The Skillful Teacher

Use a Variety of Teaching Methods and Approaches
When resistance is caused by teachers working in ways that support
only a limited range of learning styles, the obvious solution is to use
a greater variety of teaching approaches. This has already been dis-
cussed extensively in Chapter Nine, so I will not go into detail on
this point here. However, it is important to reiterate that we should
not expect ourselves to be fully competent in a range of very diverse
methodologies. Most of us can probably broaden our repertoires
somewhat beyond where we are, but we cannot become something
we are not. I could no more turn myself into a highly visual,
extraverted, charismatic, kinetically inclined teacher than col-
leagues I work with could become as organized, or committed to
group process, as I am. But we should all work to create at least
three different learning modalities within each teaching segment
we have control over, whether this lasts fifty minutes or three hours.
The importance of pedagogic variety raises once more the cru-
cial issue of team teaching. When a course is taught by a team com-
prised of different personalities, learning styles, and pedagogic
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orientations, the chances are raised that most students in the course
will find that their own learning preferences are addressed for a rea-
sonable amount of time. Of course, this teaming must be done prop-
erly; that is, all planning, teaching, and debriefing must involve all
team members all the time. If we keep dividing the curriculum into
discrete segments, each taught by individual members of the team
(as in “You do this week, I’ll do the next, and Stephen can do the
third week”), the effect can be confusing to students. Properly con-
ducted team teaching involves teachers constantly explaining to
students how their different activities fit together and are designed
to be complementary.