Principles of Teaching and Learning

Oddly enough, after reading the article Principles of Teaching and Learning from the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence at Carnegie Mellon University, the first thing that struck me was the juxtaposition of the two elements. The title lists Teaching first, but the body of the article talks about Learning first and Teaching second. It may seem trivial, but I think this is an important distinction. The introduction points out that a "learner-centered perspective is a hallmark of the Eberly Center’s approach to teaching." Despite the title, the article seems to have the sequence correct; the principles of learning and the needs of the students must direct the application of the teaching principles, not the other way around.

From my perspective as a non-teacher, the Principles of Learning seem to be true and accurate. One principle addresses the impact of student motivation on learning, pointing out that intrinsic motivations play a larger role in student learning as they, "gain greater autonomy over what, when and how they study and learn." Since virtual school students have a great deal more autonomy than their traditional school counterparts, this point is particularly relevant to the students at iQ Academy. According to the article, student motivation is maximized when they find positive value in the learning goal, expect to be successful and perceive support from their environment. That makes perfect sense to me and could serve as an important reference point for our teaching staff.

I found several similarities between the Teaching Principles, and the topics I hear being discussed in iQ Academy staff development sessions; things like aligning learning objectives, instructional activities and assessments, articulating explicit expectations and progressively refining our courses. The principle that talks about "acquiring relevant knowledge about students" is particularly challenging for online teachers who don't have the benefit of seeing their students every day. This was a major topic of conversation at a summit meeting I attended last week where a research firm presented their findings from a market segmentation study that looked the characteristics of different "categories" of virtual school students. The challenge to the school leaders in attendance was to figure out how to use that information to better serve our students and families. I left the meeting with a personal action item to discuss this point with our staff to see how knowing this kind of information might change the way they approach their teaching.

Overall, I found a lot to like about this article, but I do think they should consider changing the title to Principles of Learning and Teaching.