My experience in teaching began with a strong teacher-centered style mainly because that was how I was taught to teach. Many of those elements are still present in my teaching, probably because of habit. So, some of the statements that I chose were not necessarily student-centered. I do have a strong sense that students need to be taught clearly what is right. While I know that they will learn the right answer eventually, I sometimes wonder if leaving incorrect answers too long is harmful. I do believe that assessment should be used to monitor learning. Students do learn well when they can participate in the discovery, organization and presentation of material they need to learn. They love projects and what they learn from them does help them to do well in formal evaluations.
I think my approach is changing as I learn new techniques and methods. I like that statement that says that teaching and assessing are intertwined. However, it is easy to depend on the measurement approach, since my school requires verifiable grades. For now, I am including as many student-oriented activities and projects as I can put together for my units, as well as the tests and quizzes that are expected.
The way that I do this for now, is to identify the minimum body of material they need to know, make sure that is given to them and then provide extra projects that delve into the subject a bit more.
I think that I answered some of the questions on the inventory as I thought it should be. However, realistically, I have a way to go to real student-oriented teaching.
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2 comments:
Sharon,
I do appreciate your honesty - notes that say you would really like to be more student-centered. It is a challenge, but becomes 'natural' if you stick with self-evaluation' of your own methods.
You wrote, "I sometimes wonder if leaving incorrect answers too long is harmful." There is no need to 'leave' incorrect answers...just add more questions that will continue to lead them into new thinking.
Short discussions interwoven with short presentations of information, more questions, more discussion, more exploration...students will soon understand that their world is more 'centered' around their very important participation than originally realized.
Thank you for helping them on this path. ~ Datta Kaur
You write very well.
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