Your examples emphasize the need of education about diversity in schools so students can identify their biases, recognize their existence, and start watching their behaviors.
Author: Hanh
Comment on My Teaching Voice by Hanh
When students like the subject, the learning process becomes much easier, more fun, and more engaged. Students can sense if teachers do like the subject that they teach or not. I like your “excited” part. I think your students are definitely encouraged to learn by your excitement.
Comment on My Teaching Voice by Hanh
When students like the subject, the learning process becomes much easier, more fun, and more engaged. Students can sense if teachers do like the subject that they teach or not. I like your “excited” part. I think your students are definitely encouraged to learn by your excitement.
Comment on It May Not Win on American Idol, But It Works For Me by Hanh
“One year I stood in front of my class and told my students how much they meant to me–that they were the reason that I looked forward to coming to school each day. (I got quite a few hugs that day.) I thought that they knew, but saying this made so much difference in my classroom.”
As a student, I cannot agree more that it made a big difference not only in teacher-student relationship but aslo in students’ learning progress and teacher’s teaching voice.
I am sure that your students are encouraged a lot by your positive attitude.
Comment on Learning From Mistakes by Hanh
I suddenly remembered when I first came to U.S. My first written test was miserable but my teacher provided detailed feedback why I missed the points together with “you have tried but tried harder”. My second test was much better and it came back with a message “Good job! Come to see me in my office”. The way my teacher recognized my effort encourage me a lot. Teacher’s feedback is another reason why I do not like multiple choice tests.
Comment on Learning From Mistakes by Hanh
I suddenly remembered when I first came to U.S. My first written test was miserable but my teacher provided detailed feedback why I missed the points together with “you have tried but tried harder”. My second test was much better and it came back with a message “Good job! Come to see me in my office”. The way my teacher recognized my effort encourage me a lot. Teacher’s feedback is another reason why I do not like multiple choice tests.
Comment on Traditional vs. Authentic Assessment by Hanh
I hundred percent agreed with you that “students should be encouraged to enjoy the process of learning itself”. When students themselves enjoy the learning process, they will study for themselves, for their curiosity, their understanding, and NOT for grades.
Comment on Go Back to the Original Intention of Learning by Hanh
Your blog reminded me about some grad panels to show senior undergrads more about grad school. At these panels, graduate students all agreed that in grad school, especially for a PhD program, there are moments (maybe severals) that you doubt about yourself, your ability, and your choice, having a solid reason for going to grad school will help you moving on. Having a goal definitely guides you to go on the right track.
Comment on Chew and pour; Pass and forget by Hanh
As an international student, I also struggled to change my learning habit in order to adapt to a new education system.
I completely agreed with you that the memorization system has its own role in the learning process, especially at early stages or at a new field.
Comment on People: the more you expect, the more you get by Hanh
Expectation is like a double-edged knife. One hand, it might be a motivation pushing students forward. On the other hand, it might become a burden that students try to meet the expectation without enjoying the study process or even are afraid of learning. Since expectation from teachers clearly affects students’ performance, it is important to set up the “right” expectation level for students with different backgrounds and interests. Therefore, I think for each lecture, teachers can set up a minimum outcome level that every student should meet and an “upper” level, even an “advanced” level if students want to dig the problem deeper.
