Best Teaching Methods???!!!!

clearview99

Hi all - just throwing this out there....
In reality what methods do secondary teachers, esp. NQT's, actually use these days?? I know that Active Learning is 'best practice' or so they say, but realistically what is actually happening in classrooms today? I'm in a school where the older half of the staff are very much in keeping with traditional methods - from what I can see, their students do very well exam-wise and they also seem to be the most respected as well - while students might complain about the hard work, at the end of the day, they realise that these teachers teach as they do for their students own benefit.....On previous teaching practices lots of teachers have warned me against falling into the trap of 'entertaining' students with fancy methods which frankly, I don't feel are getting the results?? What do teachers use today?? PP's, written notes, reading from the book, good 'ol chalk n' talk?? My area is in HE and RE so not subjects which lend themselves overly to students thinking for themselves, such as in English, nor subjects which have a concrete pattern which sees students actively working in class, as in Maths - in reality, a part from the practical side of HE, it's really just comprehension, retention and recall of very factual knowledge....what, can I ask, would be the most effective, and let's face it, realistic way of teaching these subjects in school?

dar100

Whatever way suits your personality and incorporates the different learning styles each of us have, I'd imagine

gaeilgebeo

Lessons can't be "all singing all dancing", all the time.
Not one thing wrong with a bit of chalk and talk.

evolving_doors

I'd be wary of anyone proclaiming 'best practice' these days. I think the term is arrogant and doesn't take the nuances of teaching and personality into account... Of course we all hear that the teaching that goes on in Finland is now 'best practice' ... so any little aspect of it could be plucked out and plonked into our classrooms in Ireland!

Does 'active learning' suit a teacher's style? The edutainment issue is a hot debate in the UK and has been discussed here in terms of trying to motivate some students in the UK by entertaining them. My own view is that every teacher has their own style and trying to force x,y,z style of teaching is a recipe for disaster. In saying all that though, teachers should be open to trying out new methods.

One teacher might have a good 'storytelling' presentation skill where there is little student/teacher interaction. Then again, another teacher might teach the same topic by using questioning techniques. Another by acting/drama, another IT etc...

so who's to say which has the 'best practice' (are we going to get into the measuring outcomes debacle?). I think the correct term nowadays is 'good practice'.

Corkgirl18

Its whatever suits the teacher. I'm currently in final year of a teaching degree and we're very much encouraged to not use books and use many resources which can be annoying sometimes as you wonder how much they enhance the learning outcomes of the class.
I'm a science and chemistry teacher so I'd use a lot of flashcards/posters for keywords and play games with them.
I'd use PowerPoint in most lessons as I find my own students pay much better attention than they do if I would read from a book and you can make your own graphics. Tarsia and those kinds of puzzles are great revision aids.
I use useful online simulations and youtube clips every week or so which I find stimulates the students. I'd put a lot of emphasis on discovery based learning so obviously experiments in the lab play a huge part. I find it really rewarding when students look forward to your class.

I think its all about experimentation and trying out different methods and strategies and seeing which ones work and which ones don't.

gaiscioch

clearview99 wrote: »

Best Teaching Methods???!!!!

There is a disturbingly large and noxious amount of utter rubbish spouted about this very topic, most especially from university theorists. To be precise, the ráiméis about "differentiation" and "mixed ability teaching" is particularly repelling when you're in a real class of 30 students and the range goes from "mild general learning difficulty" and other "special needs" (formerly termed mentally retarded) to boy genius level. Mix that, DoES geniuses!

The idea of a single teacher having to teach 30 kids a language, for instance, as a living thing with group conversation at the centre of the class through active learning in this environment is comical. Kids end up hating the language and the sham continues when smaller classes within a specific range would allow so much real language acquisition to happen.

Come back to me when the moneybags in the Department of Education and Science are willing to fund classes within a specific range where differentiation of learning can be done properly rather than the current sham of shoving the entire range on one teacher in a class. Teacher feels like a failure, Department saves money and all kids (especially the bright ones) fail to gain a feeling of success and achievement.

rant over.

Best teaching methods are, as has been said, idiosyncratic to both the teacher's style and the class. In general, I would suggest that the ones which can give the kids a sense of achievement and confidence about their ability to learn, often using 'scaffolding' so that they can build up team work and self-belief without being spoonfed by the teacher.

Tom Dunne

The fundamental issue is how you define best.

Best exam results? Best learning? If so, how do you measure learning? Best for 6th years? Best for 1st years? Best for science? Best for literature? And so on.

If there is one thing I learned about education is that there is no one best method, no magic bullet. Horses for courses.

RealJohn

I'm not going to tell you what I think the 'best' way is. My personal preference is to use 'chalk and talk' primarily with a reasonable amount of other things mixed in. Of course, as a science teacher, practical aspects are a necessity anyway so I couldn't go with 100% chalk and talk even if I wanted to and I prefer to allow stufents to find their own way as far as possible in maths classes, ie. that I give them the basics and then let them try to work things out for themselves for a while and help them along individually if needs be but the whole thing, regardless of what subject I'm teaching, varies a lot from class to class anyway.

Essentially what I'm saying is that it doesn't matter what I tell you because you're not teaching the exact same subjects to the exact same classes as I am (even without taking into account that you're not me) so whatever I tell you works for me might not work at all for you.

dambarude

It would seem that the answer to the question depends very much on what level you teach at.

'Chalk and talk' seems to be popular at secondary level. In my experience, that is much less the case at primary level.

TheDriver

bring back to IT2000 initiative whereby slide after slide of powerpoint was apparently the way to go............Ferris Buellers teacher comes to mind........

Frankly frank

TheDriver wrote: »

bring back to IT2000 initiative whereby slide after slide of powerpoint was apparently the way to go............Ferris Buellers teacher comes to mind........

Anyone...? Anyone...? ....anyone? Mmm

katydid

dambarude wrote: »

It would seem that the answer to the question depends very much on what level you teach at.

'Chalk and talk' seems to be popular at secondary level. In my experience, that is much less the case at primary level.

It depends on the subject, too.

stonework89

debate in staff room today......dictation (or other means) of giving students tailored notes formulated by the teacher which are concise, no waffle and a time efficient way of transferring knowledge from teacher to student....yes or no?

evolving_doors

stonework89 wrote: »

debate in staff room today......dictation (or other means) of giving students tailored notes formulated by the teacher which are concise, no waffle and a time efficient way of transferring knowledge from teacher to student....yes or no?

hmmmm 'transferring knowledge' is a very loose term. You could argue that by simply handing someone the notes it is a 'transfer of knowledge' (which is even more efficient than dictation).

gaeilgebeo

stonework89 wrote: »

debate in staff room today......dictation (or other means) of giving students tailored notes formulated by the teacher which are concise, no waffle and a time efficient way of transferring knowledge from teacher to student....yes or no?

Absolutely, YES!

stonework89

gaeilgebeo wrote: »

Absolutely, YES!

My preferred way is to have them on slide and put on board using data projector - notes are always based around an exam question which I find particularly useful as it shows the students the direct link to where they may potentially use it, as well as useful for students who have difficulty in understanding what the question is actually asking, particularly in RE

katydid

stonework89 wrote: »

debate in staff room today......dictation (or other means) of giving students tailored notes formulated by the teacher which are concise, no waffle and a time efficient way of transferring knowledge from teacher to student....yes or no?

As long as they are used to supplement other learning and not as an end in themeselves.

spurious

I'd rather teach them to make their own notes. Our first week in secondary school we had a teacher taught us how. Best thing I ever learned.

gaeilgebeo

spurious wrote: »

I'd rather teach them to make their own notes. Our first week in secondary school we had a teacher taught us how. Best thing I ever learned.

That is a great idea.
I just don't know how a lot my students would be able to do that ability wise.

Corkgirl18

stonework89 wrote: »

debate in staff room today......dictation (or other means) of giving students tailored notes formulated by the teacher which are concise, no waffle and a time efficient way of transferring knowledge from teacher to student....yes or no?

Thats a perfectly fine thing to do but I wouldn't teach my class solely using this method personally. My students and myself would probably get bored very quickly. It also creates very dependent learners.