The Seven Laws of Teaching

Rating:
Summary: A must read for anyone who would teach
Review: Although Gregory's intended audience is those who would teach children and youth, the laws he outlines are equally applicable to teaching adults. Having taught children in Sunday Schools, and adults in software training classes and programming classes, I can verify that ignoring these principles is significantly deleterious to the outcome of teaching.

Gregory's observations are organised into explanations of seven laws (hence the title):

The Law of the Lesson
The Law of the Language
The Law of the Teacher
The Law of the Teaching Process
The Law of the Learner
The Law of the Learning Process
The Law of Review

His key insight is that knowledge is not a commodity that can be transferred from mind to mind in the way that a physical object is transferred from hand to hand. Thus teaching is fundamentally a conversation, and the object of the teacher is not to directly transmit knowledge. Rather, the teacher's goal is to excite the student to self discovery and to direct him or her in that process of discovery. The teacher should only resort to direct communication of the material when it is necessary to quickly provide context for the main lesson to be learned.

The stress upon review done properly is equally important. For Gregory, review is not successful if the teacher merely elicits a verbatim recitation of the lesson imparted. Review should be structured in a way that requires the student to have internalised the lesson and be able to apply it experientially.

Even though the book is thin, Gregory gives many practical tips for making teaching work and many of examples of what doesn't work. In fact, the thinness is a virtue. One can easily read a chapter in a very short sitting, but then spend the rest of one's day evaluating one's own teaching by his standards and pondering what changes could be made to improve one's teaching.

Rating:
Summary: The Seven Laws of Teaching
Review: As much as I enjoy The Seven Laws of Teaching, I also enjoy its orderly lay out. Each law of teaching is paced chapter by chapter, which makes reader easy to follow the flow of the concepts. In another word, its structure gives an effective communication to the readers. Another strength of this book is the paragraph number and the key word next to the paragraph. The paragraph number and the key word are two effective reading tools in reviewing the concepts for the reader.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: I had taught Sunday School for a few years when a seasoned elder recommended this book. I was immediately hooked when I began to read it. I had to learn to teach the hard way, and I wish I had gotten ahold of this book earlier. I am now the Sunday School superintendent and I asked all the teachers to read this book. They loved it too! The amazing thing about this masterpiece of a book is that he follows his own advice. He starts simple and works to the more complex. He gets the readers attention and interest and keeps it until the end. Even if you don't like to read that much, you will savour this well written book. I was inspired and equipped to be a better teacher after reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: This thorough and common sense work on the art of teaching is essential reading for all educators. It is crammed with practical advice as well as philosophical truths about training and imparting knowledge to students.