The Bobo Doll Experiment was performed in 1961 by Albert Bandura, to try and add credibility to his belief that all human behavior was learned, through social imitation and copying, rather than inherited through genetic factors.
While the findings were somewhat inconclusive and focused on aggressive behavior, it does make me think about the main influence on my teaching style when I started out.
I taught as I was taught in high school. That was not always a good thing. My first year in the classroom, I can remember trying to transfer this vast amount of knowledge to my students… It didn’t go so well. I would spend so much time writing notes for them to copy, going over the notes, and trying to think for them and explain abstract concepts until I was board.
Many call that the “Survival” stage of teaching. Notes and worksheets got me through the day. I quickly found out that they were not studying the notes nor keeping up with the workbooks. Something had to change.
Thank God I found Whole Brain Teaching!!!!
After studying the Whole Brain Teaching method for quite some time, the advise I would give anyone coming into WBT is that “Micro-lecturing” is the key component for success. As teachers, we want our classroom to be an active learning environment, and we have to give up the stage!
This requires us to think differently about the information that we have to present, teach information from a perspective of concepts, and know what is important for students to know.
While the attention getter like “class-yes” and the focuser “hands and eyes” are needed , they point to “micro-lecturing “, and that aspect of WBT must be mastered. Think back to the days you were in class dozing off while listening to the teacher lecture from the podium.
It can be dangerous to teach as you were taught…