Creative Teaching for All―In the Box, Out of the Box, and Off the Walls

Throughout the book, a rationale is proposed that a truly great teacher must learn how to balance the many components of teaching to fit both subject and audience. Success depends upon the knowledge, skill, and performance of the one playing teacher in reaching those in student roles. Practice must be informed by theory, content by process, cognition by emotion; no single factor can stand by itself, but must link to others. By expanding your understanding of a teacher s many roles, you can experiment with a wide variety of instructional methods to motivate and sustain student learning. Reliance on one technique, lecturing or group work, from this point of view does not guarantee success in creating interested learners. Much more is need to achieve a joining of ideas, techniques, subject, and atmosphere, above all, attention to audience needs and interests, anxieties and problems. Communication, the heart of teaching, should be thought of as at least a two way, or better yet, a multi-path interchange of ideas and emotions.

Jack Zevin is professor of education at Queens College/CUNY who began pedagogical life as a teacher on the South side of Chicago. Teaching is a passion as much as a profession for Jack, and he has contributed many articles, books, and curricula to enhance and enrich instruction for those willing to try creative approaches inside and outside classrooms.