I
think it’s inevitable feeling this way, but since this is what I really want to
do in my life, I don’t have nothing to be worried about, because with
enthusiasm and determination, everything will be alright. As teachers, we don’t need to know about everything,
but just be willing to learn with and from children. Many times, they ask
questions we had never raised before. So, instead of ignore them just because we
don’t know the answer or because they aren’t part of the course contents... why
don’t we investigate and try to get the answer together? After all, children forget
many of the knowledge we teach them, but they will always remember all the
special experiences and moments we will live with them.
I‘ve
learned lots of interesting things during these 4 years like, for example, the
different theories about developmental psychology from authors like Skinner or
Piaget which are very useful to understand how a child’s mind works depending
on his/her age. Nevertheless, I think that experience is the most important part
of any job. In our case, the Practicum represents an excellent opportunity to
learn from experienced teachers, always thinking how could we improve and adapt
the different methodologies to our own philosophy of teaching.
Nowadays,
we have a wide range of resources to motivate children, so it's sad to see how the
teaching model has not changed at all since we were at Primary School. Teachers
are still following textbooks to the letter, and assuming the role of transmitters
of knowledge. That is why children’s desire to discover, experience, and research
gradually fades away. They lose their interest about knowledge, and start to learn
contents by heart in order to pass standardized tests or exams.
Exams
facilitate the teaching task, allowing us to check quickly whether our students
have achieved the objectives or not. However, this check is entirely inaccurate
as children never learn all the same way. Therefore, it’s unfair to measure
them following the same pattern, without taking into account their previous
ideas and their progress. For this reason, I’m against using textbooks or doing
exams since I’m looking for being truly involved in the learning process of my future
students, developing my own course programs according to the characteristics of
each group, and assessing them through a process of observation and considering
the progress of each one.
Unfortunately,
we still find unmotivated teachers in schools who do the same year after year
without improving their ways. For this reason, I think it is necessary a
permanent teaching training, being interested in knowing about new methods and
techniques, and most especially, reflecting and learning from our own
experience. To do this, we must be self-critical with our work, and to highlight
what is right and what we should improve or take out. A good
tool for doing this would be a notebook or a diary in which recording our
reflections about the classes.
This last course has also made me reflect about what
kind of English teacher I would like to be. It is undeniable that the
methodology followed for years and still used to teach English in Spain is not
the most appropriate for children to be proficient in this language. We must
consider that learning English in our country is more complicated than in others,
as children are not in permanent contact with the language. For this reason, it’s
important to start with situations that allow them to communicate, instead of memorizing
grammar rules or vocabulary. Considering they start from zero, it’s essential
to use body language to help them to relate meanings. In this regard, I also
believe that literature is a very useful resource that must be used in English
lessons since it allows us to connect with children’s reality and interests.
In
conclusion, as future teachers, we must be aware of the responsibility that our
job involves since we’ll be in contact with people who represent the future.
Thus, the future of society is somehow in our hands. So, it’s crucial we take
our work seriously, and show a commitment to education. Assuming a role of
guidance and support for pupils, we’ll get them to be much more autonomous and critics,
and to increase their motivation to learn and, therefore, their desire to go to
school and their happiness.
I like your emphasis on “experience”, of the student and the teacher. I also believe that the role of a teacher is to organize contexts which provide students meaningful academic experiences which, however, push them beyond their own preconceptions and knowledge. For these experiences to be meaningful, of course, the students’ reality, culture and knowledge –i.e. previous experiences—must be taken into account and used as a point of departure, as ground to build on. This is precisely a pedagogical approach that avoids misconceptions such as amalgamating objectives with content-objectives, or considering that the only competence to be exercised by education is memorization, and hence of using tests as the only assessment tool. This ties to your idea of teachers permanently renewing or revising their practice, since one possible way to do this is evaluating the extent to which they are able to provide students (and themselves, as teachers) with meaningful academic experiences.
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