Comparing My Experience At A Practicum Experience

On Thursday October 8, 2015 I engaged in a one day observation at a Junior High School, while during the week beginning October 26, I engaged in a peer teaching/observation at a Secondary institution. During the one day experience, I functioned as an observer. On the other hand, my role was that of a teacher during the one week practicum experience. The rationale of this essay is to compare both experiences using the following variables: classroom management, lesson clarity and learning climate. The class for the one day practicum experience consisted of both gender. The class size was 29, with seventeen girls and 11 boys. On the other hand, the one week practicum experience had a class size of thirty with males only. The organizational layout

During both experiences I was worried as to whether or not I would have obtained a favourable outcome. I appreciated both experiences because it allowed me to bridge the gap between the practical and theoretical.

In the role as an observer, the classroom was well-managed. This is on the basis that there was no need for the use of physical control cues, for example nods and eye contact among others and verbal control cues like orders, commands, scold among others. Also, it was observed that no students wandered about the classroom. Second, the students were actively engaged, which resulted in an optimal learning environment which aided in the management of the classroom. My view is congruent to that of Miller (2015), which stated that, “once students are engaged in the classroom, then management issues will dissipate.” Third, students sharing in the management of the classroom were seen in the role conducted by the class monitors. According to Jones & Jones (2005), “Glasser states that students will function productively only in

Lesson clarity refers to how clear and precise a teacher’s presentation is to the class (Borich, 2010). The objectives were clearly outlined at the commencement of each class. Gagne stated that among one of the first thing a teacher should do, is to inform the learners of the objectives of the lesson, since it creates an optimal internal processing of information that goes on during the learning process (Hannum, 2015). During the one day observation, the instructor used adequate advance organizer in the form of demonstrating/illustrating how to round off numbers. Similarly, in my role as a teacher I demonstrated/illustrated addition and subtraction of directed number to explain the procedure to the students which added to the clarity of the lesson. The content of both lessons was appropriately sequenced from simple to complex. The skills that I have garnered from the first year of teachers’ college, regarding blooms taxonomy, stated that students must first recall and have a deep understanding of the concept before being asked to convert (apply) abstract content to concrete situations. During my role as the teacher, the students were made to recall and comprehend the procedure relating to adding and subtracting directed numbers and shown sufficient examples, before being asked to perform any calculation of the sort. A similar stance was embarked on during the one day observation. According to Vanderbeit University (2015)