After watching Dave Hewitt's lectures in class, I was made aware that there are a lot of different teaching techniques to supplement different learning techniques. There are visual learners, auditory learners and even tangible learners. I never thought about using sound to enhance the learning experiences of students. I think that sound is an uncommon tool to use but it seems to help attract the attention of the students. Another good technique that I saw Dave Hewitt implement was the guiding instruction rather than lecture. He made the students attain the answers through logic and reason without actually giving them the information. This type of learning allows students to, what Skemp calls, understand relationally rather than understand instrumentally.
I think that Dave Hewitt has obtained all these learning techniques not by natural talent, but by reflection. I think that in order to be a good teacher, reflection is necessary. Dave Hewitt has a lot of resources to his disposal and that includes the video cameras. By watching himself a few times, he is able to better himself as a teacher. Furthermore, watching his student's reactions to his lecture allows him to gauge his effectiveness.
Dave Hewitt has great techniques as a teacher and I think that to be a great teacher, one has to constantly reflect and constantly search for better teaching methods.
Good commentary. I agree with you that Hewitt's innovations came about as much from reflection and practice as through some kind of natural talent. It is interesting to videotape your class (or have a colleague videotape you) and to look back at the tape with the aim of improving the lesson. If you can get past the feeling of self-consciousness at seeing yourself on video, you can learn a lot from this.
ReplyDeleteI like your comment that Hewitt made the students attain the answers through logic and reasons rather than giving them the information. I think that is exactly what we ought to be aiming at in our math classes, as much as possible! The understandings that students attain in this way can also be retrieved or reconstructed through their own logic processes -- which is much more robust than simply memorization using mnemonic devices!