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NO-TEACH TEACHING

  • 1.  NO-TEACH TEACHING

    Posted 03-12-2019 02:01 PM

    NO-TEACH TEACHING

    If I understand information from neurobiology correctly, early childhood education, and adult education for that matter, should no longer directly teach information to young children. We won't be giving up being educators, but we will pay attention to research that suggests that direct teaching is not effective. Teaching now needs to focus on developing attention to things we want children to learn. Then we can reinforce their curiosity and progress they make with the information we believe important. This issue is about the attention, attunement, and synchronicity that we've discussed before on Hello.

    The research that has affected my thinking the most was observation of mothers teaching their four-month-old infants to pay attention to a colorful object. Some mothers tried to make their infant look at the object, and some just waited for the child to see it and then reinforced that attention. The exciting part was that the children were tested when they were three-years-old and the mothers who had waiting for the interest of their child had developed regulation of emotion and impulsivity and the other mother's children had not made this important progress.

    I hope we can discuss this information as I think that it profoundly affects early childhood education.



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    Jack Wright
    Child Development Consultant
    Success With Children
    St Ignatius MT
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  • 2.  RE: NO-TEACH TEACHING

    Posted 03-13-2019 11:14 AM
    Hi Jack,
       Let me start off by introducing myself to you. I am a 17 year old high school student in New Jersey who has been interested in education curriculum for a year now. I have looked on this post regarding no-teach teaching and I am more than happy to discuss it with you. Can we set up a time to talk?


                                           Sincerely,  
                                             John David DeOliveira

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    John David DeOliveira
    Randolph NJ
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  • 3.  RE: NO-TEACH TEACHING

    Posted 03-13-2019 06:02 PM
    John, I would be happy to talk with you. Could we start with an email? Mine is alexjack@blackfoot.net.  Jack

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    Jack Wright
    Child Development Consultant
    Success With Children
    St Ignatius MT
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  • 4.  RE: NO-TEACH TEACHING

    Posted 03-13-2019 09:33 PM
    I can't agree with you more, that a shift is needed in our approach to supporting the development of young children. I long for a better name for this approach because the term "teacher", and even, "educator" implies that our work is something we do TO children or For children rather than WITH them. I fear that a focus on meeting standards and "preparing children to be ready for school" has taken us on a path that leads to judgement and expectations rather than to discovery, exploration, and wonder. I believe that learning to be "in synch" with what children are doing and thinking will not only improve the outcomes for them but will also restore the joy and love adults can experience in this field.

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    Linda Boss
    Instructor
    University of WI - Platteville
    Lewistown PA
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  • 5.  RE: NO-TEACH TEACHING

    Posted 03-14-2019 09:27 AM
    Thank you, Nora and Linda. Great comments.

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    Jack Wright
    Child Development Consultant
    Success With Children
    St Ignatius MT
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  • 6.  RE: NO-TEACH TEACHING

    Posted 03-14-2019 08:04 AM
    I have been in the early childhood education field for over 50 years. I have seen the use of terms that direct the way teaching takes place that <g class="gr_ gr_4441 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="4441" data-gr-id="4441">have</g> limited how we teach children. There has always been a struggle between direct and child initiated learning. There is a tendency to put them at opposite ends of a continuum where you need to choose between them, not combine them. I lived through the incredible misunderstanding of the term "open classroom" in the United States, known as "integrated day" in England. In England (back in the 1970s), when <g class="gr_ gr_5047 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="5047" data-gr-id="5047">research</g> was done on the integrated day method in comparison to direct teaching, it turned out that the classrooms that combined these methods were the most effective - a classroom that used both direct teaching and child initiated learning.

    So, I am scared about what you are bringing up here in your post, John. There is no rigid way to teach. Yes, no-teach teaching has its place - a big place. You see an emphasis on no-teach teaching in some philosophies of teaching that I truly believe are the best environments for children to develop and learn. And, yes, neuroscientists are writing more and more about how learning actually takes place, which includes and a better understanding of how children make sense of the world and what interferes with their learning.

    No-teach teaching, to me, is a terrible term that is pejorative and does not really explain what neurobiologists mean about child-initiated learning and the role of the teacher in designing the environment as the third teacher to "provoke" learning, which might include some "direct" instruction depending on the age of the child.

    A constructivist philosophy of teaching and learning and some other approaches that to me fall under that umbrella - Reggio inspired classrooms and emergent curriculum as well as others - include a lot of what you call no-teaching teaching but they also include some direct presentation of information. To say that teachers should no longer do any direct instruction is to misunderstand the term, no-teach teaching, and the teacher's role in the classroom.

    Yes, we would not sit down with an infant and try to use direct methods of teaching. The learning that occurs would result from the social interactions with the infant or the toddler. It would be developmentally inappropriate to do otherwise<g class="gr_ gr_6181 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="6181" data-gr-id="6181">.</g>

    A teacher should be guided by her knowledge of child development at different ages. She needs to be a keen observer of children - noticing what they are interested in and how they are trying to make sense of the world. And, yes, she should design the environment to build on the children's interests and also provoke them to engage in learning based on those interests that builds their knowledge of the world. Sometimes, the child will need information from the teacher - direct instruction<g class="gr_ gr_6202 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="6202" data-gr-id="6202">.</g>

    I fear that if we say that there should be no direct teaching, we will become dogmatic and miss important opportunities to provide information to a child in a timely manner based on what we have observed they want to understand or are struggling to understand.

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    Nora Krieger
    Associate Professor Emerita/ Chair NJEEPRE
    Bloomfield College/ New Jersey Educators Exploring the Practices of Reggio Emilia
    Highland Park NJ
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  • 7.  RE: NO-TEACH TEACHING

    Posted 03-14-2019 09:22 AM
    Here is a use quote I like to use during curriculum training that helps define the role of a teacher:

    "We teachers must be able to catch the ball that children throw us and toss it back to them in such a way that will continue the game, perhaps developing other games as we go along". 

                    (Filippini 1990 as cited in Edwards, Gandini and Formam 1993, 153)

    Most important thing we can do as teacher is pay attention...then we will know what to do. 



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    Steven Erwin
    Kaplan Early Learning Company
    Chico CA
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  • 8.  RE: NO-TEACH TEACHING

    Posted 03-14-2019 09:29 AM
    Steven, thank you for that nice quote.

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    Jack Wright
    Child Development Consultant
    Success With Children
    St Ignatius MT
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  • 9.  RE: NO-TEACH TEACHING

    Posted 03-15-2019 05:02 PM
    I agree with Nora.  We need to provide a balance of child-directed and adult directed interactions.  Letting children take shared control of what they are learning actually helps them learn more.  The environment we provide for the children is key.  This type of education should apply not only to early educators but to all levels of education!

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    Theresa Hurley
    Medford Lakes NJ
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  • 10.  RE: NO-TEACH TEACHING

    Posted 03-15-2019 10:16 PM

    I have been an educator for more than thirty years, but I speak now as an early childhood Montessorian in a public charter school.  My role is to guide children on their educational journey.  Sometimes I merely plant the seeds (curriculum) and provide the environment and the resources that enable them to explore, to experiment, and to gain mastery of the desired knowledge and skills.  I am an observer and an active listener.  From my perspective, this is no-teach teaching. 

    However, this approach does not work for all children all of the time.  Sometimes I have to gather data while I'm observing, determine areas of need and develop an individual learning plan for a child.  Some children require more attention to detail and more one-on-one support with task analyzed work through a gradual release model.  These children are often my struggling learners.

    Then there are times for whole or small group direct teaching (even in Montessori)!  Shared reading/writing, story time, science experiments, biology lessons, nature walks are just a few examples.  I also love the teachable moments that often spring from these directed activities.

    I agree with you, Nora, that teaching is, by its very nature, a multifaceted and eclectic mixed bag of tricks, and each has its own time and place and purpose for every child.



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    Pam Ebersole
    Early Childhood Educator
    Palm Bay, Florida
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  • 11.  RE: NO-TEACH TEACHING

    Posted 03-26-2019 11:27 PM
    Hello, 
    When the classroom environment is designed correctly the teacher can achieve the concept of no-teach teaching.  The children cam just go play without the teacher because the classroom design. 
    Thank you
    Melanie

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    Melanie Smith
    The Preschool Doctor
    thepreschooldoctor.com
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