Theory of Teaching - Literacy and Numeracy - Assignment Example

Insert Your Name Here Subject: Education Title: Theory of Teaching EDE 208 22nd October 2010 Question 1 (i) what are the most important factors that determine the learning experience of school/college students in your subject? You should analyse both relevant literature and your school/college observations in compiling your response. Note: Trainees based in primary should choose a literacy or numeracy lesson and in early years a specific area of learning. Teaching children Numeracy allows them the ability to think logically, understand relationships, and solve problems; hence, it is a multifaceted process that relies on several factors that the teacher can affect. These factors include; the resources available, the class environment, relationships created by the teacher, and the homework assigned. An experienced teacher is aware of how these factors can be best directed to serve the creation of a suitable learning environment in which the children are engaged sufficiently, and having support in the classroom. The type of materials in a classroom and the organization of the items transmit important messages to children to explore, feel, and learn.  The Teacher-Student Relationship is very important, as we know children spend about 7 hours at school for 10 months every year, which is more than the time spent at home. The communication between the student and the teacher serves and provides a better atmosphere for a classroom environment. Experiential learning is excellent at ingraining the information in the mind of the participants. Through actively using taught knowledge in tasks and class exercises, and then supplementing this process by homework…the child gains a wide spectrum approach to the knowledge and experience in processing the information presented to him, in this case numeracy.  Homework is essential for the children; it focuses their mind towards the subject, refreshes their morning learning experiences, and creates a healthy degree of completion…all of which develops readiness for the next lesson. On the other hand; excessive homework can have negative effects when children who spend too much time doing homework lose interest and motivation in school “Teachers and learners need to consider the classroom environment, relationships and approaches to learning. If these do not support a constructive and positive classroom ethos, then something needs to change. Indeed, the responsibility goes beyond the teacher and learner to involve everyone in the school community, including parents.” Hewitt, D (2008) Understanding effective learning: strategies for the classroom Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Open University Press Chapter 1 What is learning? p22 Children need positive reinforcement and discipline to facilitate effective learning.  Since children spend 7 hours a day for 10 months every year in school. The essential factors that determine the learning experience of school students in my subject are the resources available, the class environment, relationships created by the teacher, and the homework assigned. These factors should be assembled along with the teacher’s efforts and skills that will be portrayed to each student in a bigger scale. Homework is essential for the children; it focuses their mind towards the subject, refreshes their morning learning experiences, and creates a healthy degree of completion…all of which develops readiness for the next lesson. On the other hand; excessive homework can have negative effects when children who spend too much time doing homework lose interest and motivation in school.  (ii) Discuss how different questioning strategies are used to guide and enhance pupil learning in the classroom. You must refer to your classroom observations and also to relevant literature in your response. Questioning is an important aspect of teaching and learning. It allows teachers to find out what students know and understand, and helps students to get explanation and help. Questions that build thinking skill usually require pre-planning and structuring. 1. Understanding of previous lessons 2. Motivate students to become actively involved in the lesson. 3. Develop critical thinking skills. 4. Excite students to seek information on their own  Open-ended question i. How, why, what b. Low and High-order questions  i. What do you think, what can Galton et Al 1980 found that when the teachers in there study asked questions, to a 29.2% were questions of fact, 18.3% were closed questions and only 5% were open questions, while 32.5% referred to task supervision and 15% to routine matters. Recall Note: Any question becomes a recall question if the answer has already been explicitly provided to the student in class or in the text. "questions improve reading performance because they focus the reader’s attention on what is significant in a text and make for a more interactive relationship with a text, resulting in a deeper understanding and appreciation if it" (Miciano 2004). In addition to improving reading performance, teaching students to write high quality questions helps them with assessment questions. In time, students begin to recognize specific question stems, and apply their knowledge of questions types when determining answers on exams and assignments. 6. Distributing questions upon student’s abilities a. handling students" questions with appropriate consideration no matter how silly they may be, Assignment Question 2 A. compares and contrasts one of your observations of a lesson in your own subject area with one in a different subject area. For primary or EYFS chose either two core subjects (English, Mathematics or Science) or one core and one foundation subject. Focus in particular on the levels of interest aroused the overall pace of the lesson and the range of planned learning opportunities for pupils. When reading using literacy the pupils were much more enthusiastic because they were able to relate to the subject at hand. The interest was very high because the teacher used the method of questioning where first the teacher read the story to them and then asked them what they thought of the story, what they thought happened next and how they thought the story ends. Literacy is way which enables the students learn and participate in the studying process. It also may become interesting in a sense that the student would learn new words, how to use the new words in sentence making and the meaning of the new words and what the students have understood from the new words taught from the story they were reading. With literacy the level of interest was very high since children with different levels of education carried on doing their required work according to their work sheet While in Numeracy lesson the interest level was abit low since it took more time to count multiply and give the answer on the white boards and total the multiplications or subtractions of the mathematic work done. This took some times because the students had to count and the other reason for this was that there were different levels of understanding within the children. Some understood much faster than others. With numeracy there were different levels of understanding even though the learning opportunities were the same. By concentrating and thinking and counting the numbers most of the students were able to work it out though. The difference between literacy and numeracy is that with literacy the students did not need as much time as numeracy due to the fact that they had to use the adjectives to write their tasks while in numeracy they had to concentrate and count the units. It is important to note that the learning and absorption of these core educations interest aroused in a child depended solely on the child ability to absorb his or her educations. b. Two themes identified in the SEAL strategy are: developing the skills of becoming an effective learner developing knowledge, understanding and skills in developing effective relationships Examine how these areas are promoted (or discuss opportunities for their promotion) in the lessons you have observed and referred to in part a) above. In development of skills for becoming an effective learner it is important to know that it al depends with the student’s ability to assimilate what he is taught. The student needs to experiment with different things and different kinds of setting. The habitat or the learning environment is also very important in a sense that if the environment is a friendly place then the student will want to come to learn in that place and will also be relaxed enough to learn appropriately. The most effective way to developing effective relationship skill is for a teacher to be empathetic with the kid. The teacher needs to understand the ability of the kid to learn, his social and environmental well being is very important. It is also important for the teacher to build a trusting relationship with the students. Assignment question 3 Identify one topic or theme currently being taught and clearly identify the strands of progression in an existing scheme of work for the teaching of that topic. Make reference to the national curriculum or other school/college curricula. The new topic theme currently being taught in international primary curriculum it the theme of living things and habitat known as “I’m alive ( living things) this kind of teaching was designed to follow five strands of education which is art, geography, ICT, PE, and science. Using international primairy curriculum a teacher is able to teach the children all the foundation and core subjects while making It fun and absorbing for the students. The first step for this is the entry point where students are introduced to the theme of the subjects which they are about to learn. Then comes the knowledge harvest where the teacher uses mind mapping to know what the students know and map out to what they do not know. This is important for reference since from this point the students will be able to learn new words and learn how to relate to the words or places and how to go about it in a practical way. The teacher also explains to the student the theme of the work. A unit is intended to last for about six weeks with which they would cover all the subjects which are in the national curriculum. This is one of the teaching schemes which were introduced by the international primary school curriculum. The theme of this type of learning is to give the children the sense that they are all enjoying the subject because it is their own words which they are reading about. It is also fun since every one is included in the learning process. The international primary curriculum has made it possible for both the teachers and the students to learn by fully participating in the class work. The students feel like the learning process is their own work since they get to decide on what they need to learn. They also choose the topic which they want to read about. With this kind of direction the students enjoy learning because they believe that they have a choice in what they are doing. This kind of curriculum maps out to involve strands of progression such as the learning of ICT, art, Geography among many more. All this might be included in one lesson. The teaching and methods of learning vary depending on what theme the teacher has decided to use like for example if they wanted to study about habitat of the living things then the children need to go out and look for where animal live. For instance most children found spider webs and were able to study the habitat of how spiders live. And where this not only included the scientific part of learning it also included numeracy, literacy, science and history. Music too can be a way of learning. Assignment question 4 Analyse the strategies that promote good behaviour in the classroom, making reference to relevant literature and your own school/ college observations. The most important strategies for positive classroom behaviour should be: a teacher should be positive at all times since if he or she is negative then the students will also be negative and it is generally known that a negative student is not a really good student. It is important for a teacher to be positive since if the teacher is positive then the pupils will have positive behaviours. The next important thing to promote good behavious in classroom is the highlight of good behaviour. Get the students role model or if they are still young then you can highlight the types of good behaviours for them to emulate. You as the teacher should also be a role model for good behaviour since if you are not a good role model then the students will be more likely to misbehave because they emulate what you as the teacher do. It is important for the teacher to demonstrate good behaviour to the student. An effective strategy for good behaviour entails the consistency of approach with regards to behaviour. This should be among students, teachers and other staff who work in the school community. This should be able to promote positive culture of behaviour in the school and among the pupils. The staff should also be able to strike a balance between rewards and punishment. This is very important because If the teacher keeps on punishing the students then their morales will be low and they will lack discipline since they will always know that the only time the teacher takes note is when they are being punished. The introduction of reward for good behaviours should be frequent because most students will behave well when they get rewarded and the other will try and have good behaviour since they will also want to have rewards for good behaviour. This does not mean that the students who are badly behaved should not be punished. A teacher should be fair when punishing the students since if there is unfairness then the students will be discouraged. The teacher should also show consistency in teaching and learning as well as behaviour management, they should also show good leadership in the school. Effective classroom management should also be followed since when a class is effectively managed then the learning process will be effective. teachers should recognise the importance of ensuring a ‘fit' between their own classroom management approach and the school's behaviour policy. For that reason it is essential to check out the school policy substance as well as the statements of principle  to ensure an understanding of the sections it should contain: a consistent approach to behaviour management, teaching and learning school leadership classroom-management, learning and teaching rewards and sanctions behaviour-strategies and the teaching of good behaviour staff development and support pupil support-systems liaison with parents and other agencies managing pupil transition organisation and facilities. Behaviour4learning (B4L) emphasises the crucial link between the way in which  children and young people learn and their social knowledge and behaviour. In doing this the focus is upon establishing positive relationships across three elements of self, others and curriculum as indicated above. B4L has implications for pupils, teachers, parents and other professionals. Its principles can be applied to all children at any age and not just those perceived as being “difficult to manage”. It applies as much to teachers and their relationship with children as much as it applies to the children themselves. Elements of a B4L approach can be seen in a range of statutory and non statutory guidance materials. (for example from the DfES Primary National Strategymaterials). B4L is a concept that has emerged from a review oftheories of effective behaviour management. Tutors and trainees should recognise that a ‘B4L approach’ is fundamentally linked to a view that ‘behaviour’ in classrooms and whole schools/settings does not occur in isolation – it is the product of a variety of influences and not simply the product of a pupil’s unwillingness to behave or learn as required by the teacher (an approach which has frequently been referred to as an ‘ecosystemic approach’).   In summary, the three sets of relationships which contribute to a culture/ethos of ‘learning behaviour’ are:   Relationship with Self: a pupil who does not feel confident as a learner and who has ‘internalised’ a view that s/he is unable to succeed as a` learner will be more likely to engage in the challenge of learning and (in consequence) may be more inclined to present ‘unwanted behaviours’   Relationship with Others: all ‘behaviour’ needs to be understood as ‘behaviour in context’. Behaviour by pupils is triggered as much by their interactions with others (pupils, teachers or other adults in schools/settings) as it is by factors internal to the child.   Relationship with the Curriculum: pupil behaviour and curriculum progress are inextricably linked. Teachers who promote a sense of meaningful curriculum progress in learning for each pupil will be more likely to create a positive behavioural environment.   It is important for any school to promote a culture of thinking for its students according to Costa (1985) who states that the goal for developing school graduate with the ability to think critically is significant but yet it should not constitute the sole justification for improvement efforts. Since thinking is essential to all school subjects, its development should be considered a means as well as an end. Reference: Cohen J. Social, 2008, Emotional, Ethical, and Academic Education: Creating a Climate for Learning, Participation in Democracy, and Well-Being, Harvard educational review, vol. 76.no. 2 pg 201-237 Costa A. L, 1985, developing minds: A resource book for teaching thinking, education research information centre, pg.1-347 Ministry of education, 2010, literacy and numeracy, a solid foundation retrieved on 22nd October 2010 from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/index.html Social and emotional aspect of learning, 2007, education online retrieved on 22nd October 2010 from http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/index.cfm?request=c1157104 The national strategies, 2010, retrieved on 22nd October 2010 from www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/nationalstrategies Read More