Incorporate different instructional approach in the classroom
By Michelle Evangelista
EDI 600 Psychological Foundation of Education
School of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
March 25, 2009
Yesterday’s class taught me a lot on how to be an effective teacher. I believe that each approach, behavioral, cognitive and humanistic are important when running a successful teaching environment. If a teacher can master the philosophies of each approach, it will enable him/her to be flexible when delivering lessons to the class. Yes, I agree with the statement, “Everyone learns, differently.” Some students can just repeat information and understand it, others need creative feedback and some need to feel comfortable before they begin to think about doing class work.
All the categories in the cognitive taxonomy table are imperative to all teachers. When some are not used, elements or ideas are lost from lessons. In yesterday’s class, my group used the behavioral approach to teach young children shapes. We were creative in using the snow man to maintain the children’s attention, but if we related each shape to something the children already knew it would have been even more effective. When only asking, “What is this?” we are not giving them a reason as to why a circle is a circle, or a square a square. A teacher should first repeat, the identities of each shape, but then for example say, “This is a circle, it looks like the sun.” Children will then be able to relate this lesson to everyday experiences.
I am a big advocate on teaching centered on the child. Children are the reasons why we have chosen to become educators. It is not to give them information, and then believe that it will just stay in their minds. If teachers do not find creative ways to have lessons go beyond knowledge and comprehension, the lesson becomes wasteful. Children will keep it in their minds only until the test is over.
Children need to reflect information on things they have already experienced. Even as a graduate student, when I do the reading assignments or work on a paper, I reflect back on my own experiences to make sense of my present education. We need to apply education to life and then analyze what has just been taught. Then we need to look at the lesson as a whole. Synthesis is very important because it allows us to see the entire picture. Once this has been done, students should know to look back and evaluate the lesson. “Do I understand this?” Finally, creativity is important because, teachers want their students to take what they have learned and use it in a new way.
With all this, every teacher should realize that we are all human. We do not all wake up in the best moods or have perfect lives. No one is perfect, we also are not robots. There are going to be times, when something comes up and a student is unable to come to class or get an assignment done on time. A teacher needs to apply the humanistic approach. She needs to accommodate life situations into her classroom, and not make the classroom a place of intensity, hostility or anxiety.
Our main goal as educators is to be every student’s mentor. Help them to reach their highest potential and never feel discouraged. We should realize that drills and practice can be made into fun activities. A fun learning environment is a positive one. We want children to give the correct answer but also think for themselves at the same time.
Long Island University, C. W. Post
March 25, 2009
Yesterday’s class taught me a lot on how to be an effective teacher. I believe that each approach, behavioral, cognitive and humanistic are important when running a successful teaching environment. If a teacher can master the philosophies of each approach, it will enable him/her to be flexible when delivering lessons to the class. Yes, I agree with the statement, “Everyone learns, differently.” Some students can just repeat information and understand it, others need creative feedback and some need to feel comfortable before they begin to think about doing class work.
All the categories in the cognitive taxonomy table are imperative to all teachers. When some are not used, elements or ideas are lost from lessons. In yesterday’s class, my group used the behavioral approach to teach young children shapes. We were creative in using the snow man to maintain the children’s attention, but if we related each shape to something the children already knew it would have been even more effective. When only asking, “What is this?” we are not giving them a reason as to why a circle is a circle, or a square a square. A teacher should first repeat, the identities of each shape, but then for example say, “This is a circle, it looks like the sun.” Children will then be able to relate this lesson to everyday experiences.
I am a big advocate on teaching centered on the child. Children are the reasons why we have chosen to become educators. It is not to give them information, and then believe that it will just stay in their minds. If teachers do not find creative ways to have lessons go beyond knowledge and comprehension, the lesson becomes wasteful. Children will keep it in their minds only until the test is over.
Children need to reflect information on things they have already experienced. Even as a graduate student, when I do the reading assignments or work on a paper, I reflect back on my own experiences to make sense of my present education. We need to apply education to life and then analyze what has just been taught. Then we need to look at the lesson as a whole. Synthesis is very important because it allows us to see the entire picture. Once this has been done, students should know to look back and evaluate the lesson. “Do I understand this?” Finally, creativity is important because, teachers want their students to take what they have learned and use it in a new way.
With all this, every teacher should realize that we are all human. We do not all wake up in the best moods or have perfect lives. No one is perfect, we also are not robots. There are going to be times, when something comes up and a student is unable to come to class or get an assignment done on time. A teacher needs to apply the humanistic approach. She needs to accommodate life situations into her classroom, and not make the classroom a place of intensity, hostility or anxiety.
Our main goal as educators is to be every student’s mentor. Help them to reach their highest potential and never feel discouraged. We should realize that drills and practice can be made into fun activities. A fun learning environment is a positive one. We want children to give the correct answer but also think for themselves at the same time.
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