Reflecting on My Personal Theory of Learning caused me to think about who I really am and what I believe is important in education. It is hard in a few short paragraphs to truly express all of my philosophies and theories on what I believe make a successful learning experience but I am finding that I question everything and trusting nothing. I believe that my first responsibility should be to my students and not a bureaucratic, governmental organization that is not even connected to what is happening in my classroom.
In this course we learned about many new ideas and theorists that have unique philosophies about education and what seems to provide the latest and greatest success stories in education. Although there are many great theorist and many that are eager to sell their newest theory to us as teachers I am careful and reluctant to embrace many of these theories. Past history has proven that many of them are just theories and the ideas and philosophies that were cutting edge twenty years ago are no longer ideas that are considered valuable. I remember a very trusted mentor once told me to find my core values in teaching and stick to them. When new philosophies and new ideas come your way, which they surely will, evaluate them with an open mind and if they connect with your core values, embrace them, if they do not connect with your core then reject them and move on.
I think some of us as educators never question the value of some of these ideas and philosophies that influence us. We just jump on the band wagon with little or no thought to where we are heading. This course has made me reevaluate who I am and what my core values in education are.
In regard to long term goals, I know that I cannot teach what I do not know and this has caused me to seek new understanding in technology skills. Also teaming efforts at my school are taking on a new technology format very similar to blogs. Through these teaming efforts all student will benefit through collaboration efforts of a support team. Our teaming efforts will be ongoing and perfected throughout the coming years.
Immediate adjustments that I will make in my instructional practices include focusing on a few of the 9 categories of instruction suggested by Dr. Debra Pickering such as teaching compare and contrast using specific instructional guidelines and note taking.
Posts
