On Teaching

In its broadest sense, teaching can be defined as a process of progressive change from ignorance to knowledge, from inability to competence, and from indifference to understanding... In much the same manner, instruction – or education – can be defined as the means by which we systematize the situations, conditions, tasks materials, and opportunities by which learners acquire new or different ways of thinking, feeling, and doing.

Most models of teaching assume that the purpose of learning is to incorporate new information or skills into the learner’s existing knowledge structure and to make that knowledge accessible. Teaching begins with the need for some motivation, an intention to learn. The learner must then concentrate attention on the important aspects of what is to be learned and differentiate them from “noise” in the environment. While those important aspects are being identified, the learner accesses the prior knowledge that already exists in memory, because a key to learning is connecting what is known to what is being learned. New information must be processed, structured, and connected in such a way as to be accessible in the future; this process is known as encoding. The deeper the processing of the information in terms of its underlying organization, the better the learning and later retrieval of that information. This processing requires active involvement. The learner must verify an understanding of the structure by receiving feedback, from the internal and external environments, on the encoding choices made.

Since there is no single set of abilities running throughout human nature, there is no single curriculum which all should undergo. Rather, the schools should teach everything that anyone is interested in. Teaching is a social process that occurs through interpersonal interaction within a cooperative context. Individuals, working together, construct shared understandings and knowledge. No man can be a good teacher unless he has feelings of warm affection toward his pupils and a genuine desire to impart to them what he himself believes to be of value.

The most important knowledge teachers need to do good work is a knowledge of how students experience learning and perceive their teacher’s actions. The lasting measure of good teaching is what the individual student learns and carries away.