Professor Joe Hoyle (University of Richmond) is "Still Thinking About Teaching After All These Years." In this article, he states that good teaching comes from a process of thinking about teaching. As he notes:
Suddenly, I better understood those teachers whom I had admired. Their talents had not been developed purely as a result of years of repetition. For them, the education process was not viewed as a series of isolated events occurring over time. Rather, the students and their intellectual development reverberated in the teachers' thoughts, night and day, weekday and weekend. Almost like background music, a litany of mental questions was constantly being turned over and examined. How can I make the connection clearer between these two events? Why has the quality of a particular student's work fallen in the last few weeks? How can I relate the upcoming topic to the real world? Why do so many of my students consistently miss the same specific concept?
By thinking about what you are trying to do in the classroom and constantly updating and trying new ways of teaching and learning, your students will be convinced that you care about them and what they are learning. Better yet, the students will be more motivated to learn from you.
You can read Dr. Hoyle's entire article here: Download Hoyle Still Teaching
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