Respond to the following case study.
You are a 5th grade teacher in the Michigan City School District. You want your students to do more than simply memorize their way through information you are teaching. You want your students to develop critical thinking skills, learn to solve problems, make informed decisions, and get involved in learning.
This turns out to be a daunting task because the students want you to describe every required detail in assignments, and when you call on students who don't have their hands raised, the most common response is, "I didn't have my hand up," or "I don't know." In other cases, they say, "C'mon, just tell us what you want us to know," and "Why do we have to learn this stuff?"
How would you respond to these students? Compare your response to an educational philosophy.
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I would tell my students that I care for them and for their futures. I would let them know that my goal as a teacher is to prepare them for what is up ahead. Im not here to bore them or lecture them, Im here to help them and teach them. I would inform them that there is much more to learn other than what is required in schools and that I would like to help them with learning this material. I would also let them know working together as a class and becoming involved in class discussions can help them develop emotionally and socially and that both are very essential for their futures. I would use the beliefs of my educational philosophy, progessivism, to explain why becoming involved in school is important. Progressivism involves teaching students to function in the real world and develop problem solving skills. If these are the things I want for my students then I would use this educational philosophy to connect with them.
ReplyDeleteIf students are responding to my teaching in those ways, it's obvious to me that they are completely uninterested in the subject matter. So it is my duty as their teacher to make it interesting for them so that they will get more than a bunch of memorized facts out of it. When they ask me to tell them what I want them to know, I would talk to them about skills I want them to master: to be able to solve problems and to have the knowledge necessary to do so; to be critical thinkers; and to always ask questions. I think that it's important for them to give me feedback like this so I can steer my instruction in a new direction. Maybe they're doing too many little assignments, or I'm being really picky with how I want things done, or they're just plain bored with the subject matter. I can change my instruction to make learning more interactive, with larger collaborative projects.
ReplyDeleteAll of these thoughts relate to Progressivism, because it says that curriculum should be integrated and related to students' interests. It also says that there should be constructive and cooperative learning.
If I was in a classroom with students that were uninterested, I would quickly change my teaching approach. Students learn and retain the most information when it is fun and they are involved in the learning process. For example, if we were learning about the judicial system, I would attempt to organize a field trip to our county courthouse. If that wasn't possible, I would create a mock-court case in our classroom and allow the students to act out the various roles that take place in a courtroom. Lookoing at the various philosophies, I would tie this in with Progressivism because I am incorportating the students into the lesson plans and allowing for group work to take place.
ReplyDeleteWell, if the children in class are responding to your questions like they are and are showing you no intesrt in what you are teaching, then I think the problem is not them, but rather the way you are teaching the information to the class. A teacher needs to make the most boring subject matter fun and connect it to the students in some way so that the children WANT to learn it, and show intrest in the material. In correspondence to educational philosophies, I would say my philosophy is most closely related to Progressivism because while I do feel there is standard materials that should be taught, I have different approaches to teaching them, along with things that I feel need to be taught, as well.
ReplyDeleteHey Deb, ummm for some reason it registered me (Ryanne) as my sisters google account, so that last post was actually mine, not some weird girl named Jordan leaving comments on some random blog! lol Sorry
ReplyDeleteI think that it is very important for the teacher to focus their teaching towards what the students interests are. Each year brings a different set of kids. I think that as a teacher it is important to evaluate your way of teaching based on your class. If your students ask why they have to do something and if they fee like it is something that they can not relate to, then maybe I would try rearranging to assignment to make it more interesting for the students. I know that life is not always a breeze and you can not always please everyone, but I think that as a teacher it hould be our goalto make school as fun and interesting for te students as we possibly can.
ReplyDeleteI think that my philosophy is best linked with progrssivism. I still think that it is very imporant to teach the standard cirriculm but I also think that there is a way to go about teaching students that make them involved and excited to learn.
“Why do we have to learn this stuff?! I will tell you why we need to learn this stuff! ... Just tell you what you want to know?! I will tell you what I want you to know! This world is a cruel place with many obstacles that you can’t even see! Are you a little baby? Do you get everything handed to you? Does your mommy still spoon feed you? Does she wipe your butt?! Of course not! Because you learned how to do it on your own! You learned how to make sandwiches, tie your own shoes, pour a glass of water when you are thirsty! What am I your Mommy? Do I have to spoon feed you all the answers? What if I wanted to make you into critical thinkers? Problem Solvers? Leaders? I can give you the answers and tell you the stuff you need to know, but I am sick of wiping your butts! You can do this on your own, I believe it, it’s time you start believing it too!!”
ReplyDeleteI think this is the result of a very boring, uninteresting teacher, who is an essentialist. This is why I think the students are responding like this. The teacher has lost interest in the subjects and has lost a bit of fun. This is what I think is going on. As I recall back to my elementary and middle school years, I remember asking the same questions myself. "I will never have to use this." Now as I look back it is irrelevant if I have to use the material I was taught or not! The material that I wasn't interested in taught me to problem solve, or think critically. Obviously I found it difficult because I didn't want to learn it. So I used the excuse, "I will never have to use this." This was a result of my lack of interest and the teacher's. This is where being a progressivist comes into play. We may not be able to change some students interest in a subject, but we should always or atleast act like we are interested and that the subject can be fun. We need to find innovative ways for our class to grasp the concept so that they won't find the easy way out bye saying, "This is stupid!" or "Why do we have to learn this stuff?" It doesn't matter if the material the students are learning will ever pertain to their futures. It matters because we as teachers know what it takes to make them good problem solvers, and critical thinkers. So we need to make it interesting, and the students need know that we are preparing them for their futures by making them better learners/thinkers, not by giving them knowledge they will never use!
ReplyDeleteIn this situation it is obvious to me that they are completely uninterested in the subject which means that I should be doing something different to get the kids engaged in activity and want to learn. As the teacher it is my responsibility to make sure that the student is learning and being educated and from past experience, lecture is not the way! We know what we need to do n order for our students to become problem solvers and critical thinkers. Hands on activity is great when preparing for new material not lecturing and giving our thinkers knowledge that they will not use.
ReplyDeleteI think I would try to adjust the way that I was teaching the material, the same method will not work on every class. I think reassessing the way to present the material is needed. The students are not responding to this method, so a change is in order. The students seem to need more structure in this subject. I would write on the board the outline for what we are doing, and go from there. Sometimes students need more direction than others. I think that this approach is based in progressivism because the environment is democratic and self-regulated. The students are not responding to the activity, and I think this is to be expected occassionally. The teacher needs to be prepared to try a different approach to capture everyone attention. I think that sometimes it can be daunting for students to start new material that they are not familiar with, and the teacher needs to encourage them to try it. I feel that this is also a progressivist perspective because the teacher needs to develop and guide the learning with problem-solving skills.
ReplyDeleteIf I was experiencing a situation when the students are acting uninterested and are not interacting with the topic that we are learning then I would assume that it was something wrong that I was doing. To keep students interested and excited about learning you need to make things fun for them so they want to keep learning. You can do such things as making a lesson into a game, field trip or even sometimes you can make facts that you need to memorize into a song. I feel that this is more of a progressive perspective because it has to do with the teacher needing to incorporate the student's needs with their needs.
ReplyDeleteIf I had students that didn’t know the answers or couldn’t understand what I was teaching them, then I might look back at how I was approaching the situation and think of a better way. If they were confused with my question, I might approach it in a more hands on matter. I would demonstrate what I was teaching opposed to reciting the steps from memory. Another approach that I might take if most of my students weren’t following what I was saying is to put them into groups where they can collaborate. I would then ask the entire group what their opinion was and not one child would be singled out. This would also make everyone participate. Doing this makes my students understand the material better when they can problem solve with other classmates. I would have to relate this to the progressive philosophy because once I realize that my teaching method were flawed, I decided to reflect for a moment and then adapt my lesson to my students in a more beneficial way. We are now learning in a collaborative way and working on our problem solving skills.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely change my teaching approach. I think we all know how it is to sit through a boring subject. I would try to make it more entertaining so that i could get them all wanting to know more about the subject. I would also explain to them that this is something they should know, and not everything I teach is something they want to learn about. That I'm doing this to help them out in the future. I would let them know that I understand but it has to be taught.
ReplyDeleteWhen and if a child asks me, "Why do we have to learn this stuff?" I hope that I will be prepared with a genuine, factually, and honest response. I will tell that child that it isn't all about the facts, and details that is the most important. The most important things i hope you learn from my class are the life skills that you will need to be a successful adult in the real world. Skills such as memorization, recollection, as well as all of the basic curriculum will help them all greatly in the future. Thinking outside the box is also an essential tool that children need to be taught from a young age. However if the children truly are bored out of their minds, I would have to examine my methods of engaging them in our activities. I would have to reflect and make sure my approach was the most successful one that I could use.
ReplyDeleteMy approach would be to find intrinsic motivation in the students my making the activities fun and hands on so they will remember them. In the morning we would use brain exercises (physically exercises that help stimulate brain juices and motor skills) to get them ready, awake, and motivated for the day. The management might have to be high control at first untill the children have created an appropriate set of rules to follow that everyone can agree on. Once they learn rules and procedures class control is easier. I make want my students to enjoy what they learn, what they do and accomplish at school. I would to do this by making my classroom a place where they can come to be happy and safe.
ReplyDelete