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

Characteristics of an Effective Educator

My general impression is that an effective educator is one who can provide students with knowledge while also teaching them how to find knowledge on their own. Teachers that I remember well were knowledgeable in their subject fields and aware of where they could locate information they did not have on hand. Furthermore, teachers could complete demonstrations or visual aids when necessary.

Without having previously taught in any official classroom setting, my impressions of what makes for an effective educator come from my times in less formal settings and from how my high school and elementary school teachers taught. In both cases, patience seemed to be the most useful trait for keeping the classroom or other setting running smoothly. Teachers who dealt patiently with students usually seemed to help students reach their goals smoothly; furthermore, in my settings, I often found that putting in an extra measure of patience led to the students I was teaching or tutoring being more receptive of what I said. Good teachers were also knowledgeable about their subjects and able to provide extra information if students requested it.

In addition to providing knowledge, effective teachers also encouraged students to look for knowledge themselves, and part of this seemed to be having reasonably high expectations of their students. Teachers , although willing to help when necessary, expected students to be able to complete assignments as much on their own as possible. Students who learned from those teachers were usually in possession of broad knowledge and also capable of finding more knowledge for themselves.