In fulfilment of the requirements for this assessment I taught two 3-hour-seminar sessions which were part of a course on Southeast Asian Theatre convened by a professor of Drama & Theatre at Royal Holloway. The course was designed for a group of ca. 20 second year BA students. I carried out the planning for my two sessions which was then also approved by the course leader who gave feedback on the overall concept. I was not involved in the essay marking but was asked to assist students who wished to write their essays about the topic discussed in my sessions. Therefore, I was approached via email by four students of the course whom I supported in finding relevant materials. I was also able to give further information and feedback on their work. Topics I covered in my two sessions were:
Furthermore, for the last four years I have been working as a German Foreign Language Assistant in a comprehensive school in Whitechapel, London, and I give private German lessons as a tutor for all age groups and levels (Business and General). During my research in Indonesia in 2010/11, I also worked as a Teaching Assistant of German at the State University Jakarta and taught ten single seminar units as well as a phonetic and conversation class over the course of 6 months. All teaching I organized together with my teaching partner Mymy Phan, at that time also a Teaching Assistant at UNJ.
I have not considered student diversity when I was planning my sessions and I discuss this shortcoming in my teaching evaluation paper above. I tried, however, to employ a student-centred approach when structuring my two sessions and I hope this shows in the way how the students were invited to discuss and share their ideas.
I critically evaluate my teaching and...
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...n audience that never heard about the topic before.
I employed a mixture of lecturing, discussing, demonstrating and experimenting. My approach to teaching has not yet changed because I haven’t taught a lot. I think, however, that most students need to be stimulated in different ways. Although there are certainly learning preferences for each individual I think that learners can generally benefit from a mixture of methods. For instance, learning about theatre without ever watching any performances would be very dry indeed.
I have only been teaching two sessions at university (in the UK) so far and there was no pivotal incident that influenced my teaching. In my opinion I still have a lot to learn. I think however, that it is challenging and exciting to be able to teach at this level and to inspire (mostly) young people to think and develop their own concepts.
Adams, Maurianne, Bell, Lee Anne, and Par Griffin. Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice: A Sourcebook. NY: Routledge, 1997.
Spring, Joel H. “Chapter 6: Student Diversity.” American Education. Sixth ed. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 145. Print.
This source will equip the argument for utilizing diversity as an educational apparatus that supports student development and learning. The showcase of impact of diversity student engagement will definitely be useful for providing a strong reasoning for showcasing how the experience of students in the US schooling system shapes the educational experiences of diversified student group.
As an educator who wants to show off an impressive portfolio to apply for a lead teacher position when building a portfolio there are several details that should be included to make it a successful. The teacher’s philosophy, resume, and degree/certificate/awards should be present in all teacher portfolios.
Diversity in the classrooms will give students access to experience other cultures and learn about one another. The different races effect how varied their backgrounds might be, and it will help the teacher engage a variety of ways to manage course material (Packard, 2017). According to Packard, it is up to the teacher to help spread the learning of diversity and use it to their advantage in their classroom. Throughout the years, diversity have grown in the classrooms, but the struggle of segregation continues.
According to Worthen, "these newer and innovative teaching methods are moving out the traditional lecturing method " while on the other hand according to Annie Murphy Paul, the active learning helps students to openly interact with one another and participate in lecture. Annie Murphy Paul says, "The act of putting one's own thoughts into words and communicating them to others, is a powerful contributor to learning. Active-learning courses regularly provide opportunities for students to talk and debate with one another in a collaborative, low-pressure environment". Whereas as per Worthen, "Absorbing a long, complex argument is hard work, requiring students to synthesize, organize and react as they listen". I do agree with her that it is a hard work but at the same time I also feel there is no scope of interaction for students during traditional lecture teaching. I would say the key to lecturing method is to keep them short as well as one needs to in cooperate other innovative teaching approaches like active learning. This helps students to interact with the given piece of information which promotes active thought, with the help of activities like discussions, debates , seminars, showing educational videos, application of principles etc. Students are doing more than simply listening which helps in skills development rather than just note-
...ause I have see over the past four years how I have transformed my own beliefs about teaching. I have learned from professors and cooperating teachers how to handle difficult situations, this has made me a stronger teacher in the classroom. I am able to quickly adapt lesson plans to the needs of a classroom, and know when something is not going to work by the response of my students. I have also seen changes in how I respond to students. I have learned that students really do want to learn; they just need to know that their teachers want to help them. This has been played out in many different situations. Some of the classrooms I have seen have been very open and comfortable classrooms. The students want to learn because they know that their teachers want them to succeed. I have thrived in these situations because I gain my energy off of the energy in my classroom.
Looking back, I can see that my classes were often rushed with little time for the students to question me. I spent so much time putting content into my lessons that the classes themselves were often seen as being disorientated because I had so much to do. Often, the students were left with tasks that were unfinished as I felt that we had to move on. As a result, it affected student understanding and learning which left many students unable to fully grasp some of the concepts. This is obviously an ineffective way of teaching. Mohanna, Chambers and Wall (2008) tell us that a good teacher is adaptable and reacts to lessons on the spot. Unfortunately my assumption prevented me from doing this as I was always trying to cover the material that I had for the class.
Diversity in classrooms can open student’s minds to all the world has to offer. At times diversity and understanding of culture, deviant experiences and perspectives can be difficult to fulfill, but with appropriate strategies and resources, it can lead students gaining a high level of respect for those unlike them, preferably than a judgmental and prejudiced view.
Every teacher has a different method of teaching. The teachers that I have had in my school career have been no exception. In this way, each teacher has set an example for me, as a future teacher, to follow or not to follow as I see fit. With the examples from my teachers and in continuing my education, I am developing my own method of teaching. I plan to use a combination of teaching methods in my own classroom. My method will be an eclectic approach because I will be using components of more than one philosophy. I will be using essentialism, behaviorism, progressivism, and existentialism.
The one belief I had about teaching that has changed since I began this unit, is that all teachers, more or less, taught in the same way. Perhaps this is a belief that I had formed from my own time at school, where all my teachers taught in the same way; some were more or less effective, but I wasn’t aware of them using theories or methods as such, more that they were or weren’t kind people. This belief has changed and it has really opened my ideas to the many creative models, and instructional methods a teacher can use.
This essay will include examples of student diversity from an actual observational experience at The Goddard School. Examples will also be pulled from materials learned in the course Exploring Learning and Teaching that tie into said observations as well as peer reviewed articles and essays. Student Diversity is an important topic when talking about education and how it is handled throughout the education system. This essay will address some of these options that handle student diversity.
Currently I am teaching adults in a business environment, though it has not always been like this. I have had the fortune to teach people of all ages within different conditions and circumstances. It is worth to mention that most of what I know now has been acquired through practice and experiences in the c...
Some ways I plan to accommodate student diversity in my teaching is to maintain a diverse learning environment for my students. I understand that not all students learn the same so I plan to use differentiated instruction. Differentiated instruction would include using strategies such as a Jigsaw classroom or Cooperative Learning and would allow students to have different opportunities to learn the
Through classroom observation I was exposed to the different methods of teaching a lesson. The methods of teaching depends on how will the teacher execute the lesson well. I learned that modern learners today needs both modern and traditional way of teaching as for them to fully learned the lesson in a meaningful way.