Week+5

= Models of Teaching & Learning =



**Every Individual can learn and achieve, but not on the same day and not in the same way’ Dr Susan Teele**

As we leant this week we are not left wanting for learning theories and practices. Experts, Institutions and individuals (ourselves) are constantly creating and developing new philosophies about teaching, learning and the role of the school environment. All these innovative and new approaches can excite our feelings about positive learning and they can also overwhelm some people who have very narrow visions about learning based on their own experience of schooling. We must remember that some people who were taught using old 'mastery' approaches believe because it was effective for themselves and seemingly their fellow students that it is the most effective way to approach their own classrooms.To such people who follow 'Teachers as Mastery' modern approaches may seem fluffy and unproductive but mostly they are frightening because they come from a place of unknowing and unfamiliarity. In an environment where we are cautioned against old systems of teaching and when this method is not represented or valued amongst so many lectures and students some can feel unrepresented and frustrated. This week during our Issues class using the structure of a Socratic circle to discuss and compare our own theories and philosophies about learning, The consensus demonstrated that generally everyone agreed on what we believed to be effective approaches of teaching so it was surprising when that very frustrated voiced was raised, the person in point expressed an opinion in an environment where she new it was greatly opposed and I agree took a lot of courage. Her show of frustration was equaled by a passionate response to her narrow perspectives on this topic, and so this moment revealed the real debate that is happening about education and that we will confront still when we go into school as professional teachers and this incident illuminated that reality. Going into schools we are going to have all these new and great ideas but will also be confronted by people thatt resist them in schools that arn't interested in changing their ways and methods and who are still stuck back in old philosphies and this will be part of the challenges and circumstances when we work in certain school environments. The person in point oviously percieved the education she recieved as highly effective, which it might have been in that environment, but as school, class rooms, fields of knowledge and students change so will effectiveness of certain approaches and it will usually be those that are more restrictive and less flexible. As students change so does learning, and as we start our teaching career we will be confronting a completely different classroom with a new generation who are growing up in a different society and age, faced with different challenges and who have developed quit different relationships with information.

Having so many theories ensure that there is a continual conversation, exploration and experimentation about what we do in the classroom and how we approach learning. However what is consistent in a lot of these theories in which I believe we can’t ignore is that every child has their own learning style, they receive and process information in different ways and we all do indeed have varied types of intelligences, which are equally important to create communities We don’t need to look to the classroom as a model but our own society. So when we look at different approaches to teaching and learning we can’t ignore this fact because what we are doing is ignoring those very children we are supposed to be servicing with opportunities to learn. The class room provides opportunity to grow and interact, we build a good relationship with learning because the environment where this takes place works with each individual to help him or her create and produce great things and caters to their own potential.

Children have to build a sense of purpose for being at school, if they feel like they are not achieving they will disengage, if they are not interested in the topic they will disengage. And if they feel powerless at school they will disengage. Kids can learn out of fear, as part of obeying orders but this does not develop good relationships with learning, it does not develop an inquiring mind and it does not allow us to understand our own learning. So how do we give kids learning power how do we help them engage in a process to achievement? Collaborative learning and building on student’s prior knowledge allows children to contribute to the class, learning become a two-way conversation, sharing what we know and by working together understanding how we know. Teaching as Facilitation of Learning

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**Home** | Week 1 - Sir Ken Robinson "Ideas Worth Spreading" | Week 2 - Classroom Management| Week 3 - So You Want To Be A Teacher? | Week 4 - Planning for Learning | Week 6 - Teacher Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct | Week 7 - Who Are Your Students? | Week 8 - Issues from the coalsface - VIt and planning