic will eventually lose interest as they are essentially being asked to do busy work which does assist their learning.
An interesting aspect of this chapter was that it discussed that as well as a teacher may teach a lesson, there are still students who may not understand. While this is a reasonable concept, it is more important to realize that a student not understanding is not the fault of the student, thus the teacher needs to find a more effective approach. Although very intimidating, the teacher must evaluate the way in the class was taught and then attempt to teach the students in a different manner.
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