Teaching Methods Reflection

In this course I experienced an important change in my beliefs about teaching; I came to understand that there are many different theories and methods that can be tailored to suit the teacher and the needs of the student. The readings, especially those from Lyons, G., Ford, M., & Arthur-Kelly, M. (2011), Groundwater-Smith, S., Ewing, R., & Le Cornu, R. (2007), and Whitton, D., Barker, K., Nosworthy, M., Sinclair, C., Nanlohy, P. (2010), have helped me to understand this in particular. In composing my essay about teaching methods and other themes, my learning was solidified, my knowledge deepened by my research and my writing skills honed.

How my beliefs about teaching have changed from the beginning of the unit

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.

When I began the unit, I believed that unless you sent your child to a Montessori or a Steiner school, you were basically getting the same pedagogy wherever you went. Killen (2007) states, “in the past 30 years our understanding of how people have learnt has changed dramatically. New approaches to cognitive research and developmental psychology suggest that learning is a much more individualised process than was previously thought” (p.2). I did not realise that there had been so much research on ...

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... generally accepted that a teacher’s main role is to facilitate learning rather than to be the source of all knowledge” (p.2).

In summary, this unit has been extremely beneficial in developing my full understanding of teaching.

Reference List

Groundwater-Smith, S., Ewing, R., & Le Cornu, R. (2007). Teaching challenges & dilemmas (3rd .ed). South Melbourne: Thompson.

Killen, R. (2007). Effective Teaching Strategies, Lessons from Research and Practice. (4th .ed). South Melbourne: Thomson.

Marsh, C. (2010) Becoming a teacher (5th Ed.). Frenchs Forect: Pearson Education.

Lyons, G., Ford, M., & Arthur-Kelly, M. (2011). Classroom Management: Creating Positive learning environments. South Melbourne: Cengage Learning.

Whitton, D., Barker, K., Nosworthy, M., Sinclair, C., Nanlohy, P. (2010) Communicating as professionals. South Melbourne: Cengage Learning.