Transformation is no joke. It’s different from incremental change. It requires more than just a few tweaks here and there. We need to question everything we do and ask if it fits with 21st Century principles of learning.
We asked four teachers to share a habit or belief they questioned and what happened as a result. Here are their responses:
|
Teacher |
Belief or Habit Questioned |
New Habit or Belief |
Result |
| Nadia | I used to teach new information by giving clear and detailed explanations. | Now I direct my students toward “figuring it out”, I do not rescue them and often let them struggle as a normal and important part of the learning process. | Students are becoming more independent learners. |
| Nariman | I used to think that playing games and having each student non-verbally respond at the same time would lead to loss of my authority and control. | I now use games and ESR (every student response) techniques all the time. | Students are more active and eager to participate. They seem happy and to be enjoying each moment in my class. They are all engaged. |
| Angie | I used to call on one student at a time and praise the high expectancy students more because they got the right answers to my questions more often. | Now I use ESR techniques throughout the day offer a lot of praise and encouragement to the low expectancy students. | Through ESR techniques I can track each student’s understanding plus it keeps students from getting distracted. Praise and encouragement of low expectancy students helps them to gain confidence, put in more effort and catch up to the other students faster. |
| Niharika | I used to think that trying to make learning joyful might waste time. | I started using more games and hands-on activities, allowing us to laugh and have fun while learning. | Children actually learn better and faster in this type of environment and they enjoy learning, putting them on the path to become life-long learners. |
Pictures of the results:
Excellent article, great group of teachers