Introduction to Teaching: Theories on Teaching

8. Professional Practice – The teacher participates collaboratively in the educational community to improve instruction, advance the knowledge and practice of teaching as a profession, and ultimately impact student learning.

8.2 Growing and Developing Professionally

Teacher welcomes feedback from colleagues when made by supervisors or when opportunities arise through professional collaboration.
 

For Standard 8.2, simply hearing feedback from fellow teachers is not enough; the recipient must seriously consider feedback from other teachers.

One topic new to me in this class was the variety of different classroom theories and philosophies. One of the articles relating to this topic that we discussed is What’s Your Style by Donna L. Miller (April 2011). Miller mentions four curriculum philosophies, shown in two screenshots below: linear heavily favors structure and aspires for efficiency; holist centers around topics that interest the learners, rather than around a schedule or plan; laissez-faire aims at developing intrinsic creativity and encourages students to initiate learning and activities; and critical theory studies topics in the context of culture.

Linear and Holist

Laissez-Faire and Critical

The article mentions that a by-product of learning about these theories is to better understand why we, as teachers, make the choices we make with regards to the curricula we use for students, and to “shed considerable light … After all, how can we know that our way... is the best if we don’t learn about anything else?” (32). Miller’s focus is on how teachers may improve by self-reflection, but understanding these theories might also be useful when receiving feedback from colleagues, as mentioned in Standard 8.2.

 

Receiving feedback on a curriculum is not only a matter of fixing mistakes or smoothing out wrinkles; it is also hearing that something a teacher dedicated time and effort to creating and polishing might have some weakness even in its error-free form. Furthermore, as Miller points out, some of the curriculum arises from a teacher’s comfort zone or beliefs. When confronted with a possible weakness for a curriculum, a teacher might react by dismissing his or her colleague’s advice as simply inferior. However, learning about different theories, and the goals that those theories are developed to meet, may lead to the teacher dismissing others’ advice less frequently, and instead better considering their suggestions. Even if the teacher’s original plan was is still preferable to the colleague's suggestion, the recipient will better be able to analyze the suggestions and possibly improve the original setting by adapting only a few elements of colleagues’ suggestions. As Miller points out, none of these theories are perfect and most teachers incorporate elements from the entire ray of curriculum theories and simply favor one. Miller’s article addresses all of this in the context of the teacher self-examining for bias; however, as stated, knowing different theories may also be beneficial for interaction between colleagues.

 

Student learning could be enhanced by a teacher’s ability to receive feedback proactively. With suggestions from other teachers carefully considered, students will learn from greatly improved curricula. To continue improving on Standard 8.2, I intend in the future to seek out and study any additional theories that might influence my colleagues’ suggestions so that I understand their feedback and avoid dismissing them outright.

References
Miller, Donna. What's Your Style? (April 2011) Kappan Magazine, 32-39. kappanmagazine.org