The author examines the classroom practices of three teachers with different teaching styles to illustrate their impact on student engagement and student understanding. In one classroom, the teacher lectures and students take notes. There's nothing much to make learning appealing, and it is doubtful that much real student understanding occurs. The goal seems to be memorizing data. In the second classroom, the teacher engages students by providing a choice of activities and building a comfortable environment, but does not tie together the ideas and information that students encounter.
Activities are more about being happy than about making meaning.
A clear sense of what students should understand as a result of their study is missing. The third teacher has planned her year around a few key concepts, developed generalizations that govern how the concepts work, established facts and skills that are essential for students to learn, and developed essential questions to cause students to engage with her in a quest for understanding. She addresses student differences in interest levels, learning readiness, and learning profiles. Because she knows where her students are and where they should end up, she can differentiate her instructional practices. Sept. 1999, Vol.