The Seven Laws of Teaching
This
brief article is based on a workshop ‘Seven Laws of Teaching’ I had conducted
in an Ayurveda Medical College recently. This workshop is based
on a book ‘The Seven Laws of Teaching’ written in
1884 by ‘John Milton Gregory’, a great educationist & founder of University
of Illinois.
The Workshop was more of an introductory workshop
informing the participants briefly about how the seven laws of teaching are
derived and what are some important recommendations to teachers based of the
these seven laws.
As
stated in the book ‘Seven Laws of Teaching’ all teaching, be it on any subject
or topic or for any level consists of following seven elements:
Two personal
elements
a teacher & a learner
Two mental elements
language
and lesson
Three functional
elements
that
of teacher,
that
of learner, &
that
of evaluation
No
additional element needs to be added to improve the quality of teaching and no
element can be taken away from these seven elements without affecting the
quality of teaching. The workshop consisted of defining each of above elements
and also suggesting some useful actions for satisfactory performance.
These
seven elements lead to seven laws of teaching:
First Law
The
Law of Teacher
Who
is a teacher?
A teacher is one who knows the lesson or the truth or the art to
be taught.
Rule for Teacher
Know
thoroughly and familiarly the lesson you wish to teach.
Teach
with full mind and a clear understanding
Second Law
The
Law of Learner
Who
is a Learner?
A
learner is one who attends with interest to the lesson.
Rule
for Teacher
Gain
and keep the attention and interest of the pupil up on the lesson.
Don’t
try to teach without attention
Third Law
The
Law of Language
What
is Language?
Language
is the medium between teacher and
student and must be common for both.
Rule
for Teacher
Use
the words understood in the same way by students and yourself.
Language should be clear and vivid to both.
Fourth Law
The
Law of Lesson
What
is Lesson?
Lesson
is the unknown to be understood by means of known
Rule
for Teacher
Begin
with what is already well known to the students and what he has experienced.
Proceed
to the new material by single, simple, and natural steps letting the known
explain the unknown.
Fifth Law
The
Law of Teaching Process
What
is teaching?
Teaching
is arousing & using the pupil’s mind to understand the desired thoughts
Essentially,
Teaching is Communication of Experience!
Rule for Teacher
Stimulate
the pupil’s own mind to action.
Keep
his thought as much as possible ahead
of your expression.
Place
the student in the attitude of discoverer and anticipator.
As
a rule, teach a student nothing which she/he can learn herself/himself!
She/he
teaches the best who teaches the least!
She/he
teaches the best whose pupils learn the most without being taught directly!
Sixth Law
The
Law of Learning Process
What is learning?
Learning
is thinking into one’s own understanding a new idea or truth or working into a
habit a new skill.
Rule for Teacher
Require
the student to reproduce in thought the lesson he is learning.
Thinking
it out in it’s various phases and applications till he can express it in his
own language.
Seventh Law
The
Law Review & Application
What is Proof of Learning?
It
is reviewing, rethinking, re-knowing, reproducing & applying what has been
taught
Rule for Teacher
Review,
Review, Review; reproducing the old , deepening its impression with new
thought, linking it with added meaning, finding new applications, correcting
any false views and completing the true.
Is it necessary to
know these principles to be a good teacher?
No. There are many great teachers who have never
heard about these principles.
But,
they follow these principles by experience & habit. However; one who wants
to be a good teacher has to follow these principles either by learning them or
by following them through experience or habit
Teacher means
T:
The
Law of the TEACHER -Stop growing today and you stop teaching tomorrow
E: The Law of the EDUCATION - how people learn
determines how you teach
A:
The
Law of the ACTIVITY- maximum learning is always the result of maximum involvement
C: The Law of the COMMUNICATION-to truly give
information requires the building of bridges
H: The Law of the HEART- teaching that impacts is not head
to head, but heart to heart
E:
The
Law of the ENCOURAGEMENT- teaching tends to be most effective when the learner
is properly motivated
R: The Law of the READINESS - the teaching- learning process
will be most effective when both student and teacher are well prepared
Seven Laws
Revisited
1.
Know the subject.
2.
Generate learner’s interest.
3.
Use words that your students know.
4.
Build on known truths.
5.
Stimulate self-learning.
6.
Learn by doing.
7.
Tell them, tell them again, and then tell them what
you told them.
The
book also lists many more do’s and don’ts. However, considering the time the
college could spare, only important suggestions were included in the
presentation.
Are
you interested to get this and other such workshops conducted in your
institute?
Please
write to me at englishacademybaroda@gmail.com or call me(Sarwan Singh) at
88666 80407. Please also visit the link http://slidesha.re/1vtxYuO
for details of
our ‘Smart Student Program’ under ‘Project Wisdom’. We offer many free
as well as paid workshops for educational institutes.
Nice. There are rules here that every teacher, even really good ones, could stand to re-engage and re-consider. In the age of teaching to standards, many of these principles get ignored, sad to say.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark for the time you spared to go through this post. In fact no one can become a good teacher without following these seven principles.
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