Fundamental Aims of Teaching in Secondary Schools - Essay Example

Fundamental aims of teaching in secondary schools and how it’s determined The basic fundamental aim in teaching secondary school is to help learners articulate and be able to follow their values. It is very simple for the learners in secondary school to think that secondary school learning process is just limited to note taking or lectures. However, sometimes tutors or lectures take course materials outside the intended purpose just to ensure that students learn something else outside the intended purpose. Therefore students also find time to learning other parts of their lives in traditional classes not just what has been labeled as “service-learning courses.” It also aims at mentoring young intellects within or outside their field of specialization. Schools can achieve this aim by ensuring that there are strong advisor’s mentorship and guidance for the students. The process also helps students to easily adapt changes and be dynamic in life. The society modern students lives in is in a state of constant change or flux. Therefore another basic aim of students in secondary schools is to enable them keep up with societal dynamics. That is a learning environment with peers and enough technology will definitely offer this aim. Secondary school enables learners to increase the wisdom possessed. Wisdom increases the understanding of the whats and whys of the previous systems and successes and failures. Secondary education is intertwined to ensure that student’s wits are tested so as to make them curious thus wise. The best way to determine this aspect of learning within secondary school set up is through co-curricular activities such as games, sports and dramas. Some of the aims of teaching in secondary can be well articulated not necessarily through academic excellence but through participating in the above mentioned activities. Core practices that are involved in teaching in secondary schools One of the core practices involved in secondary school in the revelation of information. In this practice, there is teaching by delivering the needed information to students. Teachers who opt for teacher-student or lecture method should ensure there are notes prepared in advance. In this case, students are not involved much and sometimes treated as conduits for where the information or knowledge is poured into. The other practice common in secondary school is the delivery of structured knowledge. In this case, students are attended to via information delivery however, the quality of the performance accentuated. The teacher will organize his or his materials to be presented in a clear and logical way. This practice make students to acquire the delivered lesson more easily compared to the previous practice. Then there is practice that foster mutual understanding. The main objective of this practice is to ensure that students and teachers come close together. This is because the teacher changes his or her role to ensure that students are helped in the process of learning. It is also at this practice that students with special needs will be attended to differently. There are other practices that change concept of the learner or geared towards toward intellectual development. The main aim of the teacher in this method is to ensure that students intellects are changed within the environment and that can provide support and understanding of the basics of education. Finally is the teacher-student interaction which focuses on the interaction between the students and teachers. This emphasizes on the understanding of the students. Teachers will mould students in accordance with learning objectives. Reasons why the practices are important Teaching practices which involves direct teaching are important to students since they are so specific to the objective of the lesson. That is, students are told reasons why the contents are good and to the level such is relevant to their daily activities. It is at this point that students are helped to clarify objectives of the lesson. When students are directly involves through the last practice mentioned then it becomes very easy to measure achievements of the learners. Co-operative learning also helps foster mutual responsibility to the learners. This further helps students to be patient and less critical since it is a teacher dominated. The lecture method as mentioned also necessitates inspiration among students. This is because there are factual materials presented in a direct and logical manner. It is most preferred for large group since every learner will be reached on equal breath. Sometimes lecture method can be accompanied by demonstrations which have proved to be giving learners excellent examples regarding the topic. This helps learners connect between the concepts, processes and events. There are teaching practices as mentioned above that facilitates brainstorming. In so doing, there are listening skills which allows learners to be creative and think for new ideas. There is also full participation of learners in the process of learning which eventually draws group’s knowledge and experiences. Furthermore, the spirit of cooperation among learners is created. Lastly, the discussion elements among students help in pooling ideas and experience from other group members thereafter develop the needed analytic and problem solving skills. How classroom and school contexts influence teacher's practices Understanding the classroom can play some psychological trick that ensures performance. For instance, there will be a need to understand students’ levels in the given secondary school. This will be important especially when deciding how to decorate and arrange the classroom so as to trigger the needed motivation for learning. It needs to be understood that secondary school students may not be inspired by cheery walls but respond positively to inspirational quotes. On a different note, the school as an institution has big influence on the performance of students. That is, the relationship among school contextual indicators, principal management styles, school structure and objectives of the school can have devastating effects on learners if not properly weighted. On the other hand, clearly defined aims and objective of the school motivates learners to work to reach such achievements. This will ultimately inculcate the needed discipline and focus that are fundamentally necessary for good performance. How learner characteristics influence teacher's practices Learners have diverse characteristics and this really affect the kind of reaching practice that the teacher is going to use. For instance, there are some students who exhibit learning disabilities, mental retardation, blindness and low vision among others. It therefore means that teaching practice the teacher is going to use must be one that caters for all these types of special features as exhibited by the learner. To be prudent, a teacher will not be expected to over rely on lecture method as instruction method is the class constitutes some members with hearing and visionary problem. In that case, the teacher might be forced to change tact so that each student is given the needed attention. Meaning of pedagogy and how teachers use pedagogical models Pedagogy within the context of education refers to teaching skills that instructors or teachers can use to pass or impart the specialized knowledge or content of their subject areas. Effective teaching should be able to demonstrate a wide range of skills and abilities that can lead to creation of favourable environment where learners effectively receive the content. To borrow an idea from Gilgun (2005), pedagogy means teaching learners together with its attendant discourse. Actually it is what learners need to know and the needed skills to command so as to make and justify the objective of the learning. Teachers ensure that s/he proposes a conceptual framework that enables learners to explore their talents and abilities in the classroom. The teacher can use the pedagogical models to blend and represent content in a manner that is better understood to the learner. That will also necessitate the understanding of topics, issues in education process and be adaptive to the diverse interests and abilities of different learners. Also related to this is to enable the teacher to strategise and manage and organise ideas that transcend subject matter being passed in the classroom. The other method of using pedagogical models is through classroom management which comes down to lesson preparation, incorporating the needed resources, assessment of learning objectives and outcomes. The pedagogy also suggests that teachers be doing the assessment of the relevant knowledge possessed by the learners so as to make an appropriate decisions on the instructional method to be used as well as the material that students need. How research and evidence-based practice inform our understandings of teaching Evidence-based practice means the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of the individual student. It means integrating individual teaching expertise with the best available external educational evidence from systematic research (Gilgun, 2005). The integration of best available research by teachers is one component that has really affected the outcome of evidence-based practice. By the time teachers solely rely on scientific results needed for the teaching interventions, her or his expertise, and even student’s preferences are at stake. These bodies of evidence from a variety of methodologies do not attest to the effective implementation of teaching as some cases are unique and might need our experience or teaching/learning history of the particular student. One big issue with teaching in education settings is that they may lack access to needed resources so as to update themselves accordingly. Evidence-based practice can only become effective if qualified teachers can get resources such as journals within their teaching settings. Lack of these resources has really derailed implementations of evidence-based practice. Evidence based teaching will also be able to impart in students needed strategies for revising, planning and editing their written works. This may include teaching general processes such as brainstorming. References Gilgun, J. F. (2005). The four cornerstones of evidence-based practice in social work. Research on Social Work Practice, 15, 52–61. Read More