course Description

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is an introduction to teaching methods used in elementary schools. Since you have been an elementary school student, you will recognize some of the methods but you know them from a student’s perspective rather than a teacher’s perspective.

Teaching methods are often divided into two broad categories: teacher-centred methods (also called Direct Instruction) and learner-centred methods (also called Indirect Instruction or Inquiry Learning). An effective teacher knows several methods, some teacher-directed and others learner-directed. He or she would choose, from among these, the one method or combination of methods most likely to achieve a particular lesson’s objectives with a particular group of students.

 

Because teaching and learning interact, a course about teaching must also be about learning.  The content and structure of the course is based on two strong claims about learning.  First, learning results from what the student already knows, thinks, and does and only from these actions of the student’s mind.  A teacher enables students to learn by influencing what the student does to learn but the student has to do it. Second, as students progress through school they should learn to become their own teachers.  That is, students should learn how to learn using their teachers as models