There was a quote that was said within the first few pages of the chapter that caught my attention and made me stop and think for several minutes. "Teaching is aimed at creating optimal conditions for desired learning to take place in a short amount of time as possible" (p. 6) Now, this posting will be me dissecting this quote. First off, i wholeheartedly agree with the fist part, that teaching is meant to find the best conditions for learning. Teachers do this in a number of ways. We experiment with different methods and strategies to see which ones work best and help the students learn the material; we attempt to try new ideas and use new materials and manipulatives to ensure that our students have the best advantages when it comes to not only learning and comprehending, but to be able to explain to others what they already know and what they learned. TEaching is about learning. In a classroom, it is not only the students that are learning; the teacher is as well. A good teacher is one that is always changing her methods to improve herself and who is learning just as much as her students, if not more.
The second part of the quote, I am not sure if I agree with it or not. Yes, it is true that we want our students to learn as much as they can, but the time limitation in the quote makes me hesitant. When I think of "short time" and "learning" in the same sentence, I automatically think a student is being rushed. And if a student feels rushed or pressured, then that would make them nervous and could have an impact on their performance and ability to learn the information being taught. In a perfect world, I would take all the time possible to make sure that my students could learn everything. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world and those are just setbacks that come with the teaching profession.
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