Regarding the May 16 article: "Study: It is not the teacher but the method that matters": I have been a teacher of English for nearly 12 years. My specialty is early childhood education, though I now mainly teach junior high and high school children.
During my master's degree research, I learned that children require a hands-on interactive approach to learning. It is a crucial part of their development.
This is a given. I try and incorporate it as much as possible in my classes at school as well as other classes that I teach. I have also known for years through personal experience that interactive classes, tutorials and seminars help me learn best. This was true from when I was a child and it is still true today. I have always imagined it to be true for others as well.
Scientists say there are three ways of learning: visual, auditory and kinesthetic (doing). Kinesthetic learning is the most powerful. There are so many "learning by doing" books out in the world, why people would view the superiority of the interactive class to the traditional lecture as a new discovery is beyond me. Interactive learning has been around for millennia. This kind of result shouldn't "rattle ivy on college walls" or take a while for anyone to "get over the results" of such a test.
The most successful education is Montessori-style "interactive" learning. The more you do, the more you learn. Otherwise, it goes in one ear and out the other.
Anyone can be a good teacher as long as the correct method is employed. I don't know who said it first, but I'll conclude with this thought: You don't truly learn a thing until you teach it.
Now that's interactive.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.
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