There has always been a debate on what kind of teaching styles work best, what the best curriculum to teach is, or how to effectively organize your classroom. Yet, nobody has discovered what the most effective teaching methods are. As future teachers, we must constantly be making decisions that will shape us into the teacher we would like to become. Over the course of the next four years, and even once we become teachers with classrooms of our own, we will be exposed to many different teaching methods and strategies. There is no one right or wrong way to teach, and it is up to us to decide how we would like to structure our classroom. While there are many teaching styles, it seems that there is predominantly two types of teachers according to John Dewey: those that are reflective, and those that are not. Unreflective teachers tend to accept the routines that are given to them by the school they are working for. They spend their days working to solve problems who have been created by others for them. Reflective teachers on the other hand, are constantly evaluating their beliefs, teaching methods and behaviors and modifying those things so that it works with the situation they are in. Dewey believe that in order to be a reflective teacher, you must have three different components to your attitude: open-mindedness, responsibility, and wholeheartedness. In being open-minded, you must be willing to listen to both sides of the argument and willing to use an alternative way of
Reflection means if when you are teaching and you notice something wrong you change it straight away, or for the next time. Practitioners should always be self critical of past lessons and picking out on not only the good parts, but also parts of a lesson that didn’t go so well. For example in order for the practitioners to improve in their practice they could prepare a reflective journal, this would help them by reflecting back on what they did in the perivious lesson and if an activity didn’t go so well the practitioner could think of different strategies of improving the activity or planning a different activity, but on the similar topic and also providing different recourses in order to improve the activity. Also practitioners and staff members should not assume that their work place will automatically inform them about new developments, changes and updates which affect their work, practitioners must be prepared to be active in maintaining their own knowledge base and to ensure that their practice is in line with current thinking and new theories. Practitioners could this by incorporating an awareness of the needs to update their knowledge constantly into all of their work and activities by using resources such as the internet, journals, and libraries or other professional development, e.g. training, and to check their awareness of new developments in their work and to work with other professionals e.g. there
Although I have had many different types of teachers, there are two that stick out more than any others. The first was my third and sixth grade teacher. She was the best teacher I ever had. The second was my seventh grade teacher. She was the worst I think a student could have had. Both, these teachers had very different teaching styles and very different out looks on teaching. To be an effective teacher the teacher must respect the student and be willing to go the extra mile to help the students learn all they can. In this paper, I will discuss the effectiveness of these two teachers and how their teaching styles differed.
Reflective teaching has the teacher to look at what they do in the classroom, think about why they do it, and think about if it works and if they should or should not make a change to their approach. Reflective practice is an important concept learning in a professional context it is used as a learning tool, to help to critical reflect, explain, make sense of a situation, and ultimately help learn from experiences.
This paper will evaluate current existing education professional skills within a secondary educational setting. Reflective practice is described as crucial to enhancing employability. Therefore, reflecting on current skills as part of skill and performance development is paramount. Reflective practice will provide evidence of current practice. This evidence identifies further skills for development and training needs. Reflective practice includes a reflection of teaching and learning, upon learners within the setting. Brookfield, (1995) states that becoming a reflective teacher is about deciding which lens to use, by observing from differing viewpoints, whether from the reflective teachers’ perspective, colleagues or
John Dewey was a significant educational philosopher in the way he changed fundamental approaches to teaching and learning. Dewey was famous for his role in Progressive Education, a view of education that emphasizes the need to learn by doing. Dewey was also one of the founders of the philosophy of pragmatism: students must be engaged and interact with their environment in order to adapt and learn. He was outspoken on education and was attracted by progressive education and educator’s rights. His impact on education lasts u today.
Through out this course we have discussed a variety of topics ranging from child development to creating an effective lesson plan for students. But what does this mean for us as educators? In my field experience I had the pleasure of working with numerous effective educators. As I contemplated what I was observing, one question kept coming to mind. What makes a good teacher? After a lot of thought I have compiled a list of things I saw implemented, that I believe help make an effective educator. Though this list is by no means all encompassing, I believe they are the beginnings of an arsenal of tools and techniques needed to become a truly effective educator.
Everyone learns in different ways, and that is exactly why more than one learning styles exist; to fulfil everyone’s needs! Although each learning styles are different, all are certainly effective in their own unique ways.
Reflective practice is an important and personal attribute needed by teachers in order for them to improve their teaching practice and develop. Furthermore, authors have considered what reflective practice means for a teacher, Robins et al (2003) suggests that reflective practice is a useful tool for teachers to learn about their own values and attributes. It also provides them with greater knowledge of the diverse needs in their classroom. This tool is suitable to use when planning lessons, as reflections should show what works for different children and how you could possibly adapt your strategies so that every child is supported in the best way possible. Reflective practice provides professionalism and empowering skills to professionals,
"It is common for reflection to be treated as if it were an intellectual exercise - a simple matter of thinking rigorously. However, reflection is not solely a cognitive process; emotions are central to all learning." (1998: 194) Boud and Walker.
The teaching experience I had a Blackmon Road Middle School was a very good experience that was eye opening. The 7th graders of Dr. Latta-Won class were excellent, shy but a very interesting group of students to teach. With this experience I gained a plethora of knowledge. On November 17, 2016, I was the lead teacher who taught the lesson “The Reflection I Am”. After teaching the students a lot of things were observed and some good and bad things came out of the overall lesson. In this lesson there were some intended content and activities, the actual teaching experience was more different than I thought it would be, and the students work has led to a revision of the original lesson plan.
There have been several publications written on the topic of teaching styles and sifting through all the information can be tedious. The first, and most obvious, place to start would be to discuss a little about how learning occurs. The brain is a complex organ that scientists are still studying. Much has been learned about the brain, but much more needs to be researched. One thing that has been studied a great deal is memory and how it works. All human beings use their memory to learn. Information that has been learned was processed in the short-term memory and stored in the long-term memory. We retrieve the information through recall, recognition, and encoding specificity. Recall is a simple retrieval of information. Recognition involves a set of "pre-generated stimuli presented to learners for a decision or judgment" (Driscoll, 2000). For example, when one hears the words "Oh say can you see..." one automatically recognizes it as the opening line to the national anthem. The encoding specificity principle states that whatever cues are to facilitate encoding will also serve as the best retrieval cues for remembering (Driscoll, 2000). For example, wearing the same clothes to take a test as when studying for the test will increase the likelihood of recalling the information
Every teacher has a different method of teaching. The teachers that I have had in my school career have been no exception. In this way, each teacher has set an example for me, as a future teacher, to follow or not to follow as I see fit. With the examples from my teachers and in continuing my education, I am developing my own method of teaching. I plan to use a combination of teaching methods in my own classroom. My method will be an eclectic approach because I will be using components of more than one philosophy. I will be using essentialism, behaviorism, progressivism, and existentialism.
There is a usual but important cliché for a teacher´s career: a teacher has to be a life-long learner to be an effective teacher. Research on effective teaching over the past two decades has proved that effective practice is related to questioning, reflection and continuous professional development. Reflective practice can be a satisfying experience for a teacher evolution. It covers self-analysis, questioning one owns methods, assumptions about learning, theories as well as one´s attitudes and behaviour as a facilitator and communicator, in short making a deep analysis of the actions. Reflecting on teaching includes the teacher´s thoughts on the successfulness of the lesson planning and the implementation used to teach. Within the time progression the teacher´s reflection should be more precise and he or she could
The GTCNI have argued that, “Professional knowledge, by its very nature, is organic and, to an extent, evolutionary, reflecting a synthesis of research, experiences gained and expertise shared” (GTCNI, 2007:10). The GTNCI further reinforces this statement when it states that, “Teaching can never be reduced to a set of discrete skills to be mastered in some mechanical process of assimilation” (GTCNI, 2007:5). Teaching today has moved beyond the outdated view that the most important thing for a teacher was solely to have professional knowledge. Professional knowledge encompasses a range of different forms of knowledge such as knowledge on the curriculum and children and pedagogical knowledge e.g. how to manage a classroom amongst many other forms. Whilst this is still of great importance professional knowledge is of no use if you are not able to adapt this knowledge to meet the ever-changing dynamic situations that you will encounter in the classroom. This essay will examine how reflective practice can be unlisted by teachers to ensure that they are meeting the needs of their pupils as well as
Traditional teaching styles use teacher-centered approach. It includes a teacher that stands at the front and tells students step by step instructions. The teacher decides what is learned, when it is learned, how it is learned, and how learning is evaluated. In a nutshell, the teacher is an information giver and evaluator. The students are just there to learn through lessons and direct instructions. Their attention is mainly focused on passing tests, assessments, and evaluations.