Maybe Teaching is a Bad Idea

by Larry D. Spence, Maryellen Weimer (Epilogue)

Deep and lasting learning results when we teach human brains in ways responsive to how they’re structured and how they function, which is not how we imagine they work or wish they would work. This book proposes a radical restructuring of teaching so that it conforms to how people learn. Spence maintains that teaching cannot and should not be aimed at transferring knowledge from teacher brains into student brains. In his “Decades of experience have made perfectly clear that this approach frustrates teachers, bores students, and results in minimal learning.”

This is a book that challenges―it will poke and prod your thinking. The author writes near the end of Chapter 4, “I wanted to write a book that asked real questions and explored possible answers. I am not concerned that you agree with my answers or ideas, but I fervently hope the questions I’m raising will lead you to questions about habitual teaching practices and the resulting failure of students to learn.”

170 pages, Paperback

Published May 5, 2022

Reviews

[Allison Reilly · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is very difficult for the average teacher to read. I found it wordy and didn’t really offer a lot of practical ideas. It seemed to focus a lot on what was leaning, what was mistakes, what was critical thinking and not so much on how to incorporate those ideas.