I found the article "On Listening to What Children Say" to be interesting. The author's main point is obviously that we need to talk with our students and pay attention to their behavior in order to have a better understanding of their personalities and background. I agree with the author that we as teachers tend to be so curriculum driven that we don't think we have any time to just listen to the students. In my current position at an elementary school I see this everyday. The teachers may take a moment to ask students about their weekend or something similar but after a short answer the conversation is over and it's off to work. In my previous school the teachers never actively listened to kids at recess and for the most part felt that when a student wanted to talk to them it was a burden.
I was particularly interested in the author's examples of preschoolers' interactions. I worked in a preschool setting for a year and they truly are very imaginative children at the age of 3-4. I found it odd when she questions how children perceive teachers' "literal" thinking. I have always been told that children are very literal up until they are in about 5th grade. Someone told me that teachers shouldn't use sarcasm or catch-phrases.
This article is useful for our science discussions because the author is suggesting that teachers need to learn what children know and how they understand concepts. If we are to strive for conceptual change in our science lessons, we must first listen to the students and figure out what misconceptions they have.
From experience, when I started teaching I noticed that the new teachers, regardless of all the training about listening to children and integrating classrooms, etc. always seem to teach like the older teacher on their grade team. This seems to promote a cycle of "old" teaching methods. I would like to see a school that is all newer teachers (within the first 5 years of teaching). It would be nice to feel a freedom to teach these newer (although in most cases it seems common sense) teaching practices. Then again, by the time we are the old teachers, everything we were taught will be obsolete!
2 comments:
I was talking last night to one of last year's graduates who is now doing fifth grade. I believe she is doing better that just coping. But there is so much she has to figure out on a daily basis, it wouldn't surprise me if she followed somebody else's lead ... even if it ran counter to her belief system. My ambition is that she, as the new person, will find herself offering new perspectives to the old-timers.
I think it makes sense that a new teacher would follow a more experienced teacher's way of doing things. A new teacher has so many new responsibilities that she/he would look to an older teacher for advice or suggestions- I know that's something I will do. New teachers have to be able to decide what they agree with or like that a more experienced teacher is doing, and what they disagree with. A new teacher should not be a carbon copy of an older teacher, but picking and choosing which methods or advice he/she feels is most helpful.
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