Teaching and Learning Styles - Assignment Example

Becoming a Teacher I. I was in second year high school when I joined a club that conducted outreach programs to depressed communities. I was assigned in the education team where I tutored some kids from Grades One to Four. The lower levels needed reading sessions while the higher levels required follow up lessons in Math and Science. Most of the kids were eager to attend the classes because they had to complete an attendance record so they could receive gifts at the end of the month and of each year. During my first time of teaching, I observed that kids were jolly despite poverty. They loved to sing and dance to entertain me, and that was how we started our classes. I learned from them the value of fun whilst learning. In the future, I would love to see my students feeling comfortable and having fun as they learn. My experience in the community made me realise that I want to be a teacher. If I become a teacher, I then I can give my share in transforming lives and making the world a better place to live in. Teaching is a noble profession because it helps people become productive citizens. It raises human dignity and leads people to be humane, morally upright and rational. 212 words II. The words of Horace Mann explain the importance of education for me. He said, ‘Education...beyond all other devices of human origin, is a great equalizer of conditions of men --the balance wheel of the social machinery...’ (‘Horace Mann Quotes’). If people will be educated, then they will have a chance to a better life. They can find a decent job, and poverty will be less or even non-existent. In being a teacher, I shall follow what I learned from Reggio Emilia, a community in North Italy famous for bringing about educational transformation for children. According to Malaguzzi (cited in Malaguzzi & Rubizzi,1995), one of the founders of the community, in order to teach children well, one must learn how to listen. This means that a teacher should value the thoughts of students and listen to what they know in order to determine what else needs to be taught and how they should be taught. In the future, I will apply this concept in order to design lessons that cater the needs of students in the multicultural classroom. 174 words III. In order to become a good teacher, I will strive to learn the fundamentals of teaching and comply with all the requirements that professors will give. I shall cherish every moment and think of teaching as an art that needs to be perfected. From designing lessons to executing plans and assessing students appropriately, I will always exercise caution in order to help students achieve their best. In designing lessons, I will make sure to involve students in planning so that they will enjoy while learning. As a form of motivation, I will design creative graphs and illustrations of lessons and as Montessori (cited in Gutek, 2004) proposed, I will always think of a productive activity to make each learning process memorable to students. At the end of each day, I will look back at the learning experiences of my students and evaluate whether I have done the right thing and accomplished things towards my goal of raising the dignity of my students. 160 words Learning Outcomes I. Setting objectives or learning outcomes is an important aspect of teaching. Learning outcomes direct instruction; they serve as a guide for teachers to identify what knowledge and skills are needed by students of a specific grade level. Therefore, determining learning outcomes should come first before deciding the topic of a lesson. Learning outcomes should be expressed in the future tense because they have not occurred but are expected to occur after discussion and activities. Topics and activities should be aligned and must conform to the outcomes set. With the outcome in mind, the teacher will think of activities and find resources to guide the students in achieving the outcomes. Importantly, the outcomes should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. They should be identified before the start of instruction and should be achievable within the given time frame. Assessments should be aligned with learning outcomes as much as activities are. This way, learning can be measured and the teacher will have an idea if learning outcomes were achieved. 168 words II. In the modern context of teaching, outcomes-based education (OBE) has become more popular than process-based education. Spady (cited in Killen, 2003, p.40) enumerates four basic principles of OBE. First is the ‘clarity of focus’. This means that the curriculum should be designed with a clear focus on what it wants learners to accomplish. Second is the ‘designing down or design back’ (Ibid.) which pertains to curricular spiraling or the ability to progressively continue what has been taught or learned in the previous level. Third is the ‘high expectation[s]’ (Ibid.) it has for the learners. OBE promotes a high standard life for its products, thus makes this the same goal for all the students. Fourth is ‘expanded learning opportunity’ (Ibid., 41), which refers to the opportunities appropriate to each learner. While OBE sets out ideal characteristics for its learners as reflected in the third principle, it also gives consideration to those who might be left behind by giving them additional opportunities to learn and attain curriculum expectations. 166 words III. Determining learning outcomes and designing activities are not enough to make a successful plan. It will help more if the teacher will discuss the expected outcomes to students so that they could do their best to attain the outcomes. In my future classes, I will lay down the learning outcomes to be achieved for each lesson. I will write them on the board and display them while the lesson is in progress. Some lessons will take only one session to finish but others could take two or three days. During such period, I will remind students each day of the learning outcomes and they will assess how much we have achieved of the outcomes. This way, we can work on the outcomes that are yet to be achieved. Moreover, we can learn in the process and I can note down weaknesses of a lesson plan and improve it for future use. 151 words Lesson Planning I. Lesson planning is an important part of instruction. It may be tedious especially if one has to do a detailed lesson plan but it is necessary to ensure achieving learning outcomes. Preparing a plan is advantageous for four reasons. One, it makes the lesson organized. Two, it allows other colleagues to cover one’s lesson if the teacher is sick. Three, it manages time and helps track down the lesson. Four, it serves as a quality assurance not just for the teacher but for others who would like to observe the class. When preparing a plan, I will always consider two things. First, the activities should be motivating to students. If students are motivated to learn, the teacher can expect them to participate actively in all activities. Second, I will vary the activities to make them interesting. Students may be assigned in pairs, groups, or they can likewise do activities on their own. This way, students will learn the value of working cooperatively and individually. 164 words II. A teacher designing lessons should consider many aspects of a lesson. The first is the difficulty of the lesson. In addressing difficulty, the teacher should design strategies that scaffold instruction and provide differentiation. It is expected that students in a classroom vary in levels of knowledge and skills. Therefore, the teacher should avoid didactic models of instruction (Butt, 2006). In this kind of instruction, the teacher simply teaches content and he is the source of knowledge. The lesson becomes teacher-centered and students are usually tongue-tied because they are intimidated by the greatness of the teacher. In contrast to this is the student-centered discussion where the students feel free to discuss with the teacher and the students. The lesson should mirror the importance of students’ opinions. Butt (2006) also suggests designing lesson plans with differentiation instruction. Students will definitely vary in their level and skills, thus it is important to consider these differences to address difficulties. Differentiation activities will help multicultural students to cope with the lesson. Some who lack knowledge may be given additional activities. In the same way, those who are advanced may be challenged with more complex activities. 192 words III. Writing lesson plans is a must for every teacher because the plan is the skeleton of the lesson. It will serve as a guide to keep track of students’ progress. In the future, I will design lessons in consideration of several factors such as the interest of the learners, availability of resources, and time. I will try to create activities that enhance all the skills of the students such as reading, verbal, creative, logic, etc. I will also design plans that allow students to become leaders so as to develop leadership characteristics. I personally think that every student should experience being a leader in class or groups in order to develop among them life-long skills that they need in the professional world. Furthermore, I will make sure that lesson plans have scaffolding features to support struggling learners. Diversity consciousness will also be another aspect to cover the needs of multicultural students. 151 words Theories I. Education theories are sets of knowledge that a teacher should know and apply in teaching. They are important to future teachers because they serve as guide for instruction. For instance, a teacher who is knowledgeable of Piaget’s Cognitive Theory can tract progress of a child. The theory helps teachers to determine if a student has learning disabilities or none. By identifying skills that cannot be performed based on age, the teacher can give recommendations to parents for further assessment in order to help the child in his struggles. Theories are interesting because they propose new ways of teaching. I marvel at the way a theorist would debunk concepts of another theorist such as what the cognitivists did to behaviourists, which in turn was expounded by constructivists, and so on. A theory seems perfect until another one denies it. A teacher’s job is to test the theory and find out which of them is correct. 154 words II. To start with, every teacher should be informed of education theories that have shaped the history of education. Among these are Behaviourist Theory, Constructive Theory, Social Constructivist Theory and Multiple Intelligence. The Behaviourist Theory originated from the minds of John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner. With his stimulus-response model, Watson claims that “specific stimuli evoke observable responses in human behaviour.” (‘From Theory to Practice…’, 2002). Meanwhile, Skinner’s Operant Conditioning argues that pleasant things have energizing effect on people’s behaviour, thus we repeat behaviours that are desirable and get rid of undesirable ones. Applying these in the classroom, a teacher may find it easier to understand enormity of student behaviour, and encourage them to perform to the best of their abilities. In contrast to behaviourism, Jean Piaget (cited in Kamii & Ewing, 2006) posits that learners undergo accommodation and assimilation during the learning process. Exposed to new concepts, they construct their own, but rely basically on their prior experiences. Therefore, by allowing students to relate their own experiences to new concepts to be learned, teachers promote a more valuable learning experience. In addition, the NSW also promotes Vygotsky’s (1978) Theory of Social Development. This learning theory relates well with Piaget’s theory, as it perceives learners’ tendency to construct new concepts based on what is present. Basically, this theory proposes the view that social interaction precedes development. By providing venue for students to relate with each other, and “express needs, wants and feelings” (Board of Studies NSW, 2007, 39), educators help promote their social development. In Gardner (1983), we see the importance of emotional intelligence over intelligent quotient. Gardner believes that there are at least eight kinds of intelligences, namely, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist intelligences. Based on this idea, it is inevitable to discover the students’ multiple intelligence in order to align tasks where one could excel in. For example, a student with mathematical disability but who is good at drawing (visual-spatial) will learn best using visual representations of problems to be solved. Likewise, an interpersonally intelligent student will learn best when working in a team rather than on one’s own. In my case, since I am visual-spatial, I believe I learn best by writing and demonstrating what I listen to. Using this knowledge, I will lead my students to discover their own learning styles and intelligences to have them use such for their own advantage. 399 words III. The theories I have mentioned are all sound and tested. Nevertheless, I give the best regard to Vygotsky’s (1978) Social Development Theory. This theory supports the need of students to interact with others in order to learn. According to Kozulin, 2003, p.17), the development of higher mental process is dependent on mediating agents in the environment. The environment does not only include the classroom but also the community in which students live. This include their family, the virtual environment they can access, and so on. A teacher should involve this environment in the learning process to compose a holistic education program that will not only help enhance knowledge but personality as well. As learners interact with the environment through forum, community interview, and research, they will also develop their personality to prepare them to face the work environment that they will encounter in the future. In particular, Vygotsky’s (1978) belief in the presence of a ‘more knowledgeable other’ (MKO) makes his theory more plausible. The MKO serves as a guide to the learner to acquire knowledge and develop skills naturally. In teaching, I will assign students to find an MKO to help them in each step of the learning module. These MKOs can be someone in the classroom or a professional in their field or a friend in the virtual environment. 221 words Public Speaking Skills I. Public speaking skills are important in becoming a teacher. A person who does not possess these cannot qualify for the teaching profession because every teacher has to speak in front of the class everyday to deliver the lesson well. In doing public speaking, a teacher has to possess a good voice and a facility of the language. The world’s leaders themselves used public speaking skills to make people move according to their will. Personalities like Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King make great examples of public speakers. These persons have something in common: they know how to persuade people to believe in a higher morality that they are espousing. In the classroom, teachers must be highly persuasive to promote good values to students. Credibility is one factor that relates with persuasive speech. A teacher who promotes anti-smoking should be a non-smoker himself. Likewise, persuasiveness can easily come out if the students trust the teacher. Teachers should build on the trust between him and the students so that the latter will listen to the discussions. 177 words II. The art of public speaking and its application in education was not perceived only now. Rather, it started as early as the time of the Ancient Greeks who gathered in coliseums to listen to elocutions and orations. For instance, Socrates showed us dialectical method of teacher-student communication in which the student and the teacher engages in a question-and-answer discussion, with the both of them explaining and asking questions to each other to deeply investigate issues. Likewise, Aristotle expressed his own concern on developing good communication skills with his view of rhetoric. Aristotle’s view centres on the art of persuasion in public speaking. According to him, to persuade people, one must appeal to the emotions and feelings. As such, when applying to the classroom situation, the lesson should always bear an affective theme or content. This is possible in every subject. For instance, when teaching addition, the teacher could use the example of a mother who gives her child some pieces of bread she made out of love. Another example could be that children will give flowers to their parents to express their love for them. Such examples will appeal to the emotions of students. 167 words III. To be a good teacher, I need to develop public speaking skills, especially the art of persuasion. The first thing that I will do is to learn more of the English language. Facility of the language is very important in order to express what I would like to say. To do this, I will read a lot of literature books, magazines and other helpful materials in line with teaching. Moreover, I will practice speaking in front of the mirror and of other people. I will also watch instructional videos on youtube and try to imitate good speakers. Furthermore, I will make good use of hand gestures and facial expressions to aid meaning of my speech. In particular, I will practice establishing eye contact with people I talk to, project my voice loudly and speak a clear language with varying tones or pitch. I will also try to speak comfortably to make a credible speaker. Teaching Presentations I. With the globalisation trends nowadays comes the challenge of using technology in teaching presentations. Visual aids and teaching materials which used to consist of the chalk, blackboard and pieces of coloured paper have now changed to computer applications, smartboard, and LCD projector. Nowadays, teachers need to learn how to make creative presentations on MS PowerPoint or other computer applications such as Prezi, Extranormal, etc. These presentations offer a wide range of animations to make the discussion more interesting. Then, there are also various sources of information via the Internet including youtube, podcast, and social networking sites. The availability of these resources help enhance learning and teaching. For example, instead of asking students to read a newspaper article, they can just see a podcast on BBC and they will learn about an event. Likewise, they can easily obtain information from the Internet by searching Google. Personally, I can say that the computer tools available for teaching nowadays are a big help to teachers. They utilise the multiple skills of students, thus getting them more interested in the lesson. In the future, I will make use of these teaching presentations to make interesting lessons. 192 words II. Teaching presentations are an important part of instruction as they serve as methods to adhere to Bruner’s (1996) ‘scaffolding’ methods. According to Lytle (2003), Wood, Bruner & Ross were probably the first to coin the term scaffolding to refer to the assistance that tutors of preschool children provide in forming building blocks. Nowadays, scaffolding methods refer to techniques to prepare students for a new lesson or skill. The use of teaching presentations will help to familiarise students with a concept before the discussion. For instance, when teaching about the digestive system, the teacher may show students a video on youtube on how food is transported from the mouth to the stomach, and so on. Besides scaffolding, teaching presentations may also serve as enrichment tools to further add to the knowledge of the students. After teaching the digestive system, for example, students can make a map to track down what happens to the food. This map may be on the computer, and students will connect arrows to trace the food. This method may be more effective to young students instead of asking them to recite the parts of the digestive system. 191 words III. As new trends in computer technology and teaching are developed, the challenge to future teachers is to be knowledgeable of teaching presentations that are available online. In response to this, I have made efforts to learn Prezi and Extranormal. Prezi is similar to PowerPoint but it is more creative in that one can make use of creative shapes and designs to captivate the attention of students. However, the only problem with it is it can sometimes make the audience feel dizzy. Extranormal is very interesting for it allows students to be creative in composing dialogues of characters of a depicted scenario. The application is useful for making students infer ideas relating to a specific scenario. For instance, upon discussion of history, students may design a presentation in which two modern-day characters are discussing (i.e, Pres. Obama and Oprah Winfrey). The voice will be provided and all they need to do is to encode dialogues and plan gestures. Using the presentation, students will be able to enhance their creativity. 168 words III. Teaching strategies to be used in the lessons should be carefully planned out to ensure the success of execution. Teaching strategies should make use of varied resources that allow students to use their multiple intelligences. The examples given make use of reading, speaking, listening, kinaesthetic and cooperative skills. As students work together to achieve the goal, they interact with each other and are given the chance to widen their zone of proximal development (ZPD) which Vygotsky introduced in his Social Constructivist Theory. To note, teaching presentations should not be limited to computer presentations. They can be composed of real objects. Presentation of real objects is also beneficial as students will be exposed to them and know the real thing from the imitation. Clearly, teaching presentations are not just presentations for the teacher to use. They should also be available for students to use in order to achieve a more enriching experience. Furthermore, presentations should give way to assessments so that the teacher will have a means to check learning. The examples given above are both examples of informal assessment strategies. The teaching presentations do not just function as teaching tools but learning and assessment tools as well. 197 words Culturally Responsive Classroom I. The present education system presents a growing number of challenges to contemporary teachers. These include pressing economic problems that pin down students to poverty, the increasing population of multicultural students who present problems based on cultural and language differences, the inclusion of students with learning difficulties, among others. Despite being confronted with these adversities, future teachers like me should not be disheartened; rather we need to find solutions to each of the problems. Particularly, we should continue our search for a well-fitting educational philosophy in order to become effective promoters of education. An educational philosophy that corresponds to the situation at hand is one that responds to the needs of multicultural students. It should be culturally sensitive so as to avoid hampering the growth and learning of the minority. Such approach should combine the precepts of teacher and student-centred instruction. Students with different cultural backgrounds primarily demand venue for student interaction. In this case, student-centred instruction is preferable than teacher-centred instruction, because it allows students to work in cooperative groups where they can interact, share views, and explore other cultures. A constructivist classroom, contrasted to a behaviourist one that emphasises morals and values will be a more culturally responsive classroom. In the constructivist classroom, the teacher’s role is important to lead students to express their minds and cultivate their culture. They are also open to encounter other cultures and respond accordingly to differences that they may have. A culturally responsive classroom respects the culture of each student and eliminates the barriers to learning. It pays attention to culturally sensitive content of the lesson, strategies that benefit not just the majority but the minorities as well, and provides choices and differentiation strategies for all kinds of learners. II. The content of the lesson usually serves as the culprit in discriminating multicultural students. Paolo Freire (2000), a well-known Brazilian educator and theorist in the mid-1900s, argues regarding teaching of subject content. In Chapter 2 of “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” he explains how teachers deliver content and reality “as if [they] were motionless, static, compartmentalized, and predictable…Words are emptied of their concreteness and become a hollow, alienated, and alienating verbosity” (71). Students wallow on mathematical equations and scientific facts without realizing what those really mean in reality and their personal lives. Such form of education promotes rote learning, which often disinterests students. Known for his Active Learning strategy, Freire (2000) views that teachers should provide students a learning environment situated within the students’ knowledge and cultural experience. This means designing an active learning environment sensitive to the students’ background—their cultural practices, community and family values. Active learning environment involves open dialogue, sharing, and freedom of expression, among others. In response to this, teachers should first gain awareness of students’ background (family, culture, community, etc.). This way, it would be easier to align subject themes and materials to the experience of the students. Doing this would attract their interest, for they would feel the relevance of the lesson to their lives. As Kauchak and Eggen (85) claim, “by 2020, almost half of the U.S. school population will consist of members of non-Caucasian cultural groups". In this scenario, educators would face more complex challenges, considering a variety of demographic problems. This situation calls for teachers to be equipped with proper skills and attitudes in handling a multicultural classroom. As Loewen (2008) suggests, teachers should not focus on facts, but on the relationship between data and human experience. They should lead students to realize how to apply what they learned from school into the problems they encounter in life. As Freire (2000) believes, teachers should keep an open and free environment that allows students to relate with each other. Teachers should lead students to explore realities based on their cultural and personal experiences. This can be realized by providing group activities that allow students to connect and interact with each other, and by exposing them to materials that are culturally sensitive. According to O’Connell (2009), as we adopt the needs of a multicultural classroom, several issues arise, including learning difficulty and language proficiency. A culturally sensitive classroom does not only recognise diversity of culture but also the variety of skills and learning styles that students possess. Considering these, Neil Fleming (2001) introduced the learning styles. According to him, learning styles are the dominant traits a person utilizes when learning. Based on Fleming, a person can be visual, auditory, reading -preferred or kinaesthetic (VARK). For instance, a visual learner relies more on graphics, an auditory learner learns better by listening, a reading-preferred learner relies heavily on reading materials, while a kinaesthetic learner learns best through demonstration or action. These considerations should likewise be considered in designing a culturally sensitive classroom. 497 words III. A constructivist classroom will likely foster a culturally sensitive and learner-centred classroom. In a constructivist classroom, divisions between the teacher and students are ideally eliminated, implying student interaction and freedom of movement. In the future, I will ask my students to form a huge circle where I as the facilitator will stay in or outside the circle. They could also form small circles, which are very effective when conducting group activities. Bulletin boards in my future classroom will not be usually designed by me. Rather, I will have them prepared by students to avoid manipulating and curtailing knowledge. I will guide them on what they would put in the bulletin board but they will be the ones to decide on what to put on it. This way, creativity is more emphasized, and learning is better enriched by allowing different perspectives to a topic. This way, I can also give way to self-expression. On the aspect of motivation, I will give importance to suggestions from students. I do not want them to have a “wait and see” attitude. Instead, I want them to take active participation and make their opinions heard on how they want to perform an activity. For example, in dealing with a short story, the students can choose to present their analysis through open discussion, dramatisation, drawing/illustration, and the likes. I can provide a number of activities students can choose from. This way, I can give students the choice to decide on their own, which promotes their independence and responsibility. Similarly, I could also ensure meaningful learning experience as students are able to exert their best efforts having chosen the method they know best. In terms of discipline, I will not impose rules on students. Rather, I will try to model desirable behaviours for students to imitate. To do this, I will choose the words I speak and the gestures that convey my feelings. A friendly atmosphere will be shared amongst me and my students. Furthermore, the students will see me as a facilitator, a guide, a friend who is there to help and advise, not someone who records mistakes and gives deductions for errors committed. 358 words References Bruner, J. (1996). The culture of education. Harvard: Harvard Univ. Press. Butt, G. (2006). Lesson planning. NY: Continuum. Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the oppressed. NY: Continuum International Publishing, 2000. 71. Print. From theory to practice: behaviourist principles of learning and instruction. The Office for Teaching and Learning Newsletter. Volume 7, No. 2, 2002. Fleming, N. (2001). Teaching and learning styles: VARK strategies. 2nd ed. NZ: Perry Library Malaguzzi, C. & Rubizzi, V. (1995). A journey into the rights of children. Reggio Emilia. Gutek, G. L. (2004). The Montessori method: the origins of an educational innovation. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield. Horace Mann quotes. Retrieved January 25, 2014, from http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/279932.Horace_Mann Kauchak, Donald. and Paul Eggen. Introduction to teaching: becoming a professional. 2nd ed. NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. 85. Print. Killen, R. (2003). Effective teaching strategies: Lessons from research and practice. NSW: Social Science Press, pp. 40-47. Loewen, James. ‘Lies my teacher told me’. From Inquiry and Academic Writing: A Text and Reader. 1st ed. Stuart Greene and April Lidinsky. NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008. 332-353. Print. Lytle, D. (2003). Play and educational theory and practice. CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. O’Connell, M. (2010). The future of education in the United States. (Unpublished Thesis, Western Governor’s University, 2010). Utah. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Read More