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The Subtle Power of “No”: A Lesson in Teaching
A Tale of Two “No”s A mother My friend Andrew, ever the movie enthusiast, asked me one day, “Biju, shall we go for a movie today?” Without thinking, I shot back, “Who goes to movies, Andrew? Such a waste of time! Spare me.” Now, put yourself in Andrew’s shoes—his excitement, dashed in a single, blunt […]
Student Voice I
Do teachers really know what students go through while they are in the classroom? To find out, one teacher spends two days as a student and is shocked at what she learns. The Washington Post published an article on Alexis Wiggins, an American teacher, educator and the author of “The Best Class You Never Taught,” […]
Stay Apart to Stay Connected
Pray to the Almighty that all of you remain in good health. The World Health Organization has declared that the COVID-19 is affecting countries all over the world as a Pandemic. In the past weeks many, including us, have been watching the Coronavirus spreading across the globe with indifference and a belief that it won’t […]
Speak Less and Say More
Have you ever observed a teacher teaching and noticed how much the teacher talked vs. the student? Many teachers say that very often they have to stop themselves from talking too much and instead, work in deliberate ways to get students to talk more in the classroom. Some of them make the mistake of talking […]
Space, Don’t Race
As teachers, our aim is to ensure that information is learned and understood by our students. This is generally done well, but a lot of the material taught may be forgotten over the coming weeks. Memory researchers point out that we can’t help some forgetting, but steps can be taken to reduce it. One simple […]
Fixed vs. Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets
A concept that is gaining a lot of favour in the educational scenario today is the idea of fixed versus growth mindsets, and how they are related to teaching and learning. Carol Dweck, an American psychologist, says that the idea of mindset is related to our understanding of where ability comes from. For those who […]
I Do, We Do, You Do
‘I do, we do, you do’ is a teaching strategy that includes demonstration, prompting, and practice. In the ‘I Do’ phase when a new concept is being introduced, the teacher plays the dominant role in the delivery of the content. In the “We do” phase of learning, the teacher continues to model, question, and prompt […]