Capstone in Education - Essay Example

A teacher is always a learner. Like young learners, throughout this chapter teachers acquire knowledge (as they get the idea of content pedagogy theories) and learn to apply it in such aspects of classroom practice as grouping students, managing their behavior, encouraging them for reciprocal teaching, planning lessons, and assessment. Behaviorism and cognitivism are the theories of learning that are concerned with the factors of knowledge acquisition. Though these approaches are conflicting, they may be easily combined: a teacher should pay attention to the classroom environment and provide a positive behavioral example (behaviorism) as well as mind the differences in culture, educational background, learning styles, and family life of the students (cognitivism). Constructivism emphasizes practical aspects of learning, asserting that all the participants of the lesson construct knowledge collectively, sometimes with considerable changes in the process, which requires teachers' flexibility and creativity. In reality, teachers should invest a lot of time in preparation for lessons: explaining the importance of activities, selecting activities, their sequence, playback strategies, and rehearsing