An Activity for Teacher Trainers



Here you will find an activity that I learned while I was doing Pilgrims ‘Humanizing Testing’ course in the UK. I also came across a similar version of the activity in the forum journal (October 2003, volume: 41/ number: 4)

Here is the procedure given in the forum journal:

‘1.The list below contains a variety of statements about teaching and learning. Select some of them and prepare small posters, laminated cards, an overhead transparency, or another way of displaying them for all participants to see.

2. Ask participants to choose, or  stand next to, the statement they feel most strongly about (often it is difficult to decide).Then ask them to work with someone else who chose the same statement, and spend a few minutes discussing why they chose that one. If time permits, in pairs they can describe any personal experiences that illustrate the statement and/or write their reaction to the statement.

3. Conclude with a discussion of all the displayed statements. Ask participants to share their opinions, focusing on the principles of teaching and learning exemplified by each one.

4. For an alternative or extension of the activity, first prepare envelopes that contain each of the statements on a separate strip of paper. Then divide participants into small groups, giving one envelope to each group. Ask groups to categorize the statements and create titles for each category. Again, ask participants to share their opinions, this time focusing on the principles of teaching and learning exemplified by the categories.’

And here are some of the statements given in the same journal:

‘Teach students not materials’

‘Don’t be a sage on the stage!’

‘Students do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.’

‘The least loveable children are often the ones who need to be loved most.’

‘He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.’

‘To learn is to change. Education is a process that changes the learner (George B. Leonard)

‘I cannot teach anyone anything; I can only make them think. (Socrates)

‘To teach is to learn twice.’ (Joseph Joubert)

Here is my adaptation of the procedure:

·        Find some statements about your topic (In my session, it was Constructivism)

·        Write the statements on big cards

·        Stick them on the walls

·        Ask participants to walk around, read the statements and choose the one they feel most strongly about

·        Then ask them to work in pairs and spend a few minutes discussing why they chose that one.

·        Then each participant reports back to class.

Here are the statements I used for my session:

‘Learners come to learning situations with knowledge gained from previous experience, and that prior knowledge influences what new or modified knowledge they will construct from new learning experiences.’

‘People learn only if they are ready to learn.’

‘Constructivism's central idea is that human learning is constructed, that learners build new knowledge upon the foundation of previous learning.’

‘Teaching cannot be viewed as the transmission of knowledge from enlightened to unenlightened’

‘Learning is active rather than passive. Learners confront their understanding in light of what they encounter in the new learning situation. If what learners encounter is inconsistent with their current understanding, their understanding can change to accommodate new experience.’

‘It is up to the teacher to facilitate the constructivist learning process. The structure of the learning environment should promote opportunities and events that encourage and support the building of understanding.’

‘Students construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences.’

‘Learning is always being taught in a way where students can build on what they already know’

‘We’ll never know how the world really is. We always have to construct what we think the world really is.’ (Jerome Bruner)

‘Teachers must note that knowledge and provide learning environments that exploit inconsistencies between learners' current understandings and the new experiences before them. This challenges teachers; for they cannot assume that all children understand something in the same way. Further, children may need different experiences to advance to different levels of understanding.’

“Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. '

'Constructivists believe that based on prior experiences and knowledge, meaningful learning takes place when individuals construct their own meaning, rather than memorize answers and regurgitate what they’ve been taught.'