Teaching With Technology

I ascribe mainly to the constructivist approach to education. Constructivist teachers seek to build upon children’s prior knowledge and encourage alternative thinking, reasoning and problem solving skills. I use essential questions and real-life applications to guide this approach to teaching as they encourage students to acquire new information to replace existing schemas. The essential questions challenge children to question their existing knowledge and seek out new connections. I also agree with many essentialist views that encourage me to stay focused on my curriculum goals and set measurable objectives for students. I blend these two philosophies into a personal balance that encourages children to take chances, acquire new knowledge but also guides children with the use of learning standards found in curriculum.

In this approach, teachers and students work together and learn from each other. The teacher is responsible to the curriculum and also their students. While students acquire new knowledge and skills, they apply them to their own lives and construct their knowledge into a meaningful experience. Not only does this method challenge the students, but it also encourages the students to use their knowledge to gain a deeper understanding of the world around them. The role of the teacher is to blend these ideas together as seamlessly as possible while being sensitive to the needs and interests of her students. Curriculum can become meaningful if it is presented in this way.

A meaningful curriculum is best met through a subject-centered classroom. In a subject-centered classroom, students and teacher gather together around the “Understandings” and “Essential Questions” of curriculum. Using this approach, the most important element is not the test or exam, but the information and learning itself. Experiences with the subject should challenge students to work in teams and also independently. This method can be delivered successfully to students of all teaching styles and is very successful when classes are “project or center” based. In this type of environment, the teacher can meet the needs of all learning styles while addressing curriculum and individual student needs.

A classroom that is fair and age-appropriate best meets the needs of all students. Students should be expected to morally function to the best of their abilities with the goal of intrinsic motivation. Teachers should model appropriate and kind interpersonal relationships with other staff and students. Teachers should also be “emotionally available” to students meaning that teachers discuss their feelings and encourage students to do the same without threat of anger. Furthermore, schools need an agreed upon “code of conduct” which students are accountable to following with fair and consistent consequences and rewards. A strong school has a common set of moral beliefs that students are expected to abide by.

Students should be given many varied experiences to work with others and learn together. Teachers should frequently create learning groups based on new criteria and not just achievement level. Students will learn more about themselves as a social being when they are given positive opportunities to interact with others and share ideas. Projects and performance tasks are a wonderful way to encourage this socialization.

Curriculum, teaching, learning theory and instruction are all inter-related and can heavily impact classroom teaching. Curriculum is an outgrowth of teaching theory. When considering the current essentialist approach in American educational thinking, this can be seen in the “standards” that have been established. Most states subscribe to this theory and have clearly delineated which knowledge and which skills students are to master at each grade level. A very good example of this exists in the Virginia Standards of Learning. The VSOL prescribes to the smallest detail, each piece of content knowledge and each skill required. Instruction is affected greatly by the curriculum. Teachers are expected to teach their subjects with absolute specificity to the standards taught and then students are given standardized tests to assess it.

The implementation of these learning standards in the classroom varies from teacher to teacher. Some teachers rely on traditional methods of imparting the information to their students as they stand at the front of the class with the desks all in straight lines. Other teachers blend this traditional teaching with projects and minimal group work and other teachers rely on discussion and teamwork to tackle the curriculum. Teachers can feel a sense of comfort and a sense of being overwhelmed simultaneously. On the one hand, they have a very clear outline of what they are to teach and so did all their students’ teachers before them. On the other hand, the curriculum in no way tells teachers HOW to teach the materials. That is up to the teacher. A master teacher is able to take a prescribed curriculum and infuse it with his or her own methods and philosophy and still achieve the objectives within the curriculum.