Teaching Philosophy

Ok everyone. I have been writing some posts during this semester and this is the final one. Let's summarize all of the topics and finish. Firstly, I have talked about the teaching life and inform you that the teaching period from the ancient times to the now. Also, I have explained to you the ultimate goal of    teaching. That is, showing students how to learn, practice, investigation and how to apply theses in their life. Later, I have informed you on the diversity in classrooms. As you know, there are many students from different cultures, backgrounds and social status. As a teacher, you should be aware of these differences and handle it. If you don’t handle, there will be problems between the students and also between the students and you. You should know your students background, culture and his/her sensibilities. Also, remember, I have compared two different lesson plans. As a teacher, your lesson plan should be effective, clear and understandable for the effective class. So, I have compared two different lesson plans and choose one of them to show you which one is best and how the lesson plan should be prepared. Don’t forget them.

After I have talked about these and you apply them effectively, you need to have an effective motivation technique. That’s why I posted motivation blog. As you remember, there are five perspectives of motivation which are:

·        Behavioral Theory

·        Needs Theory

·        Cognitive Theory

·        Social Cognitive Theory

·        Social Cultural Theory

These all theories have some differences between them and some specific properties. I think the cognitive theory is really effective method for the motivation. As you remember, there are two factors in cognitive theory. Intrinsic and extrinsic factors and there are differences between them. That is, extrinsic motivation is to perform a behavior in an activity for getting reward or preventing punishment. In contrast, intrinsic motivation means inside of yourself. That is, you like the activities or skills for the satisfaction of learning. Let’s give some examples for each.

Studying too much for getting a good grade is an example of extrinsic motivation because you are studying for getting a good grade as a reward or not being unsuccessful. Doing a sport for enjoyment is an example of intrinsic motivation because as you understand you enjoy to do sport. It is coming from your inside. Both of the methods can be beneficial for some different situations and you should be aware of theses as a teacher during the instruction.

When you are presenting and explaining information, you should be prepared. That is, you should have a plan for this. As I explained to you firstly,

·        You should choose your objectives and content

·        Know the students prior knowledge

·        Plan for using the time and space

             Later, you can use the direct instruction method for giving the knowledge to your students. When you are using this method, your students should be focused to the activity. That is, you should gain their attentions and clarify the goals to them. After you can give the instructions and later feedback time. For the direct instruction method, you should give the feedback as soon as possible.

            Here onwards, I will give you some brief summary about the learning styles which are cooperative learning, problem based learning and classroom discussion. Let’s start with the cooperative learning. In that method, the students are in interaction. Low level students and high level students are in touch and help themselves. They are like in a group. So the students learn cooperation and collaboration because they are sharing many things. The students gains from this learning method; social skills, academic achievement and tolerance and acceptance of diversity. Now, time to second one: Problem based learning.  In this method, the teacher give students a topic and the students do investigations on that topic and find some solutions. The topics are generally real life problems so that students can understand the reality of life. They are investigating and collecting the solutions. Later they are presenting the solutions. In that type of learning method, again the collaborative skills are improved too. Now, I will summarize also classroom discussion. In classroom discussion, the teacher ask a discussable question to the students and then students share their own ideas. When student are sharing their ideas, they need to be prepared so this affect students in a good way.

            All in all, all these methods have some positive effects and negative effect. In the Turkish educational system, these are not taking place properly. I will try to use all of them in the future. I mean, I can use the classroom discussion for some lesson, later I can give a topic to the student so that they do investigation and use cooperative learning. According to the topic, all of the methods can be used. I have learnt it from this course and I am sure in the future my opinions will be more proper when I start the teaching.

Student Centered Approaches to Teaching

           

Todays’ topic Student Centered Approaches to teaching which are problem based and cooperative learning. I will give you some brief summarizing for each of them. Firstly, I will start with the problem based learning. In this learning type, remember, the teacher gives the student a topic and then the students do an investigation on that topic as a group. In group, everyone has their own task and at the end, all of the group members collect these information and give a presentation about it. The teacher should give a topic from the real life problems and students find the problems and learn better. With that way, they are gaining problem solving skills. The second one cooperative learning. In this type, student are in interaction and share their own ideas for specific topic. The high level and low level students are coming together and discuss. This so effective for both high and low level students because both of them can improve themselves. That is, to share some ideas, students need to think, study and do an investigation. With this type, student’ communication skills will be developed because they need to express themselves.

            Each of the teaching approaches has an effective for the both student and teacher. Especially, in problem based learning, the student are trying to find the real life problem solutions and because of that, the student understand the life process better. For the cooperative learning, many different student are coming together and this is showing us that they are learning different types of person. They learn also how to work with different people and how to accommodate to the process. I think the problem based learning should take place in the Turkish educational system because I have never heard that this type of learning method was used some schools. As I said, if they encounter some real life problems and find solutions for that problem, they can understand the daily life process easily and accommodate them. 

Classroom Discussion

Classroom discussion means that expressing the thoughts between the teacher and student or student and student on some specific topic.  There are at least 3 important instructional objectives of this method. It improves students’ thinking because when they are sharing their own thoughts, they need to be prepared and express effectively. It also improves student involvement and engagement because when they are in discussion, they are in interaction and there will be a connection between the students. This connection improves them. Also, their communication skills are also improved by the discussion method, because when they are talking, they need to be clear and effective. To do that they need to develop their thinking process. 

If you use this type in your class as a teacher, firstly you need to have a clear question to start the discussion. The question can be better if its’ type is about real life.  Before asking the question to the students, you need to be prepared. I mean you should have a plan for the discussion. In that plan, you should think the purpose of the question, think the students if the question is proper for them or not and choose an instructional approach. When you ask the question to the student, you should wait for the students’ response. This is called wait-time and according to the researchers, you should wait at least 3 seconds for that. Also, the seating arrangement is also important factor for discussion time in the classes. The U shape or Circle shape is better because in these shapes, students can be in an interaction and show the others easily when someone talks. When the students are talking, you should listen the student and record their sentences. At the end, you should give an explanation about the question and express your ideas.

Problem-Based Learning

       Todays’ topic is problem-based learning and I will give you some information what is it and its’ features. In that type of learning, the students do investigation on some topic which was given by the teacher and find the solutions. After, the found information will be presented by the group members. If you use this method in your class, the topic should be clear and real life problems. With the real life problems, students realize the problem and learn better. When they realize the problem, they try to find solutions to that problem. To do that, they need to think and find the problems. That is, they gain thinking and problem solving skills which are too important factors in todays’ world. For the specific one topic, everyone in the group have some tasks. That is, firstly individual works start. Their individual and independent learning skills will be good enough at the end of the work. After they brings the information individually, all group members collect the information and put them together. So, their collaborative skills are also developed.  

           As a teacher, you should act like a facilitator. To act like that, you should firstly decide the goals and objectives. After you should design appropriate problem situations and organize the resources and plan logistics. To go in deep as a teacher, you should;

• ·         Direct your students to the problem
• ·         Organize your students to start the project
• ·         Support independent and group investigation
• ·         Develop and present man-made and products
• ·         Analyze and evaluate the work process

        
        Also, there can be some multitask situations, you should deal with that situations and be clear to the students.

Cooperative Learning

       There should be interaction between the students and the students should share their own ideas. The cooperative learning includes these and set the interaction between the students. In the cooperative learning, different grade level students come together and do their tasks together. So low level grade students can get help from the high grade level students and this can be inspiring for them. This is helpful for low level grade students, also this is helpful for high level student because when they are trying to help low level students, they should think deeper and be clear. That’s why they pay attention to these features and try to gain them. They gain an academic features of teaching. Also, there are students together from different culture, race, social class or ability. So the students learn also different types of person skills. They can broaden their horizons. Because, people from the different cultures have some specific personal features and skills. For the specific task during the instruction, they bring different information together and create an effective task.

Moreover, this learning method teaches the students cooperation and collaboration which are critical skills in todays’ world. They need to share their ideas and reach a common result according to everyone’s’ ideas. In that way, the students also learn respect term because if one student don’t like the other students’ idea, he/she know that there can be different ideas and the students should show respect others. As a result, this learning method gives students;

•  Academic Achievement
•  Tolerance and Acceptance of diversity
•   Social Skills