Teaching and Learning

How do you view teaching and learning?

The ultimate goal of teachers nationally is to pass as much knowledge on to their students as possible. Thereby, leaving them enlightened and inspired toward their own educational journeys. A dedicated personal philosophy of teaching is essential to guide young minds to a state of higher learning. When I become a teacher, I plan to incorporate numerous techniques into my repertoire which will allow my students to gain expertise in the subjects I have the passion to teach. To be specific, my teaching strategies will include applying constructivist teaching procedures to inspire active learners.

Constructivism is a common psychological term explaining that in order to attain educational growth, students themselves must delve into topics and build their own knowledge base by being active learners. I will provide the raw materials for students to actively engage in their education by using interactive teaching strategies. Specifically for teachers, Social Constructivism is the key to learning because it presents social interaction as a necessity for educational growth. In my future classes I hope to interact physically and intellectually with my students.

How do you view big ideas as related to teaching and learning?

Using big ideas is essential to teaching. This gives teachers a broad starting out point from which they can work off of. A teacher may start a lesson off by stating "All life has a common ancestor", and then create the days lesson off of this idea. Without a main idea, students will have a much harder time trying to understand why they are learning specific material.

The big idea that we considered in class was that organisms interact with each other and the environment. This particular big idea is related to teaching because each teacher must have individual relationships with each student in order to be effective. Also, students should be interacting with one another to develop social skills and learn from each other.