Teaching styles impact students

April 22, 2009 • written by Kim Braesch, Staff Writer  
Filed under Feature

        When a person becomes a teacher, they do so with a certain goal in mind. That goal is to help students and share knowledge with them that they will need later in life. While they all have this same goal at heart, teachers differ in the ways they teach their classes.

        A frequently occurring technique vital for learning, is the integration of discussion in the classroom.

        “I like discussion because it allows students to see other ways that people interpret what they’ve read,” English teacher Sybil Hopkins said.

        English teacher Shawn Krinke agrees that discussion is a vital tool for students when interpreting literature.

        “If you get a good discussion, you open up new trains of thought and go beyond what the book says,” he said.

        He also feels that having discussions in class opens more windows for him to relate to students and understand how they are learning.

        “Discussion helps me build a bond with the students,” Krinke said. “When we are talking we can infuse humor and it leads to a more comfortable environment.”

        While many teachers agree that discussion is important for students, some admit that it is hard to steer away from lecturing.

        “Lecture is the easiest method of teaching,” social studies teacher Dan Holder said. “Older students can handle more lectures, but younger students have less motivation during lecture and their motivation increases when they do activities.”

        Many teachers have found that each student excels at different forms of learning.

        “When I teach, I try to have everyone do something that they like and feel successful at,” social studies teacher Kelly Scheid said. “This way, students are not being forced into learning only the way I think it should be.”

        While the methods that teachers use to teach their students are important, the way they test them can be equally important.

        “I use my own tests and I write new tests each year,” math teacher Randy Holzkamm said. “I find it best to make new tests that mirror what we covered in class instead of making our class conform to past years.”

        The types of tests that are administered to students change from teacher to teacher.

        “I hate premade tests because they assume a lot about the style of the teacher and the student’s understanding of subject,” Hopkins said. “I use essay tests because it gives students a chance to show what they know and prove their points.”

        English teacher Sarah Tron has a varied view on whether or not tests should mainly be essay tests.

        “I want students to be able to connect to the story on a personal level, but it’s hard to have too many essay tests,” Tron said. “While it is important to have a lot of writing rather than just regurgitating facts from a book, it is also important to get things back to the students in a timely fashion.”
        While teachers vary on their teaching methods as well as their testing methods, they all feel teaching with the student in mind is most important.

        “The most important thing in the classroom is who you are as a teacher and how you interact with your students,” Holder said. “If a student respects a teacher they will be more willing to learn from them no matter what the teaching methods are.”