Candidate Assessment #6, ED310

Your Personal Reflections on Theories of Teaching and Learning

I The Assignment that Prompts Your Philosophy Statement:

Your assignment for Education 310 is that you are to write a philosophy of teaching and learning, based on your reading of a number of books or articles on learning theory and on your experience in education courses and field experiences since the beginning of the school year. Your assignment asks you to write a paper that provides several kinds of evidence that you have thought about teaching and learning and how it happens.

a. Evidence of understanding of learning theories and philosophies. You should show that you have a basic understanding of the continuum of learning theories that range from traditional authoritarian thinking through humanistic and student centered approaches to education. Thus, somewhere in the document, you need to describe or contrast and compare the ideas of theorists who influenced your thinking (citing in APA form from texts or articles that support your explanations).

b. Evidence of your own ideas about learning. Your paper should show that you have begun to formulate your own ideas about how students learn and what teachers or other students can do to facilitate their learning. You are able to develop a working definition of learning and to describe the roles of teachers and students, as well as the teaching that you believe will build a positive community of learners. You need to be able to explain in your own words, or cite ideas of others that are similar to and/or support your beliefs. You know that you need to be able to explain how the ideas that you have are similar to or different from the philosophical and/or theoretical approaches that you have addressed. You should be able to describe at least 3 ideas or concepts that you believe are “non-negotiable” in teaching. “Non-negotiables” are the ideas that you feel most strongly about. You feel passionate about them as a teacher!

c. Evidence of the impact or importance of diversity on learning and teaching. Your paper must show that you have begun to recognize the importance of planning for integrating diversity into your classroom. It is important that you can describe not only the types of diversity, but ways that diverse learners can be both celebrated and integrated .

d. Evidence of understanding of the relationship of “community” or “connectedness” to learning. Your paper may discuss how members of the school, the class, the community, the families may influence learning and support or discourage a sense of “community” within the classroom. Do schools and families influence communities? How?

e. Evidence of awareness of how/in what direction your own ideas of learning have developed. Can you your ideas to particular experiences, communities, individuals, or concepts. Have they changed? How are you influenced by theories of learning?

f. Evidence that you can tie the learning theory to the organizing themes and standards. This evidence will relate to active learning, collaboration, facilitation of learning, and building communities of learning (the 4 organizing themes). It will also be placed in the reflection section in your portfolio for CA6.

g. Evidence that you can tie ideas together and address your material to a specific audience. The second part of the scenario will enable you to demonstrate the audience-adaptation that is part of effective communication. Your use of organizational skills and your ability to implement the conventions of written communication will address this type of evidence.

II. The hypothetical situation (scenario) that will make the assignment more challenging and interesting .

First, picture yourself in the following situation: You’ve decided where you’d like to be geographically for your first year of teaching. It happens to be in a city where your favorite aunt and uncle live, and you decide to pay them a visit over fall break. When you call to say you’re coming, your aunt says that she wants you to go out to dinner with them at the local country club. You know that she’ll expect you to look nice, so you dress accordingly. As you travel there, your mind returns to a major assignment that must be completed shortly after break—a philosophy of teaching and learning. You think to yourself, “It seems like a lot of work, irrelevant work. What teacher that you knew ever had a philosophy of learning?”

Looking forward to relaxing with your aunt and uncle, you pay little attention as the waiter ushers the three of you to your usual table. To your surprise, a man and woman are already at their table. Your aunt warmly introduces them as Mary and Tom Brannon, their new friends from bridge club.“ We thought you’d like to meet them, especially since Mary has taught middle school English for a long time, and Tom is the principal at our local high school. You’ll probably have lots to talk about since you’re going to be a teacher, too.” You have not told your aunt that you want to move to this area, and you know that her intentions were simply for you to have a chance to get acquainted with professional educators, but you suddenly feel as though you’re about ready for your first job interview—momentarily dry-mouthed and sweaty palmed and uncomfortable, afraid of saying something wrong.

The meal progresses comfortably enough with general conversation until Mary asks you what classes you are in this semester, and you mention that you’re in an educational psychology class. She asks, “What have you been studying about?” You say “Learning theory” and hope she’ll leave it at that. But she doesn’t. She asks you what you’d write if you were writing a theory of learning and teaching for yourself. “What theory did you like the best? Which ideas do you think you’ll use when you’re teaching? Did you study teaching implications or just theory?” You answer the questions vaguely and, in an effort at self preservation, you take a stab at getting her to talk about what she thinks, whether she’d studied the same theories, what she uses in her teaching, etc.

She says, “Actually, I do have my heroes, and they’ve held up well over the years. Based on years of teaching experience, I now have a good idea of what I believe about teaching and learning, but I don’t want to bias you. I really want to know what you’ve been studying and what approach you think about the whole idea of learning theory. I think teachers ought to be able to put their beliefs into words. Tom, isn’t there a question that you ask applicants for teaching positions teaching in interviews about whose ideas have influenced their thinking about teaching?”

Tom laughs saying, “You’ve heard me complain much too often about how few beginners have any awareness that they’re supposed to back up their ideas with the ideas of others, not just with anecdotal evidence. They always think their ideas are new and original, and some of them might be, but how do they know they’re original if they can’t talk about theories that have made an impact on them? They’ll change as they gain experience, but it’s my pet peeve when new teachers start out without any awareness of what has gone before them. I want to hear names attached to ideas. I want to know what these new teachers will go to bat for. What really matters? Sorry, …...didn’t mean to get on a soapbox!”

Wanting to appear somewhat coherent, but now, more than ever, wanting not to splutter out the wrong thing, you tell the Brannons that as it happens, you have to write an essay reflecting on your reactions to the recent unit on learning theory and outlining some of your key beliefs. You say, “I’d like some feedback from you. I’m going to write this paper in the next week or two. Would you be interested in reading it over and giving me some ideas?”

Mary said that she would like to do that very much. You leave the dinner that evening thinking that you must have had rocks for brains. How could you have done that? This will be worse than having “Hoffman” grading you. So much for getting a job in that city!

Nonetheless, you know that your aunt will not forget the discussion until you send something to Mary and Tom. You begin to hope that with time to think about it you can write something worth sharing and perhaps make a good impression. Who knows? Maybe it will make you stand out among other candidates for positions.

You go back and look at the following questions in the assignment, and you begin to write your own philosophy of teaching and learning, identifying the ideas and the individuals who influenced your thinking and what your ideas are about what matters in teaching.

Qu estions that you may want to consider.

Your paper should include answers to the following questions, but not in a “question and answer format.” Write in paragraphs and use examples whenever possible. You can use examples from your own life, and you can describe ideas that have influenced your thinking. You should cite sources and include a bibliography of the sources that you cite. Mrs. Brannon asked some questions that you should certainly plan to answer in your paper. Your paper needs to let us know that you know the major theorists, not just the authors of textbooks.

A. You should include a very professional, audience-appropriate, yet friendly, cover letter to Ms. Brannon,

B. You should write your separate philosophy statement. Be sure to edit carefully and use standard English. Careful writing can support your ideas. Careless writing often causes your audience to lose interest in your ideas. Use the following questions as guidelines, but you should not write your paper as a question and answer paper. It should be an essay.

1. Describe how you think students learn. Define learning from your own perspective. What are the non-negotiable principles that you incorporate into your philosophy? Consider how you would complete the following statements.

· Learning occurs when……

· Teachers assist students to learn by……

· Students are more likely to learn when …..

· The goal of teaching/instruction is……

· A student’s level of development can influence learning by …

· What matters most to me as a teacher is_______.

2. Describe a learning environment (not a classroom or gymnasium, but an “environment in the broader sense of the word. What is happening in the learning spaces that contributes to learning? Describe your ideal style of teacher/student interaction and explain how that particular kind of interaction is likely to assist students to learn. Describe what students are doing and how they are learning. Tell why you think that this is a positive learning environment.

3. Discuss the theoretical perspectives and the theorists whose ideas you considered while writing your philosophy. Which ideas or principles from the individual theories do you find useful? Which ideas do you reject or criticize? Consider instructional methods that you will use in your discipline. How do they reflect your theoretical preferences? If you were asked to label your theory of learning, what label would you use? (Create your own label if none of the theories seem quite right). More likely, you may describe yourself on a continuum between behaviorism and constructivism or humanism. Your paper should reflect the source of your ideas. (Cite the name of the author, the date, and, if you quote word for word, the page.) Mr. and Mrs. Brannon and I expect to be able to tell from reading your paper that you did some reading in the area of behaviorism, humanism, cognitivist theory, and constructivism to stimulate your own thinking and to support your own ideas.

4. To what extent are you as a teacher responsible for motivating students to learn? Is your theory of learning flexible enough to accommodate those students who learn differently from you or who perceive the need for education differently from you? How does what you’ve written so far acknowledge the need for you to adapt your teaching to the needs of students whose needs seem to fall outside your expectations? To what extent are you responsible are you for learners with special needs?

5. How have your ideas about teaching and learning developed? How have they changed since you began taking education courses?

6. What have you learned about yourself during the process of trying to describe your own beliefs about teaching? Where are you in the process of understanding learning theories? What are you planning to do to expand your awareness of the theoretical basis of teaching?

REFLECTION: You will notice that the rubric includes a rating for reflection. That reflection should be written as a separate and final portion of your paper. Your philosophy is, of course, a reflection on many ideas. However, this is a section in which you must reflect on first the organizing themes and then the standards.

FORMAT OF THE PAPER I prefer your paper and your letter to be typed, single spaced, with double spacing between paragraphs and titles. I once read research that says that the meaning of a paragraph is more readily grasped if the sentences are grouped together more closely than double spaced. Also, I prefer that your papers have a justified left margin, but definitely not a right margin. Please do not center your text. Centering the titles is fine.

NOTE: This project m ust be placed in your portfolio. The discipline plan itself, as well as an appropriate reflection, should be included. You should include reflection on the following questions:

1. To what extent have you become a more active learner? More capable of facilitating learning? More collaborative? More aware of the need to create communities of learners? (These are referred to as our organizing themes.)