Lessons 1 to 4: Principles of Teaching and Learning

1. Learning to think pedagogically is at the core of learning to teach, just as learning to think mathematically is at the core of learning mathematics.

2. Teachers new and old are unlikely to adopt new teaching procedures unless they have experienced those procedures themselves and analyzed the effects on their own learning.

3. Principles of good learning are essentially the same for adults and for children. Crucial elements include engaging experiences, metacognition and addressing what students already know.

4. Reflective practice is a worthy goal that involves much more than everyday meanings of the word reflection. Teacher educators need to teach people how to reflect and model their own reflective practices explicitly.

Lessons Learned as a Teacher Educator (1977-2010)

© Tom Russell, Queen’s University, 2010