Journal Analysis Essay

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL: A REVIEW OF CHANCE’S THE TEACHER’S CRAFT: THE TEN ESSENTIAL SKILLS OF EFFECTIVE TEACHING

Normand and Kohn’s (2011) review of Paul Chance’s book The Teacher’s Craft: The Ten Essential Skills of Effective Teaching, and notes that most of what the author presented in the book was an “invaluable” reminder of useful strategies of which they were already familiar.   The strength of this book is manner in which it links these strategies together in one resource.
Paul Chance presents insights into how to manage behaviors and maximize conditions to facilitate student success.   He defines teaching as creating activities that “improves rate, durability and transfer of learning” and explains each element and significance. They recommend teachers incorporate strategies to improve classroom behavior and self esteem. For instance teachers should present classroom behavioral objectives in terms of the positive as opposed to the negative.   In others words what to do instead of what not to do. The emphasis should be on positive rather than negative comments. This simple everyday behavior in the classroom helps to set the feeling ans atmosphere of the classroom.
The book also states deliberate, repetitive practice to improve performance, transfer, and retention, and remarks on the benefits of immediate feedback to the point and public to facilitate achievement. According to Chance, motivation is extrinsic and under the control of the teacher. This perspective takes responsibility of student progress to teachers. Student success is depending on good teaching and the establishment of an environment. The article sites that Chance’s review of various token economies to motivate students at different level, this strategy’s, strengths and weaknesses, and how they commonly fail. This strategy is based on operant conditioning to modify behavior. As we discussed in class, how students learn is connected to opportunities instructors provide for practice and the...