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What the Best College Teachers Do

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Chapter 3: How do the best teachers prepare to teach?

I have heard it said that to get the right answers, we need to ask better questions. In Chapter 2, Bain considers how the best teachers prepare to teach. And what comes out immediately is what questions they ask themselves as they are preparing.

For instance, a novice instructor might ask things like: what will I lecture on? how many exams will I give? and other questions related to what the teacher does, as opposed to what the students will be learning.

In contrast, the book presents the ideas that the best teachers are considering...which is focused on what the students should be learning and how can they support that process.

One teacher started with the biggest question the course would address and then thought of the questions that would need to be answered to get there.

The best teachers also considered what concepts students might already have about the topic and how they could help them approach the idea, what information the students would need, and how they could guide the students to asking the questions.

1 comment:

  1. It seems to be more than just asking questions, but asking questions with a predetermined focus.

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