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This page will always be a work in progress because most opportunities (especially in the classroom) are always a "teachable" and/or "learnable" moment.  Most of my valuable teaching skills were taught by my students - my classroom is a platform for students to voice their opinions and the educator to listen & observe and then we engage with the concepts.

My   teaching   philosophy

You are a person, before you are a professional. 

And it takes great wisdom in knowing  when which one should surface ...

Today many learning styles are based on numerous educational theories such as constructivism, conceptual change theory, reflective learning, dialogical argumentation, etc.  The challenge is finding the ones that make sense to your learning styles as there is rarely only one educational theory that can truly reflect the learning and teaching process.  While leading learning constructivism theories of Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget and David Ausubel may differ on their view of cognitive development in children, they are similar in the viewpoint that the individual bring its own existing cognitive framework to any learning environment.  This common thread is also found in the reflective learning theories of John Dewey, David Boud and Donald Schön which involve students’ thinking about what they have read, done or learned, relating their lesson to their own lives and making meaning out of it.  The description of dialogical argumentation, “Through dialogic argumentation, one defines his or her own self and relationship with the world.” is also in accordance with these aforementioned learning theories that learners are not empty vessels when they enter the learning environment of the classroom.  The dialectical style of studying argumentation is one of the oldest known educational psychological theories which was studied in the era of Aristotle and Protagoras.  Socrates engaged his learners by asking questions (now known as the Socratic or dialectic method) thus allowing others to learn by autonomous understanding. Plato (a student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle) inspired thinkers for thousand years with his writings of the Dialogues and he named this process the dialectic and considered it the pinnacle of learning by achieving knowledge. One of the significant features of the dialectic method is that it emphasizes a collective, as against solitary activity.  This is a dialogue between an “expert” (e.g. the teacher) and a “searcher” (e.g. the learner) which often exposes gaps in the reasoning process. It is through this back and forth argument that understanding develops for the learner and in a sense true knowledge is attained.

Feedback from my students over the years has emphasized the importance of incorporating these learning theories in my classroom – their appreciation of a safe environment where they could voice their own opinions and learn from it and from each other.

 

What did you like about the course and lecturer?

  • the interaction of the lecture with the students and discussions

  • The lecturer made you feel comfortable to answer questions in the lecture, regardless if your answer was incorrect.

  • I like fact that it address misconceptions, they were arguments in between lessen 

  • Scientific arguments that was interesting

  • she was open to any ideas the students had about their learning.

  • She was very energetic and she put her self on the same level as us which then made it easy for us to interact with her, ask questions and raise ideas

  • approachable and open in many ways. the lecture encouraged active participation in the class

  • The fact that I could see her passion for teaching. She made the lessons enjoyable, had excellent content knowledge and made us feel comfortable as we were able to ask her question with ease.

  • She understood that there were different people within the lecture room and it seems as though she was able to get through to all of them.

  • We as students gets to discuss ideas

  • It has helped me a lot in understanding  the application of teaching science in class  and the importance  of content knowledge

  • All the content that was taught and the common misconceptions teachers may have, enlightened me. As a student teacher I believe that we need to be taught the correct scientific content.

  • The constant relation between real life and theory, showing how the content is so relevant and how it can be taught using simple techniques

  • I liked that it broadened my knowledge, not only about science but also about teaching as a profession.

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The exemplary teacher as the lifelong learner should routinely practice reflection, which involves an ongoing, dynamic process that continually aspires to improved learning.  The interpretation of our lived experiences become our lived theory from which we make sense of because it is part of our narrative, professionally and otherwise.  The evolution of my teaching style is based on the cognisance of my own experiences as a learner (at school), a student (at university), an educator and my students but also attempts to incorporate data-driven insights into teacher and student learning.  The age old phrase that we teach as we were taught does not apply to my teaching philosophy.  I teach because of how I was taught during my high school and undergraduate years – the age old the educator is the only bearer of knowledge.  If I was part of a learning environment where we were allowed to be actively involved in our learning, with guidance of the educator, I am wondering what other boundaries I would have challenged then and now??  This is only the reflective teacher coming out now.

 

I benefited enormously from close interactions with many colleagues (within the education profession and applied sciences) and I still strive to emulate them in many ways.  Among the lessons I absorbed from them were the importance of personal experiences and research based methodology.  From my personal viewpoint I have learned the importance of being available to students and the power of extended one-on-one conversations to identify and address points of confusion and misconceptions.

 

The basic elements of personalized instruction go a long way toward meeting the diverse needs of diverse learners, especially in a diverse country as South Africa.  My teaching experiences serve as my introduction to metacognition - the practice of thinking about how we learn, and adjusting our study and teaching habits to maximize learning.  And that can be achieved with reflective teaching and learning methods, by the educator and student.  This will prepare the educator for their lifelong learning goals but more so for the students’ learning curve:  “when the student is ready, the master appears” – Buddhist proverb.  The master is the student AND the educator – where the student should be the master of its own learning and the educator is the “master” of preparing the student towards that goal.  To prepare the student effectively, students need opportunities to understand the topic from their own perspective, collaborate with their peers and with the educator to learn and gain expertise about the art of teaching.  Becoming an educator is a creative process which involves integrating a wide variety of pedagogical tools in fostering a collaborative, thoughtful and autonomous teaching and learning environment.

The use of the African envoy and the Peruvian kvinus as examples for learning were explained by Luria & Vygotsky (1930), and further emphasized by Rowlands (2010: 37-41).  The African envoys simply deliver a message verbatim without any cognitive processes – they have to remember not simply the general meaning of the message, but also the precise sequence of words.  On the other hand, the Peruvian kvinus, who use a system of knots, do not have to remember the information contained in the knots they have tied.  They only have to remember the "code" that will allow them to access and interpret the information contained in the knot.  I would like to believe that during my teaching of conceptual understanding that I provide our future educators the “code” of learning and thereby giving them the opportunity to be the catalyst in teaching and learning for our future professionals.  Finally, I want students and educators to realize that we do not teach subjects but we teach people and skills to tackle challenges within the education field and life.  For example ...

“You are not a Physics teacher – you teach problem solving skills with the use of Physics content as your platform.”

School of Science and Mathematics Education

Faculty of Education

University of the Western Cape

South Africa

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