Learning and Teaching

Introduction

Like the last chapter, the present one will be devoted to an examination of a few key concepts which are considered useful to the practising or e prospective teacher and which should therefore merit detailed treatment in a book on Methods of Teaching. The two key concepts examined in this chapter are learning and teaching. They are words which are fre- quently used in everyday discussions. Most people who use these words think they know what they stand for. When pressed for explanations, however, they find that each of the two concePI.$ can be subject to all sorts of interpretations. It is important that prospective and practicing teachers should have a clear understanding of what the two concepts really mean. This is because they are already involved (or about to be involved) in the act of teaching and should have a clear idea of what they do, or intend to do. At the same time such people are engaged in helping people to learn, and therefore a clear idea of what the concept of learning stands for is vital. The rest of this chapter will take each of these two concepts in turn and try to explain what it means. After this there will be an attempt to illustrate the close relationship which exists between the two concepts.