#ed foundation

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Module B Comments

# Comment 1 Reflecting on Module B post; Wayne and the Brain, from:

http://sirtimothy.wordpress.com/tag/education-foundations/

Distraction and tiredness do interrupt student engagement. Perhaps identifying what is distracting the student and why they are tried may help in solving the problem. It is an excellent point that students can be distracted although they seem engaged and quiet and particularly causing any problems in class. Therefore teacher should not only force the quietness and making the class look like they are engaging however, making sure each student is actively learning and being interested regardless of how this take place in terms of engagement.

The factors that are distracting the students are indeed various. However, I believe the focus should be not on figuring out these factors which can be thousands, but tracking down to the core strategical factors that engages students in learning regardless of how bad of a day they are having.

Wayne's subject focused approach may seem irrelevant to the students however, It is also equally important that these information are taught especially in secondary education. It is unanswered question that to what extent is it the teacher's responsibility to engage the student in subjects?, considering the fact that some students engage and do their best to learn in spite of the teachers ability to engage, whether they just want to achieve high grades or actually are interested. No doubt, It is beneficial for a teacher like Wayne to know such brain stimulation teaching techniques as mentioned group-works, use of humour and personality. These tips can be extremely effective especially addressing each name by their name and interacting from there.

# Comment 2  Reflecting on Alyssa's Module B post; Jane, from:

http://arcoursey.tumblr.com/tagged/Ed%20Foundations

Students not having proper breakfast definitely does have its consequences, unfortunately these consequences are most often dumped on the classroom teachers. As mentioned, it has impact on brain functioning especially during the lesson before morning tea/lunch, I'm concerned perhaps Jane is suffering from these side-effects in which nothing to do with Jane's teaching ability. It also makes me wonder whether may of other problematic factors exist in the classroom such as behavioral and classroom engagement factors are all to do with these sneakily linked human physiology than anything to do with the teachers. Subsequently, teachers like Jane sacrifices her own self-esteem as a teacher being disappointed at herself as if she had failed something. I feel for Jane if any experienced teacher would have come alongside to inform her of these physiological factors as Alyssa highlighted.

Although a breakfast program sounds like a great approach, I disagree that this responsibility of feeding the student breakfast so they can perform better at school is not on teachers alone. Therefore I would recommend having a teacher-parent program to raise the awareness of the crucial need for breakfast at home. If it is an option to have the government financial support, the school may consider providing the student breakfast however, I firmly believe school is for student education. My another concern is school cannot meet all the need of a student and it is important to anchor with community and social workers and psychologist to assist in the areas that are outside of curriculum learning.

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Module D Motivation and engagement

Pondering about Jane's scenario popped a lot of questions and thoughts into my mind. First question is why would a elite student struggle to engage her class which happen to be a small country classroom. I started to link to the problems to the social factors in which Jane's own background being a second child of a well-off family in a nice suburb. I'm concerned whether Jane likes it or not, her pedagogy, to some extent, will be styled based on her own background. This, I believe is a main issue in Jane's teaching career in a "disadvantaged" school in terms of motivating students and engaging them in a classroom, it is vital to understand the social factors of the students especially during the early stages of the teaching career. This brings to one of the nine provocations "To what extent is teaching an intellectual pursuit?" The Paradigm is that Jane is a elite student with high GPA and great reports, however Jane is experiencing a great distress working as teacher even with her academic success. Jane is struggling to engage her class, since her academic work during training course was outstanding it is likely that her struggles are because of Jane's lack of teaching experience indicating that successful teaching has a lot to do with experience than the course work.

It is interesting that Butler-Kisber (2007) states "engagement depends, not only on propitious settings, approaches and products but also on a hunger for self-protection, self-worth and self-improvement". It makes me wonder whether it is relevant to Jane's scenario. Liking back to Jane having all the right requirement to engage student in the classroom, but perhaps the "disadvantaged" student in her classroom are needing not setting, approaches and product but needing a satisfaction of their self-protection ,self-worth and self-improvement. Observing the parents being openly hostile to the school indicates the poor family environment, lack of family education.

It makes me wonder if Jane grew up in the same environment as the kids from her classroom, would have helped her in terms of finding the right and fitting engagement strategy for this particular class. Perhaps her pedagogy although prepared with much effort, was ineffective because of these social factors; academic motivation and success which likely to come from parents and family members, and peer groups and social networks.

Having this difference can influence what works for the city kids doesnt work for country kids, my next area of focus is one of the Nine provocations "How will I control my students?" I believe this varies depending on where you are teaching and whom, what types of kids, am I going to be teaching? However, as Clandinin (2007) argues, relating to the life stories of each child and developing a engaging strategies from there, I believe is most effective in a general context. This is effective because like puzzle, it fits each child's different requirements for engagement. Finally, providing the sense of competency to a child is essential in classroom engagement. Carver (1997) defines competence as "learning skills, acquiring knowledge, and attaining the ability to apply what is learned". I believe competency motivates students whether it is at school or at home. Subsequently, the students are engaged at what is being taught, however not necessarily to the teacher. Teachers, having this knowledge, must develop their own pedagogy and style of teaching which not only fits students but themsleves.  

References

Butler-Kisber. (2007).Student engagement in 21st century. LEARNing Landscapes. Vol 1;No.1. pp16

Carver, R. L. (1997).Theoretical underpinnings of service learning. Theory into Practice, 36(3),143-149.

Clandinin, D. J. (2007). Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Ed Foundation Module A Comments

Comment 1

Link to Rhys K's Blog http://scholarsdenwenlin.wordpress.com/

Student do not share same passion for learning. At least not in the same level as the teachers wanting to teach and accomplish their job as a teacher. In fact, it is almost a common knowledge that kids go to school because they have to or they want get a qualification to do want they want. They do not have passion for learning. Wayne obviously do not realize this "reality" of students therefore struggling to cope and handle the situation in a rightful way. 

Provocation 4 states "Am I ready to teach?" which to expand is questioning pre-service teachers, "Do I know this generation well-enough to do the teaching job at its best?" "What some challenges that teachers face today? Where and why are these problem arising and how do teachers overcome those?" "What do I know about the kids at school in this generation? What's reality and and why?"

Churchill et al (2011) says students today view the world differently and have accepted technology in a very significant way that it is changing even the neuro-architecture of their mind. Wayne finds some students not engaging to what he has to say in class rather are engaged in their phone and its activities like a magnet. Had Wayne understood this technological revolution when he stepped out of the training ground? because if he didn't I firmly argue that he should as a part of being ready to teach.

References

Churchill, R., et al. (2011). Teaching: Making a difference. John Wiley & Sons. Milton.

Comment 2

http://mrtsmall.wordpress.com/

Although the point the writer is trying to make is that the graduate teachers need more support, understanding and training to broaden their capacity in teaching before they are placed in school especially rural schools, I believe the actual training and development of a teacher starts from the day they start teaching in a classroom. The trainings and teacher education courses make you a excellent pre-service teacher but not a trusted skilled teacher. It is only through the process in which Jane is going through, that eventually equips a pre-service teacher to a proficient teacher.

Provocation 8 questions " To what extent is teaching an intellectual pursuit?"

To broaden this provocation, the other essential idea is how much of an intellectual training do the pre-service teachers need? In other words, if Jane had completed a subject at uni regarding rural schools, would she not go through the same struggles?

Yes, Philosophies and theories by real genius people help.. but isn't teaching an interactive profession? from human to human? 

I believe Jane will become a great teacher later on her life through experience, trial and error, learning by mistakes, constant evaluation, training and courses, listening to feedbacks, learning by example, reflections, adaptation to the changes, etc.

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Ed Foundation Module A

Wayne

Engaging all students in the classroom is no doubt challenging. Different teachers have different ways to go about and strategies to solve the problem. The important truth is that the classroom is gathered by individuals from difference backgrounds, cultures, family environment and the students are different in many other aspects as a human. The role as a teacher is not to force all students to engage to the teacher but rather to learning, having in mind that this learning can take place differently depending on the student. I see that Wayne’s classroom is divided into two groups in which one group is focused on achieving high marks and the other not engaging at all. However, the one thing that these two groups of students have in common is that they do not want to learn the subject, find the subject interesting or enjoy learning new things etc.

One of the nine provocations questions whether teacher’s role is to teach subjects or students. I boldly wish to conclude that without teaching the students, teaching subjects is extremely challenging if not impossible. It is slippery to fall into Wayne’s classroom situation if the teacher’s focus is on teaching subjects than the students. Students are people and they are not sitting in the classroom receiving information about a particular subject like robots. Is it reasonable to conclude that if any student is not engaging to the teacher the problem is not the students but the teacher? Teachers are responsible to learn this crucial technique to be able to engage the ones whom are difficult compared to others.

I know from my own experience that some teachers taught their subject better than other. In fact, I had a privileged to meet a great teacher who turned my conception of complicated chemistry to fun and doable chemistry. A year later, I competently finished that subject and gained a completely different way of thinking about chemistry. I felt capable of doing chemistry and enjoying chemistry whereas when i walked into the classroom I didn’t want to be there at all.

Perhaps Wayne can learn a bit from my former chemistry teacher, focusing on the student walking out the classroom with a different perception to the subject if not changed to loving the subject. Perhaps Wayne can replace his focus from his position as a teacher to students desperately seeking something they can do well so someone can be proud of them.

If you love the teacher, it is undeniable that you are likely to be more engaged in the subject. Elliot (2010) investigated the factors of students’ favourite subjects. It is reported that when the students are able to relate to the teacher well in a subject, it is likely that that subject is the favourite (Elliot, 2010). It is also important to contain a well-established curriculum and contents of the subjects but actually the influential factor is not on the curriculum because it is what goes on in the teachers’ head.

References

Elliot, K. & Kathy Paige. (2010). Middle year students talks: science sux or science rocks!. Teaching Science, Vol 56;1. pp13-16 http://search.informit.com.au/fullText;dn=182333;res=AEIPT