Exploring Methods of Teaching and Learning
Self-Reflection
When people ask what I do for a living, I still say that I'm a teacher. But, "I thought you were a house parent for teenage girls", they ask. Or, "Haven't you been a missionary in Nigeria and Panama for many years?" Yes, but I am still a high school classroom teacher at heart. That was my world for 30 years. Those students filled my days. Sometimes, they filled it with frustration and stress, if I'm honest. But, more often with joy, learning, and relationships that still last to this day. I wouldn't trade my teaching career for any other. Today, I may teach in another country, in a different language, but I am still using the talents and skills I spent 30 years developing when I taught in the classroom.
My teacher training consisted of content acquisition, Pavlov's dogs, and learning about test making. Out of my four years of university training, very little time was devoted to classroom management. No time at all was devoted to being culturally responsive. Neither was any time was devoted to research based strategies. None.
When I think of my first 10 years of struggling to figure out teaching techniques and management skills that worked for me, I'm amazed that I stuck with it. So many teachers quit. We were really on our own. There was no internet, no pinterest, no "youtube", no online resources. (Hard to comprehend, but true.) New teachers today will still have a honeymoon period before reality sets in, and will have a learning curve as they find their way, but they will also have the advantage of access to research-based strategies. How different my teaching years would have been if I could have known time-tested teaching methods that had already been proven effective!
There are several research-based strategies I wish I had known in the early days. For example, much research has been done that points to the importance of being culturally responsive and how to meet the needs of a diverse group of learners. We now know that there are effective ways to meet the following differentiated needs of learners:
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social-emotional needs
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academic needs of gifted students or students with ADD or ADHD
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cultural and language needs, especially for 2nd culture students or English language learners
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cognitive needs
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students with unique living situations
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health and wellness
Also, the 12 Touchstones of good teaching, researched and compiled by Bryan Goodwin & Elizabeth Ross Hubbell (2013), offer practical and wise principles to follow that will enhance and improve the teaching and atmosphere of every classroom. A list of the touchstones is found at the following link:
The 12 Touchstones of good teaching
The LEAP learning framework for personalized learning (2017) provides ways to be learner focused, learner connected, learner demonstrated and learner led. As I reflect on my own teaching style and compare it to the LEAP framework, I see many similarities and many ways I can incorporate this methodology into my work. After taking my own LEAP related survey, I learned that I am strong at being learner connected, and learner led. I am less strong on being learner focused and least strong on being learner demonstrated.
Through the research of others, I also learned the power of having students set their own learning goals and the benefits of using multiple formative assessments throughout the learning process.
An article about formative assessment is given here:
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/dipsticks-to-check-for-understanding-todd-finley
For my next steps for continuous improvement, I plan to:
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check out more learning tools on Pinterest (I just discovered this resource!)
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invest time in the Edutopia website, which contains hundreds of interesting and helpful videos and articles
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continue my master's degree program
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start using a more of a mixture of formative assessments in my teenage and adult classes
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continue teaching my group of children's Bible class teachers to include some of the new teaching strategies I have learned (teaching others also helps me learn)
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since I won't be taking any more classes until fall, spend the next few months re-reading many of the articles and lessons and books I've been exposed to over the last two courses OTL502 and OTL 565
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be more aware of the needs of my students and continue to make my classrooms more student centered
As a science teacher I taught the scientific method and guided hundreds of students as they conducted research-based science projects. I taught my students how to conduct valid experiments and how to analyze data to form verifiable conclusions. So, I greatly value the work of researchers and I appreciate others who have done years of research in the field of education. If these researchers have concluded that certain methods, strategies, and teaching practices are effective, then I am ready to try them. There is no need to "reinvent the wheel" or search for meaningful teaching methods when there is evidence to support the ones that work.
References
Finley, T. (2014, July 30). Dipsticks: Efficient way to check for understanding. Edutopia. Retrieved from:
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/dipsticks-to-check-for-understanding-todd-finley
Goodwin, B. & Hubbell, E. (2013). The 12 touchstones of good teaching: A checklist for staying focused every
day. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision
& Curriculum Development. [Bookshelf Online].
LEAP Innovations. (2017). LEAP learning framework. Retrieved from
http://leaplearningframework.org/#framework-download-form