CHANGING ASSESSMENTS ENHANCED HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS IN STUDENTS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

According to Airasian (1994) and Pellegrino, Chudowsky and Glaser (2001), assessment has three main purposes: to assist learning, to measure a particular student’s achievement and to evaluate the whole program. To ensure that these three main purposes be achieved both tests and curricula designers must work together so that instruction and assessment take place at the same time in order to enhance student’s higher-order thinking skills by developing their abilities of communication, reasoning and problem solving (NTCM, 1995). Many educators believe that in order to teach higher-order thinking skills, to fill the gap between the teachers’ assessment practices and instructional goals, and to implement new assessment ideas and classroom practices, a great change from traditional assessment which assess students’ abilities to remember the facts (NRC, 2000), into authentic assessment that has the ability to reflect and measure the actual learning-teaching outcomes, and to evaluate and reform the goal of the new curricula and teaching strategies used in classes is highly required. In addition, many researches (see e.g. Newman, 1990) argue that both lower and higher order thinking skills may be interwoven in the classroom, and the use of them depends on the nature of the student and the subject. Developing students’ skills requires creating assessment techniques that have abilities to help teachers in their job and reveal students’ skills. Moreover, the use of comprehensive Information and Communications Technology will equip learners for the 21st century demands and therefore need to improve teachers’ skills to make the best use of technology in classroom learning and assessment. This essay will give light to the fact that students’ higher order thinking skills can be enhanced through: First, the right mix of assessment instruments to measure the full range of skills students need. Second, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), new way of learning and assessment can be facilitated. Third, using of international tests as a guide to improve standardized testing.

Assessment systems need to reflect the mix of skills and knowledge that learners need in order to succeed in modern societies. It is apparent that students will require a full set of skills if they are to prosper and contribute to a strong economy and a good society. First, the learning skills that teach students about the mental processes required to adapt and improve upon a modern work environment. It is also called the four C’s that stands for critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication. Second, the literacy skills (IMT) that involves the information, media and technology and that it focus on how students can discern facts, trustworthy sources and factual information to separate it from the misinformation that floods the Internet. Third, the Life skills (FLIPS), it takes a look at intangible elements of a student’s everyday life. These intangibles focus on both personal and professional qualities. It includes flexibility, leadership, initiative, productivity and social skills. All these skills cover the so-called 21st century skills that will enable students to have the adaptive qualities they need to keep up with a business environment that’s constantly evolving. With this in mind, the challenge facing the education system in Thailand is to move beyond the traditional modes of assessment which often tended to focus on the reproduction of discrete knowledge and shift towards a broad mix of assessment that measure and thus value application of knowledge and the development of broad set of skills. This means that educators and policy makers need to carefully identify and explicitly state what skills students need to develop and to act on that specification. It also means that, given the diversity of skills students require no single assessment or approach can possibly suffice. Thus, building a diversified assessment system like one that makes good use of both
formative and summative assessments as pedagogical tools is a must. Such system must have variety of assessment tools to assess a wide variety of skills (OECD, 2013a, UNESCO 2012a). In the case of formative assessment, it provides ways for teachers to continually gauge student progress and to adapt instructions to the evolving needed of learners. Formative evaluation comes in many forms such as student portfolios, reflection sheets, self-peer assessment, and requests for immediate feedback after a lesson or for early draft that help students structure their work. Good formative assessment provides timely feedback to students, help them feel safe to take risks, diagnose learning needs and allows teachers to differentiate teaching accordingly and engages students in their own learning process
(OECD, 2013a). Formative assessment has particularly strong effect on lower achieving students (Black and William, 1998) and therefore helps inequality in student outcomes while improving overall achievement. However, formative assessment should take place in an environment conducive to the improvement of classroom practice, addressing potential logistical obstacles such as overly large groups of students, diverse learners or excessive curriculum requirements. We need to understand that this form of assessment is low-stakes even it potentially has higher stakes for teachers and schools and so students can be who they are and feel comfortable to work tasks given to them with enthusiasm which has relation to their everyday lives. With formative assessment, teachers can apply a wide range of tools that starts from low order thinking activities and gradually moves on the higher order thinking activities in the duration of the students learning journey. On the other hand,
effective summative assessment must validly and reliably measures what students have achieved, and provide a sound base for further learning. One key way that systems can strengthen teacher’s capacity for effective summative assessment is by providing tools and guidelines such as scoring guides, scoring criteria and external benchmarks. Nevertheless, the benefit of formative and summative assessment policies depend on effective implementation though. This could work if and only if teachers are open-minded, willing to shift from traditional form to alternative form of assessment and are equipped with knowledge, training and skills to carry out these form of assessments. Personally as a teacher for almost fourteen years, Thailand already shifted to alternative assessment as implemented in my school since 2016, but unfortunately, only a few teachers in my school tend to do so. They are still stuck in paper-pencil test that focus on rote learning and multiple-choice test. As a matter of fact, every term, I have six co-teachers that always get impatient waiting for me to submit grades for my class as I need longer working hours to mark my alternative form of test and calculate results. The curriculum and assessment was set for alternative learning but the implementation still lean on the traditional method. This is just a scenario that could also happen in other schools around Thailand. I do believe that it is critical to strengthen teaching training and support in the area of assessment. Collaboration from teachers, leaders both local and national are highly needed to implement and follow through this policy of using alternative form of assessment if we want to cultivate 21st Century skills in our students. Good practice allows teachers to plan assessment that are tied to the curricular standards and to the objectives of the class, to appropriately involve students in formative assessments, and to make proper diagnostic use of assessments to improve student learning and final learning outcomes. At the summative level, teachers should have a good understanding of psychometric concepts behind national assessments, and therefore be able to better interpret the results in order to improve teaching practices and student learning. The Education Ministry must ensure that these assessments are valid, authentic, current, sufficient and reliable (VACSR) by strengthening teacher preparation, establishing a nationwide strategy for professional development to equip teachers with the resources and competencies they needed in areas such as employing a wide variety of assessments, making judgements against educational standards and taking into account cultural linguistic aspects of student learning.

The second point on how to enhance higher order thinking skills is the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in enriching learning and various forms of assessment. Now that we are in digital age, ICT plays a key role in creating and exchanging knowledge around the globe. Thus, students need to develop ICT skills. I remember in 2016, all classrooms in my school received an LCD television and our English Program under the Foreign Language Department received ten desktop computers. The school even allocated an ICT room and we had a two-day seminar on how to use computer in teaching. All these efforts were in response to national policy that students need to use technology in learning and teachers must teach and assess students using technology. For the first year, this idea was still fun. In the case of Foreign Language Department, we had the support of British Council to deliver an interactive lesson, exchange information to other students abroad and do assessment using their websites. Similarly, TV’s were used as monitors to deliver lessons in powerpoint presentations and videos. However, when internet connections lag, hardware and software efficiency starts to degrade, majority of these apparatus were placed in cupboards as displays. Subsequently, majority of teachers went back to their normal form of teaching — whiteboard and marker. Only the Computer Department in our school continues to use computer in teaching and assessment. Why? First, teachers have less confidence and capacity to use ICT in classroom and second teachers have limited learning materials relevant to the national curriculum. So, students and teachers need a better quality of digital learning and assessment materials to improve the quality of education. Likewise, teachers’ competencies in using digital learning and assessment materials effectively and their attitudes with respect to ICT have real impact on students’ performances are equally important. To address this issue, it is a must that the Ministry of Education provides teachers with appropriate and comprehensive ICT knowledge and training, a sound ICT learning materials and a good quality assessment toolkit for both formative and summative assessment and integrates them in teaching in ways that support the learning goals set out in the curriculum for the 21st century. Moreover, a high-speed internet access and high quality multimedia apparatus at school will enhance ICT learning and assessment.

The third point on how to enhance higher order thinking skills is to use the international tests as guide to improve standardized testing. Every three years, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) conducts a worldwide study of 15-year-old school pupils’ scholastic performance on mathematics, science, and reading, sponsored by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The OECD offers the best analysis of education systems around the world through PISA tests. In the latest PISA survey in 2015, Thailand ranked 54th in maths and sciences and 57th in reading. Overall, Thailand’s rank was 54th, far below other Asian countries. Singapore was the top performer in all three subjects, followed by Japan in second place. Taiwan came in fourth, China in sixth and Vietnam in eighth (Veathika, 2018). Thailand has taken part in this test since 2000 where the country’s scores have consistently been in the lower percentile of global performance (Mala,
2018). Based from the results, it reveals that Thailand is in urgent need to strengthen its quality of assessment in all school nationwide. It also implies that the curricula fail to be applied to the Thai student’s everyday lives. For this reason, there is a need to focus on how to gear Thai education to the new demands of the fourth industrial revolution (Thailand 4.0). Athapol Anunthavorasakul, an academic from Chulalongkorn University’s faculty of education, said the Education Ministry, in the past two to three years, has invested money trying to get better results in the PISA test, training teachers and students for the PISA assessment, but the performance is still poor. This is due to the fact that PISA results reflect serious disparities between students in well-known schools and students in rural areas. Mr Athapol said schools in each country are randomly selected by the international contractor for participation in PISA, so it is critical to bear in mind that a country’s scores are only the
average aggregate results of students included in the sample. Additionaly, Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin admitted he was also disappointed with the performance of Thai students. The results, he said, reflected a huge gap in ability between students in elite schools and those in underprivileged schools. To narrow this gap, Mr. Athapol suggested that it is critical that the standard of teaching and assessment must be uniformly implemented to all schools nationwide regardless whether it’s in the countryside or the city. I do agree with Mr. Athapol, Thailand must improve equity in educational resource allocation so that all students will have the best opportunity to learn and be assessed based on the national teaching and assessment standard that is aligned to the international curriculum and assessment standard. In this way, the Education Ministry will not worry as to what will be chosen to participate in PISA in a sense that students were trained same way as any school nationwide.

So, how is higher order thinking skills enhanced through the change in assessment? The following suggestions were presented: First, is by implementing the right mix of assessment
instruments that can measure the full potential of each student. Second, is by utilizing a comprehensive ICT teaching and assessment toolkit in the classroom. Both first and second suggestions must ensure quality teaching force — teachers that are equipped, empowered, skilled and undergone professional learning development to reliably assess students for the full range of competencies identified in the curriculum and that safeguard the use of range of assessments to generate the information needed to support individual student progress for the 21st century. Henceforth, the Education Ministry must develop a holistic strategy to prepare both teachers and school leaders to deliver the standard of teaching and assessment in all schools nationwide. The third suggestion was the use of international tests as a guide to improve standardized testing. Through improving equity in allocation of education resources nationwide, quality standard of teaching and assessment can be delivered to all students. All these will ensure that students in Thailand will have high level preparedness and potentials to face the challenges brought by the fourth industrial revolution.

The following websites were visited in writing this essay:

Veathika. (2018, June 24). Thailand Mulls Pisa Test Opt Out for 2018. Retrieved from https://whichschooladvisor.com/thailand/school-news/thailand-may-boycott-2018-pisa-tests

Mala, D. (2018, June 22). Thailand threatens to quit Pisa test. Retrieved from https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1489970/thailand-threatens-to-quit-pisa-test

Sumter, D. (2018, January 23). Obsession with PISA ranking is hurting Thai students. Retrieved from https://www.nationthailand.com/your_say/30336995

(2017, January 6). Thai Education System Fails in Latest PISA Tests: Chevron Enjoy Science Advocates

STEM Education to Solve Problem. Retrieved from https://www.kenan-asia.org/thai-education-system-fails-in-latest-pisa-tests-chevron-enjoyscience-advocates-stem-education-to-solve-problem/

Mala, D. (2016, Dec 19). Thai education system fails to deliver. Retrieved from https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1162805/thai-education-system-fails-todeliver

OECD. (2016, August 31). Education in Thailand An OECD-UNESCO Perspective. Retrieved from https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-in-thailand_9789264259119-en

Royal Thai Embassy, Washington DC. Agenda 1: Prepare Thais 4.0 for Thailand becoming a first wirld nation. Retrieved from https://thaiembdc.org/agenda-1-prepare-thais-4-0-for-thailand-becoming-a-first-world-nation/

What are 21st Century Skills? Retrieved from https://www.aeseducation.com/career-readiness/what-are-21st-century-skills

To write the reference format, this website was visited:

APA Citation Basics (6th Edition). Retrieved from http://info.easybib.com/hs-fs/hub/222136/file-1616255036-pdf/APA_Citation_Ebook_Merged.pdf

Moving on…

As we culminate our EDS 111 course, I went back to my e_journal introductory module post and here’s my discovery… the questions from the introductory module are the same as the questions in concluding forum. Wow, I just had my post- test. 🙂  However, my current answers to the questions are different. My introductory module answers are product from my experience in the field of teaching and my learning from EDS 103. On the other hand, my answers in the concluding forum are product of my teaching experience and my learning here in EDS 111. Do they overlap? Definitely yes. So my introductory module answers focus much on how students learn while the concluding forum answers focus much on how we as teachers effectively teach so that students would learn efficiently.

How did EDS 111 changes the way I think about teaching? EDS 111 opens my eyes on how important the knowledge about theories of teaching for me to become an effective teacher. Module 1 taught me on how I can be encouraged to do an objective and just self-evaluation of my own teaching practices and get involved with my colleagues in form of informal collaborative reflection so I can professionally grow, to have the wisdom to make good judgment, to have the courage to solve classroom issues thereby improving my teaching practice.  In addition, if I want my students to become reflective in their learning I must be the first to model that in the class.

Module 2 was quite a challenge to learn it’s because it is full of complexities. This is the module that I struggle the most in a way that I’ve got difficulty to relate into the issue. Nevertheless, I learned that teaching as a profession is never isolated from any social and political influences as we are subjected to demands, new rules and policies, scrutiny of the public, high standards and the role we play  not just in the portals of the school but also in the society where we belong. For us to be at par with other professions we need to manifest the sense of professionalism in everything that we do both in the classroom and in our community. Moreover we need to be accountable for all the responsibilities that we commit to do, for the betterment of all our students. Furthermore, the GDF 1 was also a challenge for me as I beat the time of sharing my answers to the group but sadly not one of my answers was included in the synthesis. Although this module is difficult, but ironic to say this concept become my focus in doing the assignment as I analyze the professionalism of foreign teachers here in Thailand.

Module 4 is my favorite. This module replicates my knowledge as I shared them to my colleagues and some of my students by letting them take the TPI test. Through this, I realized that if we will give our students the chance to see teachers in those five perspectives by taking the same test that we took, every student see us in different teaching perspectives based from how we influence them in their learning. For my colleagues, the result gave them the realization of what type of teaching perspectives do they incline the most. TPI gave us the justification of why we manifest that certain type of perspective. However, I also learn that we don’t have to stick on one type of perspective but rather have a repertoire of those five perspectives and use each of them to address the need of learners throughout the duration of the learning journey.  Moreover, the module also taught me to continue practicing student centered activities that foster collaboration and group participation so that students will become more engaged and independent in their learning. As I do this in the class, great improvement happens in the student performance. Shy and weak students tend to become more involved in class activities that we do and smart students become more independent as they serve as leaders where they can share their learning to their group mates. They also have extra independent study while the rest are doing the activities set to them. These activities do not just describe a learner centered classroom but also manifest a 21^st century learning environment where students develop their critical and creative thinking as well as their communication skills both spoken and written. But, this would only mean that I have to spend more time in planning and designing the instructional plan and teaching materials that I will use in the class. Likewise, in GDF 2 I had the opportunity to share my knowledge and experience in teaching and try to compare and contrast my groupmates perspectives about the issues that occur in the field of education. It was a better collaboration than GDF 1.

Module 5 taught me the essence of becoming a lifelong learner if we want to continue to grow professionally by immersing ourselves into different types of professional development. This also made me question whether at school where I work has an organized Professional Learning Community. But then, it turned out that if teachers want to enhance their knowledge and skills they need to do research and be affiliated to other stakeholders that can support and sponsor career development. In our case as foreign teachers, we need to grab every opportunity of seminars, workshops and conference that are given to us because we know that those are the only means that we can formally improve our teaching and be recognized by the school and by the Teachers Council of Thailand (TCT). Moreover, since I started with PTC I always make it a point to keep on reading and watching videos on how I can improve my teaching. Websites like British Council , Ajarn.com, Thaivisa.com, Bangkokpost, the TCT and MOE are just some of the websites that post information on the new aspects of education here in Thailand. In this way I become abreast of the changes in education and it helps me adapt and modify my way of teaching.

Module 6 was very useful in doing the final requirement as it gives me the knowledge on how to improve the planning and designing of the instructional plan that I used in my teaching demonstration. The feeling of putting oneself into scrutiny or shall I say critique is different than doing the instruction just in the four corners of the classroom. I was very nervous at the beginning of the demonstration much more were my students. Interaction in that demonstration was quite different compared to our normal days of learning. Although my students tried their best to participate in the activities, still I can feel their hesitation especially in oral discussion due to the fact that they are scared to commit mistakes knowing that it is being recorded. However the student’s survey showed positive result and their written output was better than normal regardless of the grammatical error that occurs due to the fact that they are using English as their second language.  Additionally, my collaboration with my group mates was fun though quite stressful but I like the last night/early morning that we had. Regardless of geographical location the four of us were present, collaborating for one common goal — to submit our narrative report. That feeling of accomplishing the task until the end in the presence of my group mates was memorable to me as I did not experience this in my last term’s collaborative work.

Now that this chapter ends tonight I’ll bring the knowledge that I’ve got  and skills that I developed from this course into my classroom and continue to share them with my colleagues as I continue my journey. It wasn’t smooth and easy though. I made lots of sacrifices… in my personal, social life and much more in my work so that I can accommodate my learning. But one thing I’m sure about is that… I just don’t learn online but I bring my learning to my students, to my colleagues and they become witnesses of my learning. They also feel my hardships in learning online and I thank them as they give their moral support, as they share their time to accommodate my plea for doing the surveys, the TPI Test, the interview even helping me in whole duration of my teaching demonstration until the making of the video.  They may not read this but I’m grateful that they are very considerate and supportive just like a family.

My great thanks also goes to you Teacher Roja for always being there to assist me in every difficulty that I encounter in this course.

To all my classmates, thank you as we learn together in one way or another in our forum, sharing hubs and e-journal.

I’m looking forward to another trimester with you all.

Khapkun Kha. Sawadee Kha… 🙂

Hangang sa muli…

Image source for:
 Wai. retrieved from https://www.musthavemenus.com/imageservice/images/13/121392038_69/img_1213920379008_691.jpg

Guiding Principles In My Journey To The World Of Teaching

A. WORKING WITH DIVERSE LEARNERS

Students differ in a multitude of ways, both individually and as groups. Individually, for example, students have a preferred learning style. Learning style is the students preferred ways of learning.  The diagram below shows the types and characteristics of learning styles.

Students also have preferred cognitive or thinking styles. Cognitive styles are typical ways of perceiving and remembering information, and typical ways of solving problems and making decisions (Zhang & Sternberg, 2006).

• Cognitive style is a usually described as a personality dimension which influences attitudes, values, and social interaction.
• If a student has a cognitive style that is similar to that of his/her teacher, the chances are improved that the student will have a more positive learning experience. Likewise, team members with similar cognitive styles likely feel more positive about their participation with the team.
• Types of cognitive styles:
  1. Field independence versus Field Dependence. This refers to a tendency to approach the environment in an analytical way.
     • Field-independent learner can distinguish figures as discrete from their background or can separate details from the surrounding context.  They learn more effectively under conditions of intrinsic motivation like self-study and are influenced less by social reinforcement. They rely less on others or teachers for support. Useful classroom activities include extensive reading and writing, independent study of which learners can carry out alone (individualized learning). They also prefer highly analytical fields of study like math and science.
     • On the other hand, field-dependent learner cannot distinguish detail from other information around it. They tend to work better in groups as they are good in interpersonal relationships. Useful classroom activities include discussion of what they know about the topic, predicting content, or looking at and listening to related materials. They prefer open-ended fields of study like history and literature.
  2. Reflection versus Impulsivity. This refers to the individual consistencies in the speed and adequacy with which alternative hypotheses are formed and responses made.
     • Impulsive cognitive learner reacts quickly but as a result makes comparatively more errors while Reflective cognitive learner reacts more slowly and therefore makes fewer errors.

Ways to handle learning and cognitive styles:

There are two major ways to use knowledge of students’ cognitive styles (Pritchard, 2005). First, is to build on students’ existing style strengths and preferences and second, is to encourage more balance in cognitive styles for students who need it. It is good to support students’ preferred learning strategies where possible and appropriate, but neither necessary nor desirable to do so all of the time (Loo, 2004; Stahl, 2002).

Other ways:

The 4MAT framework based on the work of Dr. Bernice McCarthy which suggests 4 learning modes (Analytic, Imaginative, Common Sense, and Dynamic) has been widely applied in education (see http://www.aboutlearning.com).

• McCarthy developed the 4Mat System of instruction for Kolb’s learning styles. This system moves through Kolb’s learning cycle in sequence, beginning with the Type 1 quadrant, and teaches to all four learning styles. She theorizes that the natural learning progression starts with the instruction answering, in sequence, the questions that appeal to each major learning style: Why? What? How? And If?

The learning styles framework developed by Dunn & Dunn (1999) (see http://www.ilsa-learning-styles.com/Learning+Styles/The+Dunn+and+Dunn+Learning+Styles+Model.html) seems to be useful in terms of creating teacher awareness of individual differences in learning.

Similarly, learners have unique profiles or multiple intelligence (MI) or competence that affect how and what they learn most successfully. One of the most prominent of these models is Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1983, 2003).

He proposes that there are eight different forms of intelligence, each of which functions independently of the others. His model shows that there are more than one way to be ‘smart’ and therefore suggests the importance of diversifying instruction in order to honor and respond to students diversity of talents and abilities. Also, teachers need to accommodate the gifted learners either through acceleration, enrichment or combination of both and to observe, get to know the learners unique characteristics and offer activities and supports based on that knowledge. In the case of exceptionalities, teachers must understand that students disability might affect their learning hence teachers need to make instructional adjustments for that learner to be successful.

Good teaching considers learners varied learning styles and learner’s multiple intelligence. It is imperative on our part to possess a repertoire of teaching and testing strategies and techniques to reach a full range of students with varied learning styles and multiple intelligence

Aside from individual diversity, learners also differ in gender roles.

As a teacher, it is our responsibility to promote gender equality in the classroom. We can do this by giving all learners equal opportunities to succeed in their learning. We can also give them more encouragement to be engaged in the class or restructure the class in ways that promote greater interaction from a wider number of learners. Another way is to call more quiet learners to participate or place them in groups that they feel more comfortable to collaborate. Lastly, give learners equal attention and specific feedback.

Learners likewise differ in:

Culture: Teachers must understand that Instruction might be confusing to learners if their cultural experiences or background knowledge are different from ours. Use this understanding to inform our teaching and help learners feel welcome, cared about respected and valued in the class so they can be more engaged and motivated to learn.

Linguistics: Teachers must understand that mastering academic content might be difficult for learners who are not proficient in English. We need to learn how their patterns of communication and various dialects affect their classroom learning and how second-language learning affects their acquisition of literacy.

To address this issue, James Banks has proposed five features of a fully multicultural educational program (2009) in order to create successful learning experiences for all learners.

First, integrate cultural content into the curriculum wherever possible. Teachers must use multicultural books and learning materials that promote cross-cultural understanding. Second, stimulate knowledge construction to help students understand cultural assumptions. This can be done by engaging learners in exploring the culturally based assumptions of whatever subject they are studying. Third, implement flexible teaching strategies that give all students access and success with learning. Example:

• Prefer cooperative learning activities instead of independent activity or use of IRE cycle — teacher initiating, a student responding, and the teacher then evaluating the response (Mehan, 1979) for one-on-one conversation rather than whole class or group.

• By allowing for various styles of learning, teachers can accommodate a wide range of students, whatever their cultural backgrounds, and whatever cultural background the teacher herself may have. By honoring students’ individuality, it avoids the danger of stereotyping students’ learning needs on the basis of their cultural background.

Fourth, promote prejudice reduction among all learners. Teachers must also reflect upon the specific cultural values that are embedded in our understanding of a learner’s behavior and different factors that might contribute to his or her performance in school. Lastly, encourage the entire school to be aware of cultural diversity and its effects. Everyone must be open-minded and respectful of learners’ unique and diverse characteristics. The mindmap below gives an eye view of how differentiation works in diverse learning environment.

Learners also differ in their socioeconomic status (SES). Research shows that lower SES learners have lower and slower academic achievement as compared with students of higher SES. Teachers need to help overcome the stigma of poverty by viewing SES learners as an individual rather than as a member from low or high SES. By relating the content knowledge to daily life experiences and creating a worthwhile learning environment (less stress and more fun) learners can improve their achievement.  Give more encouragement so they can have hope and adapt  and focus in their learning amidst difficulty of life and guide them in making smart decisions in their life.

The mindmap below shows the hypothesized mechanisms by which SES operates to influence structural and functional brain development.

For teachers to successfully address the needs of diverse learners, we need to learn on how to be creative in our teaching so that learning would be more interesting. The following describes a creative teacher.

• Creative teachers are aware of and value the human attribute of creativity in themselves and seek to foster such a mindset in the young.
• Creative practice is multilayered; it encompasses the three dimensions, namely personal qualities, pedagogy (methods and practice of teaching) and ethos (distinguishing characteristics or guiding belief), each of which has a distinctly creative orientation.
• Creative teachers personally, pedagogically and in their classroom ethos, both demonstrate and develop children’s curiosity, their connection making, autonomy, ownership and originality.
• Creative teachers are autonomous professionals, who actively model their own creative engagement in the classroom and seek to nurture this in children.
• While all good teachers reward originality, creative ones depend on it to enhance their well-being and that of their  pupils; they see the development of creativity and originality as the distinguishing mark of their teaching.

In order to develop and sustain creative state of mind, our flexibility, collaborative capacity, optimistic and creative disposition as an individual and as creative practitioner, we should seek to:

• prize a questioning stance and foster learners curiosity through offering them the chance to undertake their own enquiries;
• make personal and professional connections;
• exert our professional autonomy and co-construct the curriculum with the learners, thus increasing their ownership and autonomy;
• encourage, profile and celebrate originality in both ourselves and the learners;
• continue to read and reflect upon our growth as a creative professional and research our own and the learners creative learning within and beyond the classroom.

By being aware of the aspects of student diversity and ways on how to be creative in teaching we can appropriately address the need of these learners thus improving their performance in reaching the learning goals and help them develop their full potentials.

B. INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING

Teachers are designers. They select or develop activities and information sources that will assist learners in teaching these goals.

Instructional Design describes the process involved in the systematic planning of instruction. It answers three major questions (Mager, 1984).

1. Where are we going? Where we’re going.
   • The goals of the instruction?
2. How will we get there? How we’ll get there.
   • Instructional strategy and the instructional medium
3. How will we know when we have arrived? How we’ll know when we’re there
   • What should our tests look like?
   • How will we evaluate and revise the instructional materials

The instructional design process includes the activities of analysis, strategy development, evaluation and revision.

1. Analysis: the designer analyse the learning task itself, asking what it must know or be able to do to learn.
2. Strategy development: The designer determines the way that instructional material should be presented.
3. Evaluation: The designer plans an approach for evaluating the instructional materials to determine what kinds of changes need to be made in them. We use the term assessment to evaluate students learning while we use the term evaluation to evaluate the instruction itself. Aspects involved in the assessment process often use the acronym VACSR: valid, authentic, current sufficient and reliable. Assessment should not be isolated from the teaching learning process it should be integral to it and continually takes place thought-out the time with the learners.
4. Revision: the instructional design is revised as new information becomes available.

Although the instructional design process may often be portrayed as linear, in practice it is frequently iterative, moving back and forth between activities as the project develops.

The components of instruction: goals, learning activities, information sources and assessment tools, which are the products of the design process, should be congruent with each other.

 Important guidelines to follow when planning instruction:

1. Perform complete diagnostic assessments of learners’ needs and characteristics.
2. Use diagnostic assessment information when planning.
3. Do not rely entirely and uncritically on textbooks and their accompanying aids when planning.
4. Include a combination of lower-level and higher-level expectations or learning outcomes.
5. Include a wide range of instructional activities and strategies to fit learners’ instructional needs.
6. Match educational expectations or learning outcomes with teaching strategies, activities, and planned assessments.
7. Recognize one’s own knowledge and pedagogical limitations and planned preferences.
8. Include assessment strategies in instructional plans.

 Table 3.3 summarizes student, teacher, and instructional resources and considerations.

A final important resource that greatly influences teacher planning is time. Time is a limited resource that has important consequences for planning instruction. Each teacher’s decisions about what content to stress or omit is based in part on the instructional time available.

Bear in mind that in planning instruction we must first see the big picture of the course and be aware of the goals and objectives for the whole term before planning the weekly lesson. If the big picture is kept in mind, the individual lessons will connect to form a learning experience that benefits both the teacher and the learners.

Objectives are important in developing instructional plans.

Objectives must be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, result–oriented and time-bounded  to ensure greater match between instruction and assessment.  It needs to be specific and must demonstrate knowledge, skills, values, attitudes and interest to allow teachers to evaluate the extent of which course objectives have to be met.

 Three levels of abstraction represent degrees of objective specificity: global, educational and instructional (Krathwohl & Payne, 1971).  Note that regardless of the type or specificity of an objective, its focus should always be on student learning and performance. Table 3.4 illustrates the difference in degree of breadth among the three types of objectives and compares their purposes, scopes, and time frames.

Thus, the level at which an objective is stated—global, educational, or instructional—has an impact on the manner in which processes such as planning, instructing, and assessing will be structured and carried out.

In addition to differing in terms of level, classroom objectives (and their related instruction and assessments) differ in terms of three general types of human behaviour: the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains. Classroom assessments cover cognitive, affective, and psychomotor behavior because teachers are interested in knowing about their students’ intellectual, attitudinal, and physical characteristics.

Bloom’s Taxonomy, or the Cognitive Taxonomy, is widely used by teachers to describe and state cognitive objectives. It consists of three taxonomies: (see table 3.5)

1. Cognitive: or the knowledge-based objectives that deals with learning certain facts and concepts; relies on recall and recognition of knowledge and development of intellectual abilities and skills. Mental processes involve memorization and ability to think, analyse and solve problems. We need to aim at the development of critical and creative thinking by including questions that are high-level, divergent or open-ended. Teaching strategies and techniques must be a catalyst in the development of high-order thinking skills.
2. Psychomotor: or the skills-based objectives that deals with learning ‘how to do something’
3. Affective objectives or the development of attributes like feelings, values, attitudes and interests, preferences and commitment

These levels of expertise are listed in order of increasing complexity. Higher level of expertise needs more sophisticated classroom assessment technique. We need to choose which category corresponds to the course objectives. Then use the descriptions of different levels of expertise. Also, choose which description matters the measurable learners outcome.

C. ON CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

Classroom management is an important phase in teaching. It includes operation and control activities. Such activities include seating arrangement, attendance, day to day classroom courtesies, and choice of instructional materials to use for a particular lesson.

No classroom activities can prosper effectively without the teacher doing his role as a classroom manager. Normally, the failure of the teaching-learning process is traced to the inability of the teacher to impose discipline when needed. In addition, teacher should concern himself with care of routine to facilitate learning. This includes setting the intellectual atmosphere that will be conducive to the learning process. No matter how much potential the teacher has if he is unable to control his students in the classroom, all activities will not be carried out efficiently. The wise use of the teacher and student’s time, effort and energy is reflective of a good classroom management.

Likewise classroom management also includes control of activities in the classroom. Management demands of the teacher the ability to impose discipline on students plan the needed appropriate activities for the day and have enough foresight about the possible outcomes in terms of the intended objectives. A good classroom atmosphere that accrues from an effective classroom management almost always makes learning an enjoyable and productive experience. There is no waste of time and energy for both teacher and students because of careful planning.

The following are ways on how we can effectively manage our classrooms:

Being Assertive: Teachers must be assertive between what and how much students are allowed to do in the classroom. It must be clear that students are responsible for their actions. This implies that as teacher being the authority in the classroom can handle discipline problems.

Behavior modifications: this motivates students to develop appropriate behavior through rules, reward, punishment or modelling Models serves as person to emulate copy and identify with themselves.

Valuing time: teachers must optimize time by concentrating on doing what is the most important.

Allowing students to participate in decision-making: Being successful in sharing the decision making process will give way to mistaken goal like attention getting, power seeking, revenge seeking and withdrawal.

• Teachers should guide students to make good choices by stressing their responsibilities for their own behavior, establishing rules, valuing right behavior and discouraging wrong behavior, suggesting suitable alternatives or bad behavior that will reinforce their responsiveness, being persistent, proactive and continually reviewing issues and solutions to the students.

Establishing Routines: By establishing routines for all daily tasks. Doyle says, routinization makes classroom activities less susceptible to breakdowns and interruptions because students know the normal sequence of events and what is expected of them (Ornstein, p. 96)

Kounin (1977) Withitness (being with it): As teachers we know what is going on in the classroom at all times; know who are working and who are not; know who need help and know how to carry out instruction while monitoring learners behavior.  The use of withitness heightens the awareness of the needs of different types of learners ‘actions in the class.

The information mentioned above will be my guide as I continue my journey for an effective teaching experience.

 The following are modifications that I did in my classroom to create a better physical learning environment.

Apparatus found in the cupboards and available when we’re going to do an experiment. Chairs and tables are portable for easy rearrangement depending on the need of an activity whether it is an independent study to collaborative activities.

Visualizer, computer and projector, speakers and visual aids  are used to facilitate learning efficiency especially for visual learners.

A bulletin board with classroom rules to remind the class what behavior is necessary in the when learning. Also, students work are posted on it to motivate them to do better in class. Posting changes whenever a great work is created whether it is individual, pair  or group work.

References:

(Zintel, Dawn). Designing Training for Multicultural Learners. Part Five: Learning Styles and Instructional Methodologies. Retrieved from  http://www.trainingalliance.com/art-mult-learners5.html

4Mat learning cycle: http://image.slidesharecdn.com/4matcycle-131026233953-phpapp01/95/4mat-cycle-for-powerful-workshops-1-638.jpg?cb=1382831037

6 tips for teaching in a diverse classroom. Retrieved from https://www.imaginelearning.com/blog/2010/06/esl_struggling-readers-2/

British Council Teaching English: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/field-dependent-learners

Classroom diversity. Retrieved from  http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/div/cwrap/#content

Cognitive style: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_style

Cognitive/Learning styles: http://www.instructionaldesign.org/concepts/cognitive-styles.html

Cultural competence. Retrieved from http://www.rtinetwork.org/learn/diversity/culturalcompetence:

Dunn and dunn Learning Style. Retrieved from  http://www.ilsa-learning-styles.com/Learning+Styles/The+Dunn+and+Dunn+Learning+Styles+Model.html

http://www.aboutlearning.com/what-is-4mat

How poverty affects classroom management. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/may13/vol70/num08/How-Poverty-Affects-Classroom-Engagement.aspx

Teaching to Promote Gender Equality. Retrieved from http://cte.virginia.edu/resources/teaching-a-diverse-student-body-practical-strategies-for-enhancing-our-students-learning/gender-dynamics-in-the-classroom/teaching-to-promote-gender-equality/

Images source:

Cooperative Learning. Retrieved from http://www.healwithoil.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Cooperative-Learning-1.jpg 

Creativity in classroom. http://www.wiziq.com/teachblog/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/11541148_10207223905540765_753387356_n.jpg

Culture. Retrieved from http://www.dfwhcfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Cultural-and-linguistic-competence-in-Patient-care_Sushma-Sharma-1.jpg

Differentiation of instruction. http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/images/publications/books/tomlinson2000_fig1.1.gif

Learning style. Retrieved from http://cdn.www.duarte.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/7-styles-of-learning.jpg

Gardner multiple intelligence. Retrieved from http://billsteachingnotes.wikispaces.com/file/view/GARDNER_SUMMARY.gif/47565391/696×491/GARDNER_SUMMARY.gif

Gender roles. Retrieved from http://notenoughgood.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/gender-roles.jpg

Howard Gardner. Retrieved from http://fe867b.medialib.glogster.com/annielthomas/media/b1/b16d989ece9bcc8f9b0da85028524eca1c5d2ad5/gards2.jpg

SES. Retrieved from http://www.frontiersin.org/files/Articles/103217/fnins-08-00276-HTML/image_m/fnins-08-00276-g001.jpg

Teachers as Designers. Retrieved from http://evosessions.pbworks.com/f/1449309521/TAD%20Logo.jpg

What is creativity? Retrieved from https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/cf/b1/86/cfb186ad03926cc9bfb3c24ea12b73a8.jpg 

The Quest of Becoming a Lifelong Learner

The author Marjan Laala in her article Lifelong Learning: What does it mean? Cited different definitions about lifelong learning however I am greatly influenced by the definition given by Harper Collins Dictionary that says: Lifelong learning is the use of both formal and informal learning opportunities throughout people’s lives in order to foster the continuous development and improvement of the knowledge and skills needed for employment and personal fulfillment. Formal learning consists of learning that occurs within an organized context like formal education in schools and universities or in-company training that may lead to formal recognition like receiving a certificate or diploma. Informal learning is a learning that results from daily life activities related to family, work or leisure. It is often referred to as experiential learning and can, to a degree, be understood as accidental learning (Cedefop glossary p.70 & 76).

Dr. Costa in his writing Teachers as Continuous Learners describes lifelong learners as intelligent people who are invigorated by their continuous learning mode. They are confident and inquisitive that drives them to constantly search new and better ways to improve, grow, and modify their learning. They seize problems, situations, tensions, conflicts and circumstances as valuable opportunities to learn. They display the humility of knowing that they don’t know. Humility of knowing is the highest form of thinking that lifelong learners ever learn in a way that they can’t learn unless they are brave enough to accept to themselves the fact that they don’t know things and they are not afraid to find out. The last but not the least, they take time to reflect about their daily experiences and share their thoughts and realizations to their colleagues and apply them in their next teaching-learning episodes.

Just as the world continue to spin on its axis and the global society changes at a breathtaking speed it is of great necessity that we must adapt and change too. Our weapon is to become a lifelong learner. There are ways on how teachers can become a lifelong learner.

First, is through self-knowledge.

Self-knowledge

As we continue to examine for precision about the importance of who we are and what we want to be as a teacher, we reveal our true values and beliefs about how can we change, what changes can we make and how can we adapt from that change  in order for us to be effective in learning and teaching.  This process of self-knowledge takes time, commitment, patient reflection and the ability to see beyond what our eyes can see so we can be what we intend to be in reality. This is a great sign that we are moving forward in our profession as teachers.  Also our beliefs and intentions must be relevant to our actions to make sure that we set a high standard in our teaching.

Second, is through metacognition. 

Metacognition

As we become aware of how we think and what we are thinking, that realization helps us create a mental map of what our class would be like before, during and after learning. As we engage in an ongoing cycle of questions that promote deep learning, this is seen on how we prepare our instructions that can lead to a higher level of students achievement. Also, by sharing what we are thinking to our colleagues on how we teach our students it invigorates us to become open to possibilities that can reshape and transform our own beliefs which greatly influences our decision making process.

Third, through constant interaction and  determination to collaborate with colleagues.

Team Collaboration

We collaborate about equally shared responsibilities like planning and developing instructions that focus on students achievement goals which is connected to the school learning goals; preparing teaching materials and assessments both formative and summative; identifying the present level of student achievement, establishing goal to improve the current level, seeking each other’s help to achieve that goal and providing evidence of progress; reflecting together about students learning concerns and teaching practices.  Through these activities, teachers’ sense of professionalism is enhanced and they develop a sense of community where each teacher is considered to be a member of team of learners and leaders. As teachers collaboratively engaged in conversation with colleagues, they also gain new knowledge and discover authentic ways to resolve instructional issues. In the process, they develop a shared vision and strengthen their ability to achieve the vision that they want to their schools, that is — each student learn. Moreover, as teachers collaborate they come up with strategies and learning solutions to make sure that each student learns and know how to respond in case some students are struggling through timely and directive intervention. 

Fourth, is by increasing our knowledge of the structure of disciplines and improving our knowledge base teaching.

Knowledge base

To make sure that our instruction is of high quality it must emphasise its rationality which is describe in its purpose, problem, hypotheses, ideas, solution to the problem,  types of communication, use of technology and its interconnection with other field of studies. Marzano, Pickering and Pollock believe that we need to base our teaching from the knowledge base instead of relying much on practical wisdom of teaching in order to enhance our collection of teaching competences.  Hence, the best way is to find the connection of practical wisdom to the knowledge base so that there is congruence in what we believe, what we intend to do and what we actually do in the class. Likewise, we must address the types of learners that we have in class so we can apply an appropriate differentiation in our teaching. Similarly, we must be up-to-date of the information and things that happen in  our society, in education and child development by reading education journals, articles, books, action research, surfing the internet, watch news on TV and even joining professional learning communities that would provide opportunities to improve knowledge base, and gain valuable best practices. In this manner, it only shows that teaching needs mastery of the field of study and it is applied with great wisdom and ethical concerns.

Lastly, by learning who our learners are.

By  teaching with passion and valuing our students’ personal background, learning styles and developmental levels we build trust and respect with our students which are great starting point for learning and teaching. As we acknowledge and address these factors in our teaching through differentiation of instruction and use of technology that has real-world relevance and useful in their daily life, students become “feel at home” when they learn. In return, they become more inspired and engaged in their learning and become smart about their life too.

Thus, as teachers, why should we become a lifelong learner? Becoming a lifelong learner makes us see our mistakes and challenges as part of the learning process instead of failures. Similarly, it helps us face daily classroom challenges with great confidence and expertise. Besides, it develops our creative thinking and opens our minds to possibilities of learning new things like the use of technology and multimedia which is a characteristic of 21^st century learning. In addition, it helps us become innovative as we address the need of our students. Instead of doing a teacher-centered learning, a lifelong learner teacher may sort to collaborative learning environment, flipped or reciprocal teaching and other student-centered approaches. Our everyday interactions with our colleagues, students and parents are our avenues for learning if only we can see its benefit in ourselves as a teacher. It gives us new perspective of what possibilities may occur when we approach teaching in different ways. It also allows us to explore options to show our skills in real practice. As we become a lifelong learner, we are also modeling it to our students to do the same.

So, what’s my take from this module? I realized that learning is life. If I will choose to continue my quest for teaching, all the information mentioned above must be my guiding principles and I must be committed and persistent in applying them in my daily teaching practices. After all, as I continue to become a reflective lifelong learner my students will learn more too. Also, as I collaborate with my colleagues, students and parents that are involved in teaching and learning I gain great support system that can help me see things in different perspectives, embrace and adapt to the fast-paced trend of life — change, as a sign of intellectual growth and in the end will transform me to become a better teacher. This is a very challenging journey but I will move forward with great confidence, passion and determination to discover what lies ahead…

References:

(Costa, A. (2008). Teachers as continuous learners. Retrieved from  https://www.nesacenter.org/uploaded/conferences/FLC/2011/handouts/Watts/Teachers_as_Continuous_Learners.pdf

(DuFour, R. (2004). What is a professional learning community? Educational Leadership, 61(8), 6-11. Retrieved from http://www.allthingsplc.info/files/uploads/DuFourWhatIsAProfessionalLearningCommunity.pdf

 (Laal, M. (2011). Lifelong learning: What does it mean?  Retrieved from  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marjan_Laal/publication/224767020_Lifelong_learning_What_does_it_mean/links/0912f4fba440488c32000000.pdf

 (Roberts, S. & Pruitt, E. Z. (2009). The professional learning community: An overview (Chapter 1). Retrieved from  http://www.corwin.com/upm-data/27683_Roberts_Chapter_1.pdf

Image source:

Collaboration. Retrieved from http://www.scalus.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/team-collaboration.png and https://nextstl.com/wp-content/uploads/collaboration-image-2.jpg

Knowledge base. Retrieved from  http://www.msuedtechsandbox.com/maety1_summer2011/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/TPACK2.jpg

Learners. Retrieved from http://worldartsme.com/images/english-language-learners-clipart-1.jpg

Metacognition. Retrieved from http://www.coetail.com/yenidil/files/2014/09/metacog2.png

Who me. Retrieved from https://www.emaze.com/@ACFIQFZ/LD-Overview-dec-2013-v5.pptx

The Road to Teacher Professionalism

Here is my mind map for teacher professionalism before I started reading the module.

The road toward teaching professionalism wasn’t simple as it undergoes series of reform based from the demands of time, school administrators, society and economy.  

The diagram below shows the evolution of teacher professionalism through time.

In Traditional professionalism, teachers are in control of their teaching in terms of what and how to teach. Parents were supposed to trust the teachers on what is best for their learning.  However, the bad side of this is that some teachers were abusing their independence which posed hazard to students and society.  As an outcome, schools are subject for accountability both through market-based competition and scrutiny by the government. For market based competition, parents got more options on which school can they send their children and so parents are considered to be consumers. However the government still has the right to oversee the procedures involved.

In Managerial professionalism, teachers are still considered as means of raising the standards of the school however they don’t hold the sole responsibility but instead it is relinquished to other staffs in the school like teaching assistants. Teaching assistants can now be involved in the actual process of learning and assessment of learning under teacher supervision instead of just taking care of the children and organizing the classroom. Also, teachers are supposed (a) to accept accountability (b) seek to base their decisions on evidence of what works in school (c) work in partnership with other staff in schools and (d) welcome the contribution that parents, business and other stakeholders  that can make the school successful.

In Collaborative Professionalism, teachers are not just bound to teach in their respective schools for learning to occur but also in the community where they belong. In doing so, there is a need for them to work in partnership with professionals from different agencies in the society.

In Democratic Professionalism, teachers work in relation to students, parents and other members of the community. Teachers and students got chance to work together in creating programs and activities that will make them more engaged for the success of the school. Parents and other stakeholders like business companies are also involved in the school program.

Social capital also plays an important role in defining teacher professionalism as it is a key in understanding the variations that occur in the learning outcomes of students. Parents who motivate their children to strive hard to learn create positive effect in their children’s learning process. The community where the students belong, their culture and way of life influences their outlook about learning. As teachers become aware of these, they can build connections of what they are teaching to what the students are actually experiencing in their life and the community as a whole. As this become clear to students they can become engaged in their learning.

Despite the reforms and challenges that arise in teachers’ professionalism, still lots of people consider teaching as an honorable profession. It is considered to be a fulfilling profession no matter how much difficulties they encounter in their daily instructions such as the content, the students and their behavior.  However, the hope of better treatment for teachers have been aggravated by  problems like salary raise, health benefits, poor quality school facilities, class size, duration of teaching in  a week, administrative work, tutorial and even self- improvement or professional development. Though the code of ethics exists but it doesn’t totally guarantee the well-being of the teachers as it is affected by the poor implementation of policy by the governing body. Luckily, it is the passion and commitment of teachers that cause them to embrace the teaching profession.

Teaching professionalism mandates a full commitment to totally transform students’ ability to its optimum level so they can become not just and independent and lifelong learner, but also a good citizen and productive member of the community. I believe this is the main reason why there are reforms and rules in teacher professionalism so that it can raise the quality of the teacher knowing that they play a crucial role in developing students potential based from given sets of standards. Nevertheless, for any system to survive and remain stable teachers also need a support system from the school administrators, to the parents and the community where they work since they all influence the education system. Interaction and sharing of responsibilities of the people in the community can make the role of the teacher become wider in scope but quite manageable if she can feel the cooperation and support of the community.

So what it is for me to be a professional teacher?  First, as a teacher, I am guided by my thorough understanding of what teaching is for me — the subject matter and the methodologies that go with it. This becomes a compelling basis on how I can decode the teaching process thereby enhancing my performance as a teacher. In addition, this directs what type of activities I would conduct so that students can be engaged in their classroom learning. Second, I must allocate time for me to reflect on what I teach and how well did I teach including new ways of how I can teach better. Third, I need to be sensitive to the need of the learners and take time to address their need. By keeping records of their performance I can appropriately determine whose learners need assistance and who doesn’t. Fourth, by communicating to parents regarding their children’ progress in a form of their accomplished worksheets, projects, report cards or  other things that concern their childrens’ performance such as  bad or good behavior I’m making the child’s support system stronger. Fifth, I must consider teaching time as a journey for growth not only intellectually but also socially.  Sixth, I have to create a learning environment which is suitable to the type of learners and where learning occurs as product of students and teachers collaboration. Last but not the least, I need to have a room for professional development by attending workshops, seminars or conferences that will update me on the current mandate, teaching approach, teaching styles and other aspects that will enhance my performance as a teacher but specifically I need to finish the teaching course and subsequently be qualified to take the LET or the Licensure Examination for Teachers and officially be called as a teacher.  So if we want to raise the quality of education and the quality of learners, we need to first raise the quality of teachers. Teachers’ expertise and formalization of knowledge base, their autonomy as a group of professionals and their accountability to the norms and standards set by the profession defines them from the rest of other profession. Therefore, the road to professionalism is continues process of learning, innovation and discovery and as we follow its course we create experiences and memories that will eventually mold us into a better or effective teacher.

In conclusion, I believe that teachers’ professionalism is a combination of the formal and informal knowledge, competencies and conduct to become an efficient teacher. Formal knowledge comes from finishing a bachelor degree or higher in education and from undergoing professional development like seminars and workshops while informal knowledge comes from their interaction with an experienced practitioner. Competencies are sets of skills and expertise in the field of teaching such as passing the licensure exams, ability to manage time and classroom behavior; and plan, prepare and conduct lesson and assessment thoroughly. For conduct, teachers must have pleasing personality, maintains high standard, instill knowledge and skills in the minds of learner to become lifelong learner, has good interaction and collaboration with colleagues and reflective about his instruction. 

 

 

MY TPI RESULT

In examining my profile sheet, it shows that Apprenticeship perspective is my dominant perspective as a teacher.  Transmission, Nurturing and Developmental perspective respectively followed. 

The four perspectives such as Apprenticeship, Transmission, Nurturing and Developmental have overall high scores that range from 40 except the Social Reform perspective. It means to say that they are all in or above the mean.

There is a step-like differentiation in my profile though they have a minimal range. As I was completing the TPI I keep a single specific educational context and a single group of learners in mind throughout, that is— Science with Grades 7-9 or lower secondary class.

Apprenticeship represent my most strongly held views on my role and function as a teacher while Transmission and Nurturing are my back up perspectives since they are also high but lower than my dominant perspective. Social reform becomes my recessive perspective since it is below the average or the mean.

In checking for internal consistency, my beliefs and actions (15) in transmission perspective are aligned with each other while my intensions (13) have two marks difference to my beliefs and actions. In apprenticeship perspective, my beliefs and intentions are aligned with each other (15) while my action (14) has one mark difference to my beliefs and intentions. In developmental perspective, my beliefs (15) are one mark difference to my intentions (14) and 3 marks difference to my action (12). In nurturing perspective, my beliefs (14) are one mark difference to my intensions (15) and one mark difference to my actions (13) while my actions have two marks difference to my intensions. Therefore, I can say that there is quite a high internal consistency in the four perspectives except for Social reform wherein inconsistency occur about  my beliefs (9) which has 3 marks difference to my intensions (12) and 4 marks difference to my action (13).

As I look for consistency across perspectives, intentions under my dominant perspective — the Apprenticeship and including my back up perspective — the Nurturing perspective both got the highest marks. Similarly, Apprenticeship, Transmission and Developmental perspectives all got the highest marks in beliefs while only in transmission perspective that it has the highest score in actions. 

As a whole, my intentions are greater than my actions and beliefs which ideally must be aligned with each other.

 Implications:

The diagram below shows how the five perspectives were rated in the test.  Apprenticeship got the highest mark while social reform got the lowest mark. 

The result on my profile sheet also showed that I am highly skilled in what I teach to the class. I know what my students can independently do depending on their given abilities and what they can do with guidance. I apply scaffolding to students who have weak abilities as they are guided through the process of doing tasks. However, as they become more competent I lessen my intervention but instead give them more complex tasks to develop their optimum skills along the course of the learning process. In this case I focus on student’s zone pf proximal development (ZPD). I measure students learning based on what they can do as a product of what they gain from the class lecture or discussion instead of how much information they memorize from the given lecture or discussion. Activities are more on the application of what has been learned rather than what information has been absorbed. Example, in doing mathematical problem about density (D = M/V),  students must not literally memorize the formula on how to solve the problem but instead learn to analyse the given problem as to what is present in the formula (given, missing variable and how to derive the formula from the given formula);  like if they see a unit of g, kg or pounds it means to say that it refers to the mass of an object and if they see a unit of ml, cm³ or liters it refers to the volume of an object; and if they see a unit like see g/cm³ of kg/ m³ it refers to density. By demonstrating on how to carry out the process, students can do the task independently or with little assistance from the teacher making them develop their competence as the learning process continues.

On the contrary, sometimes transmission perspective works especially when we have a set of topics to be covered in a specific period of time. In this case, I divide the class period into three stages known as the primary-recency effect: the prime time which is the time of giving information (content), the down time where students practice what they have studied and closure to give the clarification and summary of the lesson. As students understand the lesson being discussed, this can speed up their performance when they are given a task but if they never understand what was discussed and so their performance may lag. This makes our learning time not exciting at all as students struggle to understand and do the tasks given to them.

Other times I am a nurturing teacher where I care about students’ self-efficacy by motivating them to view learning as a fun and exciting journey and by considering problems as challenges of achieving learning goals so they need to try their best to achieve the goal. In this case, students emotions; and their need for reassurance that what they are doing is right so they can proceed to the next step really matters. If no assurance is given, students tend to be stuck in a given task that makes them disappointed and not engaged in learning.

At times, I am a developmental teacher in a sense that I have to put myself in the situation of students so they can understand the subject matter. I think of ways on how I can deliver the lesson based from the level of understanding of the students by giving guide questions from simple to complex that develop their critical thinking and figure out the answer by themselves. I also give concrete examples or situations that they can relate to that will facilitate easy understanding of the topic. In this manner, students find meaning in what they are learning.

Conversely, I know by the time I took the test that I will have a lower mark in social reforms due to my belief that reform must start from within us. If we want our society to change, that change must start from us personally. However, I never thought that my action would justify this notion of mine as what is shown in my profile sheet where action score is higher than my beliefs and intensions.

All the information mentioned above, were realizations of what I actually do in the classroom. It opens my eyes to the fact that even though there are several perspectives on how we teach, still we are more inclined to one specific type of perspective rather than a combination of all five perspectives. However, my profile sheet shows that if we held strong views on one perspective, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we lack the rest of the five perspectives when we teach. All teachers embody the five perspectives only to varying degrees of priority and in different time or setting of learning. Also, we can be in one perspective to another depending on what we believe in, what we want to do  and how we can carry out what we want to do in the class. Moreover, being aware of the realities of five perspectives give me an idea that there’s more than one avenues on how we can be an effective teacher. Lastly, by doing the TPI made me realize as to who am I as a teacher and how I influenced the life, identity and ways of thinking of my students as we learn.

Based from the TPI test and the explanation of the author (Daniel Pratt et.al), the following information will form part of my teaching philosophy: Learning is student-centered. The learning environment gives students the opportunity to become life-long learners as they are exposed to lessons that will let them be engage and in collaboration with other students in the class. Classroom activities will also focus on developing student’s self-efficacy, critical thinking and environmental awareness in a way that they can apply what they learn from school into their daily life activities and as citizen of the country where they belong.

What’s my next step?

Letting my colleague take the test:

I did the TPI last Tuesday (June 7) and I was amazed about its result and so I asked three of my colleagues to do the same way. They are all male. The Filipino computer teacher.The American English teacher the American Health teacher.Though we teach different subjects but we belong to the same department (English Program).  So the result was, my Filipino colleague was more inclined to transmission perspective, while the English teacher was more on developmental perspective and the Health teacher has a combination of developmental and nurturing perspective. The Computer teacher and the English teacher both got the recessive perspective on social reform while the health teacher has transmission perspective as recessive. However, one thing we agreed upon was, we belong to the same department and we teach the same group of class (Grades 7-9) but with different subjects and we have varying teaching perspectives. In this case, our students experienced learning in different perspectives as they learn different subjects. We laugh as we matched our way of teaching to the result that we got from TPI and they all agreed that TPI gave them the clear idea of who they are as a teacher and direction as to what their main focus when they are teaching (whether the lesson is teacher-centered or student centered). However, they made a comment that based from the review of literature of the study, the research done for TPI was based on teachers teaching native speaker students whereas we (as teachers) are teaching students in their second language which greatly influence the way we teach them.  

Letting my students take the test:

I followed the suggestion of Dan Pratt from teachingperspectives.com to let five of my students from Grades 8 and 9 to do the TPI by using my name and email address. So they are pretending to be me as they mark the test considering me as a great influence on how they learn.  The result also varies from one student to another. For dominant perspective, two students got the result as developmental perspective, two students got nurturing perspective and one got the transmission perspective. For recessive perspective, four students got the transmission perspective while one student got the developmental perspective. Therefore, if students were given the chance to see their teacher based from the five perspectives, every student will describe a different type of perspective depending on how their learning was influence by the way the teacher teach them.

So, by considering the type of learner that I have; the content that I will teach and the ways on how I teach the content, my teaching perspective may change without making a total shift  of inclining myself to a perspective that doesn’t define who am I as a teacher. Since type of learners is different it is understood that we need to create a lesson that suits their need and ability. Deciding what perspectives to use needs deliberate thinking of the what, why and how of teaching and the assumptions and justifications that lies behind the five perspectives.

image source:
for students taking the test: http://images.clipartpanda.com/computer-clipart-for-kids-computer-lab-clipart-for-kids.jpg
teachers taking the test: http://images.clipartpanda.com/english-teacher-clipart-0511-0810-2000-1420_Nerdy_Computer_Teacher_clipart_image.jpg

 

Thinking of What I’m Thinking

The dream of being a teacher came to my mind when I was just six years old as I see my mother teaching kids at my home. I was fascinated on how students learn through speaking, reading, writing and listening. My mother was my kindergarten teacher, every time I’m done with my work, I teach my other classmate too. However, my classmate always end up crying because I become impatient when he/she cannot read the words in the book that we are reading. Later, no one wants to learn with me at all. 🙂 This dream of being a teacher last until I finish my primary years. However, when I enter high school, becoming a teacher turns to becoming a lawyer and then to computer science as I enter university. May be you will ask, what cause the change of mind? For a very simple reason: I don’t want to be a teacher because my mother and my sister is already teacher. Silly, right?

My journey as a teacher started three months after my college graduation when my mother send my resume to one of the TESDA school in my province while I was working in Manila. At first, I have the apprehension of not taking the job but due to my parents convincing power I took the job. My work last for two years with good memories, but then I decided to come to Thailand to work as a teacher.  It is in this place that the real challenge of teaching caught my nerves. I had the chance to teach learners from different walks of life and ages (as young as 1 year old, primary, secondary, university and adult learners). I thought teaching was easy and it’s the same as I have taught back in my province. However, it’s the complete opposite. I feel bad every time my students never understand the lesson or they are so noisy about other things and not paying attention at all.  These scenarios made me think on why that happened, how it happened and what am I going to do next time we have a class.  Thanks to my co-teachers who have shared their ideas and practices that I carry out the duties and responsibilities of a teacher.

My real training ground for teaching is in Sukhothai (northern part of Thailand).  I was lucky to have a mentor. She opens my mind on how to teach foreign students in a way that she can relate and understand their learning backgrounds. She became my critique that sometimes I feel bad and hurt of her criticisms. We have arguments about what I believe is correct and not for her. We have discussions on what best works and what doesn’t in the class. However, at the end of the day I know that both of us are just thinking about how our students would learn better. We also help each other on what lesson to teach, how to teach it and even in preparing lab experiments. As time goes on, we get along well as I learn to accept her criticism with a good heart. By the time she retires I was on my own feet. I grow in the profession that I’ve chosen. I told myself that this is my calling and that runs into my blood. I’ve been running away being a teacher but I ended up as a teacher. My training with my mentor taught me to become wise and sensitive to everything that happens in the class. However, I cannot say that I am the best teacher. I will leave that to my student. Besides, I know that I need to continue to grow in my profession that’s why I took PTC amidst the conflict of time with my work and study. At this point in time, I am a learner and at the same time a teacher. As a learner I want to learn all about teaching not just from my practice but also from theory.  In PTC, I am a student; I feel the pressure and the challenge of being one. But by the time, I log out, I am a teacher.

The readings in module 1 remind me about the significance of taking time to reflect on what we are doing. We need to reflect before, during and after doing things. It seems like reflection is a traffic light. Red means stop. We need to stop for a while and think what’s going on. Yellow means slow down. We need to slow down, to deliberately think of why things happen and how did it happen. Green means go. Apply what we think is best as the result of our thorough analysis of reasons and basis why that certain action works best. And this will go on and on as we continue in our teaching journey. The reason why I did reflection, it’s because of what and how I feel before, during and after teaching. Example, in preparing one lesson it will take me hours to create a lesson plan, handout, presentation and worksheet but when it’s learning time sometimes my students struggle in understanding the lesson and it reflects in the result of their assessment (either oral or written). This made me ask myself, why did it happen? After all the time and effort I put in the lesson, still my teaching wasn’t successful. Where did I go wrong? What should I do, so that next time this scenario will not happen again? What should I do to make things happen the way I want my class to be? Sometimes I have to ask feedback from the class, what makes the lesson difficult, if you are a teacher how would you make it easy? As what Mezirow stated, “learning is not a direct result of the experience, it happens because the individual takes charge of their critical reflection and explicitly plans and carries out steps to learn from it.” In this case, my awareness of the situation in the class, by determining the fact that I need to act on this matter and carry out the planned course of action next time I meet the class are indications that I did not end up charging bad things to experience but rather use that experience to come up for better ideas on how to teach better. The result of this course of action will again be used for the next planning of my new lesson.

Its funny to say that I become aware of reflective practice just only last year when I started my PTC. That it needs to be integrated in our planning and teaching though unknowingly I’ve been doing it all along. In my years of service, I learnt that interacting with my colleague about what happens in our own class become a part of my reflection. As we share ideas and techniques of what works in my co-teachers’ class and why did it work while it didn’t in the other class. This brainstorming activity help me decide on what teaching technique would I use to a specific type of class for each day. I may find lots of alternatives to the day to day problem of teaching but it needs conscious thinking and wisdom to choose the most appropriate alternative to the situation that I am in.  Likewise, I take time to have a personal talk to a student that I believe needs to have a direction on what he/she is learning. In doing so, I find ways on how I can incorporate his/her learning behavior in my teaching so he/she can be engaged in learning. The behavior of the student and their performance in the assessment of, as and for learning are also bases on why we need to reflect. Although I did not use a reflection model but I guess I’m on the right path of becoming a reflective teacher. Now that I am aware of the models I guess it is high time that I will use it in my reflection. I find Atkins and Murphy model as my guide in doing this since it gives vivid path of analyzing and resolving situations.

In conclusion, I may have the tacit knowledge about reflective practices but this time it become clear to me on how  possible and useful it is to take time for a while to reflect on what’s happening in my teaching so I can move forward with great confidence and competence in my teaching career.  So, if I want my students to be thoughtful about their work so they can become happy, independent learners and in control of their learning the first to start is —- me.

image source:

Thinking clipart, retrieved June 5, 2016 from http://www.fitscribbler.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Thinking.jpg

Teacher clipart, retrieved June 5, 2016 http://abkldesigns.com/teach1.gif

Thoughts on Introductory Module

Hello everyone 🙂

I started browsing the introductory module last Monday (May 9, 2016) since I was travelling during the weekend. By the time I open the module I realized that this course will be filled with hectic and challenging activities. I did try to study part by part of the module after every class period at work but still here I am  in this wee hour (1 am) still studying.

As I go over with the introductory forum, I discovered that each of us got different perspective on how an educator is portrayed. However I realized that we all have common grounds, that is — to let our students learn with great passion so that they can become a successful life-long learner. We may have different methods or techniques on how we can share our knowledge to them. Nevertheless, what matters most is that we become an effective facilitator, guide, personal model and in the end a hybrid teacher who has the ability to craft the lesson that suits the need of the learners in the course of their learning journey.

With regards to the questionnaires, I did take the three questionnaires mentioned in the module, that is — Study Skills Inventory, Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ) and Time Management Skills Test. I actually had difficulty accessing the Study Skills Inventory due to poor internet connection however I succeed after several attempts. Here are the results:

Study Skills Inventory

It turned out that I have lot of things to develop so that my memory, test preparation, concentration and time management skills would improve in order that I can reach my goal for this course. 😦

On the other hand, I find this result contradicting to the result of the following tests:

Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ) : I got 243 points indicating that I have a High Self-Regulation Capacity. With this I feel great.

Time Management Skills Test: I scored 46 indicating that I am a good time manager. However, I need to learn how to delegate responsibilities, learn how to say no and avoid procrastination if I want to become an excellent time manager.

To be honest, I really struggle to accommodate my online learning into my line of work due to the fact that I have to prepare six different science lessons, worksheet marking and lab experiments every week. With the additional tasks to be done in this class, you can figure out how my week would look like. 🙂   Yet, I always tell myself that I will do my very best to comply with the requirements needed by this subject. This will be a new challenge again on my part as a student and as a teacher.

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What denotes an effective teaching?

Picture 1

Based from experience, effective teaching means that learners: First, know the learning goals and able to create a concrete path on how to reach learning goals. Second, learners learn based from the different learning styles and techniques suited to their level so that they can become deeply engaged in their learning. Third, learners find meaning of what they are learning in their daily life activities. Fourth, learners understand the essence of assessments as measurements of their skills and competences rather than its numerical value. And the last, learners considered learning as challenging and fun instead of a boring and difficult journey. If we can see these parameters in the learning process of our students, we can proudly say that we teach them effectively.

What do you think are the characteristics and skills that teachers should possess in order to become effective teachers? Why?

Picture 2

My answer for this question is a realization from what I’ve learned in EDS 103.  An effective teacher is: First, has the ability to create a fun and comfortable classroom environment where learners can feel safe and secured. Second, she must be acquainted with the different teaching styles that address the learning styles of learners and thereby give equal opportunities to learners with mixed abilities. In this case, the classroom becomes a room for learning rather than room for comparison and competition. Third, she has the ability to let the learners be deeply engaged in their learning regardless of how challenging the lesson would be. Fourth, she has the ability to breakdown difficult and complex tasks into simpler and workable activities. Fifth, has the ability to trigger critical thinking in the minds of the learners and build connections to the learners’ daily life. The last but not the least, she must have high self-efficacy so that she can successfully carry out her mission as a teacher. If the teacher has high self-efficacy, this can be reflected in the type of learners she has in the classroom — an optimistic, high-spirited and life-long learner.

What is the role of teachers for you?

Picture 3

For me, a teacher is a facilitator that creates collaborative learning activities and offers feedback so that learners can develop their critical thinking abilities.  She can also be a delegator in a way that she creates students activities that calls for pair or group work to attain learning goals. Lastly, a teacher must be “hybrid” in such a way that she applies different teaching techniques that suits the need of the learner so they achieve learning goals with a happy heart. These characteristics can only be seen to teachers who have the passion, patience and a heart to deal with the day to day challenges that arise from the different types of learners throughout the course of the learning journey.

references:

Study Skills Inventory retrieved from http://sarc.sdes.ucf.edu/form-studyskills-results

picture 1 retrieved from http://worldartsme.com/images/best-teacher-clipart-1.jpg

picture 2 retrieved from https://www.ithaca.edu/depts/i/Teachers/28309_photo.jpg

picture 3 retrieved from https://www.clipartool.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/english-teacher-clipart-1.jpg

 

My Reflection on Assignment 2

Assignment 2 was the most difficult, frustrating and brain-draining task I’ve ever encounter in this study.

Why?

It is not for the reason that I cannot do it or we cannot do it but because of impartial attitude that reigns in our group. I never see and felt that all of us are totally engaged and totally understand this pledge of commitment:

“I hereby pledge my commitment to give my best and my readiness to participate and productively contribute to the assignment.  I understand that my failure to do so is tantamount to a failing mark.”

Some of my co-members just signed up to be in a group but never do their part as a member of the group. Some just share a part of the task but never contributed to the completion of the project. While one or two we’re there to monitor every step of the way. As for me, I felt like I was alone and carrying the burden of the task which turned out to be impossible to finish with great results as I was expecting that I will have the same kind of group as in EDS 113 where everyone collaborated regardless of their geographical location, time constraints, abilities, personal problems and complexities. Everything was set aside having only one focus, that is —- to create a meaningful, stress-free and result-oriented output, which I didn’t see in my current group.

With regard to the objective of our study, we’re supposed to discover what particular learning theories and principles are actively happening in the classroom by doing a learner-teacher interview. In the course of writing the questions both for learners and teachers I find it challenging to match certain questions that I write to a particular learning theory or principle that we want to investigate.

Concerning the actual interview, I find it enjoying and interesting as I gave the same questions to each interviewee (both learners and teachers) and come up with a different perspective and views. Knowing the fact that my learners’ interview uses English as their second language, still they did their best to answer every question that I gave to the best of their knowledge, abilities and experiences. I discovered that as they answer each question, there is a particular teacher that they can recall who obviously manifests such behavior mentioned in that question. Sometimes I laughed that that teacher that they are referring to is me :). Another thing is that, they are too honest and not shy to answer questions making the result to be more credible. They may have difficulty to answer questions but with little guide of clarifying the question they can definitely answer it.

In connection with teachers’ interview, that was challenging. They tried to argue with the questions that I gave them. Some may say that the questions that I gave reflect an ideal classroom environment with an ideal teacher, with an ideal curriculum and an ideal school. 🙂 Another realization is that the theoretical knowledge and experience of teachers affects their views about each question. Teachers with theoretical knowledge about the learning theories usually have more possible solutions given. Those who rely on experience had difficulty to connect their actions in the learning theory that I am discussing with them. Teachers with theoretical knowledge and experience usually gave views which are not mentioned by the rest of the interviewees making her answer to be unique. Similarly, the culture of the teacher affects the way they teach. I did interview a South African, American, Thai and Filipino. Each has ways on how to handle learning situations that give much particular on a more relaxing way of learning where students are not pressured to study if they can’t. I just feel disappointed when I asked them about how they handle a difficult or boring lesson and most of them answered to end the lesson and do other things like games or watch a video. For me, I cannot do that. It is because I feel like I am hanging in the air and all of a sudden I fall. They should have done ways to overcome the difficulty or boredom by breaking the topic into working parts. It’s like getting a piece of a jigsaw puzzle and analyze where it could fit best, and then move on to the next jigsaw until it’s done. In this case, we gave a gradual but meaningful closure to a difficult task. However, as what they said, sometimes the task was too difficult that it doesn’t fit into the ZPD of the learners especially if it’s a supplementary lesson as far as Thai curriculum is concerned. In Thai curriculum, all classes have supplementary class for their basic Science, Math and English. Often times, each supplementary class is independent as their corresponding basic subject and so students got no basic knowledge about it and that they find it boring and difficult to learn. As I continue the teachers’ interview, more discussions occur that in the end both parties learn. In the case of the interviewees where four of them have no theoretical knowledge about learning, they learn to become more aware of their teaching by understanding the principle and how they can actually use them in their teaching. For teachers with theoretical knowledge says that they will continue to pursue their actions as  they thought its best for both teachers and students to create a learning environment with a balance of classroom management and choices of learning experience.

What’s my take about it?

 I will go back to the very first post that I made in this subject.

The bubble that you see above is the scenario in my teachers’ interview especially with my male interviewees :).

I learned to compare and contrast each respondents view in each questions and take the solutions that will help improve my teaching based from the types of learners that I have. So, I realized it’s been a learning discovery. As I move from one interviewee to another I traveled to their paths and they traveled to my path too. We shared experiences and we all discovered in one way or another that — teaching is not an easy task. It takes much theoretical knowledge to understand how learners learn and how teaching may occur so that learning can happen. It takes our experience to practice and polish our theoretical knowledge. It takes flexibility and sound decision making to actually choose the type of teaching method to implement and the type of activities to be given to the class that totally address the learners need so that we can help them reach their full potential in learning. Plus a pixie dust of passion for loving and embracing the mission to teach. Mismatch of all of these means chaos — bad behavior and poor learning experience.

How could I (we) have done better?

Given the circumstances brought by my work and the quality of group that I have, I expected more; I did my best to contribute to the success of the output but my best wasn’t good enough if teamwork and collaboration is concerned.  I should have known earlier that only a few of us are going to travel the road of learners-teachers interview so I can anticipate and maximize the time that I can allocate in this activity. I lived in the past — that I have a group which is the same as my previous collaborative activity (EDS 103). I rely on their participation hoping that all of them will contribute up to the completion of the task and beat the deadline— and I failed. 😦

However, by writing this I am putting a closure to this activity and an end to this chapter. I’ll keep the good experiences that I encounter in this activity; forget the bad, and carrying my learning with me… I’ll then move on…

Module 2: Thoughts About Theories of Intelligence

(sorry, this is the missing information in my checklist )

How do you know if a person is intelligent?

A person is intelligent if he:

1. Thinks sensibly
2. Acts with a purpose in mind
3. Knows how to effectively adapt to the environment where he lives

How does an intelligent person behave?

I believe that being intelligent is more than answering trivia correctly or getting a perfect score in a test. An intelligent person:

1. Make smart decisions. He knows that his actions have corresponding consequences. It takes great focus and mastery for one to make smart decision.
2. Learn from his mistakes. Living a better and successful life is a matter of trial and error about the decisions that we make. However if we make mistakes, we learn from it by not doing that same mistakes again and we move on.
3. Personally seek for questions that he doesn’t know the answer. Most scientists exhibit this kind of behavior. Like Newton, by asking why that apple fall onto his head, he did research and experiments and discovers gravity and later come up with the three Laws of Motion.
4. Surrounds himself with intelligent people too.
5. He is imaginative and creative in making use of his environment to accomplish tasks.
6. Reason out. Due to his genes or upbringing, he has great skills in critical thinking, logical reasoning, scientific method and even cause and effect.

I have an observation though: most intelligent people are famous, businessmen, have high educational attainment and social status.

How does an intelligent person learn? An intelligent person:

1. Learns fast with minimum guidance and likes solving challenging problems.
2. Can readily understand what he reads and could recall and retain information.
3. Recognizes relationships and pattern.
4. Organizes his thoughts systematically.
5. Thinks critically and reflectively.
6. Can speak a language fluently or can speak several languages.
7. Curious about his surroundings, a keen observer, responds quickly and accurately.
8. Creative and has great interest in different subjects of learning.
9. Has a logical and systematic way of explaining things.

Do you regard yourself intelligent?  

Yes I do.

In what ways? I believe I am intelligent in aspects of decision making. Before I make a decision, I usually study the pros and cons of the matter and then become aware of the possible consequences of both possibilities. Sometimes I argue with my own argument J for the purpose of making the right decision. Second, I am curious about things and events that happen around me and so I search information and sometimes get involved in it. Third, I tend to ask logical questions to understand things better and if I cannot find answer to my questions, I end up reading books and searching information on the internet. Fourth, since I am a foreigner in my current location, I use my knowledge and skill to adapt the foreign culture but not forget my own culture. Fifth, I am creative in my work — keep on reading and thinking innovative ways on how to improve my craft. Sixth, I am aware that everyone is unique and so I know how to deal with different types of people based from their overt behavior.  Seventh, I don’t jump to conclusion impulsively. I listen to reasons, study hard and analyze factors that cause such behaviors. Eight, I am happy to where I am right now and always think positive amidst failures (though I cry at times L) and challenges and motivates myself to move on and try again.

How have your personal views about intelligence affected the way you approach learning (and teaching if you teach)

In my own standpoint, I view intelligence as a cognitive and social tool on how people live their life. In learning, I am goal-oriented; I create a timetable, a task list and used them to organize my learning schedule and work. I’m systematic in carrying out tasks and sorting information. I also do some note taking to help me recall past information quickly. I think thoroughly before making a decision and I organize my thoughts before expressing them.

As for teaching, it’s quite a bit different. First thing is that, I view my students as unique, diverse, dynamic and interactive individual. They possess different forms and levels of intelligence, different family background and social orientation and different ways on how they study. They are many with many varying characteristics —- and I am only one. I have to see the big picture and break them down into small, feasible and simpler way of addressing this variability. That is — differentiation in teaching techniques and learning process of the learner. I need to fully understand the need and characteristics of my students; set learning goals based from their abilities and guide them towards achieving learning goals. By using different activities that caters to different forms of intelligence in every learning session I can reach out the diversity of intelligence of my students. In this way, I am giving equal opportunity for my students to succeed in their learning and also discover what they are good at. Another thing, I also inculcate in them the value of learning from mistakes and accepting their weaknesses so they can learn how to cope with failure and successfully overcome it. Lastly, I don’t judge my students’ intelligence based from the numbers that they get in the test, but rather I value the processes that they do, attitude that they show and their interaction with other students in the class so they can perform a task.