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Effective Teaching
For a patrol hike, Mike had been
made responsible for bringing the hamburger buns. He got them in
plenty of time and put them in the freezer to keep them fresh
for Saturday. When the patrol reached its destination on the big
day, everybody began pulling out their part of the patrol's
lunch. It wasn't until Mike reached for the hamburger buns that
he remembered that they were still home in the freezer ! And
there was just no way to get back or to get some substitutes. At
the time it wasn't a laughing matter, but by the next meeting of
the troop, Mike and his patrol leader Tom were having a good
laugh as they told the story to Carl, the senior patrol leader.
"What'd you learn from that?" Carl asked them.
"Not to forget the hamburger buns!"
was Mike's instant reply.
"Sure," laughed Carl, "but is that
all?" He seemed to be looking straight at Tom.
"Well, I guess it was my fault ‑‑ I
didn't check up on Mike. He agreed to bring the buns, and I let
it go at that." Carl pressed a little further.
"How will you handle things like
this another time?" "Well, I guess I'd better keep a list of
responsibilities and review them with those on the list before
we get going," said Tom.
"OK, that's good," responded Carl.
"Now how about you, Mike? What did
you learn?"
"Well, I made a list of what I was
to bring. But Saturday morning I didn't read it over carefully.
And I should have checked off the items when I had them packed."
Thus, a simple matter of forgotten
buns was made into a real learning experience. Let's review just
what Carl did to bring this about. First, he noticed that the
two boys (and the whole patrol, for that matter) had had what
can be called a "discovery." They had been in the middle of
something and they knew about it firsthand.
Second, he had Tom and Mike review
the experience and helped them to realize that they had learned
something that could be applied to other situations. They hadn't
learned that hamburgers need rolls but about how to get things
done. Third, he had them think about how they would apply what
they had learned next time.
The final step would be to evaluate
the learning. ‑That could only happen next time. If Mike was
more careful about reading his checklist or if Tom was more
thorough about checking up on his patrol members, they would
know that learning had really occurred. We call this process "Effective
Teaching." In this case it was Carl who did the
teaching. He took advantage of a situation that had already
happened. If he had ignored it or just had a good laugh about
Mike's forgetfulness, there might have been little or no
learning.
You can use this same method to help
almost anybody learn almost anything. We'll take another example
and see how you can use the method. Suppose a camp is coming up.
There is to be a competitive event involving use of the map and
compass. You think your patrol members are a little rusty on
that. Here's how you might proceed.
STEP ONE:
Discovery
Provide each member of the patrol
with a compass and have each one orient a map and plot a course
that you specify. Watch how they do. Some may do well. Others
will get off to a bad start and fumble. Out of this, you will
know just who needs to learn what. But equally important is that
the learner "discovers" his shortcomings or unforgotten skills.
STEP TWO:
Teaching‑Learning
You or someone you share leadership
with gives instructions and information about the map and
compass task. Let them practice each step as you describe or
demonstrate it. When you feel certain the learners know the
skills, you allow them to progress to the next phase. Some
learners may reach this step faster than others ‑‑ that's just
fine ‑‑ let them progress at their own speed.
STEP THREE:
Application
Have the learners do a series
of problems with map and compass. If they are successful, they
go on. If not, you take them back through some of the teaching
‑learning process until they can be successful.
STEP FOUR:
Evaluation
This process occurs every step of
the way, but it's important to review all four steps when you
are through. As learners are called on to perform, you must
decide whether they are performing acceptably. Have each learner
express himself about what he thinks he has learned. Ask
questions, such as: "Do you feel you know this skill well enough
to do it again next week?" "Could you help one of the others
here who is having trouble learning the skill?" "Could you teach
someone else to do it?"
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