My basic teaching principle is preparing students to face different challenges in life, particularly if they choose to contribute or lead the community where they live. For various reasons, students take my class. Often, the course is among the requirements of their major or a job position, e.g. for those who are future high school teachers. Others take it because they are interested in course topics, e.g. students interested in world politics enroll in international relations class. Regardless of their motivation, my objective is to ensure that students acquire knowledge and set of skills that prepare them to face various challenges in their occupation.
I define learning as a process by which I help students to acquire knowledge and skills through instruction. It involves different factors related to me as an instructor, the means of knowledge transfer, and the students as the recipients. In other words, learning is a process involving teachers, educational materials, and learners. Based on that definition, teaching is a process of delivering knowledge by using various educational materials to a group of learners. Therefore, it is a part of the learning process.
How do I implement my concept of learning and teaching in a classroom?
As a teacher, I believe that I play a major role in class by creating a classroom environment where my students can maximize their learning capabilities by asking questions and participating in class discussion. In addition, I believe that in
As a math teacher, I answer the following question at least once a week: “Am I going to use this in my life?” The first thing that comes to my mind is: “You will use math to pay your taxes, take your car to a mechanic, compare the number of hours worked and your paycheck”, among others. “When a topic connects to what students like to do, engagement deepens as they willingly spend time thinking, dialoguing, and creating ideas in meaningful ways. Making learning contextual to real-world experiences is a key learning technique with differentiating for student interests.” (McCarthy, 2014). Knowing the interests of my students is essential for them in order to master the material being covered in class. In addition, this gives me the opportunity to create a differentiating classroom. A few months ago I talked with the administration in my school and I let them know that my desire is that students have the opportunity to go to college or university to complete a degree,
Teaching is not merely about methods used and material presented in the classroom, but about shaping students’ lives to help them construct a firm foundation for a successful future. I desire to teach my students basic life skills as well as challenge them to set and reach their highest goals.
In my opinion, learning should be a way for students to relate with real life situations; to understand the dynamics of the world around them. For instance, if I am teaching proportions, students should first know that this concept is applied in everyday situations such as following a cooking recipe. By offering them the opportunity to follow a recipe and apply proportions, they can get a better understanding of this math concept and why it is important to learn. Due to this belief, my third professional goal is to provide lessons that are relevant to my students’ lives and real
Your main role as a teacher should be to teach in a way that involves and engages your student every session. You should also make sure that each individual is learning with consistent assessing of their progress and keeping records of this, to help we have a teaching and learning cycle (Gravells, A. 2012).
As a teacher it is important to know who you are as a learner because it allows for you to help improve your educational experience and to help increase your knowledge. It also allows for you to open your mind to remembering that every person and every student in unique and how they learn will be completely different from one another. This means that in one class you could have thirty unique learners and it will be your job to make sure that you make each child’s educational experience meaningful to them.
Goal Oriented: having goals in life is very imperative to the success of your students. Having goals in your curriculum will display your expectations for your students and their academic outcomes. It will also increase your current and future success. Taking advantage of your teaching goals is another approach to react to socially and semantically differing students in your class (Moore et al.,
Another goal that I have had since the beginning of the course was to adopt an engaging and effective teaching style. My aim has been to take the positive traits of teachers that I have enjoyed, while keeping in mind the characteristics and mannerisms that I have disliked, and crafting my own unique teaching style. As I have lead class discussions, group readings, and mini-lessons throughout the semester I have began to develop a teaching style through trial and error. I have paid special attention to the list of 25 pointers for successful tutees from assignment two and and focused on making my teaching interactive, supportive, equal for all, and respectful. I have learned to appreciate that, concerning a student's individual success, a teacher taking the time to listen to their student is just as important as the student listening to the teacher.
The focus of my all my classes is to extend student knowledge! Sometimes, I might focus on various topics they may have little or no experience with. I try to expand students’ understanding of a topic by focusing on vocabulary study, listening to academic lectures, facilitating group discussions, and various other
Knowing your students’ capabilities, time constraints, hobbies, schema, and socioeconomic status is crucial to teaching. Teachers who are familiar with their students have an advantage in planning their teaching for several reasons. The first is motivation. If a teacher understands what a student likes or dislikes, they can use this to their advantage. For example, if a student is having problems understanding order of operations, hates math, but really loves video games, you could have them explain the order of steps to beat their favorite video game and use that order of operations to show them the mathematical order of operations. In the same way, if a student is from a lower SES and must work a part-time job to help support their family, they may not be motivated to do homework and projects outside of the classroom. Being able to relate the importance of your content to students is key to motivation. If a student is not motivated, they will not learn, much less excel. The transactional Theory states that learning is a transaction between the student, context, and content with purpose. Each of these must be present for students to learn. Creating relevance to our content in each student’s life is critical to learning. We as teachers cannot create the context for learning or relevance if we do not know our students.
Successful teaching occurs when the teacher is able to select the most efficient method for reaching out to each student’s individual style of learning and inspire students to rise to their highest potential. While the responsibilities of a teacher are extensive (as one can serve as a teacher, a friend, a counselor, a disciplinarian, an entertainer, a facilitator), I believe that students should play a big part in shaping own education as well.
In the practice of teaching, it is the responsibility of a teacher not only to teach students subject matter, but to teach students in order to enable them to grow and develop as a person. While it is essential for students to have an understanding of academic material, it is also equally as important that when students finish their education they have skills to use in
Society expects for students to be able to learn and comprehend any information that is being thrown out. Some students seem naturally enthusiastic about learning, but many need-or expect-their instructors to inspire, challenge, and
The teacher’s role is to value all of their learners as individuals and to treat them equally and to create stimulating and effective opportunities within the class that enable the development and progression of all students. The
As a teacher, one’s role and responsibility should be towards the learners’ ability to learn and for learning to be as tailored made for the individual learner.
My teaching philosophy is to create an environment that stimulates learning so that students gain the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities to become proficient professionals. While teaching foundational knowledge is important, there are other essential skills and abilities that students must acquire in order to successfully transition from being a student to becoming a physical therapy professional. These skills and abilities include thinking critically as well as interacting and communicating effectively with patients and other health care practitioners. I emphasize to students that it is imperative to realize the impact of developing a therapeutic rapport with patients while providing quality, patient-centered care to optimize the healing process. Therefore, when deciding what to teach, I not only consider the content presented, but also how I can foster discussions with students so that they can apply information based on varying contextual factors. I also attempt to provide students a framework for how to achieve professional excellence, which I aim to model as I fulfill my roles and responsibilities as a teacher and provider of clinical instruction. This framework is rooted in five central tenets: