What is Education?
I believe that Education is a portion of schooling but I do not consider the two thing mutually exclusive. Education can be achieved outside of a classroom setting as well as within the classroom. This is because I believe it is the successful pursuit of knowledge that is focused around thinking critically on your own. Because of this I think that the most effective education is achieved when someone is learning themselves rather than being lectured to. Although I also believe that lecturing is important in order to provide a base from which the teacher can build a scaffold to support the student’s education. Having the scaffolding allows students to critically explore issues from a point of understanding and therefore it allows them to make an informed decision. I have become much more invested in a student centered method where I play more of a support role to supply them with the skills to learn using a more inquiry based method.
I believe that the social aspect of education, student working together towards a common goal greatly increases its effectiveness because of how much more knowledge is retained when a topic is discussed rather than just told. The ability of social behaviour to facilitate education is significant and I believe that it is one of the most important tools a teacher has when they are running their class. Having students help each other not only helped the student teaching to better learn the material but they are also able to explain to their peer using BICS, allowing their explanation to be more accessible. Using cooperative learning techniques the students will have more of a chance to be social during their learning. The ability for students to have face to face interaction with each other during the lesson and be interdependent in their learning will build community in the class and increase the student’s ability to learn.
I also believe that education is something that evolves and changes with the pursuer of it. The way it is approached and achieved differs with every student because they will not think about it in the same manner even if a teacher is teaching them all the same way.
What is School?
I believe that school is a social construction which facilitates education through social means and allows students to explore issues with structure in order to ensure they are picking up on what is deemed important. The school is a place for students to try and develop their style of learning with the help of a teacher to find the most effective form of instruction for them. I believe that there is too much emphasis on the PLOs in school and not enough on student centered learning where they are able to dictate how and what they learn through inquiry based projects. The unit plans I created were inquiry based projects but were not accepted by my SA who required multiple test throughout the unit to prove learning was happening. I believe this is a deeply flawed idea that puts too much emphasis on the PLOs and misses the true point of being in school, learning.
I believe school has much more to teach outside of the classroom and the importance of it is learning how to interact with others and work together with them in order to accomplish a common goal. The ability for the kids to have all different levels of social environments to interact in within every day allows them to properly differentiate between a working mentality and a social and relaxed mentality. This is important as it is something they will be using for the rest of their lives. It can be brought into the class through the discussion of social justice topics and ensuring that the subject matter in the class room is being linked back to the student’s personal live and being made relevant to them. Relating subject material back to the student’s personal lives is an effective way to connect them to what they are learning and making sure that they are invested in the subject material. This is what I believe is the most effective way to have an engaged classroom and it allows students to better grasp what is being taught in class.
What should the Focus of Education be?
I believe that Education should be focused on developing the social abilities of the students through the use group work and peer teaching as well as teacher run activities that appeal to as many modalities as possible. The focus on social abilities is because of how effective discussing or teaching someone about a topic is in developing a full understanding of it. The other major part of pedagogy that I have discovered is a focus on critical thinking and inquiry to allow the students to attack big questions and better understand the topics they study. Allowing students to direct their own learning more allows them to explore things that they are interested in while still sticking to the PLOs of the curriculum.
I believe that the creation of a social atmosphere within the classroom can greatly improve the learning environment and can help the teacher get their point across through the use of group discussion. I believe this is so important because if during the lecture you are unable to get all the information you intended to all of the students a group discussion can help fill in those gaps and allow the students to understand the information more fully. Discussion can also help bring new questions out in student and allow them to find a different angle on a topic that may have been neglected by the instructor making the teacher more accountable which in turn makes it a much healthier classroom environment. Through the use of more kinesthetic activities I think there is potential to have a much more involved classroom. Having the students physically interacting with the material greatly improves the learning atmosphere in the class and better addresses the material in most cases.
What is the best way to present the material?
I believe that the best way to present the material for class is to begin the lesson with a research assignment that can help direct the students towards learning through critical and objective thinking. I do believe that a lecture component is critical to convey the primary subject material to the students and give them a base to work from for their classwork.
After this allowing them to split up into groups and have discussion about questions you have provided will allow them to better expand on the ideas you presented in the lecture. Allowing them to do things like posters and presentations to engage the kinesthetic learners is also ideal because it is a modality that is more difficult to address in social studies.
I believe this is the best approach to take to a class because it allows you to touch on many different modalities and also allows you to make a scaffold at the beginning of every class. This allows the kids to build off of it during the group activity, whatever it may be. The ability to give the kids the most important information at the start then let them discuss it also lets them dictate the direction of the discussion a little bit and talk about what within your topic most interested them.
What lasting impact does Education have on students?
I believe education can have a significant impact on the non-academic life of a student. It allows them to build their social skills and how to work together with others to achieve a common goal. Even though this may not be something that is necessarily taught, it can be conveyed to the kids through the way the teacher runs their class.
I believe that education can also help teach the kids how to best manage their time making them prioritize assignments and be responsible and accountable for the work they hand into class. This also allows them to learn that they need to be accountable for their actions and that the amount of effort that they put into something, directly correlates to how successful they are.
I believe that the most important thing that can be taught through school is how to act and work together in a structured environment. The role of an instructor in the lasting effect of education is imperative and can set students on a path to success if they have a good teacher. This sentiment has been reinforced by my time in the schools because being in the class demonstrated to me how important the teachers were to their students and how important of a part they actually play in the student’s life.