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Personal Theories of Teaching

The document discusses four personal theories of teaching: transfer, shaping, travelling, and growing. The transfer and shaping theories view teaching as transmitting knowledge from teacher to student or molding students like raw material. The travelling and growing theories see learning as an exploratory journey where the teacher guides students and focuses on their personal development. While simple theories may be easier for new teachers, more advanced theories emphasize collaborative learning over simple knowledge transmission and take students' individual traits into account. An ideal teacher would skillfully combine aspects of different theories to address varying information types and student personalities.

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116 views2 pages

Personal Theories of Teaching

The document discusses four personal theories of teaching: transfer, shaping, travelling, and growing. The transfer and shaping theories view teaching as transmitting knowledge from teacher to student or molding students like raw material. The travelling and growing theories see learning as an exploratory journey where the teacher guides students and focuses on their personal development. While simple theories may be easier for new teachers, more advanced theories emphasize collaborative learning over simple knowledge transmission and take students' individual traits into account. An ideal teacher would skillfully combine aspects of different theories to address varying information types and student personalities.

Uploaded by

borzkhamzat3
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Name of the student:

Lahbabi Mohammed Amine


CNE: N131193098

Report:
Personal Theories of Teaching – Dennis Fox

The article that is in hand deals with the different Personal Theories concerned with the
process of teaching, mainly the Transfer, Shaping, Travelling and Growing theories.
Often used by new, inexperienced teachers; the transfer theory views the subjects and
knowledge being thought are considered like a commodity that is transmitted to the minds of
the students, for teachers adopting this theory; successful learning is the byproduct of well-
prepared material that is effectively organized and transmitted while unsuccessful learning is
seen to be the consequences of lazy, unmotivated, forgetful students.
Similarly, teachers that adopt the shaping theory regard the students’ minds as something
similar to raw material such as a piece of metal or wood, something to be carved, shaped or
molded, the teaching environment associated with this particular theory usually take place in
laboratories, engineering workshops, gymnasiums and so on, the teaching process here is
done through demonstration and practices, for instance; a teacher would demonstrate the way
a problem is solved by going through it at the blackboard or overhead project sand then the
students will be required to solve similar problems with similar methods, and this to some
extent is considered good since it ensures the students understanding.
However, some of the problems that may arise with these teaching theories is that many
students expect to be taught in a specific way and do not like change. Students who view the
learning process as a transfer of knowledge will not want to do their own work and will
expect the teacher to do it all for them. They will also not be willing to participate in
activities.
Unlike the aforementioned theories, the advanced theories revolve around the idea that
learning is better undergone by way of more of a discussion and sharing of thoughts and
experiences.
The travelling theory to begin with sees education as a journey to be explored by the students
and the teacher acts like a guide that through his expertise helps the student explore every
subject and see it from different angles in order to maximize the learning process, teachers
lead the way, their main responsibility is consistently monitoring the students’ progress and
giving them detailed feedbacks on their developing skills and knowledge in order to
continually improve, nonetheless, it is worth mentioning that no matter how a competent or
experienced a guide can be, the process of exploring (learning) here fall on the shoulders of
the students, they will always need to rely on themselves and do their own research to
succeed.
Within the same line of thought, the growing theory tries to bring the best out of the student,
teachers here focus more on the students’ personal development journey, the emphasis is on
what the student is becoming rather than focusing on his progress with the subject being
taught, what seems to matter most here is helping with the students’ personal growth. Thus,
the subjects prevalent here are usually associated with activities such as art or drama an so on
Thus, and unlike the simple theories, the developed theories tend to emphasis more on
learning together rather than just of the knowledge being passed from the teacher to the
student.
Reaction to the article:
Going through this article; it seems to me that perhaps the reason new inexperienced
teachers adopt the simple theories ( mainly the transfer and shaping theories) is because they
feel is the easiest and safest way to go about the teaching process, but this is it not something
they should be criticized for, for they can start off teaching using the simple theories since it
usually takes time for them to develop their own style and once they become more
experienced and better adapted with the teaching syllabus they will certainly become more
willing to explore different ways of teaching, thus opening up to the advanced theories. This
of course does not mean that the travelling or growing theories are better, though they do take
the students attitudes and personalities into account which is very advantageous, and I do find
it more efficient to learn something by actually doing it and not just be reading about it. But it
eventually comes down to what type of information needs to be taught to the students; some
things are better taught using one theory and not the other, and vice versa. Overall; There will
always be different perceptions on how to teach with every teacher and student as people are
simply different and work differently and no two persons have their personalities exactly the
same. All in all, a teacher in a perfect scenario would make use of all these theories combined,
compensating one theory’s shortcomings with another theory’s strengths, its feasible, but it
would take a lifetime of expertise and dedication.

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