Paper 3 - Elementary
John Cotton Dana once said, “Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.” Though this may seem quite apparent on the surface, when examined more
closely, the validity of this statement rings true, now more than ever, especially in the ever-changing world of education. Each and every day, teachers are given an
opportunity that is non-existent in many professions: the chance to make a positive impact by shaping the life of a child. This is a huge responsibility, and the
success of this challenge is often rooted in the way educators approach teaching. As a future teacher, I have begun to recognize the importance of making effective
teaching decisions. I know the decisions I make must be based on a variety of different teaching models, as each offers a unique perspective. Because learning
styles differ greatly among students, I will combine both the cognitive-discovery and humanistic models, as well as some specific aspects of the behavioral model,
into my teaching philosophy.
It is no secret that a main focus of education,
especially in today’s world, is often on meeting the
standard of required knowledge each student must acquire to
pass successfully from grade to grade. As a teacher, the easy way to accomplish this task would be through simply feeding students information through a
cognitive-expository format, such as lecture or teacher presentation. Personally, as a future elementary school teacher, I believe it is much more beneficial to
immerse
students in a cognitive
approach to teaching that emphasizes discovery, starting at a young age.
Through discovery-based learning, students are given the
opportunity to become
active participants in the learning process. The cognitive-discovery/constructivist model
acknowledges that all students have different life
experiences, and therefore, a
different level of prior knowledge. Through Piaget’s three-stage learning cycle
of exploration, invention, and application, students are
able to construct their
own source of knowledge by adding to or changing their prior knowledge through
the process of equilibration. I believe that this “hands-on”
approach to teaching is especially valuable in subject areas such as math and science, where
students have an opportunity to brainstorm and experiment, often
through cooperative learning.
Along with the
cognitive-discovery method, as a future teacher I also believe in the
importance of introducing humanistic teaching methods in the classroom. The
humanistic approach to teaching is unique compared to all other models in that its focus
is on the total development of the student, not only from a cognitive
standpoint, but from social, emotional and physical aspects as well. Therefore,
along with teaching academic skills, humanistic teachers also believe in the importance of
teaching values, self-concept and social skills. Confluent or holistic lessons
offer an excellent means of promoting total development, and I intend to use
this technique whenever possible, particularly in the language arts and social
studies.
Through my personal
teaching style, it will be my goal to promote a positive display of values in
the classroom. Through basic values education, I will emphasize that the most
important value for students to put into practice is showing respect for all
people. In order to display respect and equality in and out of the classroom, I
will integrate James Banks’ transformational and social action approaches into my
curriculum to increase multicultural awareness among my students. Through the
transformational approach, the teacher incorporates a multitude of ethnic
perspectives into various areas of study. Through the social action approach,
the teacher gives students the opportunity to participate in community outreach
activities, in order to help others in need while experiencing the wide spectrum
of diversity that exists today.
I firmly believe that students are shaped by the environment that surrounds them to a large extent. Therefore, in any learning environment, the interactions that occur between students and their teacher determine how active students will be in the learning process through both sharing their ideas and asking questions. By using indirect influence while teaching, it will be my goal to accept and clarify the ideas and feelings of my students in a manner that is both encouraging and non-threatening. I will also make an effort to ask discussion questions that are open-ended and could bring forth a variety of answers and opinions. Especially when dealing with subjective areas such as reading and writing, I feel it is important for students to know that no one answer is more valid than another. Because my students will inevitably come from diverse backgrounds, it is only fair to expect a wide variety of perspectives as well. In creating a warm, welcoming environment where children are valued and appreciated for who they are, it will be my hope that each student will not only build a lasting self-confidence, but will also become an altogether well-rounded person a little bit further down the road.
In order to give all students an opportunity to succeed and reach their fullest potential during the course of their education, I feel it is essential that teachers recognize the wide array of student leaning styles in their classroom and teach in a manner that will meet these various needs. As a teacher, I will make an effort to prepare lesson plans that involve as many of the multiple intelligences as possible. Students will not only have a chance to experience course concepts in a variety of ways but will also be able to learn through the intelligence that suits them best. At the same time, I realize it is just as important to develop strategies to effectively teach the diverse population I will have in my classroom. One way to approach this would be to develop multi-level cooperative learning activities as a strategy to meet the needs of low, average and high functioning students alike. I will also try to provide additional resources, such as one-on-one tutoring and individualized lessons, for students who require more assistance.
Similar to the cognitive-discovery approach, the humanistic model also focuses on presenting students with opportunities to work with their classmates through group-centered activities. This is a technique I hope to exercise in my own classroom someday because I feel that students learn best when they are given opportunities to interact with their classmates. By using a cooperative learning approach, students not only develop valuable teamwork skills, but teachers are also put in a position to intermix students from different ability levels and give them a chance to develop each other’s strengths and weaknesses by working as a group.
While the main focus of my philosophy of teaching will center around cognitive-discovery and humanistic techniques, I realize the important role the behavioral model plays as well, especially in elementary classrooms. Young students clearly need a series of concrete steps to follow, especially when learning a new concept (such as adding whole numbers or writing lower case letters). Following a direct instruction approach, I feel that students learn most effectively when the teacher makes an effort to perform a task analysis by breaking-down the respective learning objective into separate subskills and then chaining them together in a logical order. This, along with effective modeling and demonstration of the concepts, will help young students perform skills that are typically difficult when first introduced. From this point, I feel it is the responsibility of the teacher to continue to provide necessary prompting and shaping during independent practice, while still allowing the students to discover answers for themselves as well. When the students have a basic understanding of the skills and concepts, the fun can begin through discovery activities that will help to further expand their ever-growing knowledge base.
In order to build a functional learning environment in the classroom, I understand the importance of developing a practical plan for classroom management. I feel that Linda Albert’s cooperative discipline approach would be prove to be extremely efficient, especially in an elementary classroom setting. The cooperative discipline plan is based on the theory that students choose their own behaviors, and in doing so, the ultimate goal of their behavior is to fulfill the need to belong. Through the cooperative discipline approach, Albert recognizes that students misbehave in order to fulfill the need for attention, power and revenge or to avoid failure. In order to deal with misbehavior, she believes it is critically important to “pinpoint” the immediate goal of the behavior under one of these four categories. From there, teachers can select from a variety of intervention techniques that focus on improvement through meeting esteem needs.
During a recent “teacher shadow” experience in a third-grade classroom, I had the opportunity to observe the teacher use a very creative technique to minimize attention-seeking behaviors of her students. When a student misbehaves, for example, if they were to blurt out an answer without being called on first, she says the student’s name and follows by saying “thank you for raising your hand when you want to answer a question.” This technique is comparable to another effective approach, Gordon’s “I Messages,” except for the fact that it is executed in a more indirect manner. I would feel comfortable using this technique in my own classroom because it is a positive way to deal with small problems promptly, while getting elementary students to slow down and think about their behavior. Along with this method, I feel it is equally important to make a sincere effort to notice the appropriate behaviors of students as well. In a similar circumstance, saying “thank you for raising your hand this time” has the potential to serve as a confidence-booster for a student who typically has a difficult time following this direction.
Along with misbehaving to gain attention, many elementary students also misbehave in an attempt to avoid failure in their classes. In dealing with this circumstance under Albert’s cooperative discipline plan, I will attempt teach “positive self-talk” by requiring two “put ups” for every put down and encourage positive self-talk before the student(s) begins a task. I will also work hard to create a classroom environment where it is okay to make mistakes by minimizing the “cost” of mistakes through rewarding improvement, as opposed to the final score or grade. After all, in elementary school, it really does make the most sense to measure student success based on improvement, because by recognizing achievements, no matter how small, students will be much more likely to respond positively in the future.
By frequently acknowledging positive behavior, it is my hope that the motivation level of the students I work with will gradually begin to climb as well. The majority of elementary students are motivated by their teacher’s use of rewarding and aversive stimuli. Once rules and routines have been established, I feel it is extremely important to implement an intermittent reinforcement plan in order to encourage persistence in students while avoiding the overuse of reinforcement. I will also use this technique to foster intrinsic motivation so that my students gradually gain a natural internal curiosity for learning, instead of learning solely for external benefits. As a future teacher, it will also be my responsibility to be enthusiastic and create a classroom climate that is conducive to learning and a rapport that is successful in meeting the deficiency needs of every single student. In addition, I will take on the challenge of developing lessons that are show both innovation/variety and are relevant to the lives of my students.
As I reflect on the way I hope to approach teaching, I now realize it is a chapter in my life that I will have to enter with an open mind. In the ever-changing world of education, educators must look at teaching as a never-ending learning process. Whether in a classroom setting or elsewhere, teachers are constantly given the opportunity to learn new things. In order to become the most effective decision maker possible, I know I will have to examine and re-examine the models on which my teaching is based, whether behavioral, cognitive-discovery or humanistic. In order to educate my students to the fullest extent, I will continuously change and reflect upon my own approach to teaching based on what works best for my students as learners. After all, it is important to remember that they are what this profession called “teaching” is really all about.