Profile of a Learner - Essay Example

? Profile of a Learner Profile of a Learner Introduction After completing my studies, I began teaching health and Social Care, getting an opportunity to put my knowledge in practice. One of the issues that I have noticed during my teaching period is that different students have different learning abilities. As a teacher, I have to make sure each student gains from the course by trying as much as possible to accommodate their needs in my teaching methods. My current class consists of students with a wide range of capabilities, talents and learning abilities. As a teacher, I have had to change my teaching mode in order to enhance learning outcomes of each of the students. In this essay, I will profile one of my students, Emmy. Emmy is an eighteen-year-old female student taking various subjects including as working in partnership, health and safety, and principle of practice, which are the main elements of the Health and social care Course. Each of these course elements equip students with different skills and are all essential to their general understanding of health issues and social care. Therefore, it is essential for the students to perform well in all the course elements, in both theory and practice in order to excel in the course as indicated by Armitage, et al, (2012). Description of Initial Assessment Procedures In order to fully understand Emmy, I endeavored to conduct an assessment on her academic and general behavior in order to know how to help her. This, according to Keeley-Brown, (2007), is the best way to conduct an initial assessment of the student and get a clear picture of the student’s needs. The assessment entailed examining her academic records, assessing her mental ability and meeting some of her friends to get a clear picture of her character outside the class. Like most of my students, Emmy is one of the many students from a diverse racial background and English is therefore her second language. However, she has shown great understanding of the language and she is able to read and write in English. Emmy’s general performance in the course has been deteriorating, and I could notice some changes in her general; behavior in and out of the lecture hall. She began skipping some of the classes, like most of the average and poor performing students in the course. In order to help her and the other students, I decided to take a keen assessment of Emmy and her behavior in order to help her achieve the best learning outcomes at the end of the course. I therefore went through her academic records, talked to her friends as well as sitting down worth her in order to assess her mental abilities. A look at her academic records revealed that she had one of the lowest average grades with extremely poor results in theoretical subjects. She performed pretty well in practical subjects. After looking at her results and comparing with other students in her company, I concluded that she was somewhat nonchalant in reading a lot of the theory notes given to her by the teachers. She preferred doing practical; assignments on the other hand. Theoretical subjects demand that students use up their time reading in order to grasp the content. Her lack of interest in reading could have contributed to her poor results in theory. Upon keeping a keen eye on her behavior in class, I noticed that she shunned away from students who performed better than her and preferred to hang with average students like herself. She also did not like participating in group assignments. Most of the groups were formed around the idea that the students with different learning abilities would come together to share their skills and learn from one another. The groups therefore consisted of both average and excellent students. I tried to sit down with Emmy and chat with her and I discovered that her mental strength was a little bit lower than the course required in order for one to excel. She had a low self-esteem and feared interacting with students she felt were clever. She also had a negative attitude towards the course because of the many theoretical assignments involved. Most of her friends were average performers in class and they believed that Emmy was one of their greatest friends because of her story telling skills and charming character. They participated in outdoor games together and spent a lot of their time playing computer games and surfing on the internet. I was surprised to learn this about Emmy because she hardly showed this character in class. One positive thing I learnt about Emmy is that she always submitted in her assignments very early via email. This was very commendable because even the excellent students always found it hard to submit their assignments on time. Needs and Barriers identified from the initial assessment From the initial assessment conducted, I was able to learn and gather a lot of information about Emmy. One of the most important points I gathered included the need to boost her self-esteem and help her change her attitude towards the course. This would enable her to interact with the excellent students and learn from them through group work as well as increasing her concentration in class thereby improving her academic performance. Barriers to this however include her lack of interest in theoretical subjects and the fact that Emmy spends most f her time on the internet as opposed to doing research and reading her coursework. Measures taken to improve the learner’s abilities In order to improve Emmy’s performance in class, I tried to change my teaching mode to accommodate her needs and those of other students. A suggested by Wallace, (2011), it is important for teachers to try as much as possible to accommodate the needs of each student. Emmy performed poorly in theoretical subjects such as principles of practice mostly because of the many notes I gave to the students to read. To help deal with this, I decided to reduce the amount of notes given to the students and focus more on practical approaches. As suggested by Gravells, (2011), this will enable the students comprehend the course material in a more practical way as opposed to reading theoretical work. This would be achieved by inviting health professionals during class to give the students a practical application to whatever they are learning. The experts would tell them of the real world application of whatever they are learning. I also encouraged the students to mix freely in order to learn from each other and form a cohesive team of students willing to get more from their teachers and from each other. To achieve this, I would shuffle the sitting arrangements of the students at the beginning of each lesson and encourage group activities. Petty, (2009) in her book teaching today, suggests that shuffling students is one way of enabling students to mingle freely and interact with each other thereby boosting their self esteem. These measures taken will help make the lectures more interesting for all students and promote a student-centered approach to learning where the students will participate actively in the learning process independently and in groups. According to Tummons, (2010), this would change Emmy’s attitude towards the course and raise her self-esteem to make her feel comfortable even with the excellent students. Evaluation of resources used The school has a wide range of resources that could be used to facilitate my new teaching mode. As far as the latest technology is concerned, there are projectors and computers to facilitate presentations in class. There is internet availability within the school. We made use of this by requiring the students to use the internet for academic purposes. Since Emmy liked browsing, I decided to be posting course information on the website, where students could access at their own free time. Conclusion In a class with students of different backgrounds, skills and talents, it is necessary for teachers to find appropriate ways to make certain that each of them gets the best of the coursework and improve their learning outcomes. After realizing Emmy’s case and that of many other students, I tried to pay a close attention to her needs and change my teaching approach. With the use of appropriate technology, I noticed significant changes in Emmy’s performance in the subsequent tests after initiating my new methods. She had shown substantial improvements and shown great potential to even do better in future. Bibliography Armitage, A., Evershed, J., Hayes, D., Hudson, A., Kent, J., Lawes, S., Poma, S. and Renwick, M. (2012). Teaching and Training in Lifelong Learning. Maidenhead: OU Press. Gravells, A. (2011). Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector 4th edn. Exeter: Learning Matters. Keeley-Brown, L. (2007). Training to Teach in the Learning and Skills Sector, from Threshold Award to QTLS. Harlow: Pearson Education. Petty, G. (2009). Teaching Today: A Practical Guide 4th. edn. London: Stanley Thorne. Tummons, J. (2010). Becoming a Professional Tutor in the Lifelong Learning Sector. 2nd edn. Exeter: Learning Matters. Wallace, S. (2011). Tutoring and Training in the Lifelong Learning Sector. 4th edn. Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd. Read More