My fundamental beliefs for effective learning revolve around 3 main ideas.
I believe in the importance of forming a connection with my students, by demonstrating respect, caring and kindness. I believe this connection plays an important role in how my students behave in my classroom, their level of motivation to learn and succeed in my class, and their willingness to strive and do their very best.
I believe in the importance of engaging my students by presenting material in an interesting way, and keeping it fresh and varied, and being responsive to the level of engagement I perceive in my students. If my class seems less engaged, I want to respond appropriately to that and change up what we are doing, rather than attempting to instruct students who are “checked out”.
I believe in the importance of frequently checking for understanding, to be sure that transfer of ideas and knowledge to my students is successful. I also aim to guide students in making a connection to the “big idea” or the overarching objectives of our course (which are benchmark/standards based).
I see a progression through various learning theories that takes place as we move from introducing a topic and approaching greater depth of knowledge, as we build on that topic and add in different sub-topics that are interrelated within it to build up a “big picture” (which should be standards-based). It makes me think of the four different levels of Depth of Knowledge (DOK).
Student brain development might easily mean a student’s depth of knowledge resides largely in level 1 or perhaps 2 of DOK, especially if they are younger. When their brain is still developing in the amygdala (regulating emotion), hippocampus (retaining information), and pre-frontal cortex (planning, rational decision making) it can make it more challenging for them to move through levels 2, 3 and 4, but I see it as my role in teaching them to guide them along that path as best I can. Piaget’s Theories of Cognitive Development, and particularly adolescent egocentric thinking makes me think of level 2, and perhaps starting to move into level 3, because that very “me-oriented” perspective needs to start to shift a little so a student can really grasp the bigger picture connections in what they are learning.
Vygotsky’s emphasis on sociocultural influences in students starts to move them more toward that “bigger picture” understanding of the world, where they look beyond themselves and start to see the interrelationships between ideas, so starting to move into DOK levels three and maybe four.
And finally, moral development and considering finer details and “gray areas” in how things relate brings us clearly into DOK level four, which is ultimately a teachers’ goal - to not simply transfer basic knowledge to their students, but to have them diving deeper and synthesizing, connecting, perceiving, analyzing, and explaining subtleties too - true critical thinking.
4) RESUME
5) recommendation letters
6) transcripts & certifications
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