Day 1. 3 reasons why you need to learn to teach effectively

Picture of Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Teaching and learning happen in many settings, not just in formal classrooms.

You are probably already teaching, perhaps in one of these classrooms or a community, answering questions, mentoring a junior colleague, writing web articles, or giving talks.

And you’ve probably also used these resources to learn.

It turns out we know a lot about teaching and learning. The problem is that most people in technology (including university professors) don’t know everything we know.

Let me show you basic facts about how people learn and how best to teach them, which you can use for your own learning and teaching.

Here are a few reasons why:

1. We know a lot about teaching and learning.

You don’t need to become an expert teacher to teach effectively.

Knowing basic concepts such as cognitive psychology, instructional design, inclusion, accessibility, and community organizing can help you increase your effectiveness as a teacher.

You don’t have to teach by trial and error or reinvent the wheel.

2. Teaching is facilitating learning by using appropriate techniques and tools.

To teach effectively, we must know the subject we want to teach and how to teach that particular subject.

Knowing about a topic and how to teach it are two different types of knowledge; being an expert in a subject does not ensure that we will teach it well.

The difference between bad and good teachers is given by the number of effective teaching strategies they know and use.

3. Base your teaching on scientific evidence, your context, and your students.

There are plenty of concepts and effective teaching practices.

Many of them are pragmatic and useful for teaching any subject in the in-person or virtual classroom.

By knowing them, you will be able to create better lessons faster, collaborate with peers, choose the best tool for the job, and understand your impact.

Over the next 30 days, I plan on presenting key ideas on teaching and learning that you can use immediately, explaining the science behind them, and pointing you to other resources that will help you deepen your knowledge.

Join me on this adventure—and let me know if you have any questions along the way!

I’m excited to start sharing what I know online.