Cruiser Your son gave a great answer. I think individualized attention is one of the most important and probably one of the most challenging things that a teacher has to try to do to bring out the most potential in their students. It’s difficult to do as a group and the larger the group, the harder I would think it would be.
I am not a teacher and I love one on one conversation because it really takes one on one conversation in most cases to really see and understand the other person. Maybe this is a good reason for group discussion and class participation. It allows the teacher to respond to the students more as individuals. I always sucked at class participation because I was so shy. I used to sit in my chair dreading that the teacher might call on me and ask me to contribute. Luckily I was a good student and didn’t need the extra help. If I had needed it I don’t think I would have asked for it. I did raise my hand to talk and I was comfortable with that even though I was consistently asked to “Speak up!”. God how I hated that. I would struggle to get a few more decibels out of my mousy little self! What I found harder to do was to just jump in and talk without the teacher giving me the atention and permission to talk.
marinelife Enthusiasm makes such a difference. In 8th grade there was a teacher that loved history and had such a passion for her subject matter that she made us all love it too. Her excitement about what she was teaching was so infectious.
LostinParadise “The teacher has to act as a coach, a monitor, a resource and a motivator. ”
This encompasses much of what I would think of as a great teacher.
Your answer is really interesting. When your students are feeling “stuck” maybe a lot of times it is a sort of lack of confidence they are feeling. By giving them a little guidence and pointing them in the right direction without over explaining and doing it for them you make them see they can do it themselves. That gives them additional confidence for the next time they are stuck. Plus you force them to think for themselves and develop their problem solving skills. GA.