Great teachers are leaders. They persuade students to care about what they are learning.
In This Lesson
What makes kids interested in school?
What makes school fun for kids?
What is pedagogy? Is it illegal?
How does project-based learning work?
★ Discussion Guide
Some make it exciting. Some make it fun. Some make it feel important and grown-up. Some make it part of a journey that leads to a destination that students care about. But one way or another, great teachers make learning relevant.
Curriculum is the education buzzword for "what" is taught. Pedagogy is the buzzword for "how" it is taught. Teachers are accustomed to this word, and use it without blushing. (If you are new to education it helps to practice saying it in different ways: "she's improving her pedagogy," "my concerns are pedagogical." Better yet, don't.) It rhymes with "stodgy" in common use, but you can make it sound even phaahncier if you rhyme it with shoji.
The 19th-century term "pedagogy" got its groove back in the early 2000's (Source: Google Ngram Viewer)
Good pedagogy (more simply, effective teaching) engages students in curriculum.
So why not ask students? In a 2022 report, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) surveyed students about what they find engaging in school. Here's what they found:
The students’ responses included:- Working with their peers
- Connecting school work to the real world (e.g. project-based learning)
- Giving students choices and a variety of different types of experiences and
- Having a teacher who is excited about the work, interested in students, and approachable.
The good news for students is that the Common Core State Standards tend to encourage these approaches. One example is project-based learning, an approach to teaching that enables students to show their knowledge through projects that are connected to the real world. This is the type of instruction that supports both academic knowledge and the “habits of mind” that are a central goal of the Common Core.
In the coming set of lessons, we will explore many of the subjects and approaches that educators use to make learning engaging and relevant. We begin with the idea of making school a place for creative experiences.
Updated July 2017
November 2022
CHAPTER 6:
The Right Stuff
-
The Right Stuff
Overview of Chapter 6 -
Grade-level Expectations
How Do Common Core Standards Work? -
Academic Rigor
Is School Challenging Enough? -
Literacy
Ensuring All Kids Learn to Read, Write and Speak English -
STEM
Science, Technology, Engineering and Math -
Tests
Why Tests Matter and How They Work -
Technology in Education
Tools for teaching and learning -
Student Engagement
Making School Interesting -
Arts Education
Creating in School -
P.E. and Athletics
How does sweat and movement help learning? -
Let’s Go!
What Makes a Field Trip Great? -
Career Technical Education
Education for career opportunities -
Service Learning
Learning to Help Others -
Social-Emotional Learning
Education for Mental Health -
Character
Can Values and Habits be Taught? -
Civics, history and geography
How do kids learn about their country and the world? -
World Language Learning
The Cure for Ugly Americans -
Financial Literacy
Learning to Earn
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Jeff Camp - Founder November 18, 2023 at 9:25 am
Susannah Baxendale February 2, 2019 at 12:15 pm
Albert Stroberg May 1, 2016 at 8:09 pm
I would be terrible as the Dance teacher, I just do not get it. But let me loose in Biology- we are going for a ride.
And so it should be- looking for the expertise & enthusiasm rather than the warm body at a low price.
Mamabear March 23, 2015 at 11:49 am