My philosophy of pedagogy - Essay Example

?[Nora Alarfaj] 21 July Reflective Essay In my philosophy of pedagogy, learning and assessment go side by side. Learning is the term used for gaining knowledge or information. Assessment, on the other hand, means evaluation. Assessment facilitates learning by letting the individual realize his/her weaknesses and strengths, so that he/she not only exactly knows how much of a subject has been learned, but can also capitalize on his/her strengths and minimize the weaknesses. As a learner, I used to take my own tests as a means of self-assessment. After reading a passage, I would close the book and recapitulate all that I had stored in my mind while reading, and would keep noting them on a piece of paper simultaneously. Once done, I would compare what I wrote with the original text and think why I forgot certain things while recapitulating. I realized that whenever I was distracted by certain ideas or things in the surroundings at certain points in time, I would not be able to recall the stuff I was reading in those moments while recapitulating. As a teacher, I tend to study the psyche of the student and adjust my teaching according to the student’s capacity and style rather than making the student come up to my level, though I always make sure that the necessary knowledge has been transferred. I take ten minutes in the end to ask the student to repeat what all I taught in the class. I would pick out the missing points and discuss them thoroughly with the student so that he/she does not forget them the next time he/she reflects. When I came to USA, the first thing I wanted to learn was driving. I did not know driving because in Saudi Arabia, women are denied the right to drive. So I was very excited to learn how to drive. I received the training from my husband, Anees. Anees started from the basics because I was the beginner. I learned the functions of different tools and parts of the car. In the beginning, Anees would take me to lonely paths so that I would not be distracted by traffic and would be able to fully concentrate upon driving. Besides, this also allowed me escape possible accidents. Anees taught me the use of gears and break. I learned the meaning of the letter on each gear. Letter D means drive, letter P means parking, letter N means nothing, and the letter R means turn back. Once he thought I had gained sufficient control over the car, Anees took me to the roadside and told me the significance of traffic signals. I found it all a bit confusing in the beginning, but the anxiety receded as I practiced more. The hardest part was driving on the highway. Cars rushing past me freaked me out. I was not very used to fast driving. But once I made it to my destination, it inculcated a feeling of confidence in me. I kept driving ever since and today, I have my own driving license and can dive independently. I am very grateful to my husband for his sincere help. I always believed that I could be a very good teacher. I polished my husband’s creative writing skills. I secured my Bachelor degree in English language from the Spring International Language Center. I was senior to my husband, and my essay writing skills were far better than his. Owing to the fact that men in our country are weak in expressing their emotions, my husband found it difficult to write a good essay. Therefore, I resolved to assist him with essay writing. I started with the basics. First, I taught him how to write an introduction in the American style. I told him that he ought to begin with a hook. I told him that it is important to write a hook to gain the attention of readers. Then, I told him to write a thesis statement to give the readers a fair idea of the content of the body of the essay. I told him that the body of an essay elaborates on what has been said in the thesis statement. Writing the topic sentence for each new paragraph was a bit confusing for Anees, but he started to develop better topic sentences as he practiced more. I suggested Anees to use different kinds of transitions in his writing, so that the reader does not get bored at any point while reading the essay. Anees found writing conclusion the easiest part of essay writing. I told him that in a conclusion, you only summarize all that has been said in the introduction briefly and in different words and in a concluding manner. Now, I feel that Anees does a great job in writing an essay and follows all the rules that I taught him. Before I started the course and worked with a student in a practical situation, I had always felt that assessment was not vital to learning a language. Although it was necessary to have some form of assessment, as it is in all teaching courses, whether language related or not, I felt it was more as a motivation for the student to learn, rather than it being an aid in the actual learning process. I had initially thought the most vital components were only observation, comprehension and practice, and was of the belief and understanding that if a language is practiced frequently enough, a firm grasp and understanding of it will arise on its own with time. While this is true to quite an extent, after communicating with Anees and experimenting with various assessment techniques, I realized that another vital aspect of learning a language is the assessment carried out based on what has already been learned. Anees’s response to me used to be better in the days when I would regularly conduct the assessment as compared to the days when I would skip assessment. I quickly realized that when regular assessment is carried out the learner not only gets a much firmer grasp on what has been learned, but also, he manages to do so in a much shorter amount of time. When we ourselves are fluent in a certain language, it comes naturally to us to speak it and we speak it without a conscious effort. This makes the language seem very easy to us. In fact it doesn't feel like we're speaking through a particular medium, it feels like we are just providing a physical means for our thoughts to be conveyed through. The same language however might not be so natural to someone else. English is one of the most widely used languages across the world and that is also why it is one of the most widely learned ones. Because of these two parallels, students that are learning English as a foreign or second language might initially struggle to keep up with the fluency of the speakers around them. This was the first and one of the most important things I realized when working with Anees. I learned that what comes naturally to me is not what comes naturally to him and therefore I should view the language from his perspective and point of view, rather than from my own. In other words, this meant viewing as a student rather than as a teacher. Only after I understood what the student was seeing could I understand what would benefit the student, and therefore provide the necessary means of delivering that lesson. In order to understand Anees’s style of perceiving things, I used to ask him to recall all that I had taught him and narrate that to me in his own words. Then I would ask him why he forgot certain things. I learned the problem and adjust my style accordingly so as to make it more conducive for his learning. It basically allowed me to assess him based on what was challenging to him as a learner who was struggling to understand the language, rather than as the student of someone who was very fluent in the language. Another misconception I quickly became aware of was that I had always thought assessment was purely for the benefit of the student. While this is partially true, in an indirect way, assessment of a student can also greatly benefit the teacher. In fact, for a good teacher the assessment of a student is vital because through assessing the student, one is able to assess himself as a teacher, possibly better than he could through any other method. When a student struggles with certain aspects of language, but cannot point out exactly where, assessment helps to narrow it down and give information of which areas need more practice and which areas the student is weak in. This allowed me, as a teacher, to focus on those areas, and draw on the aspects of language which Anees was familiar with, or more comfortable with, to help make those unfamiliar areas more accessible for him. In other words, assessment helps a teacher assess his own process of teaching, and decide which areas need to be focused on and which areas can now be left to the student to practice in his own time. Through the various assessment tasks I provided Anees, I found very clear insight into which aspects troubled him, which in turn made my job of teaching him much easier. Therefore, it can be said that assessment of a student is also a means of assessment for the teacher, and both student and teacher can find much to learn from it, if correctly carried out. Finally, I also learned something that had initially never crossed my mind. While assessment is valuable in pointing out the weaknesses of a student, it is also valuable in pointing out the strengths of a student. Through various forms and stages of assessment, when a student finds that he has a grasp so firm on the matter that he not only remembers or holds the information, but is also able to assess and produce it, it gives him a sense of confidence on the matter, and allows him to use it more fluently and frequently. One of the wonders of assessment that dawned upon me is the fact that it helps in the building up of good rapport between the teacher and student. While a teacher assesses his/her student, he/she essentially gains an in-sight to the student’s psychology and the whole personality of the student opens up in front of the teacher like a book. Every individual has a customized thought process and every single thought is sieved through the same net. Once the teacher gets to visualize this net of thought process, the teacher can gain a considerable understanding of the comfort zone of his/her student. This also enables the teacher to customize his/her teaching as per the demand of the student. This gradually improves the quality of teaching on the part of the teacher as well as the quality of learning on the part of student. This is a two way process. While a teacher learns the strengths and weaknesses of the student, the student is also able to interact more freely with the teacher and the understanding between the two is taken to the next level. Having taught Anees this course of English, I have come to know him much better than I did before. This comes to me as a surprise but our teacher-student relationship has had a mesmerizing effect upon our marital relationship as well. In conclusion, I learned that assessment is a way for a teacher to decide how well he or she has done the job in teaching a student. Rather, inversely, it is something that is ultimately for the student's benefit in more ways than one and can provide valuable insight into more than the conventional question of how much information a student has retained. If carried out correctly, it can be used as a tool and aid in the learning of a language, or it can be used as a pointer to narrow down the areas where a student needs more practice or indeed which areas are strong enough to be used as an in aid in strengthening those weaker areas. I would list down my core beliefs and assumptions about assessment as follows: A teacher should base the assessment on the content that has already been studied A teacher should make the assessment a regular part of pedagogy Assessment aids the teacher just as well as it does the student in the process of learning Through assessment, a teacher should also try to determine the strengths of the student along with the weaknesses Assessment is nothing to be feared Assessment improves the student-teacher rapport and makes the relationship conducive for education Assessment is of several types. A teacher can assess the student through written tests, oral tests, recapitulation and reflection. Assessment may also be made by asking the student to fill a questionnaire. The teacher should include such questions in the questionnaire that tend to determine the student’s own perceptions about his/her weaknesses and strengths. Through the exercises over the weeks and frequent feedback from Anees, I realized that assessment is not only beneficial but indeed vital if one wishes to provide a complete sense of understanding and grasp for a language, and indeed is nothing a student should fear, if they realize that it is only for the benefit in the long run. Assessment is more than a testing tool to determine the content of past lessons, which is how it is normally seen by most teachers and students alike, myself included. Rather it is a developmental tool that helps progress and mould future lessons for the student. Works Cited Brown, Douglas H., and Abeywickrama, Priyanvada. Language Assessment Principles and Classroom Practices. Pearson Education. 2010, Print. Read More