T. Teaching strategies begin with the setting of goals.
T.
Teaching strategy - the setting of goals:
For Module 5 - Professional Practice 102792 at WSU - instructions:
- Draft three clear goals.
- You might like to align them with the teaching standards.
- Goals are about pedagogy, good teaching concepts, the understanding of theory and applying this knowledge to suit the students in your class and at school.
Goal 1
Being an effective teacher that makes a difference to the students:
- It is more than just presenting content.
- Passing on knowledge of the content so that students remember.
Killen (2016) suggests that ‘effective teachers spend a considerable amount of time transforming raw content in forms that make it comprehensible to students” (p. 25). Australian Professional Teaching Standard 1 makes clear mention of this but needs to triangulate education to incorporate the “ability to teach” – as knowing your students and knowing how they learn is not enough. An effective teacher now needs to know how to teach and this comes with time – time spent in the classroom as one develops into a proficient facilitator of education.
This idea also aligns with APTS #3.
Goal 2
Gain the confidence and feel secure knowing that I can do this.
- Committed to teaching and learning.
- Compassionate and understanding.
I am of the opinion that it’s impossible standing in front of a group of young people and try to communicate with them if one is not committed to listen and learn from them. Teachers are placed in a position of power and expected to deliver curriculum content with a ‘hope’ that the young people are receptive to the message. This is where the ability to communicate with ‘people’, not just students, is necessary so that teaching becomes two-way communication so that learning can take place. Significant to this idea is being able to establish ‘learning strategies’ that works with students.
Gaining the confidence that teaching and learning goes hand in hand with learning and teaching as indicated by Whitton et al. (2016), suggesting that the connection is vital to students gaining an understanding to why they are at school. Albert Einstein is quoted of saying (p. 1:
“I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the condition in which they can learn”.
Goal 3
Make teaching and learning fun – for me as well as the young people who unwillingly are put in a room with Mr Lombardi and expected to demonstrate learning. When I was young, I always questioned: why am I here? I looked out the window and sometimes wished I was on the outside instead of being in class. No doubt, this is a common experience that young adolescents go through and it is not going to change just because I am now the creepy old man with a black tie in the classroom instead.
Not to suggest that I have an advantage over other teachers but having children (as I have two boys) can make the difference when attempting to understand students as this has helped me tremendously. Wiggins and McTighe (2005) stress that teaching for understanding is key to enable students to grasp the reason to why they go to school. Knowledge is distinct from understanding in as much that it requires wisdom and insight (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005) for the relationship to form as these are the main ingredients found in the ‘soup’ of theory and practice.
How is ‘soup’ connected to ‘making teaching and learning fun”? Well, feeding the brain with knowledge… …have fun eating.
Today, however, I was reading a book by Bill Rogers and he stresses on page 133 that for "Classroom behaviour: a practical guide for effective teaching", teachers need to first have a clear understanding of what we believe "effective teaching" means as this is the barrier we need to overcome before we can begin to teach effectively. In support of this, Louise Porter in her book "Student behaviour: Theory and practice for teachers" suggests that the word 'behaviour' is deeply embroiled in the politics of teaching concerned with intervention and the modification of student behaviour.
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