www.Teo-Education.Com

Teaching philosophy statements are now prepared for a variety of reasons: as part of a job application process; to be included in a promotion and tenure dossier; for a teaching award; or to foster reflection about how and why you teach. Regardless of purpose, the goal ought to be preparation of statements that reveal those beliefs and practices characteristic of an individual teacher. Writing teaching philosophy statements that accurately describe the instructional self isn’t easy, given that so many of us begin teaching careers with little training and continue them with episodic professional development. A set of resources can do much to assist the process and an impressive collection appears in the article referenced below.

Among resources included in the article are summaries of seven websites that contain a range of materials on teaching philosophy statements, including definitions, suggested formats, writing exercises, sample statements, and rubrics that can be used to assess them. It also contains a list of questions that can be answered when writing about learning goals, teaching methods, assessment of student learning, and assessment of teaching.

Several writing exercises are proposed that would not only help candidates prepare statements that might stand out, but that are wonderful ways to deepen individual reflection about teaching and learning. For example, “Think about a moment in your classroom when you and the students were having a great time. Write about that ‘great moment’ using the following series of questions: What was the topic and activity during which this great moment happened? What was the goal of the activity? How did you structure the activity? What did students do during the activity? How could you demonstrate that the activity resulted in significant student learning? How does this great moment exemplify what you value about your discipline and your personal and instructional style?” (p. 140)

This is followed by the suggestion that you write about a not-so-great moment, responding to a similar set of prompts. Or you might start with a “story” that “refers to a pivotal moment, either in your own learning or in your teaching.” (p. 140) Finally, there’s a prompt that asks you to imagine that you are being interviewed for a magazine article about effective teachers. Here are some of the questions you can expect to be asked: “What is a ‘personal best’ achievement for you as a teacher during the past year? What of your worst qualities as a teacher would you throw away? If you wrote a book about teaching, what would the title be?” (p. 141)

They also identify four areas where most teaching philosophy statements could be improved. “Many early drafts of teaching philosophy statements lack concrete evidence of student learning and assessments of teaching.” (p. 142, bold added) Here writers need to either include or write about those classroom artifacts and evidence that constitute proof of learning and good teaching.

For new teachers or teachers without much experience, it can be challenging to write about the breadth and depth of teaching experience. But if different courses and different student populations have been taught, those should be described. And whatever the teaching experience, writers can explain how an experience in one instructional setting would inform what they would do in a different setting.

by Maryellen Weimer, PhD.

Read more @ http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/philosophy-of-teaching/strategies-for-writing-better-teaching-philosophy-statements/

Losing control of the classroom can be one of the most frustrating and intimidating experiences for both new and experienced teachers. Losing control can happen in several different ways. The most common would be where the class is distracted. This could be from a situation outside the classroom such as noisy conversation in the hall, or from an event elsewhere that students find out about, such as a rumor of the football coach getting fired. Losing control can also happen within the classroom, such as when one student monopolizes the discussion, or where there is a general lack of interest in the lecture, and many students are obviously not paying attention. Here are nine possible ways to regain students’ attention.

1. Have a distinct sounding object, such as a bell or cymbal. As long as you don’t use it too often, this can be an effective way to bring student’s attention back to the lecture or class discussion.

2. Signal non-verbally, and make eye contact with students when they hold side conversations, start to fall asleep, or show contempt for the lecture material. You can also use hand signals to encourage a wordy student to finish what he or she is saying, or make a time out “T” sign with your fingers to stop unwanted behavior.

3. Remember what your parents told you when a sibling was bothering you. Sometimes it is best to ignore mildly negative behaviors. Often the behavior will disappear if you do not pay any attention to it.

4. Discuss very negative behaviors in private. During break or after class firmly request a change in behavior of those students who are disruptive.

5. Use humor. One of my favorite techniques is to stop the lecture, put on a mysterious expression, and look directly at the disruptive student.

6. Rein in over participators. If somebody monopolizes a discussion, I acknowledge the value of their viewpoints and invite them to discuss their views with me during a break.

7. Implement participation rules. Tell the class that you would like to use rules such as the following: Only students who have not yet spoken can add to the discussion moving forward. Each new comment must build on a previous idea, etc.

8. Mix it up. If the last idea does not work very well, change the method of participation.

9. Don’t take it personally. Many problem behaviors have nothing to do with you.

by Rick Sheridan.

Read more @ http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-classroom-management/classroom-management-tips-for-regaining-control-of-the-classroom/

Teaching is an art that conglomerates various skills together. Along with the profound knowledge of the concerned subject, you ought to have the skills to impart your knowledge effectively. The importance and utility of teaching aids in the process of teaching cannot be undermined. It is not just enough to be a good teacher, as you also need certain teaching aids at your disposal. Lesson plan is one such important educational tool that allows the teachers to plan their lessons beforehand. Before we delve deeper into the nuances of writing a lesson plan, let us try to explore the purpose of lesson plan.

Purpose of a Lesson Plan

Lesson plan allows the teacher to plan and organize his lesson. Meticulously planned lessons are anytime better than spontaneous lectures, where the teacher himself is not aware of half the things. Planning the lesson beforehand allows the teacher to gather some insight on what the lesson is all about, what are the teaching aids at his disposal and what is the final outcome expected. This information can be of immense importance for a substitute teacher, if you have to avail a leave without prior notice.

How to Write a Lesson Plan

Set Your Goals
This is the first step while planning a lesson plan. You have to set certain objectives for your class to achieve. For instance, while planning a math lesson for basic arithmetic for elementary kids, set a goal that by the end of the lesson, your students should be able to perform simple additions. You should also set long term goals so that you can evaluate the progress of your students at the end of year. You should be able to tell if the goal can be accomplished or not.

Understand Your Class
While planning a lesson for your class, it is of utmost importance that you know your students well. Take into account various factors such as the subject, the age of the kids, their interest, their academic progress etc. This information will help you to plan your lesson wisely. Also, you’ll be able to distribute your time according to the strength and weaknesses of your students. Certain sections in the lesson may require more time than the rest. This is particularly true when you are writing a lesson plan for elementary school children with diverse interests.

Prerequisites
Prerequisites can be in terms of material things or they could be conceptual. Analyze what are the concepts or skills that your class needs to possess before you proceed for a certain lesson. This will avoid any possible rift between what you impart and what your students gather. Also, make arrangements for the relevant teaching aids in advance. When writing a lesson plan for preschool kids, you need more of teaching aids and less of actual teaching. Thus, it is necessary to plan your educational aids beforehand. This will avoid any 11th hour hassle and also make things easier for your substitute teacher.

Lesson Procedure
Once you gather an insight upon what your prerequisites are, you may proceed to planning the actual lesson. Plan your opening section, then go on explaining the main lesson. Elaborate the activities that you would like your students to undertake for better understanding of the lesson. Lastly, think about how you want to conclude your lesson. Do not forget to summarize the lesson and emphasize on important aspects of the lesson. Also, plan a follow-up activity so that the information is retained in the minds of your students.

Evaluation of Goals
This needs to be done at the end of the lesson. You are required to gather evidence if you and your students have accomplished your corresponding goals and objectives. Evaluation will help you to plan your next lesson with more expertise.

Lesson plan is a great way of determining the course of your lesson, so that both the teacher as well as students are benefited.

by Ashwini Kulkarni Sule.

Read more @ http://www.buzzle.com/articles/how-to-write-a-lesson-plan.html

Three new teachers at the front end of academic careers, about to face their first classes as teachers, want to know from somebody at the back end, “What’s most important for new teachers to know?” I don’t hear myself saying anything very coherent. I don’t want to give what new teachers frequently get: pat answers and banal suggestions that seem to be helpful without actually being so.

I’m spending the day with a wonderful group of faculty (most of them not new teachers) who teach a two-semester Focused Inquiry course required of all first-year students at their institution. It sounds like a fantastic course with content that grows out of a theme-based set of readings. The faculty’s clear focus on learning and students is so refreshing.

But it’s the query from the new faculty that has followed me home. After thinking more, I’ve come up with an answer.

Recognize that learning is more important than teaching. It’s very easy for students and teachers to get focused on the teaching. Students ask each other: “Do you like your teachers?” “Do you have any good ones?” Teachers ask, mostly themselves, “Is my teaching any good?” “What else should I be doing?” Teaching is terribly important. It can contribute so much to learning, but it’s not essential. Learning can happen without teachers, which means there’s no justification for teaching that doesn’t promote learning. This is why the focus on learning is more fundamental and why the best ways to improve teaching grow out of understanding how students are learning.

Consider questions more important than answers. Learning is a quest powered by questions—the curious inquiry that transforms into a powerful need to know. Teachers and students have the right (or is it an obligation?) to ask questions. They may direct the questions to each other, to classmates and to themselves. They should question the ideas and information set before them. They should question answers, their own and those of others. Learning is the difficult but joyful pursuit of answers and answers are good, not for what they settle, but for the new questions they raise.

Take advantage of the opportunity to learn. College isn’t much of an experience for those who know everything or for those who’ve got all the answers. But college may be the best place in the world for learners. There are more of them per square inch at a college than any place else. Colleges exist for the purpose of learning. Granted, not all learners in a college know the same things or have the same levels of expertise, which is why students have much to learn from teachers. But teachers are learners, too, and for every learner there is always more to know; about what is already known and what is, at the moment, unknown.

When learners gather, they do so in a space of possibility. In that space shared by learners, new ideas may be formed, new discoveries made, and this creation of knowledge is a possibility whether you’re the teacher or the student. A bit of magic and some mystery surround the learning spaces in classrooms, including those online. Many days, as learners work together, things seem pretty mundane.

by Maryellen Weimer, PhD.

Read more @ http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/advice-to-new-teachers-and-new-students-learning-is-a-quest/

In the now classic article Confidence in the Classroom: Ten Maxims for New Teachers, author Jim Eison offers priceless advice for new teachers. Over the years, I have given hundreds of copies of this article to new and not-so-new faculty. Even though it was published more than 20 years ago, it still deserves a place in your collection of indispensible articles on college teaching.

The type of confidence Jim outlined in the article is not to be confused with arrogance—that overbearing pride that finds expression in classrooms where how much the teacher knows is regularly displayed and compared with how little the students know. Those overbearing types are not likely to be reading a blog like this so that’s not what’s on tap today.

We all know that effective teachers teach with confidence, but what makes Jim’s article so great is that he identifies the sources of that confidence. It starts with a clear-eyed examination of why you teach. For the money? Not likely, and not a sustaining reason. For the glory? Not likely. How many rich and famous college teachers do you know? For the students? Now there’s a more promising possibility. Because the future depends on people knowing what you teach? Another possibility with potential. There will be different reasons but they must be ones that energize the intellectual, emotional and physical demands of teaching. Teachers of any age will enter the class with confidence and poise if they are there for important reasons. It’s good to regularly revisit yours.

You teach with confidence when you know the ingredients and components of effective instruction—when you know what good teachers do. Good teaching is not a mystery; it isn’t a gift. It’s compromised of acquirable skills—meaning you can learn what the skills are and work to develop them. Research starting in the 30s has identified the ingredients or components of effective instruction with remarkable consistency. Jim’s article offers a neat summary of three: speak actively (be expressive and enthusiastic), teach actively (engage students, let your teaching be about their learning), and care actively (be concerned about your students; their lives and learning).

You teach with confidence when you are prepared—when you go to a course or a specific class with explicit goals in mind. You know what you want to accomplish and you’ve planned how that will happen. That doesn’t mean that you’re inflexibly married to the plan for the day. There should be digressions and unplanned opportunities for learning, but after they happen they can be folded into your larger course plan. Being prepared isn’t about perfection. Good teachers hold themselves to high, but achievable standards. You teach with confidence when you know you’ve done your homework, when you’ve prepared as intensely as you hope your students have. But you teach realistically; teachers tend to prepare more intensely than students.

by Maryellen Weimer, PhD.

Read more @ http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/teaching-with-confidence-advice-for-new-faculty/

Part of being a great teacher is really getting to know your students. This can be incredibly difficult when you find yourself looking at thirty new faces on the first day of school. Arming yourself with some great getting to know you activities can help you get to know your students, as well as help them get to know each other.

Human Scavenger Hunt

A human scavenger hunt is one of my favorite activities to do with my high school students, but it would work well with any age group. To prepare, you need to create a worksheet with a list of different qualities, likes, dislikes, etc. on it. Preferably, you should have as many options as you have students in the class. These can be things like “plays football” or “likes broccoli” or “has a sibling.” To increase the difficulty, put things on the sheet like “can recite the alphabet backwards” or “is wearing socks that aren’t white.” Then, have your students walk around the room finding people who fit these descriptions. Tell them to sign their classmates’ papers next to the description they fit, and that each person in the room can only sign their paper one time. If you play, too, you can use that time to talk to your students and learn about them.

Color-Coded Candy

Students love this activity because they get to eat their candy when they are done. To prepare, get a big bag of multi-colored candy. Starbursts work well because few people are allergic to them, but Skittles or M&M’s are also good options. Each color of candy should be matched with something the students have to tell the class about themselves. Write on the board what each color means. Yellow could be something they did during the summer, pink could be a favorite food, orange could be something that makes them happy, etc. You can pick what you want your students to talk about. Then, make sure each student has a few pieces of candy on their desks; the number of pieces is up to you. It is not important that they each have several pieces of different colors. If they end up with four yellow candies, for example, you can have them trade or they have to say four things they did during the summer. Go around the room and have students share their information. As they share, they can eat their candies.

Peer Interviews

Peer interviews are especially good for a speech-based class. This gets the students up in front of the room and talking to the class early on in the year. To do this activity, have the class develop five questions they will ask a partner. You can have them each develop their own questions, or develop five as a class. Then, partner the students. It’s best if you partner them with someone they don’t know well, and the easiest way to do that is let them sit wherever they want at first (because they will sit near their friends if given the option), then pair them up with someone totally across the room from where they chose to sit. Have them interview their partners and write down the answers. When the interview is over, have the partners stand in front of the room and introduce whom they interviewed and tell the class a little about them.

Personal Essays

Personal essays are a great way to get your students writing right at the start of the year. These can be essays you have your students develop into formal assignments, or they can take the form of a more casual journal entry. Ask your students to respond to several questions about themselves in writing.

by Buzzle Staff and Agencies.

Read more @ http://www.buzzle.com/articles/getting-to-know-you-activities-for-the-first-week-of-school.html

Reading, writing and arithmetic are the basics of our educational system and the fundamentals of any child’s success. There are three stages of literary development that, when properly encouraged, can lead your child to a life long love of reading and writing.

Stage One: Developing A Love For Reading

The most important first step to any child’s education is story time. Reading to your child not only sparks a love for literature, but it improves their focus and attention span. Studies have actually been done to prove that reading to a child grows the brain. Although any book you read to your child will foster their development, there are actually specific types of literature that will really give them a head start.

Classic Fairy Tales:

Start by reading classic fairy tales to your child. This will build a social and intellectual reference for them as well as teaching them to love classic literature. Once your child masters a classic fairy tale, find a deviation of the fairy tale.

For example, if your daughter loves “Cinderella,” check out “The Cowboy Prince: A Fractured Texas Tale.” This book is the “Cinderella” story with a twist. Reading these extra special twisted fairytales to your child will stretch their imagination and help them to understand the classic fairy tale on a deeper level.

Poetry And Rhyme:

Reading classic poetry and nursery rhymes along with Dr. Suessical styles of literature, will help your child to learn to read. Once your child masters the art of the rhyme he or she will naturally begin to make up his or her own. This is a good thing to encourage, as it will soon lead to reading as well as storytelling.

Stage Two: Foster Your Child’s Imagination

Imaginary play is necessary for many reasons. Imaginary play is the number one avenue for learning in children under five years of age. This is the way they grow their social skills, their understanding and this is how their imagination is stretched.

Play dates, dress up and tea parties are all great imaginary play. Non-traditional toys are good too; objects like empty boxes and blankets over tables are all good for requiring the imagination to work. Change your child’s rooms from time to time, this can be as simple as rearranging the furniture. Keep some of your child’s toys in crates so that they can be switched out and rearranged from time to time.

Stage Three: Encourage Your Child To Write

Write It All Down:

You may not be a writer, but your child will see you writing in your everyday life, and even before they know how to write he or she may come to you and ask you to write out one of their stories. When your child asks you to do this, oblige him or her. Write out every broken and silly word. Your child may not be the next Jane Eyre, but indulge him or her anyway. The rewards will be many. This exercise is good for the imagination, the deductive reasoning muscle and if nothing else it will help you bond with your child.

Solve Mysteries Together:

The exercise of reading and writing mysteries is fantastic. Make up mysteries to be solved around the house. Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? Who left the paw prints on the front door? As your child grows, give them the crime scene and the characters and have them write a story for you.

Purchase Mad Lib Comic Books. These are “fill in the blank” comic books. They are great fun. There are many websites where you can download story cards. These are picture cards that allow you to teach your child story sequencing as well as make up their own stories.

Encouraging your child to write is as simple as turning off the television, reading a book and making up a story; his or her imagination will do the rest.

by Cathleene Filmore.

Read more @ http://www.helium.com/items/989511-how-to-get-kids-excited-about-writing

It would be very easy, especially at this time of year, and with the title ‘Fresh Start,’ to turn this ezine into another article on New Year resolutions that seem to be littering the papers and glossy magazines at present. But regardless of the time of year, ‘fresh start’ is a powerful component of any behaviour management strategy. Holding grudges, allowing problems to continue unresolved and failing to repair relationships can all have adverse effects on your ability to respond appropriately and to manage your own emotions.

To continue pursuing issues, or begin where you left off yesterday (or the previous lesson) will simply encourage a downward spiral of morale. Even worse, what may have begun as a low level problem can quickly escalate into a major, on-going incident lasting several days. This type of problem leads to inappropriate responses from both teacher and pupil, sanctions, possible exclusion and most certainly lasting damage to relationships. There is little to be gained from prolonging problems, and if you are in the business of tallying up the number of misdemeanors committed by individual pupils, some will be so far in the red they will never be able to catch up and begin to make progress. It is a little like taking one step forward and at least three steps backwards each lesson! It is important to take your emotional involvement away from the issue and view each session, day and lesson as a fresh start. Don’t build on previous difficulties. Avoid using such phrases as:

• ‘Every day it’s the same with you!’
• ‘Your brother was just the same!’
• ‘Not you again!’
• ‘We’re just picking up from where we left off yesterday!’

It is not only important to view each lesson and day as an opportunity to make a fresh start; it is also helpful to take a fresh look at the behaviours and problems that cause you stress and annoyance. To continually view certain behaviours as problems will inevitably have a detrimental effect on morale and enthusiasm.

Practical Tips

Here is a simple but effective exercise to change your negative thoughts about problem behaviour into positive targets.

Make a list of the top 10 behaviours that really cause you concern in the classroom or around the school building. Your list may look something like this:

• failure to comply with adult directions
• calling out
• corridor noise
• answering back and arguing
• neglecting to bring the lesson equipment
• latecomers
• moaning colleagues
• litter in and around the school
• low level disruption, such as tapping and humming
• interruptions.

Once you have composed your list of annoyances, the next step is to rephrase all of them in turn into the exact opposites. Try to be creative in your descriptions. Don’t simply describe the opposite behaviour of latecomers as ‘being on time’. Try to describe the behaviour that would please you and cause your stress levels to remain at normal. This may include:

• listening to and following instructions without argument or refusal
• attracting attention appropriately (raising hand or showing a ‘help’ card)
• sympathetic and helpful colleagues who boost your self-esteem
• calm, quiet and sensible movement in the corridors

Once you have constructed your two lists, take the first one (the behaviours that annoy) and screw up the paper and throw it away. It is more effective to actually screw up the hard copy paper and throw it away rather than just hitting the delete button! Now all you have left is the list of behaviours you want to see and hear on a daily basis. Spend time developing strategies to nurture these good behaviours rather than dwelling on the negative ones.

Your thoughts and vocabulary can now begin to reflect your fresh start approach to managing behaviour. Each lesson or day brings the opportunity to start again with no overspill of the disruptive behaviour from the previous day. You are now also focusing on the positives, reducing interruptions, encouraging pupils to attract your attention appropriately rather than calling out and taking responsibility to arrive at your lesson on time with all the correct equipment.

Remembering that your thoughts and emotions drive your behaviour, it is important to focus on the positive rather than sink into the negative. Restructuring your opinions and targets for development in a more positive format will restore your enthusiasm. This will allow you to effectively manage difficult behaviour and create an environment in which you can teach and your pupils can learn.

by Dave Stott, who has nearly 30 years’ teaching experience including seven years as a headteacher.

Read more @ http://www.teachingexpertise.com/e-bulletins/fresh-start-your-behaviour-management-approach-4002

Despite the fact that numerous articles have been written on the importance of the first day, too many of us still use it to do little more than go over the syllabus and review basic guidelines for the course. This year I decided to try a different approach, and the results were much more dramatic than I expected. I taught real material on the first day. Despite that, there have been fewer questions about course policies, with some students actually referencing them without even a mention from me. Let me explain how I achieved these results.

On the first day (I used this approach in all my courses), I spent the majority of the time teaching content that related to the overall ideas of the course. Thus, in freshman composition, a course that focuses on experiential learning, I had the students go outside and experience a brief period of blindness. They took turns taping cotton balls over their eyes and leading each other around. We then analyzed the experience and talked about how one might craft a thesis to describe what happened. In a Western literature class, I introduced the major ideas of the Enlightenment and talked about how the interplay of reason and emotion would reoccur throughout the course.

Only after this exposure to course content did I give students a copy of the syllabus. Rather than going through it in detail, I told students that they were perfectly capable of reading it. I think we should start assuming that students ranging from developmental courses to upper-division major classes can read and understand a syllabus. Rather than treating the syllabus as something special, I decided to handle it as another reading assignment.

To prepare students for this reading assignment, I did a brief presentation (I used PowerPoint this year, which I almost never use) on the most important aspects of the syllabus: why students are taking the course, how to get in touch with me, our university’s mission statement, academic support for those with disabilities, how to access the online readings, and the overall structure of the class. I limited the presentation to 10 minutes. I have even begun to wonder if I could skip handing out the syllabus altogether and simply have students print it off themselves and read it before coming to the first day of class.

On the second day, I had students pick up note cards as they arrived for class. I asked them to write on the card any questions they had about the syllabus. In one class of just over 30 students, I answered fewer than five questions, and it took less than five minutes. Even in my largest class, which had the most questions, I was still able to respond in less than 10 minutes. Thus, my presentation of the syllabus took 15 minutes, at best, as opposed to the 40 to 50 minutes it used to take.

I also used bonus questions taken from the syllabus on my reading quizzes. This makes it clear to students who have not read the syllabus that they are losing out on extra points. I have considered giving a quiz solely on the syllabus, as I have heard some professors do, but that seems a bit petty to me. I can see, though, how that approach reinforces the idea of treating the syllabus as class material, just like any other reading assignment.

In the past few weeks since the semester started, I have had more students reference policies from the syllabus than I usually have in an entire semester. Students know how many points I deduct for late papers, and two students in one class wanted to discuss our school’s mission statement. They asked if I believed we are actually trying to live it out (we are a religious institution), something that has never happened in my eight years of teaching here.

Rather than wasting that all-important first day going over material students can read on their own, I recommend we begin by introducing students to ideas from the course. Almost all of us complain about running out of time by the end of the semester, but a better beginning can help us reclaim at least one day of it, if we use it wisely.

by Kelvin Brown.

Read more @ http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/dont-waste-the-first-day-of-class/

A lot of students just don’t seem all that interested in learning. Most faculty work hard to help students find that missing motivation. They try a wide range of active learning strategies, and those approaches are successful with a lot of students but not all students.

Stephen Brookfield writes about students who are beyond being passive about learning—they just plain resist it. He suggests that teachers can’t respond successfully unless they are knowledgeable about the sources of resistance to learning. Here’s a sample of possibilities that appear in his book The Skillful Teacher.

1. Poor self-image as learners—If students don’t think they can learn, they often resist efforts that seek to make them learn. These are students who, at the first hint of trouble, abandon even fledgling efforts. Any negative feedback just confirms what they already believe: they aren’t smart enough; they will never be able to figure it out. “Developing a strong self-image as a learner—regarding oneself as someone able to acquire new skills, knowledge, behaviors, and insights—is a crucial psychological underpinning to learning.” (p. 217)
2. Fear of the unknown—Some students resist learning because they are afraid. Students like doing what they already know. They hold on to beliefs that have served them well, especially those passed on from parents. “People committed to eternal verities can withstand years of dissonant experiences and mountains of contradictory evidence that call these [beliefs] into question.” (p. 218) For many students, the comfort and security of where they are causes them to resist going to new places, especially places where beliefs might be held more tentatively.
3. Disjunction between learning and teaching styles—Most teachers have experienced this: bright, capable students who resist what’s happening in class. Once a student in my class said, with some passion, “I hate discussion!” “Why?” “I can’t figure out how to take notes off a discussion. What are you supposed to write down?” He was an engineering major and talked often about how clear and organized the content was in his engineering courses. Content is configured differently across disciplines. Sometimes students resist when their preferred approach to learning is at odds with how the information is organized or is being presented.
4. Apparent irrelevance of the learning activity—Students resist learning when they don’t see how or what an activity contributes to their efforts to learn. If it looks like busywork or a waste of time, students resist. Brookfield points out that this is particularly true when learners are paying for their education themselves.
5. Inappropriate level of required learning—Students get frustrated and angry when they can’t understand the content. They object to unfamiliar language and the fast-paced delivery of complicated material. The frustration quickly becomes resistance. Brookfield also uses the example of teachers who transfer too much of the responsibility for learning to students too quickly. Students resist. The teacher is asking them to do what he or she is being paid to do.
6. Students’ dislike of teachers—It’s not a particularly pleasant thought, but sometimes students resist because they just plain don’t like the teacher. Maybe objections to the teacher are justified or maybe they aren’t, but sometimes teachers themselves cause resistance.

Brookfield’s list is actually quite a bit longer, but these examples illustrate a variety of sources of resistance to learning. He points out that teachers should not expect to be able to “overcome,” or completely dissipate, resistance. They should work to contain or mitigate its effects.

To do this, he recommends that teachers start by trying to sort out the causes of resistance and decide if the resistance is justified. If the instruction is being aimed at a level way above the level of most students in the class, the resistance is justified and the teacher can do something about fixing the problem.

He offers a number of other useful suggestions. For example, teachers need to build a case for learning. They should explain clearly and often why something is important, why it’s relevant, and why it’s something students need to know. For learners without confidence who are afraid of new knowledge, it helps to create learning situations in which they can taste some success early on.

Finally, teachers will deal more constructively with resistance to learning once they come to accept that it is normal and that students, in fact, have the right to resist. Students cannot be forced to learn anything. All teachers can do is to make the case for learning and work to create conditions that are conducive to it.

by Maryellen Weimer.

Read more @ http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/student-learning-six-causes-of-resistance/