Unorthodox Teaching Video

Dave Hewitt Video – Reflection

I found this film to be an interesting example of unorthodox pedagogical techniques in action, and I must readily admit that I would never have thought to engage an entire class in the way that Mr. Hewitt does. By focusing the entire class on the task of experimenting with a single skill, Mr. Hewitt accomplishes several things at once. In particular, he assesses the initial knowledge level of his students, fosters a participatory environment, and ensures that the students’ knowledge is expanded in a logical and organic manner. I was quite impressed with how Mr. Hewitt accomplished this last task. In one specific example, he segued from a discussion involving integers to a discussion of algebraic expressions, and he did it in a very sneaky way by simply stating that “I’ll just pretend this ‘x’ is like 15. I’ll put a number there later.” In all of my teaching experiences, the introduction of variables is almost always a dreadful shock to students. It was very interesting to see this task accomplished in such an efficient and effective way, and all without spooking the kids. I did have two minor reservations to Mr. Hewitt’s teaching style, and they stem from my own preferences as a student. Generally, I prefer lectures with a quicker rate of information delivery, so the pacing of Mr. Hewitt’s lessons might seem glacial and agonizing to a more capable student. Additionally, while I am impressed by his use of tactile/auditory teaching methods, it would be detrimental to cater exclusively to these styles of learners. Aside from these concerns, I found the video to be a good demonstration of an intriguing and innovative way to teach mathematics.