MODELS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING CHAPTERS 1 and 2

It has never been more important for teachers and students to have as many teaching and learning models to choose from and be able to adapt them to the educational environment effectively. Our world is changing rapidly. With the rapidly expanding communications system, the teacher and student have unlimited access to information and knowledge. The question remains, how do we as teachers present, demonstrate, teach, advise students so that they can utilize, decipher and contribute to this learning environment?

The scenarios presented in the first chapter briefly describe several models of teaching and learning. The emphasis is on assisting student’s abilities to educate themselves now and in the future. We cannot predict what the future holds, and how technology and the world will be in the next decade, let alone the next millennium. It is essential that students learn how to learn.

Chapter 2 continues this theme. “The core of the teaching process is the arrangement of environments within which the students can interact and study how to learn.” This statement applies not only to onsite classrooms but also to online and interactive television and audio courses that educators conduct. In these types of educational environments, the teacher rarely has personal contact or personal interaction with the students. At the undergraduate level especially, students can be any age, of any socioeconomic status and cultural background. The point being, that it is essential to become knowledgeable and experiment with all of the models presented in Chapter 2 and apply them to many different educational environments.

The models presented in Chapter 2 include four models: the social family, the information-processing family, the personal family and the behavioral systems family. Each model is briefly described and the corresponding chapter cited where the reader can find more complete information. The essence of both chapters is to encourage teachers to include a number of these models and expand on them to build a community of learners.