I would like to share the experience with my
learners who were doing the course of Sustainability. To my surprise, they were
learning about the issues of sustainability in the class. It seems to me that
they were not even interested in the course. I believe in deep learning and
always encourage the learners to practice what they learn. My learners used to
show good performance in the examination. But the only question that I asked myself
whether they are learning or cramming. Is that the way I should teach? The
answer was ‘No’. So the first challenge
was to ensure their participation in the learning process. First day I had a
general discussion to encourage them to interact. They were really interested
in discussion. This also helped me to understand the individual learners, their
nature, and their learning preferences.
The next step was to put them in the context. We
held a brief discussion about deforestation. Each of us was criticizing the
problem in the class. But this was not my goal. My goal was to make them action
competence. I encouraged them to come up with suggestions to contribute to
solve this problem. The general suggestion was to take care of plants and adopt
at least a tree in life. It was decided that a rally will be organized to
create awareness and student will plant trees on the common land. That was the
way that I wish my learner should learn.
Similar strategies were followed to manage waste,
save water, electricity. They learn and practice in the context. Students take
interest in such activities which are useful to them and beneficial to the
society. So I manage to provide them maximum exposure to the community in which
they themselves practice sustainability. Whenever I found any of the learner
shows disinterest, I talked to him individually to know the interest of the
student. In some cases students do not get the appropriate peer or group or the
problem of their interest. Being a facilitator I always take care to ensure the
participation at individual level.
My future goals are to be a facilitator and contribute
to enable my learners to be action competent and demonstrate it in the real
world by offering their time to some NGO’s or other community organization. I
also keep myself updated in terms of knowledge, technology and methods of
teaching. It will help me to keep my teaching style interesting and encouraging.
To conclude, I am fully aware of that methods of
learning and teaching vary according to content, context and nature of
learners. But the spirit of learning by
doing and contribute to the welfare of the society dominates my teaching
philosophy
I have also shared my experience and my planning for
action competence on the blog posting.
You have articulated your teaching philosophy well, and the use of a real situation has helped to illustrate how you prefer to teach and support learners. It would be good to hear how you developed your assumptions, values and beliefs about teaching.
ReplyDeleteAlso, do you have any preferred delivery methods, e.g., blended learning, online or distance learning, face-to-face classes etc.? What are your preferred pedagogies and technologies, e.g., open tools, open resources, text books, projects, problem-based learning etc.?
Presumably if you aspire to encouraging action competence then the four aspects (collaborative, inquiry, reflective and experiential learning) associated with this paradigm are used by you - this needs to be specifically mentioned as part of your philosophy. Do you prefer to teach any particular subjects?
And what adult learning theories do you use to underpin your teaching? And lastly, how will you know that your teaching approaches are working - what will you do to monitor this aspect?
If you can respond to my questions, this will assist you in extending your teaching philosophy so that it is more complete.