Teach By Showing, Learn By Doing

,October 5, 2022
Post Number 220

Let me start this post with a greeting to all the teachers in the world...

Happy Teacher'sa Day!

For those of you who have been following me for qui te some time, you know already that I, too, am a part-time teacher.

Yes, I do teach part-time. I have a computer engineering background and have worked (and still offering my services) as an IT professional, but I came to love the teaching profession.

Greetings once again, my dear readers and friends. Today is the World Teacher Day. To me, teaching is perhaps the noblest profession ever. For, there will be no doctors, nurses, lawyers, accountants, and other professionals if there are no teachers.

Teachers are generally the unsung heroes for generations. Some teachers are truly gifted that touch and mold the lives of their students. Sadly though, there are also who became teachers just for the sake of having a job for the salary.

Teaching, however, is not an easy job. I have been teaching for more than ten years now, and I am married to a kindergarten teacher as well. I am teaching in a private school while she teaches in a public school. Thus I know or at least have a pretty good picture of what's happening on both sides of this profession.

My focus in this article, however, is on how should one teach.

Disclaimer.

First, a little disclaimer. Though I am teaching, I did not take basic education courses. Thus, I cannot be technically regarded as an expert in the field of education. What I will share with you in this article is based on what I have learned and experienced as a teacher.

If this post may indicate some of the shortcomings of the educational system in the Philippines, this is just a matter of personal opinion.

So How Should a Teacher Teach?

I borrowed my title from an article with the same title in a very old issue of Reader's Digest. My late dad used to have a library of old issues of Reader's Digest from the 1960s to 1992 (the year he passed away).

I think it was a late 70s issue. The article was about farming technologies and techniques developed during the Marcos (Senior) era. The goal was to teach the farmers new technologies and techniques in farming that could increase their production. The most effective method that they develop was to show the farmers how it is done on the field, and that the farmers should have hands-on experience.

"Teach by showing, learn by doing." I believe this philosophy is the best approach to teaching. The best gauge to measure how much the learners have improved is for them to show their skills. It's not their examination results, it's not how many theories they memorized. Rather it's how they much theories they can apply. How many skills have they developed?

This is most apparent in the subjects that I am teaching... computers. For Junior High, I am teaching HTML and other web development skills. For the 10th grade, I introduced Scratch Programming. I wanted to introduce Mobile App Development, but our Internet connection is too unstable.
Since, in the first quarter, we have limited face-to-face meetings, I had difficulties coming up with an effective method of delivering my lessons. I only met my students once in the first month. If they had computer subjects in the last two years, maybe, I could trust them to learn on their own. But these are kids whose exposure to gadgets is through social media and mobile games. Most of them don't care how a website works, as long as they can use them. 

When I explain things to them and ask them questions, they seem to understand the theory. However, when I gave them a simple task to do, the truth was revealed. Most of them did not understand the lesson until they were able to do it themselves.

In Closing.

In the current education system, kids focus on having high scores in their exams. They would memorize facts, formulas, and equations to do that. They would submit a hundred-page "research" paper after a day of "copying" facts from the Internet just to get high grades. Parents would hire tutors to make sure their children will have "high grades". Worse, they would hire someone to make their kid's projects to ensure a high grade.
I think this way of thinking should change.

The best way for the students to learn is for them to do things themselves. That is after the teacher has shown them how it is done.

Thanks For Reading.

Total Posts. 220
Post No. 5 for October

Check out also my other earning sites. (Note: Containsreferral Links)

|Read.cash | Noise.cash | Hive (Via Ecency)| Noise.App |

| Forum Coin |Publish0x | https://cointiply.mobi/8yiK |

Or Checkout my LinkTree for updated links.