Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach
The philosophy of education is the rational study of the purpose, process, nature and ideals of education. By its very nature, it is very diverse and not easily defined especially given the fact that there are multiple ways of conceiving education coupled with the multiple fields and approaches of philosophy. Thus, using the Arkansas State University Teacher Education Conceptual Framework: Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach, this paper will analyze the individual objects consisted in this framework.
As the framework has been structured, the challenge for every student teacher is not only in helping the students to discover but also to individually become skilled at how to best impart knowledge. This thus entails a gradual and progressive incremental of knowledge by the teacher. This paper will especially focus on knowledge base, learners and learning, educational practice and diverse/exceptional learners. Discussion: Any student teacher who desires to make an impact in the transmission of education to students must be thoroughly knowledgeable in their area of specialization.
Content knowledge can not be wished away or masked by other concepts. It will ultimately be exposed. The essence of teaching is the impartation of knowledge to students. How a student is able to understand and absorb the information is dependent on how the learner is able to decode instructions and match them up with known stored information to make sense of the new information. This is especially so for lower class students who have yet to create a substantial reservoir of the known.
There is general consensus among educators that mere repetition of words, sentences or events does not substantially aid in storage of knowledge in the subconscious and their retrieval when needed. But rather, the association with similar or familiar events or things greatly augments storage and makes retrieval faster and more efficient. For student teachers, they will need to especially have deep and broad general education and background information since in order to effectively teach; they will need to make the lessons, examples and illustrations familiar and easily understandable to the students.
This will also apply to them as well (Dana & Holpe, 2008). They will need to break down complex concepts into simple ideas in order to internalize them and to aid in retrieving them when the time comes to use them. For student teachers and even practicing teachers, learning is a dynamic undertaking. Every moment presents an opportunity to teach or be taught or both concurrently. The learning process is either task-conscious or acquisition learning and learning-conscious or formalized learning (Smith, 1999). Student teachers need to understand that knowledge acquisition is an ongoing exercise.
Even when the learner is not conscious to learning, it does not mean it is not happening. This is especially true of accumulation of experience. On the other hand, formalized learning is a by-product of the process of facilitating learning. It is thus educative and learners are aware of the process. Learning thus becomes a task. When seen from the two perspectives. Learning acquires a continuum facet. It follows then that a student teacher must be very sensitive to all learners in order to ensure consistent progression in the learning activity. Not all learners will have the same capabilities to grasp and understand issues.
Depending on the characteristics that change over time, two students could be at different stages of experiencing the same change. The student teacher must in teaching ensure both learners are able to appreciate the lesson while not making either feel uncomfortable. It is imperative for the student teacher to over time also stock up on visual signs particular to different situations that they encounter. This is because, experience has shown over time though situations may change, the level of divergence from the known is small and having prior knowledge of a situation goes a long way in ensuring adequate preparation in tackling it.
Student teachers will enter into a field where they are not encumbered by the expectations of being trailblazers. Teaching is a profession which has been there for a long time and its associated practices are well documented. In order to succeed in delivering lessons in an effective, efficient and appropriate manner, the student teachers will have to work within the teaching best practices. The curriculum must be tested against education best practice for developmental characteristics. In its implementation, it will achieve the best results when tried and tested ways are used.
A student teacher must appreciate that the best practices are arrived at over a long time of trying and testing them. However, it should also be clear to the student teacher that these best practices are not etched on stone but rather should be used as guidelines to assist in achievement of a quality learning time (Calderhead, 1987). The student teacher must adopt the guidelines to fit with the present situations affecting the learners in order for them to easily decode instructions for ease of storage and retrieval in their subconscious.
In any situation, a student teacher will be faced by students who are at different points of their developmental growth. Furthermore, there will be students whose grasp, retention and retrieval of information will be much more superior to others. In the same class, different students will be best at different aspects and will best learn when different avenues are used to channel the same information (Grassi & Barker, 2010). Using multiple intelligence (Armstrong, 2000) to illustrate, some students will be linguistic while others will be logical-mathematical intelligent.
At the same time, some will be spatial while others will be bodily kinesthetic intelligent. Others still will be musically while others will be interpersonal intelligent. Some will also be intrapersonal or natural intelligent. These intelligences will be represented in different verity in a class situation. Some students will exhibit in excess of one form of intelligence which will make it easier and fun for them when they can learn the same lesson in different ways. The student teacher will thus be expected when preparing for a lesson to incorporate as much if not all intelligences in a learning experience.
When this is achieved, it goes along way in ensuring all students are able to learn and progress at the same rate. By incorporating different intelligences into a lesson, it creates a lively session and ensures the students are exposed to different avenues of decoding and encoding information. This will abet in storage and retrieval of the same over time. What multiple intelligence is able to achieve for the exceptional students is to make learning simulative and exciting. It ensures at no time will they feel lost or neglected.
The possibility of learning the same thing in eight different ways is both exciting to the learners and the teacher. It should however be noted that, multiple intelligence does not demand implementation of all eight ways simultaneously, rather it offers to teachers and learners a mixed bag of tools for use at any given time. The student teacher will thus look at each situation and decide which intelligences will most effectively aid in lesson delivery. Conclusion: At any given time a student teacher will be challenged to teach to learn while learning to teach.
Any student teacher will have to appreciate that teaching unlike other things never comes to an ends, but rather with each passing moment there in lies a learning opportunity. Also, that in teaching there is no substitute to knowledge. Where as other careers may get away with not being up-to-date, a teacher given that they are molding young minds can not afford this luxury. The student teacher will in becoming a teacher have within their grasp great avenues to mould and be molded by those whom they interact with.
These opportunities will either be task or learning conscious. In addition, any student teacher need not worry about avenues on how to best deliver lessons to students. Available to them will be teaching best practices from which they will be able to borrow and modify in order to suite the situations they find themselves in. Finally, multiple intelligence will offer any student teacher an effective tool in ensuring all students progress collectively. It will also be a tool that can be used to liven up a class and ensure lesson delivery is achieved.
In multiple intelligence, a student teacher will have an opportunity to teach the same thing in eight different ways ensuring learners have eight different ways of remembering the lesson, eight different chances of success. This will greatly aid in learners encoding and decoding things and also enhance storage and retrieval of lessons learnt. Word count 1417 References: Armstrong, T. (2000). Multiple Intelligence in the Classroom. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Publications. Calderhead, J. (1987). Reflective Teaching and Teacher Education. (D. Hartley & M.
Whitehead, Ed. ) Abington, Oxon: Taylor & Francis Group. Dana, N. F. & Holpe, D. Y. (2008). The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Classroom Research: Learning to Teach and Teaching to Learn through Practitioner Inquiry. California: Corwin Press. Grassi, E. A. & Barker, H. B. (2010). Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Exceptional Students: Strategies for Teaching and Assessment. California: Sage Publications, Inc. Smith, M. K. (1999). Learning Theory: The Encyclopedia of Informal Education. Retrieved February 8, 2010, from http://www. infed. org/biblio/b-learn. htm, last updated: September 3, 2009.
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