Teaching Methods And Strategies For Teaching Styles

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

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.

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,

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

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.

The way that an individual learns can shape their entire life. I personally struggle when it comes to learning topics within math and sciences. After reading about the different learning styles I understand better as to why that is. It is common sense that everyone is different, so it makes sense that we all learn differently. There are eight learning styles that were outlined and discussed in the textbook. While reading and researching about them I was able to easily put each of the learning styles into three categories: (1) I have those characteristics, (2) I have some of those characteristics, and (3) I am definitely not that. I will discuss more in-depth the styles I feel I do possess which is, interpersonal, verbal, and intrapersonal.

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 to help ensure both teacher satisfaction and teacher growth involves continuous leaning, individual reflection, reflection with partners, reflection in small groups and teams, and school wide reflection (York-Barr, et al, 2001). Teacher retention, ever a consideration, has been an ongoing concern in the history of education (Goldstein, pp. 250-251, 253-254, 259-261).

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.

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.

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 second type of teacher is and ineffective teacher. This type of teacher does not motivate or enthuse their students to learn. My seventh grade teacher was this type of teacher. She was a cake decorating teacher at the vocational center then became a math teacher overnight. At the begging of class, every day she would stand at the board and say class be quiet class shut up. That's all she would say the whole class and we never got anything done. Then if she would try to teach she would read out of the book and never give examples. If a student would ask a question she would say you?re not dumb you know the answer. The teacher always put the students down. According to

"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.

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.

In fact, I realized, as I continued to read, my teachers did a lot of modeling and demonstrations on completing a task. In addition, they had the ability to adjust learning to their students learning need and style, even though learning styles were not part of the system yet (Hamond et al., n.d.). Therefore, much of my teaching mimics how I learned from those teachers. I believe in guiding my students toward discovery on their own; therefore, my lessons were thought out, so they encompassed each student’s learning style. I taught 6th-grade social studies, not an exhilarating course to garner excitement.