As a future high school biology teacher, I'd like to know how SPs and SJs best learn class material so then I can help them understand abstract science concepts and design effective lesson plans that will help engage them in learning. What type of learners are SPs and SJs? How would you as a SP or SJ like to have science topics presented to you?
Thanks.
Good question.
Nice to know you are considering such things before beginning your career.
From what I remember, high school was pretty formulaic:
-Math classes were taught via lecture and accompanied examples on an overhead projector, or a chalkboard/whiteboard.
-English classes were a combination of lecture, allowing students to read aloued one at a time through a piece passage by passage.
-Science classes (biology, geology, chemistry, physics) were the most interesting of all, because of the myriad of "vehicles" available today that can deliver scientific information. I graduated high school in 1992. Back then teachers had to bring in VHS tapes of programs they taped on TV in order to deliver multimedia content to their classes. The teachers who did so had the best classes, as they were that much better at preventing kids from getting bored and zoning out. Now, you can be just as effective an instructor, and all you have to do is run a few searches on Google the night before your lecture on a given topic and you will have as much supporting material in multimedia format as you wish. For free.
I agree with the sentiments of Jeffster and MPD2525 above. I guess I'll add my own fropp even if it might be redundant.
DISCLAIMER:
The info below is coming from an ESTP 7w8 male who has had ADHD and OCD most of his life. I went through hell learning some things, like mathematics, but once i did learn it I could wield it however I pleased. I always did well in science, English, and social studies. I've always been very athletic.
TIPS for EFFECTIVE TEACHING:
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(1) Alternate your vehicles of delivery to break up the flow of the class.
(2) Engage the students. Ask questions and have them answer them, even if they are wrong. Don't let the kids raise hands voluntarily. Let them know that you are calling on people at your discretion, and that you will be especially motivated to call on students who are not keeping eye contact with you, or who are "slumping."
(3) If anyone's cell phone rings in class, answer it, and tell their buddy that they are in class and can't call until school is out. Don't give the phone back until class is done.
(4) Don't take any shit. I went back to my high school 2 years after I graduated to visit a few of my favorite teachers before moving out of state. I was appaled how in only two years, the school went from a nice high school in a Northern Virginia suburb, to a bunch of classrooms filled with asshat wannabe gangsters who were walking around during class, talking while the instructor was lecturing, and being a bunch of idiots all together. Marshal your classroom. Be FIRM but FAIR. If the kids don't RESPECT you then you can teach them NOTHING.
(5) Yes, SPs/SJs learn by doing. I think that's the case for all kids of all types. Isn't it proven that if you deliver the same information in different formats (lecture, video, reading, writing) that you increase the probability that each student will lock onto the lesson information as you will have delivered it at least once in their preferred learning format? Sure that is not always possible, to deliver each lesson in 4 different modes, but to the degree you can overlap modes of delivery with the lesson content, without making it redundant, I say that's a good thing.
(6) Be outrageous when you need to. use extreme, ridiculous examples in your lessons as they will be remembered more than mundane examples. One of my best teachers ever would stand on a chair and lecture if he saw the class was getting bored. Sometimes he would sit on top of his desk. Sometimes he would sit under his desk. If it got really bad, or if we learned quickly that day he would do random fun shit, like see how many chairs we could jump over (I won that) or how much weight you could allow to hang off a desk halfway, have your palm down and rest the weight on the top of your hand, flip it forward over the desk, and catch it before it hit the ground (i won that too).
(7) One of the best techniques of learning anything I have come across in my professional life is the ability to summarize. Answering question at the back of the book is one thing. Asking the kids to summarize an entire chapter on a one page 8.5" X 11" piece of paper in an outline and bullet points is another issue entirely. It will force them to glean through the material and to identify the salient points and kill the fluff. One of my professors had us summarize entire sections of state law into a one pager as such, and once you do it, you don't forget it. Textbook manufacturers are kind of in the dark ages, as the real world is run on bullet points that can be scrolled through on a BlackBerry, and not 35 page chapters with boring line graphs, a table or two, and a few color photos here and there.
(8) Finally, when possible, think of REAL WORLD examples that the lesson applies to. How will learning that material benefit those kids in their everyday lives. I remember so many times in various classes thinking
"This is all fine and good, but what am I going to do with this information in my life? how will it help me make money? How will it make my life better?" If you can't prove the worth of your lessons in concrete and tangible terms that are relevant to your students, they will only be able to dedicate so much of their total capability to your efforts, as part of them will be unconcsciously seeking how to improve their odds at winning at the things that do matter at that point in their lives, like girls/boys, their car, problems at home, or the party coming up that weekend.
Some of the best parts of my career thus far have been the small stints I've had as an instructor for one purpose or another. There is something very special about the look on someone's face, when it lights up after your teachings hit home, and they are no longer confused about what the class is about, and they are so thankful that you have helped them to learn something that they had to learn in order to succeed. I've had this happen in fitness courses I've taught, and software courses I've taught. The material is irrelevant, that look is the same, it is the look of accomplishment, of satisfaction, and of increased esteem. I envy you for having the opportunity to see that as often as you will.
I hope this information is useful to you in some way.
I respect you for choosing to be an educator.
Your efforts make the future a hopeful, for without an educated population a society's downfall is imminent.
Good luck to you!
-Halla