I was particularly interested in the Lisa Delpit reading, “Other People’s Children” and the power of literacy, particularly the effect of the language and dialect used in teaching. I was not aware how much of an impact language diversity could have on an individuals learning experience. It is striking how a change in dialect can result an individual’s better comprehension of the same material.
I could make a particular connection with the teacher who was able to better teach his students through the use of real world examples. I too have had a similar learning experience. In some of my engineering classes, I struggled particularly with material that I could not relate to a real world example. For example I consider calculus 2 and 3 to be some of the hardest classes that I have taken. The problems were purely theoretical and they did not click for me. However, when more complicated material was placed in front of me, in which I was able to associate real world meaning to the numbers, I was able to grasp it much easier.
I am curious as to whether anyone else has had learning experiences similar to mine or the ones we read about?
I have most definitely had an experience like this and also try to teach others in that same way, using real world applications. In my physics class last semester and more importantly in the physics class I am currently taking, seeing and working through real world examples made the concepts so much easier for me to comprehend. This helped especially with electric fields, because I could not visualize them in my head and understand how they worked until I saw real life demonstrations and worked through real world examples.
In addition, as a UTA for my physics 1 class, I try to use real world examples to help students grasp the material in a better way. For example, I try to use my hands or drawings to show them the picture behind the problem they are trying to solve and also give them real world examples of situations where that concept would work the same way. I feel as if visualizing the information behind the concept makes the concept easier to comprehend! I’m glad someone else has had an experience like this.