Observing any history class presents the graduate student with a new perspective on how to teach the subject of history. While it is true that every professor has his/her distinct way of teaching a class that is unique, the pedagogical methods used in class make a difference in how effective the professor is in lecturing on a certain subject. It can be a given that not every professor is effective in being successful, giving way to certain strengths and weaknesses in his/her lecture style. For the class that I observed, there were notable and significant strengths that professor effectively utilized, but additionally there were a couple of weaknesses that are worth highlighting. It is first important to address the strengths of the professor. One of the first things that I noticed was effective when observing this professor was how she used technology to her benefit. The use of technology in a classroom setting can be advantageous to the professor, but can additionally prove to be challenging. An example of how technology can be both beneficial and disadvantageous can be seen in the particular lecture that I observed. The professor relied heavily on the use of PowerPoint during this particular lecture. Where she had tons of information on certain slides, the students around me wrote with an ambitious fervor in order to record every word present on certain slides that were crammed with information. This was a notable weakness in the pedagogical style of the professor, but where there was a weakness there was a notable strength that professor effectively employed. When such slides appeared to the students, the professor took her time in explaining the material so that the students had ample time to record the information. Additionally, the professor made key mentions as to what information was vital to what the students should write down, successfully reducing the amount of stress on the students in the class to record each and every word on the slide. However, the most key strength the professor effectively performed regarding the use of technology in her class was how efficient she was in not reading the information word for word from the projector. This allowed for the professor to pace around the
She carries the audience through her argument in a logical sequence. First, she makes her claim that student do not know history and explains her reasons (250). She then elaborates on what history students are taught and what exactly is wrong with the methods by which they learn (251). After this, she explains the job of a historian to the reader – how historians confront primary sources to “make some sense of what once happened” (252). To end the article, Simon describes how students can better learn history through exploring primary sources (253). This structuring and organization helps the reader to understand and to believe Simon’s
Most people see teachers and professors in the same light. They perform similar tasks. They teach. However, they are separated by a fine line of distinction. High school teachers help a student build a foundation of knowledge, and train the student to focus on learning. College professors help to shape and define a student’s foundation of knowledge, and challenge the student to cultivate the mind. High school teachers and college professors have similar goals and guidelines, but they take a differing approach to achieving the end result. The way the class is conducted, academic expectations, and view of student responsibility are a few of the contrasts between high school teachers and college professors.
If there is one reason for a student to attend a history class, it is that he can learn from the mistakes
I think if she used a more Interactive Lecture strategy it would have help if she established better relationships with her students. She definitely needs to talk with them more about things they are interested in and begin to learn more about them just to get them on her side. They also want to dismiss her not on account of her personality but rather in light
History is a remarkable subject that offers and eagles eye view into the past. With textbooks such as, Hist3, a great deal of interesting information can be acquired. However, a common misconception runs rampant through students minds; the idealism that history is useless and that the subject is that of a drag. Who can blame them? Our text books can only do so much in terms of providing the means in educating ourselves when we’re not in a class room and when given the opportunity to appear in class we have the luxury of (hopefully) having and interesting professor to enlighten us on all the side conflicts, affairs, and bloodshed that has happened. Even so, when we as students have exhausted the book and our instructors, we have the privilege
History class in itself has a specific purpose which seems to be frequently forgotten. We learn about violent and horrible events in our past, as well as life- changing and positively impacting ones. From the negative events, we learn what went wrong and how to prevent similar tragedies from happening. From the positive, we gather knowledge and comprehension of the basis of our modern society. We are a self- repairing race, analyzing every flaw and figuring out what caused it. It's an ancient practice, trial and error is human nature.
History can be an intricate and laborious subject to teach and learn. James W. Loewen, author, historian, and sociologist, is the perfect example of someone who appreciates the subject in all aspects, but knows how underestimated it is. As he says in Lies My Teacher Told Me, “Our educational media turn flesh-and-blood individuals into pious, perfect creatures without conflicts, pain, credibility, or human interest” (Loewen 11). Throughout the book, he further elucidated the idea of that quote by introducing particular topics that deserved more details and acknowledgement. Loewen argues with enough reasoning from numerous textbooks that the writers aren’t involving all facts that should be included to inform the students. Nearly all points
Throughout secondary school, instead of accepting the facts stated in my textbooks, I continued to ask questions. Disillusioned by how complex historical events were taught like equations with a simple cause and effect, senior year of high school I determined that I would become a teacher. As a teacher, I aspire to not be hindered by standardized requirements and teach history in a way that resonates with students and evokes passion.
“History is the study of any past or present happening or events for which there is physical, written or oral evidence available to substantiate the happenings or events. Some students of history have difficulty with their motivation for the subject because they cannot identify with the personal value of history” (A Guide to Critical Thinking in the Social Studies 1). Clearly, there are many approaches to the study of an era or theme, but those most frequently relied upon in all levels of education are those which seek to present facts, documented from a wide number of sources, primary and secondary, as objectively as possible, a practice which detaches students from their studies and seemingly takes the “story” out of history. Relying upon
PowerPoint’s ease of communication and efficiency make it attractive in a classroom, but centralizes control with teacher and promotes passivity among students by objectifying knowledge. Its simple structure and visual “arousal” work to capture and easily transmit the material to the audience. Generally, a presentation is done by one or several individuals to a group of students, whom sit back, scrolling through Facebook, superficially receiving the content without truly digesting it. Essentially, a PowerPoint presentation centralizes control of the class in the hands of the presenter (often the teacher) “to passive receivers (the students)”. Teaching pre-packaged information without allowing for critical thinking is merely undermining and objectifying the knowledge. Teachers are so enthralled by this new technology they miss how their educational system remains stagnant, continuing as the banking model.
I am writing this paper to let you know what benefits I have learneded from class. We do a lot of the things for class like the online discussions, speech presentations and class activities. They have all prepared me for what I need to do. They teach me what a speech is about and how to make one. But when you make a speech the most important is the techniques or the content you used.
Acknowledges that many factors contribute to the teaching process and require study within a greater social cultural, and historical context
Teachers need to know how to use the technology. Teachers will use “educational strategies” (Rosen 4) that were successful in the past and simply transferred the content from a whiteboard to a PowerPoint on a Smartboard. Why waste time, energy, and money on something that is more or less the same style of teaching, just on a different medium? Throughout Rosen’s book, Rewired: Understanding The iGeneration And The Way They Learn, he references the fact that the current generation of students are completely different from what teachers have seen in the past (4). As a result of that, students learn unlike anything teachers have experienced. Rosen writes that “We literally have to rewire such teachers to understand and see that their belief system, while having validity in the past, may not be accurate in today’s world.” (184) Even Joel Klein, the CEO of Amplify a company whose goal is to integrate technology into the classroom, knows that the success of technology rests almost solely on how teachers use it. Klein even said in his interview“If it’s not transformative.... it’s not worth it” (Rotella
Thanks to the advantages of technology, teachers have difference ways to teach and share information with students. For instance, 10 years ago, white board is the only choice for teachers. The lessons are delivered by face to face communication between lecturers and students. They must come to class at the same time to study. Moreover, almost knowledge’s are selected from books. Nowadays, white board is replaced by projector and the lessons are shown on the screen
One of the most essential exercises when in comes to professional development as an instructor is to continuously reflect on your perspective, methodology, instruction and behavior within your profession. Doing so ensure that you a growing and improving on teaching skills and building on old strengths to benefit you as an instructor but especially the students that you serve.