The ideal form of instruction would be one where the student feels a sense of empowerment over the learning process. There are many roads which may lead to the development of the sense of educational empowerment, but the key is to create the educationally conducive environment that provides opportunity for the fostering of emotional stability. As the development of decision-making skills (called problem-solving skills by some) lies at the root of the ideal educational process, the ideal form of instruction must provide a safe, comfortable environment for the students to practice and strengthen these skills. Students must be willing to make choices and accept the consequences in order to assume a role as a maturing adult in American society. As adults, we are well aware that, sometimes, the consequences of our actions are good. Sometimes, they are bad. It is the role of educational institutions to provide an environment where students feel safe to try.
One of the key components to ideal instruction is to remember that children, like all animals, learn best when they can relate new experiences to knowledge that they already possess. New information should be presented following a brief review of knowledge or related to concepts with which the student is already familiar. This allows them to strengthen their knowledge base in preparation for exposure, in the advanced grade levels, to new or expanded ideas. Students who experience this level of ‘recycling’ are better equipped to handle one of the most important life skills that we teach, risk taking. While students are standing on the familiar, teachers may more easily encourage them to get out of their comfort zones. This is an important step in the maturation process of children. As humans grow, we must frequently let go of the old in order to embrace the new. The void between the two can be frightening.
Another important aspect of ideal instructional is time. Students should be encouraged to process information that they have received, and time should be provided for them to accomplish this. Through time for reflection and discussion, students are able to deepen their understanding of the presented material or activity. As their understanding deepens, their knowledge base widens and further solidifies. Inevitably, they are lead to new and expanded ideas of a more complicated nature. The entire process fosters increased cognitive ability.
Dr. Walter E. Dunson, Jr. is an academic language therapist who has logged more than 25,000 hours working with dyslexic students and other students with language acquisition difficulties and language-based learning disorders in small group and one-on-one tutorials.
He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Houston Branch of the International Dyslexia Association and has extensive experience in the areas of articulation, phonology, language acquisition, and language-based learning differences.
During a span of twenty-three years in education, Dr. Dunson has served as a classroom instructor for English and Spanish, reading lab coordinator, curriculum development specialist, Orton-Gillingham language training instructor, Lindamood-Bell phoneme sequencing instructor, educational testing coordinator, learning specialist, speaker, educational consultant, and academic language therapist. Further, he is the author of the following books:
• The English Code: A Forensic Approach to Mastering the Language
• Manual of English Phonology: Understanding the Written Code of the English Language
• English Development Series: A Skeleton Key to the Linear Development of English Proficiency
• The Grammar Resource Directory: A Handy Reference Guide for Teachers and Students of the English Code
• Final Stable Syllables: Mastering the Suffixes of the English Language
• Word Construction: Building Blocks for the Latinate, Greek, and Anglo-Saxon Components of the English Language
Dr. Dunson currently lives in Washington, DC with his wife and son. He maintains a private practice as an academic language therapist and provides language remediation and other educational services. He seeks to provide a systematic approach to mastering the English language and a solid foundation for the acquisition of reading, writing, and spelling skills for all individuals who seek to obtain or improve reading ability.