Research Archive: Teachers' Views of Learning

Question: How do teachers view learning?

Answer: “Found that teachers viewed learning as exposure to a piece of knowledge rather than a process of interaction with it.” LR Luke, 1983, 438.

Comment: At Syracuse University, one of my instructors in graduate work, Dr. Sheldon, asked us to read professional articles. He kept preaching that we, his students, were not simply to summarize the ideas in the articles, but to respond to them personally, what the ideas meant to us as teachers. He admitted being frustrated with assignments that simply were summarized, and not responded to.

I think summarizing is a habit that is hard to break. Responding to ideas is really how learning takes place. You take the ideas and do something with them. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” RK Durst and JD Marshall. Research in the Teaching of English (December 1984), 417-438.