By Blake Dykes and Bryce Romig

Editor’s Note: To read a related story on this topic check out senior Meghan Poff’s story on academic strategies in Friday’s print Bagpiper.

With many education reforms and debates about the most effective teaching methods, opinions vary on which are most effective. These various teaching techniques are used throughout FC as a way to engage students and increase their learning and long-term memory on the subject.

According to AP psychology teacher Chad Clunie, direct instruction, power points, and visual interaction are effective because they allow the teacher to cover a lot of information in a short period of time. Project-based activities are best for kinesthetic learners and encourage long term learning. The downfall is that it takes longer, and unless the teacher points the student in the right direction he may not grasp the information.

Earth space teacher Tim Korte shared his experience with hands-on learning activities.

“I would love hands-on learning, but the majority of the students would not get the material on their own. I think most of our student population is good. For as boring as lecture can be, most students take it in and comprehend as I lecture.”

However, other teachers put a bigger emphasis on group projects and activities that engage students.

“I think you have to have both (lecture and projects). It’s hard to introduce a topic without a lecture. But after 10 minutes it’s hard to keep their attention,” said Latin teacher Tim Harbison.

Harbison also shared that he has an advantage when communicating with his students and teaching them.

“I think kids tend to pay attention when they have a better relationship with the teacher. I have an advantage because I have some of the same kids years in a row. I don’t think it’s as much as how I teach besides just having a good relationship with the kids.”

Some students feel that combining the methods is the most efficient way.

“It depends on the class and what you’re learning. For me, projects help when they’re applicable. Lectures are better where intellectual concepts are concerned, like psychology for example.” said senior Andrew Sung.

While some like a mixture, others strictly prefer one method over the other.

“I prefer lecture better because I feel the teacher’s explains it better than if we are left on our own to understand. With projects I am often left confused,” said sophomore Emily Harbeson.

Harbeson added that she disliked when the teacher goes around the room calling on every person for a different answer because she does not absorb the information.

Although students all learn differently, most agree that they learn best when the teacher puts extra effort into applying examples to real life.

“I think one where the teacher interacts with the class is most effective because it gets the student interested in the topic,” said freshman Morgan Paul.

Teachers are taking action to help enhance their teaching by collaborating and following the new education plan distributed by the administration.

Assistant principal Rob Willman shared the new learning guide that was given to each teacher. The guide is divided into four squares: higher and lower relevance, higher rigor and higher relevance, lower rigor and lower relevance, and lower rigor and higher relevance. Willman explained that it is important for each teacher to spend a little time in each quadrant, but most often than not he wants teachers to focus on higher rigor and higher relevance.

He continued to explain the importance of this quadrant.

“I saw a poster the other day of these people asking others when they learned the most. And the people said elementary school. Then they were asked what that looked like, and they said, ‘Groups of people in a circle reading. High school looked like desks and rows’.”

“In the real world you have a group of people sitting around a table and sharing ideas. Group learning is important,” said Willman.

Beyond just the learning aspect of education, the testing of that knowledge is an important role in students’ everyday lives.

For teachers, tests are a way for them to assess their students overall understanding of a topic, for students it can sometimes be more of a pain and mostly memorization.

“Testing is not as helpful as most would think because everyone cares more about the grade than learning. But it is the best way that we know to test knowledge for now,” said Sung.

Clunie shared that sometimes how well a student performs on a test could really just depend on the day.

“Yes they are effective, and no. Testing allows us (teachers) to compare students. It’s just one test on one day. You can have a really good day or a really bad day. Some students perform better under pressure. There are far better ways to measure if a student learned something, but the problem is how do we compare that to other students. Overall, they are just a small picture of what students know or don’t know.”

While some teachers think that it depends on the student, Harbison thinks that it depends on the test itself.

“If a test is constructed correctly where they have to apply things and not just puke things back up, then I think it is effective.”

Overall, there is not just one right way to teach or just one right way to assess knowledge; however, teachers and faculty are trying to find what methods are more effective than others.

Willman shared the staffs’ goals and standards for the future.

“Our biggest initiative we talk about with the faculty, is how are we going to get better? Does your grade measure what it’s supposed to measure?”