There’s a common saying that humans, as creatures of habit, tend to “teach as we have been taught.”
This idea has been an interesting point of reflection for me as I’ve developed both personally and professionally. Coming from a sociology background (my undergrad major was Urban Development), I’ve often learned to use my past experiences as a way to connect to others.
Throughout my undergrad studies, I also began to understand the importance of incorporating best practices and common techniques that are unique to your industry in order to relate to others. In social services, this often comes from an understanding of commonly accepted “normal” child or adolescent development patterns and behaviors, as well as being able to distinguish “uncommon” development patterns or behaviors. Instead of solely relying upon a personal experience (which may or may not relate to the specific situation you are dealing with), there is a researched and best patterned way of accomplishing your goal.
This realization helped me realize that, despite both the bad and the good experiences I had with teachers growing up, there is a group of educators who is interested in finding the best method practices in teaching, and that this best method may be consistently changing.
This is especially true in discussing technology within the classroom. When I think about how I was taught, I realize that we did not even have some of the technological access that some students do in today’s world. As technology continues to grow, our teaching methods should also grow to encompass more and more of these technological advances.
Maeve A. Olson 