Early childhood or college teachers?
I’m currently teaching early childhood students …in my paid position …and I love it. It’s a special way of doing children’s ministry without the minister title. Many more relationships to foster without that minister wall to climb over, go around, or look through.
I’m continuing to read What the Best College Teachers Do and it’s more than what college teachers do; these ideas can be applied to any teacher of any age group.
On page 88, the author states, “Highly effective teachers must choose questions and issues carefully and select common readings even more cautiously…easier reading first, more difficult later.”
He explains that some professors don’t want to hear students talk about their subject because they don’t know enough, but he reminds us of piano teachers who don’t expect their students to play the piano like Mozart. They don’t push them off the piano bench for a few bad notes early in their lessons. They give them practice and guidance, and they have faith in their students.
Early childhood students start from the beginning in most every subject and aspect of education and life. They must be taught the basics of life and survival as well as academic knowledge. As teachers, we don’t expect them to know how to do double digit addition problems from the first day of school. We begin with basic number recognition and one concept builds on another.
The same is true for college students in any subject area. Teachers don’t expect students to know all about their subject on the first day of classes. They give them simple readings that build on more difficult ones. I like what this author says about those reading assignments: (page 88-89) “They don’t discuss readings with students; they get them involved in thinking about issues, taking positions, and drawing from their readings to make arguments and solve problems.”
Early childhood teachers do the same thing. They are the facilitators who get students involved in the learning process by asking those same involvement questions.
Even though teachers work with different age groups and on different levels, the concept is similar and many of the same aspects can be applied.
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