This week’s reading has been by far the most interesting and useful. It has helped me understand my students better.
Applications
1. Provide students with flexibility with ways of showing what they have learnt. We only judge a student’s learning from their outcome but not all students are good with writing it down on paper. Thus, the teacher should accept written, verbal, model, drawing or any other forms for students to demonstrate their learning and understanding of a topic.
2. Using several teaching methodologies for a topic to reach out to all students. Looking into Multiple Intelligences before planning a unit will always be useful.
3. We need to understand each student’s culture and individual differences and accept it and alter our teaching in ways to reach out to them.
Reflection 6 Jin Xin (Venus) Key points: 1. Concern (you cannot control) Death, family in another country, global warming, 2012(pray), running out of oil (donate). 2. Teacher’s expectation is based on the students’ behaviors. 3. AFDC receives money from the states to help them look after children and they in the trouble to look after the students. 4. What is your idea about the problem classroom in the case of the article? A. Build trust relationships with the students outside the class. B. Identify the leader in the classroom and will be very effective. Take them out and train them. C. Get into the students’ interesting first and go through what they want to talk about. Try to find the relation with the curriculum we have. For example, when you teaching the math, you can let students count how to buy a truck. (Included the interests, tax ,not only 45,000) D. Have student’s personal file. 5. Do not prejudge the students. You have to give them the chance and time. 6. VAK (visual auditory kinesthetic) attack --- kinesthetic, hearing information, what can I give them the visual. Most special students have trouble with kinesthetic. ---Give me the quick and dirty solution. --- They are helping you to translate the information of what you are talking about if the students are painting something and you have to check with the related dialogues. “I was responsible” --- help the students to build this feeling. You tend to teach in your preference. Try to do it more. PS. Dr Andy prefer to use auditory to teach. 7. The kids have the intelligent of music using the content you are teaching. 8. Field dependent---independent Global thinking---just tell me what is the big picture. ---Independent people---they need structure. Look into the detail---dependent. As the teacher, try to match the students. 9. Self-esteem is how you feel about with yourself and may change all the time and up and down quickly. High-self-esteem people have higher self-concept. Self-concept is what you see yourself as capable of as the role of something and cannot change so quickly. (As teacher, father, and students) 10. What is the kind of connection between the culture and teaching styles? Reflection 1 When we use the VAK (visual auditory kinesthetic) attack, sometimes students just use their own way to explain your information by themselves. Now I understand why I teach something, the student always relate it to some interesting sounds of Thai or some songs. For instance, when I teach “ ang, ang, ang”, they immediately sing the song of the famous Japanese Robert cat’s song “Doraemon”. At first, I think it may disturb the classroom, but later, I find it is easier for them to understand a new syllable. They can use this way to remember easier. Reflection 2 The freedom writer really enlightens me. Especially when we were talking about how to deal with the problem classroom, it reminds me to think about the teacher in the movie. I have one classroom in the Thai government school almost the same as the case classroom. They just like to be naughty in my classroom. However, to my surprise, they are very interested in talking with me after the classroom. In addition, it is the chance for me to find out what is their interest, I just walk into them to find out what they are interested in and really want to know. In addition, find it that they are interested in the World Cup. Reflection 3 When we talking about the VAK (visual auditory kinesthetic) attack, I think it is no use to discuss about using which one is the best. In fact, in the real teaching, teacher should use as many aspects as she can. And the teacher may mention about something the students interested in, and related to the curriculum we have. Teachers tend to teach in their own preference. So I may use more aspects to teach them.
Hi Venus, good overview, a couple of points: kinethetic has to do with touch, using the feel of somrthing to understand it. Also, though teaching in our preferred mode is alright, we should work to build competency in other modes to better serve our students.
This week we discussed about alot of things in class but one thing that really caught my attention was the different teaching methods like VAK Attack. I had never heard of it before but it was really interesting. I some how feel that we use this method of teaching in every class, even when we are not aware of it.
Another concept that I liked was the difference in field dependent and field independent. While I was going through the lesson I realized that I was more of a field independent kind of person. And it helped me explain alot of things which I do even when I dont know why am I doing it.
3 Applications:
1. Using Different teaching methods in a class to help students get more out of the class.
2. Understanding the level of your student and communicate to them in the same level to get their attention and understand what interest them, this way it will help you teach your lesson in a way where your students will understand.
3. The VAK Attack was really interesting to me and therefore I am going to try to use this method in my lessons so that the students get the most out of the content.
In yesterday’s class, Dr. Andy made a strong point that what we expect from our students is often what we get from them. I think it is probably true in many cases. Therefore, I think we need to give chances to every student without pre-judging their learning abilities. It is important that we, teachers are open-minded, flexible, and patient toward students and that we try to find potentials in every student. We also learned how individuals differ in their learning styles and field independence-dependence. We should also be aware that culture strongly affects students’ learning styles.
3 applications
1) When we have an underachieving student, we should never have low expectation toward him or her. Maybe our teaching approach doesn’t match student’s preference or he or she may just need a bit more time. It is important that we try different approaches considering student’s various learning styles.
2) We can also try to know students’ preferred learning styles and plan the class accordingly. We can try various teaching methods to see how students react. We should be aware of students’ culture in order to know what kind of tendency they might have in their learning. This will help us plan a lesson more effectively for the students.
3) Knowing student’s type in field independence-dependence is also useful in the class. For example, in a group project, it will be helpful to have both field independent and field dependent people in one group. They will be able to help each other to get the project done, and by those different types of people helping each other, the final product will be more complete and balanced.
In week 7 class, We learn many case study about individual differences that affect teaching and learning.As Benson's classroom mentioned that his students don't like his class, I think that is a big problem that we have to concern about it.
Applications
First of all, I think we have to talk about what they have in order to let us closed and concentrate at the same thing.
Second,students' interesting is the important that we have to think about.
Third,teaching style, I mean the way talk and teach students. We should apply style to relate with students' age, gender and skill.
Yes Goi, background is indeed important. Perhaps even surveying or asking students to write paragraphs about their experiences early in the school year, might give you a starting point for this. Andy
Many things what teachers have to focus on their students and how much responsibility an educator has that I have found after week seven class. Applications:
1)To observe students' learning style (visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic)related to students' culture knowing how to handle the learners individually take the time for an educator, the first of all. Thus, the teacher should be flexible and patient.
2)Assisting students to improve achievement in their learning needs several teaching methodologies for an educator. So, lectures what I have learned from week seven class are very useful helping students learning achievement.
3)One of the most effective parts, field dependent -independent, is interesting to me also. as a teacher,we need to know students' field and to provide some methods which can promote them.
Reflection From last class I learn a lot about the individual character that effect to the teaching and learning. The teachers should be more flexible and learn more about the student’s diversity. VAK theory that explain about the way of learning. And that can link to the experiential learning cycle by David A. Kolb and also multiple intelligent by Howard Gardner. The students have many way of learning and intelligences, that related to learning styles. We discuss about the relationship between leaning style and culture. That I discuss with my friend about Thai student that have strong character of field dependent learner. Most of them are passive learner enjoy to listen and no question. Different from the western students who have the character of field independent learner. I can realize that culture can form the student’s character and it effect to their learning styles.
Application I have to applied the knowledge about VAK in to my training that I use several tools to use in my class for example I had train them about team working I begin by use the video clip to show the character of teamwork and let them discuss. After that I use the activity to let them have the direct experience about how to working as a team. And I reflect their knowledge by ask the question and let them present. Finally I integrated their learning and experience in to principle of team working and explain more in detail to them to let them understand clearly.
As the administrator I will encourage the teacher to created several kind of teaching method to use in their class. And organized the meeting to follow up the result from the class that can create the best practice for teaching in multicultural. Support the source for the teacher to research more about the teaching technique. Provide the training center for support and update the knowledge and skill of teaching.
This week’s class so useful and important to me . The first year I was a new teacher I have no any idea when I face to situation like as case 1 ,I just wanted to cry ,I have to asked for help to Thai main teachers . Application : Offer flexible teaching methods. A good teacher ,must to adjust instruct strategies according to different situation ,especially face to multicultural teaching-learning . different culture need different teaching and learning ways ,for example ,some culture’s students are good at independent learning , Some culture’s students like group work .so ,when we teaching or give assignments ,we need to take account to provide flexible ways . Contexts are play a important role in teaching-learning activities .adjust environments is necessary as a instructor .for example ,in case 1,classroom is not a good environments for teaching –learning in that situation ,change place to outside ,and adjust teaching content is very necessary as students’ states.
Question : In the class ,we discuss relationship culture and learning style .I have some think as blow : Industrial civilization(may be at first we called it ocean civilization) high developed countries' culture ,students trend to dependent learning style .for example , Spain, Portugal, USA , England ….. These countries students are good at group work ,speaking , and have good Practice ability.
Agriculture civilization (may be at first we called it inland civilization ) high developed countries' culture ,students trend to dependent learning .for example ,China , Korea, Japan, Burma, Nepal….. These countries students trend to listening ,and writing . is there some Not exactly, Dr .Andew ? may be you will give me Correct ideas. Sincerely Cui mei
It's very important for educators to know what kind of students we have in our class. We can't just judge them according to what they do in the class.There are many factors to consider and I think some of them relate to what we call multiple intelligence.Some of them might be musically inclined, a good example was the example given by Dr. Andy about a student who's fond of tapping tables (I have lots of this in my class,they even hum while doing the said action, they love to sing, produce sounds, and play drums,while the others, pretend to play guitar or piano, kinda' noisy though, but never mind...It's like that I have a band in the classroom) considering the fact that my students range from 50-54, still I could see the presence of the so called "VAK". Each one of them have different personalities.
My application would be the following: 1) I do incorporate songs as part of my motivation for every lesson.For them to release their urge of playing and finding my subject interesting.Also, during pronunciation practice, I usually asked them to tap the table or clap their hands, at the same time counting the numbers of syllables in every word that they pronounce.I could all see their faces smiling and I could really get their attention. I also ask them to stand for some 'icebreaker' activity, if i feel that they are starting to change their moods. . 2) When I make lesson plans, I see to it that I'm not creating an activity or choosing a topic because I like it or it's my preference, but I see to it that I'm doing something that would somehow be fruitful in the learning process of my students. I clearly believe that, as their teacher, I have to meet their needs, and meeting their standards. 3)Since I have 50-54 students in a class, I usually divide them into 5 or 6 groups and I give them task or activities suited to their level of understanding. I also use, peer-to-peer, which I think is very helpful.At their age they belong to Piaget's- Formal Operational Stage- 11-15 years of age, which means that at this stage individuals move beyond reasoning only about concrete experiences and think in more abstract, idealistic and logical ways, but also there are students who are 'late bloomers',all of us don't have the same level of thinking and growth, even if we belong to the same age level. Even teachers have different personalities. Don't you agree? 3) Yelling in my class or ignoring what's happening in my classroom is not a good sign of an effective teacher. I need to be patient and open to the demands for the so called 'change'. You can't resolve the problem if you don't act. You could even talk to the student yourself, find out what's bothering him/her. Also,I found this effective... There was a time I interviewed my student's Thai Adviser and from there I started to understand the situation. You need to really recognize your students' personality styles, in addition to their learning styles, so you can select the best instructional strategies for meeting individual needs.
In addition, to what I've just said..accepting them as our own children would somehow motivate us to discover the learning sytles that they really need. Love and care is very important,they might be missing this at home..let us help them to discover their own identity...understanding them would definitely result to a positive classroom learning.
This week, we discuss about many things, including some teaching techniques.VAK attack,one of the most important teaching techniques, Global thinker, and some review of Piaget's child development theory etc.are discussed and some activities are conducted; therefore, i can say that that class was really useful and interesting.Things that can make me interested are some of the teaching techniques and and these are very useful for me to apply in my future.
Applications:
1. One of the best ways to catch students' attention toward lesson is to start talking about what they have. For example,how good is your begs , i-pod etc.
2. I like Dr.Andy's word ,"Teach from the students' interests." The thing that most of the teachers forget and unrecognized. So, in the future,I can keep it in my mind to remind me when I am teaching.
3. To know Piaget's child development theory is very useful to read students' mind and to understand their development. So , i have to learn more about that.
I keep trying to publish my reflections but it keeps saying that if I use html it needs to be 4,ooo characters or more. I'm not using html from what I know. Anybody know what I might be doing wrong?
Relating to Venus comment, I've seen the movie 'freedom writers' aswell and I really recommend all teachers to watch. The way she dealt with her students is facinating, the movie really is worth a watch. This week we also talked about some interesting learning styles of students. As a teacher she should realize that different student have different learning style. Sometimes culture plays a major role in the style. However, we should not stereotyle all culture but instead learn about the student as an individual. From this week's class i have the following application:
- As a teacher i would be aware of the VAK (visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic) ways of learning and understanding. Usually, we would use the one we prefer most in our way of teaching. However now that im aware of that i will try to adapt all three ways inorder to meet very student's way of learning.
- I would also study the student's characteristic if they are field independent learners or field dependent learners so that i could set my curriculum and classroom activities accordingly.
- I would also help students broaden their learning styles by working in group with their peers so that they could help each other.
Good Neet, and you are right that while understanding cultural differences can be helpful, if we are not careful it can too easily lead to stereotyping. For those of you who may not know this term, stereotyping means to generalize too quickly from a few examples to everybody in a group. The African American example I gave in class illustrates stereotyping. People see a city in the US with high crime rates and a high proportion of African Americans and concludes, "blacks are criminals." Clearly, as Neet points out, this is not helpful.
Week seven reflections and thoughts, In this week, we discussed about different kinds of learning style. As students are differnt in individual according to the culture, belief and so on, they also have different styles of learning. Furthermore, we discussed about what kind of students need more structure and about VAK (visula, auditory and kinesthetic). I have learnt about what is self-esteem and what is self-concept from this class.
Applications,
1)As for teacher,we have to be sensitive when we deal with multicultural students.
2) Teachers have to care about their expectation on students.
3)As for multicultural or different students,equity is more appropriate than equalty not only in the classroom but also in the school.
4)Teachers have to know that students learn differently while you are teaching.
This week, I have learnt interesting and usful things like VAK attack .This VAK attack made me aware of what kind of learner I am. Another was the difference between field dependent and field independent.I was realized that I am field independent person. Applications 1.As a teacher, we should try to know students' preferred learning styles(VAK). 2.We need to understand students' fields (field dependent/independent) to get achivement in their learning. 3. According to the student's culture and learning style, we should use different teaching methodologies. K.Hkawn San Mai
During last week's class one of the key points that Dr.Andy emphasized was to encourage and give a second chance even to the failing individuals. And he gave an example of an employee that they had given second chance to overcome his job successfully and he mentioned that with the faith and trust put into his work, he did well after he had been given one more chance.
Applications
1)Get my students feel that I have a complete faith in their success. Do this by saying them directly or sometimes by showing it with my behaviors.
2)Always encourage the ones who failed in their work, to try once again from the beginning with the motivation provided by me.
3)Teach my students not to tease their friends from their failures and get them develop empathy by making them realize that they might have some failures in some cases too.
I figured out what the problem with my post was, I had too many characters. For that reason I'm splitting up my reflections to two posts. This is the first one, by the way I wrote this after class on Wednesday. __________________________________
Tonight's class was inspirational for me. I was actually getting teary eyed in the first part when Dr.Andy was talking about his experience with the cadet he called Harvey. It was because I remembered one of the students who attended my youth group's camp. His name was Daniel and when he came to the camp that was the first time he'd ever been to our youth camp or attended our youth group. At the time I was a leaders in the youth group and in the camp as well, and I was particularly in charge of the music. In that camp, I shared a room with Daniel and a couple of other guys I was started to try to get to know them, so I started to talk to Daniel. Now I don't remember exactly what the conversation was about, but I remember asking him about what he liked and what he wanted to be in the future. What he told me at the time was that he wanted to be a golfer- and was taking golfing lessons to become a golfing pro. So out of curiousity I asked him why and he told me that his dad had made him take golfing lessons because he was not good at school. I was a bit taken a back by this, I mean it seemed like he was being told that he would never be good at anything else so he'd better be good at golf.
Well one of the days at the camp, I started to play my guitar in the room and Daniel was there. He asked me if he could play and I gave him the guitar. Before I knew it he was playing one of the Green Day songs, I think it was "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and just a bunch of other songs. He was a bit shy about it but I kept on asking him what other songs he knew how to play. Me and my youth pastor picked that up and when we came back from camp I invited Daniel to join the youth band at the church. He agreed and to make a long story short he's now in a professional band in Malaysia, called An Honest Mistake which seem to be getting alot of media attention. I'm just proud of that guy that he found what he liked and really ran with it. I'd like to believe that I had something to do with us youth leaders seeing his potential, believing in him, and giving him oppurtunity to grow in it.
Daniel's story and Harvey's story just reminds me of the power of someone else believing in you, seeing your potential, and helping you develop that potential. I think by now, most of us who are new teachers are beginning to realize that being a teacher is more than just earning a paycheck at the end of the month. Perhaps we have been influenced by someone who was like a teacher to us and helped us grow. Right now, I'm still leading in the youth group at church because that same youth pastor who believed in Daniel's potential also believed in me being a leader. I was 17 years old when my youth pastor approached me to be a youth leader. Now it didn't mean that I was great at it- I was only 17, but my youth pastor closely worked with me mentoring me through the process. The point here is that someone that I trusted and looked up to gave me a chance and this is something I believe teacher's should not stop doing- giving people chances, which is my first application:
Here's the second part of my reflection. _____________________________________
1) As a teacher, I should be wary of my expectation of students and should never stop finding the potential in them as to help them grow and develop.
Now to do that, I think that as teacher's we should be aware of the different learning styles of our students. Yes the VAK Attack, I know it's the short and dirty version but I like it and I think I'm going to use it, which is my second application.
2) I don't know if this has been done before, but when in planning for a lesson I could make a VAK Attack chart to help me plan out different activities in regard to the lesson that touch on the visual, audible, and kinesthetic learning ability of students. Something like this: VAK Chart Lesson:_______________________________________________________________ Duration:______________________________________________________________ Learning Style Visual:______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Auditory:_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Kinesthetic:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For me this could help me see visually what I can do and also help me see at a glance what needs to be worked on. Of course, this would be done with consideration of my student's learning style. In line with the VAK chart, as a teacher I need to be observant to know what my student's learning styles are. As it was mentioned in class we have to be observant because often time "what we think is goofing off might be helping the students learn", which is my third application.
3) Be observant. I need to be observant as a teacher to pick out who's really learning in class and who really needs my help. I also need to be observant of myself. When I am teaching or even planning I need to be aware if I'm towards much of my learning style and not considering the students'. I think this is where something like the VAK Chart could come in handy.
To sum up what teaching is to me, I'd have to say that it's more than what's in the lesson plan. I think that it's even more than where you teacher, whether it be school, in your family, or even in a religious setting like church. I really think that the heart of teaching is the teacher-student relationship and how out of that teacher's help students grow to their fullest potential. Thanks for the time and I'm looking forward to the next class.
Check out Micah's reflection form above, simple but powerful. Also for Cui Me, never thought about possible connection between learning style and predominantly agricultural society. Very interesting hypothesis you have there!
we critically dicussed about students' learning style on the night of week 7th. It is one of the most important things in educational foundation for any society. It is undeniable that every student has his natural modality strength in some particular fields. Once the teacher skillfully delve of his/her students' individual modality strength, it will be more effective in teaching and students' performance will be escalated. Applications
1. Firstly teachers should identify their students' modality strength.
2. Secondly teachers should scaffold their students modality strength in order not to deviate from the right track.
3. Finally teachers should compliment or reward students' great achievement.
We discussed about the interactions of learning styles of culture and the individual. At the beginning of the class, Dr. Andy asked us what we were concern in our mind. From that point, I know that everybody has different anxiety or some important tasks in mind in daily life. Every student comes to class by different needs; therefore, their concentration can be varied too. For me, if my mind is clear and has nothing to worry, I can learn lessons effectively. Hence, teacher must aware the differences of individual and culture. In addition, we talked about two kinds of learning styles, field-independent learner and field-dependent learner. - Teacher must emphasis on different students’ need, in order to apply effective teaching. - Teacher must know what kind of student’s learning styles require more structure. - We had talked about teaching for your preference. From that point, teacher’s preference can be varied from student’s preference too; and then, if teaching styles is marched with students’ learning styles, the effective outcomes will emerge. Thus, teacher’s characteristics approaches to students must be adjusted with students’ learning styles.
The reading materials and the class discussion of the week 7 were eye-openers for me as a teacher. I tend to blame the students for their low achievement. For example:_ Students do not put enough effort in their studies or students do not have the ability to perform certain task. However I often fail to see that the students’ failure might be due to a mismatch between my teaching styles and learning styles of my students. I am really getting energized about the upcoming school year so that I can apply what I’ve learned for my education classes to my classroom. Three applications:_ 1) I need to see each student as unique individual, and his or her learning style might be different from other students. It is very challenging to provide learning environments for the students with different learning styles. I need be aware of both individual and cultural differences of the students. 2) Try to get to know the students during the first week of school to build relationship with them. Certain culture has certain learning styles, and I need to be familiar with different learning styles. I need to remind myself not to jump to conclusions so quick to label the students with learning disabilities just because students act and perform differently. 3) I want to ask the students to write one or two sentences everyday in their journal of how they feel about a lesson or a particular activity and some kind of feedback on the lessons and classroom atmosphere. Zarni Lwin
Week 7 reflection: A saying that I once heard: "Teaching profession isn't about making money,but of dedication." As I ponder on this week readings, Dr. Andy lecture, reflections of everyone, and my own experiences I realized how rewarding and fulfilling it is of a teacher to make a difference in someone's life. Today's lecture reminds me of a parable of a sower, who sow seeds in different grounds. Each seed grow and bear fruits in its' own way and time. Therefore, it's not right to prejudge but to give opportunity to bloom when times come. Some of the method that I (the sower) learned today: -important not to prejudge students. -VAK (visual auditory kinetic) -Know my students preferences (start communicate with students in the language of their experiences, field dependent/independent)
Applications: 1. This year I will focus on spending more time getting to know my students preference and needs
2. In preparing for my lesson plan, I will use the VAK (visual auditory kinestic)attack method include different activities and ways for all learners.
3. I will continue to use students Porfolios to keep their work and from time to time to see their progress.
Last class we continued the discussion on multicultural education and i thought the following two issues came out clearly: 1. Class control 2. Learning styles
Various class control techniques were floated and in away they all boiled down to the three learning styles, which according to me are the best ways to control your class.
Applications
1. Find out the best way each student learns and try giving him/her instructions in that learning style most of the time.
2. Connect each student's work to the class lesson and show them that in their own ways they have achieved the lesson's objectives.
3. Teachers to be careful not to impose their preferred learning styles on the students.
Discussion from week 7 class reminded me again of how teaching methods demonstrated in classroom has influence on children learning. In normal school days, children spend at least 6 hours learning in a classroom setting. They learn from teachers, friends and also the environment being created in the classroom. Nevertheless, thanks to the student-centered education development, classroom learning is now far more interesting and interactive than before. However, then it also comes to realization that teachers that set up the learning environment for the learners are responsible to create an interesting, interactive and effective platform for learners to learn in that environment. One of the key learning styles is VAK attack. I had never came across this term but when I started to relate it to my classroom teaching, I realized that it is so easy to create a learning environment that emphasized visual and auditory learning style but excluded kinesthetic learning, intentionally or unintentionally. Sometimes teachers will tend to focus on visual and auditory learning from the viewpoint of easier classroom management as kids will get really excited when learning kinesthetically. Others might think that it needs a lot of preparation to include kinesthetic activities in the lesson. As what Dr Andy said in the class, kinesthetic learning is one that is hardest to teach but also the most effective way for children to learn. No matter how difficult or time consuming it could be, teachers should ensure that students are able to learn through all learning styles(visual, auditory or kinesthetic).
Another new phrase that I had learned from this class is “Quick and Dirty”. In my opinion, all teachers should have this “Quick and Dirty” trick while teaching. This is because all new knowledge sounds complicated to all students and every new skill seems hard at the first stage. Therefore, teachers should be wise and creative to simplify the complicated knowledge and skill into a language that students can easily understand and acceptable in their level of learning. If not, learning will be “Slow and Muddy” as students will be stuck in the “mud of confusion” with the new knowledge.
My applications for this week will be: (1) Try to create a learning environment that is learning-friendly to the students. For example, for music classroom, I will put up musical posters, music instruments and song books around the room so that it is approachable and available for students when they needed it.
(2) Create a "balance" lesson where students are able to learn through different learning styles (involving VAK and etc)
(3) Be a “Quick and Dirty” teacher. Make sure that I have taught myself well and thorough about the new knowledge before teaching the students in a simplify form. If I, myself am confused by the knowledge, then the students will be more confused than me. Therefore it is my responsible to teach myself well before I could teach others.
We learned about the different learning styles and individual differences. we do concern about the students in the classroom , but we can't imgaine what their lives out of
classrooom are. We can't control or change about their lives out of classroom but we can do something for them, that's why we need to learn about the students to engage in the classrroom. Different people have different learning styles, students receieve the information by seeing, hearing and touching. If they are writing or drawing something while they are
listening the lecture in classroom, it doesn't mean that they are not learning, they may learn anyhow depends on the different learning styles. Application, 1. When we teach the students,we can use different teaching styles to engage in learning activity according to their interest. 2. We need to understand the culture of the students and their differences to engage in learning. 3. We can help the students according to what they need, we need to be equity to our students, we don't need to be equality to everyone because everyone is different. some
are good in their studies, some are moderate and some are weak.
This week Dr.Andy talked many topics Expectation for student,how to control the class. A VAK attack visual(seeing&reading),auditory(listening&speaking),kinesthetic(touch) Field dependent & Field independent ,Need structure,Learning style,linking culture & learning style
Piaget - Sensorimoter 0-2 years - Preoperational 2-7 years - Concrete operations 7+ - Formal operations 15+
Applications 1. I know several teaching methods to control the class.
2. I have to understand the culture to adapt with learning style. Try to find the best style that suit for everyone in the class.
3. We have to be careful when we teach in the multicultural classes.
Many interesting points this week, but the ones that caught my attention were Dr. Andy's comments on non-didactic activities with students and utilizing students' interest areas for teaching. Some applications of the latter that come to mind instantly are:
1) I believe that establishing rapport with the students is extremely important. I can use this technique to initiate and conduct a warm-up period before the lecture during which every student talks a bit about his/her interests.
2) I can give examples while teaching using the student's interest areas which may facilitate acquisition and retention of the content.
3) Homework can be individualized in order to prevent plagiarism. For example, a student may want to write an essay on racing cars whereas another student may choose Persian cats.
We discussed manythings about learning and teaching styles are relate to cultural differences like a case of warren Benson's class room.It's difficult to hadle the class in situation but teacher must be able to handle and control it and finding learning styles or teching techique for individual student needs.Dr.Andy said teaacher might teach somthings that student's interested in or give them motivation by assigning the test or work group so class can be paticipated.Using Vak attack is very helpful.I'll record it and will use it as a teacher in the future.Independent and dependent field are important for understanding process of student in term of different culture which teacher shoul know.
Applications:
-Try to find individual learning skills od student.It is nessasary to indentify a student charecteristic,define what they concentrate it.For example students are in nursery class.It's very hard for them to reconizethe number but if they have fun while learning. They will remember it easier.we can provide the conditions for developing and nuturing cretivity.We can use stamp with wooden number using defferent coloured paints or might put glitter glue on it.
2.I should survey about Independent -depenndent field with students.I'll know how they feel it or might ask student in privatcy and notice students so that reach each student.
3.Teacher should have trust student's ability and believe plus hope that they can have achive thier capable of their skills and find the ways to improve student in their learning.
Multicultural is the very interesting topic for me to learn because it is very necessary and one of the method that we can learn a lot from the classroom. I found out that Multicultural is both useful and takes risk at once because if u can use it properly it is very benefit and if it’s not it will screw up the learning of the students. That’s why my application for the last week is that 1- Need more learning of different cultures in order to understand the students’ learning absorption. Understanding the students’ different cultures might help a lot about understanding them. As Dr. Andy points out that we need to be careful the expectation on our students as they came in with different background and ability. 2- Also need to know the students individually again which means try to find out which students are dependent learners and which are independent learners. If not our assignments for them can be a very hard; difficult for them and may be cannot go on with the study. 3- Another application is using VAK attack (visual, auditory, kinesthetic). Here we may need to let the students use their own ways to recognize or organize the informations that we gave. Just let them do it on their own but only need to check where there they are learning or playing.
The previous week I was really interested in a lot of things Dr. Andy discussed about such as the preferred channel(VAK Attack), also concepts such as Field dependency, Self concept etc. My Applications would be as follows:
1)When it comes to VAK Attack, I think it's very important that we as teachers understand the preferred channel for our students than the preferred channels for us to use ourselves. However, due to limits regarding curriculum and type of subject sometimes we might not get enough space to actually be creative and use new strategies in teaching. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try. If a class has around 50 students to 1 teacher, sometimes it could be really hard to use the kinesthetic channel for those who prefer that, but as the teacher keeps trying then only he/she will actually know what is really working rather than just assuming things due to previous experiences.
2)When it comes to field dependency, somewhere or the other everybody is kind of in the middle of being a Global thinker and being field independent. However, it is important that our students do both well because when they actually come to the real world and they have to tackle real life problems, they should have had some amount of coaching on how to adapt their thinking or think according to the situation, not being fixed but rather flexible as to what the situation demands.
3)When we're making our lesson plans, I think it's very important that teacher have good knowledge as to how his/her students are going to be and also it's very important to have contingency plans as for example, student's suddenly have no interest about what the teacher is talking about. Therefore, I think, if the teacher is really well prepared in the sense the teacher can take good control of the class and also ensure that the students have learnt something by the end of the class.
40 comments:
This week’s reading has been by far the most interesting and useful. It has helped me understand my students better.
Applications
1. Provide students with flexibility with ways of showing what they have learnt. We only judge a student’s learning from their outcome but not all students are good with writing it down on paper. Thus, the teacher should accept written, verbal, model, drawing or any other forms for students to demonstrate their learning and understanding of a topic.
2. Using several teaching methodologies for a topic to reach out to all students. Looking into Multiple Intelligences before planning a unit will always be useful.
3. We need to understand each student’s culture and individual differences and accept it and alter our teaching in ways to reach out to them.
Glad to hear you found the reading valuable Reshmi!
Reflection 6
Jin Xin (Venus)
Key points:
1. Concern (you cannot control)
Death, family in another country, global warming, 2012(pray), running out of oil (donate).
2. Teacher’s expectation is based on the students’ behaviors.
3. AFDC receives money from the states to help them look after children and they in the trouble to look after the students.
4. What is your idea about the problem classroom in the case of the article?
A. Build trust relationships with the students outside the class.
B. Identify the leader in the classroom and will be very effective. Take them out and train them.
C. Get into the students’ interesting first and go through what they want to talk about.
Try to find the relation with the curriculum we have. For example, when you teaching the math, you can let students count how to buy a truck. (Included the interests, tax ,not only 45,000)
D. Have student’s personal file.
5. Do not prejudge the students. You have to give them the chance and time.
6. VAK (visual auditory kinesthetic) attack --- kinesthetic, hearing information, what can I give them the visual. Most special students have trouble with kinesthetic. ---Give me the quick and dirty solution. --- They are helping you to translate the information of what you are talking about if the students are painting something and you have to check with the related dialogues. “I was responsible” --- help the students to build this feeling. You tend to teach in your preference. Try to do it more. PS. Dr Andy prefer to use auditory to teach.
7. The kids have the intelligent of music using the content you are teaching.
8. Field dependent---independent
Global thinking---just tell me what is the big picture. ---Independent people---they need structure. Look into the detail---dependent. As the teacher, try to match the students.
9. Self-esteem is how you feel about with yourself and may change all the time and up and down quickly. High-self-esteem people have higher self-concept. Self-concept is what you see yourself as capable of as the role of something and cannot change so quickly. (As teacher, father, and students)
10. What is the kind of connection between the culture and teaching styles?
Reflection 1
When we use the VAK (visual auditory kinesthetic) attack, sometimes students just use their own way to explain your information by themselves. Now I understand why I teach something, the student always relate it to some interesting sounds of Thai or some songs. For instance, when I teach “ ang, ang, ang”, they immediately sing the song of the famous Japanese Robert cat’s song “Doraemon”. At first, I think it may disturb the classroom, but later, I find it is easier for them to understand a new syllable. They can use this way to remember easier.
Reflection 2
The freedom writer really enlightens me. Especially when we were talking about how to deal with the problem classroom, it reminds me to think about the teacher in the movie. I have one classroom in the Thai government school almost the same as the case classroom. They just like to be naughty in my classroom. However, to my surprise, they are very interested in talking with me after the classroom. In addition, it is the chance for me to find out what is their interest, I just walk into them to find out what they are interested in and really want to know. In addition, find it that they are interested in the World Cup.
Reflection 3
When we talking about the VAK (visual auditory kinesthetic) attack, I think it is no use to discuss about using which one is the best. In fact, in the real teaching, teacher should use as many aspects as she can. And the teacher may mention about something the students interested in, and related to the curriculum we have. Teachers tend to teach in their own preference. So I may use more aspects to teach them.
Hi Venus, good overview, a couple of points: kinethetic has to do with touch, using the feel of somrthing to understand it. Also, though teaching in our preferred mode is alright, we should work to build competency in other modes to better serve our students.
Reflection # 7
This week we discussed about alot of things in class but one thing that really caught my attention was the different teaching methods like VAK Attack. I had never heard of it before but it was really interesting. I some how feel that we use this method of teaching in every class, even when we are not aware of it.
Another concept that I liked was the difference in field dependent and field independent. While I was going through the lesson I realized that I was more of a field independent kind of person. And it helped me explain alot of things which I do even when I dont know why am I doing it.
3 Applications:
1. Using Different teaching methods in a class to help students get more out of the class.
2. Understanding the level of your student and communicate to them in the same level to get their attention and understand what interest them, this way it will help you teach your lesson in a way where your students will understand.
3. The VAK Attack was really interesting to me and therefore I am going to try to use this method in my lessons so that the students get the most out of the content.
Manpreet
In yesterday’s class, Dr. Andy made a strong point that what we expect from our students is often what we get from them. I think it is probably true in many cases. Therefore, I think we need to give chances to every student without pre-judging their learning abilities. It is important that we, teachers are open-minded, flexible, and patient toward students and that we try to find potentials in every student.
We also learned how individuals differ in their learning styles and field independence-dependence. We should also be aware that culture strongly affects students’ learning styles.
3 applications
1) When we have an underachieving student, we should never have low expectation toward him or her. Maybe our teaching approach doesn’t match student’s preference or he or she may just need a bit more time. It is important that we try different approaches considering student’s various learning styles.
2) We can also try to know students’ preferred learning styles and plan the class accordingly. We can try various teaching methods to see how students react. We should be aware of students’ culture in order to know what kind of tendency they might have in their learning. This will help us plan a lesson more effectively for the students.
3) Knowing student’s type in field independence-dependence is also useful in the class. For example, in a group project, it will be helpful to have both field independent and field dependent people in one group. They will be able to help each other to get the project done, and by those different types of people helping each other, the final product will be more complete and balanced.
Thanks a lot!
Chie Katsuda
Very valuable points raised in the above two reflections about self-reflection using these ideas, and about not prejudging. Thanks for sharing.
In week 7 class, We learn many case study about individual differences that affect teaching and learning.As Benson's classroom mentioned that his students don't like his class, I think that is a big problem that we have to concern about it.
Applications
First of all, I think we have to talk about what they have in order to let us closed and concentrate at the same thing.
Second,students' interesting is the important that we have to think about.
Third,teaching style, I mean the way talk and teach students. We should apply style to relate with students' age, gender and skill.
Sincerely,
GOI
Yes Goi, background is indeed important. Perhaps even surveying or asking students to write paragraphs about their experiences early in the school year, might give you a starting point for this. Andy
Many things what teachers have to focus on their students and how much responsibility an educator has that I have found after week seven class.
Applications:
1)To observe students' learning style (visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic)related to students' culture knowing how to handle the learners individually take the time for an educator, the first of all. Thus, the teacher should be flexible and patient.
2)Assisting students to improve achievement in their learning needs several teaching methodologies for an educator. So, lectures what I have learned from week seven class are very useful helping students learning achievement.
3)One of the most effective parts, field dependent -independent, is interesting to me also. as a teacher,we need to know students' field and to provide some methods which can promote them.
with best,
Aye Aye Khaine
Reflection
From last class I learn a lot about the individual character that effect to the teaching and learning. The teachers should be more flexible and learn more about the student’s diversity. VAK theory that explain about the way of learning. And that can link to the experiential learning cycle by David A. Kolb and also multiple intelligent by Howard Gardner. The students have many way of learning and intelligences, that related to learning styles. We discuss about the relationship between leaning style and culture. That I discuss with my friend about Thai student that have strong character of field dependent learner. Most of them are passive learner enjoy to listen and no question.
Different from the western students who have the character of field independent learner. I can realize that culture can form the student’s character and it effect to their learning styles.
Application
I have to applied the knowledge about VAK in to my training that I use several tools to use in my class for example I had train them about team working I begin by use the video clip to show the character of teamwork and let them discuss. After that I use the activity to let them have the direct experience about how to working as a team. And I reflect their knowledge by ask the question and let them present. Finally I integrated their learning and experience in to principle of team working and explain more in detail to them to let them understand clearly.
As the administrator I will encourage the teacher to created several kind of teaching method to use in their class. And organized the meeting to follow up the result from the class that can create the best practice for teaching in multicultural. Support the source for the teacher to research more about the teaching technique. Provide the training center for support and update the knowledge and skill of teaching.
This week’s class so useful and important to me .
The first year I was a new teacher I have no any idea when I face to situation like as case 1 ,I just wanted to cry ,I have to asked for help to Thai main teachers .
Application :
Offer flexible teaching methods. A good teacher ,must to adjust instruct strategies according to different situation ,especially face to multicultural teaching-learning . different culture need different teaching and learning ways ,for example ,some culture’s students are good at independent learning ,
Some culture’s students like group work .so ,when we teaching or give assignments ,we need to take account to provide flexible ways .
Contexts are play a important role in teaching-learning activities .adjust environments is necessary as a instructor .for example ,in case 1,classroom is not a good environments for teaching –learning in that situation ,change place to outside ,and adjust teaching content is very necessary as students’ states.
Question :
In the class ,we discuss relationship culture and learning style .I have some think as blow :
Industrial civilization(may be at first we called it ocean civilization) high developed countries' culture ,students trend to dependent learning style .for example , Spain, Portugal, USA , England …..
These countries students are good at group work ,speaking , and have good Practice ability.
Agriculture civilization (may be at first we called it inland civilization ) high developed countries' culture ,students trend to dependent learning .for example ,China , Korea, Japan, Burma, Nepal…..
These countries students trend to listening ,and writing .
is there some Not exactly, Dr .Andew ? may be you will give me Correct ideas.
Sincerely
Cui mei
It's very important for educators to know what kind of students we have in our class. We can't just judge them according to what they do in the class.There are many factors to consider and I think some of them relate to what we call multiple intelligence.Some of them might be musically inclined, a good example was the example given by Dr. Andy about a student who's fond of tapping tables (I have lots of this in my class,they even hum while doing the said action, they love to sing, produce sounds, and play drums,while the others, pretend to play guitar or piano, kinda' noisy though, but never mind...It's like that I have a band in the classroom) considering the fact that my students range from 50-54, still I could see the presence of the so called "VAK". Each one of
them have different personalities.
My application would be the following:
1) I do incorporate songs as part of my motivation for every lesson.For them to release their urge of playing and finding my subject interesting.Also, during pronunciation practice, I usually asked them to tap the table or clap their hands, at the same time counting the numbers of syllables in every word that they pronounce.I could all see their faces smiling and I could really get their attention. I also ask them to stand for some 'icebreaker' activity, if i feel that they are starting to change their moods. .
2) When I make lesson plans, I see to it that I'm not creating an activity or choosing a topic because I like it or it's my preference, but I see to it that I'm doing something that would somehow be fruitful in the learning process of my students. I clearly believe that, as their teacher, I have to meet their needs, and meeting their standards.
3)Since I have 50-54 students in a class, I usually divide them into 5 or 6 groups and I give them task or activities suited to their level of understanding. I also use, peer-to-peer, which I think is very helpful.At their age they belong to Piaget's- Formal Operational Stage- 11-15 years of age, which means that at this stage individuals move beyond reasoning only about concrete experiences and think in more abstract, idealistic and logical ways, but also there are students who are 'late bloomers',all of us don't have the same level of thinking and growth, even if we belong to the same age level. Even teachers have different personalities. Don't you agree?
3) Yelling in my class or ignoring what's happening in my classroom is not a good sign of an effective teacher. I need to be patient and open to the demands for the so called 'change'. You can't resolve the problem if you don't act. You could even talk to the student yourself, find out what's bothering him/her. Also,I found this effective... There was a time I interviewed my student's Thai Adviser and from there I started to understand the situation. You need to really recognize your students' personality styles, in addition to their learning styles, so you can select the best instructional strategies for meeting individual needs.
Thanks and have a good day!
Ms. Evangeline :)
In addition, to what I've just said..accepting them as our own children would somehow motivate us to discover the learning sytles that they really need. Love and care is very important,they might be missing this at home..let us help them to discover their own identity...understanding them would definitely result to a positive classroom learning.
This week, we discuss about many things, including some teaching techniques.VAK attack,one of the most important teaching techniques, Global thinker, and some review of Piaget's child development theory etc.are discussed and some activities are conducted; therefore, i can say that that class was really useful and interesting.Things that can make me interested are some of the teaching techniques and and these are very useful for me to apply in my future.
Applications:
1. One of the best ways to catch students' attention toward lesson is to start talking about what they have. For example,how good is your begs , i-pod etc.
2. I like Dr.Andy's word ,"Teach from the students' interests." The thing that most of the teachers forget and unrecognized. So, in the future,I can keep it in my mind to remind me when I am teaching.
3. To know Piaget's child development theory is very useful to read students' mind and to understand their development. So , i have to learn more about that.
Hey guys,
I keep trying to publish my reflections but it keeps saying that if I use html it needs to be 4,ooo characters or more. I'm not using html from what I know. Anybody know what I might be doing wrong?
-Micah
Micah some of yours before came out ok were you using a different computer? I am thinking that there may be a problem with the machine you are on?
Relating to Venus comment, I've seen the movie 'freedom writers' aswell and I really recommend all teachers to watch. The way she dealt with her students is facinating, the movie really is worth a watch. This week we also talked about some interesting learning styles of students. As a teacher she should realize that different student have different learning style. Sometimes culture plays a major role in the style. However, we should not stereotyle all culture but instead learn about the student as an individual. From this week's class i have the following application:
- As a teacher i would be aware of the VAK (visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic) ways of learning and understanding. Usually, we would use the one we prefer most in our way of teaching. However now that im aware of that i will try to adapt all three ways inorder to meet very student's way of learning.
- I would also study the student's characteristic if they are field independent learners or field dependent learners so that i could set my curriculum and classroom activities accordingly.
- I would also help students broaden their learning styles by working in group with their peers so that they could help each other.
Navnita Charucharoen.
Good Neet, and you are right that while understanding cultural differences can be helpful, if we are not careful it can too easily lead to stereotyping. For those of you who may not know this term, stereotyping means to generalize too quickly from a few examples to everybody in a group. The African American example I gave in class illustrates stereotyping. People see a city in the US with high crime rates and a high proportion of African Americans and concludes, "blacks are criminals." Clearly, as Neet points out, this is not helpful.
Week seven reflections and thoughts,
In this week, we discussed about different kinds of learning style. As students are differnt in individual according to the culture, belief and so on, they also have different styles of learning. Furthermore, we discussed about what kind of students need more structure and about VAK (visula, auditory and kinesthetic). I have learnt about what is self-esteem and what is self-concept from this class.
Applications,
1)As for teacher,we have to be sensitive when we deal with multicultural students.
2) Teachers have to care about their expectation on students.
3)As for multicultural or different students,equity is more appropriate than equalty not only in the classroom but also in the school.
4)Teachers have to know that students learn differently while you are teaching.
This week, I have learnt interesting and usful things like VAK attack .This VAK attack made me aware of what kind of learner I am.
Another was the difference between field dependent and field independent.I was realized that I am field independent person.
Applications
1.As a teacher, we should try to know students' preferred learning styles(VAK).
2.We need to understand students' fields (field dependent/independent) to get achivement in their learning.
3. According to the student's culture and learning style, we should use different teaching methodologies.
K.Hkawn San Mai
During last week's class one of the key points that Dr.Andy emphasized was to encourage and give a second chance even to the failing individuals. And he gave an example of an employee that they had given second chance to overcome his job successfully and he mentioned that with the faith and trust put into his work, he did well after he had been given one more chance.
Applications
1)Get my students feel that I have a complete faith in their success. Do this by saying them directly or sometimes by showing it with my behaviors.
2)Always encourage the ones who failed in their work, to try once again from the beginning with the motivation provided by me.
3)Teach my students not to tease their friends from their failures and get them develop empathy by making them realize that they might have some failures in some cases too.
Thank you.
Gaye Sadic
I figured out what the problem with my post was, I had too many characters. For that reason I'm splitting up my reflections to two posts. This is the first one, by the way I wrote this after class on Wednesday.
__________________________________
Tonight's class was inspirational for me. I was actually getting teary eyed in the first part when Dr.Andy was talking about his experience with the cadet he called Harvey. It was because I remembered one of the students who attended my youth group's camp. His name was Daniel and when he came to the camp that was the first time he'd ever been to our youth camp or attended our youth group. At the time I was a leaders in the youth group and in the camp as well, and I was particularly in charge of the music. In that camp, I shared a room with Daniel and a couple of other guys I was started to try to get to know them, so I started to talk to Daniel. Now I don't remember exactly what the conversation was about, but I remember asking him about what he liked and what he wanted to be in the future. What he told me at the time was that he wanted to be a golfer- and was taking golfing lessons to become a golfing pro. So out of curiousity I asked him why and he told me that his dad had made him take golfing lessons because he was not good at school. I was a bit taken a back by this, I mean it seemed like he was being told that he would never be good at anything else so he'd better be good at golf.
Well one of the days at the camp, I started to play my guitar in the room and Daniel was there. He asked me if he could play and I gave him the guitar. Before I knew it he was playing one of the Green Day songs, I think it was "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and just a bunch of other songs. He was a bit shy about it but I kept on asking him what other songs he knew how to play. Me and my youth pastor picked that up and when we came back from camp I invited Daniel to join the youth band at the church. He agreed and to make a long story short he's now in a professional band in Malaysia, called An Honest Mistake which seem to be getting alot of media attention. I'm just proud of that guy that he found what he liked and really ran with it. I'd like to believe that I had something to do with us youth leaders seeing his potential, believing in him, and giving him oppurtunity to grow in it.
Daniel's story and Harvey's story just reminds me of the power of someone else believing in you, seeing your potential, and helping you develop that potential. I think by now, most of us who are new teachers are beginning to realize that being a teacher is more than just earning a paycheck at the end of the month. Perhaps we have been influenced by someone who was like a teacher to us and helped us grow. Right now, I'm still leading in the youth group at church because that same youth pastor who believed in Daniel's potential also believed in me being a leader. I was 17 years old when my youth pastor approached me to be a youth leader. Now it didn't mean that I was great at it- I was only 17, but my youth pastor closely worked with me mentoring me through the process. The point here is that someone that I trusted and looked up to gave me a chance and this is something I believe teacher's should not stop doing- giving people chances, which is my first application:
Here's the second part of my reflection.
_____________________________________
1) As a teacher, I should be wary of my expectation of students and should never stop finding the potential in them as to help them grow and develop.
Now to do that, I think that as teacher's we should be aware of the different learning styles of our students. Yes the VAK Attack, I know it's the short and dirty version but I like it and I think I'm going to use it, which is my second application.
2) I don't know if this has been done before, but when in planning for a lesson I could make a VAK Attack chart to help me plan out different activities in regard to the lesson that touch on the visual, audible, and kinesthetic learning ability of students. Something like this:
VAK Chart
Lesson:_______________________________________________________________
Duration:______________________________________________________________
Learning Style
Visual:______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Auditory:_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kinesthetic:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For me this could help me see visually what I can do and also help me see at a glance what needs to be worked on. Of course, this would be done with consideration of my student's learning style. In line with the VAK chart, as a teacher I need to be observant to know what my student's learning styles are. As it was mentioned in class we have to be observant because often time "what we think is goofing off might be helping the students learn", which is my third application.
3) Be observant. I need to be observant as a teacher to pick out who's really learning in class and who really needs my help. I also need to be observant of myself. When I am teaching or even planning I need to be aware if I'm towards much of my learning style and not considering the students'. I think this is where something like the VAK Chart could come in handy.
To sum up what teaching is to me, I'd have to say that it's more than what's in the lesson plan. I think that it's even more than where you teacher, whether it be school, in your family, or even in a religious setting like church. I really think that the heart of teaching is the teacher-student relationship and how out of that teacher's help students grow to their fullest potential. Thanks for the time and I'm looking forward to the next class.
Check out Micah's reflection form above, simple but powerful. Also for Cui Me, never thought about possible connection between learning style and predominantly agricultural society. Very interesting hypothesis you have there!
we critically dicussed about students' learning style on the night of week 7th. It is one of the most important things in educational foundation for any society. It is undeniable that every student has his natural modality strength in some particular fields. Once the teacher skillfully delve of his/her students' individual modality strength, it will be more effective in teaching and students' performance will be escalated.
Applications
1. Firstly teachers should identify their students' modality strength.
2. Secondly teachers should scaffold their students modality strength in order not to deviate from the right track.
3. Finally teachers should compliment or reward students' great achievement.
We discussed about the interactions of learning styles of culture and the individual. At the beginning of the class, Dr. Andy asked us what we were concern in our mind. From that point, I know that everybody has different anxiety or some important tasks in mind in daily life. Every student comes to class by different needs; therefore, their concentration can be varied too. For me, if my mind is clear and has nothing to worry, I can learn lessons effectively. Hence, teacher must aware the differences of individual and culture. In addition, we talked about two kinds of learning styles, field-independent learner and field-dependent learner.
- Teacher must emphasis on different students’ need, in order to apply effective teaching.
- Teacher must know what kind of student’s learning styles require more structure.
- We had talked about teaching for your preference. From that point, teacher’s preference can be varied from student’s preference too; and then, if teaching styles is marched with students’ learning styles, the effective outcomes will emerge. Thus, teacher’s characteristics approaches to students must be adjusted with students’ learning styles.
@ Cui Mei I agree with you the thing you criticize about students from agriculture civilization and students from industrial civilization.
The reading materials and the class discussion of the week 7 were eye-openers for me as a teacher. I tend to blame the students for their low achievement. For example:_ Students do not put enough effort in their studies or students do not have the ability to perform certain task. However I often fail to see that the students’ failure might be due to a mismatch between my teaching styles and learning styles of my students.
I am really getting energized about the upcoming school year so that I can apply what I’ve learned for my education classes to my classroom.
Three applications:_
1) I need to see each student as unique individual, and his or her learning style might be different from other students. It is very challenging to provide learning environments for the students with different learning styles. I need be aware of both individual and cultural differences of the students.
2) Try to get to know the students during the first week of school to build relationship with them. Certain culture has certain learning styles, and I need to be familiar with different learning styles. I need to remind myself not to jump to conclusions so quick to label the students with learning disabilities just because students act and perform differently.
3) I want to ask the students to write one or two sentences everyday in their journal of how they feel about a lesson or a particular activity and some kind of feedback on the lessons and classroom atmosphere.
Zarni Lwin
Week 7 reflection: A saying that I once heard: "Teaching profession isn't about making money,but of dedication." As I ponder on this week readings, Dr. Andy lecture, reflections of everyone, and my own experiences I realized how rewarding and fulfilling it is of a teacher to make a difference in someone's life. Today's lecture reminds me of a parable of a sower, who sow seeds in different grounds. Each seed grow and bear fruits in its' own way and time. Therefore, it's not right to prejudge but to give opportunity to bloom when times come. Some of the method that I (the sower) learned today:
-important not to prejudge students.
-VAK (visual auditory kinetic)
-Know my students preferences (start communicate with students in the language of their experiences, field dependent/independent)
Applications:
1. This year I will focus on spending more time getting to know my students preference and needs
2. In preparing for my lesson plan, I will use the VAK (visual auditory kinestic)attack method include different activities and ways for all learners.
3. I will continue to use students Porfolios to keep their work and from time to time to see their progress.
Last class we continued the discussion on multicultural education and i thought the following two issues came out clearly:
1. Class control
2. Learning styles
Various class control techniques were floated and in away they all boiled down to the three learning styles, which according to me are the best ways to control your class.
Applications
1. Find out the best way each student learns and try giving him/her instructions in that learning style most of the time.
2. Connect each student's work to the class lesson and show them that in their own ways they have achieved the lesson's objectives.
3. Teachers to be careful not to impose their preferred learning styles on the students.
Discussion from week 7 class reminded me again of how teaching methods demonstrated in classroom has influence on children learning. In normal school days, children spend at least 6 hours learning in a classroom setting. They learn from teachers, friends and also the environment being created in the classroom. Nevertheless, thanks to the student-centered education development, classroom learning is now far more interesting and interactive than before. However, then it also comes to realization that teachers that set up the learning environment for the learners are responsible to create an interesting, interactive and effective platform for learners to learn in that environment. One of the key learning styles is VAK attack. I had never came across this term but when I started to relate it to my classroom teaching, I realized that it is so easy to create a learning environment that emphasized visual and auditory learning style but excluded kinesthetic learning, intentionally or unintentionally. Sometimes teachers will tend to focus on visual and auditory learning from the viewpoint of easier classroom management as kids will get really excited when learning kinesthetically. Others might think that it needs a lot of preparation to include kinesthetic activities in the lesson. As what Dr Andy said in the class, kinesthetic learning is one that is hardest to teach but also the most effective way for children to learn. No matter how difficult or time consuming it could be, teachers should ensure that students are able to learn through all learning styles(visual, auditory or kinesthetic).
Another new phrase that I had learned from this class is “Quick and Dirty”. In my opinion, all teachers should have this “Quick and Dirty” trick while teaching. This is because all new knowledge sounds complicated to all students and every new skill seems hard at the first stage. Therefore, teachers should be wise and creative to simplify the complicated knowledge and skill into a language that students can easily understand and acceptable in their level of learning. If not, learning will be “Slow and Muddy” as students will be stuck in the “mud of confusion” with the new knowledge.
My applications for this week will be:
(1) Try to create a learning environment that is learning-friendly to the students. For example, for music classroom, I will put up musical posters, music instruments and song books around the room so that it is approachable and available for students when they needed it.
(2) Create a "balance" lesson where students are able to learn through different learning styles (involving VAK and etc)
(3) Be a “Quick and Dirty” teacher. Make sure that I have taught myself well and thorough about the new knowledge before teaching the students in a simplify form. If I, myself am confused by the knowledge, then the students will be more confused than me. Therefore it is my responsible to teach myself well before I could teach others.
We learned about the different learning styles and individual differences. we do concern about the students in the classroom , but we can't imgaine what their lives out of
classrooom are. We can't control or change about their lives out of classroom but we can do something for them, that's why we need to learn about the students to engage in the classrroom.
Different people have different learning styles, students receieve the information by seeing, hearing and touching. If they are writing or drawing something while they are
listening the lecture in classroom, it doesn't mean that they are not learning, they may learn anyhow depends on the different learning styles.
Application,
1. When we teach the students,we can use different teaching styles to engage in learning activity according to their interest.
2. We need to understand the culture of the students and their differences to engage in learning.
3. We can help the students according to what they need, we need to be equity to our students, we don't need to be equality to everyone because everyone is different. some
are good in their studies, some are moderate and some are weak.
This week Dr.Andy talked many topics Expectation for student,how to control the class.
A VAK attack visual(seeing&reading),auditory(listening&speaking),kinesthetic(touch)
Field dependent & Field independent
,Need structure,Learning style,linking culture & learning style
Piaget
- Sensorimoter 0-2 years
- Preoperational 2-7 years
- Concrete operations 7+
- Formal operations 15+
Applications
1. I know several teaching methods to control the class.
2. I have to understand the culture to adapt with learning style. Try to find the best style that suit for everyone in the class.
3. We have to be careful when we teach in the multicultural classes.
Many interesting points this week, but the ones that caught my attention were Dr. Andy's comments on non-didactic activities with students and utilizing students' interest areas for teaching. Some applications of the latter that come to mind instantly are:
1) I believe that establishing rapport with the students is extremely important. I can use this technique to initiate and conduct a warm-up period before the lecture during which every student talks a bit about his/her interests.
2) I can give examples while teaching using the student's interest areas which may facilitate acquisition and retention of the content.
3) Homework can be individualized in order to prevent plagiarism. For example, a student may want to write an essay on racing cars whereas another student may choose Persian cats.
Kind regards,
Dr. Murat Kiymaz
We discussed manythings about learning and teaching styles are relate to cultural differences like a case of warren Benson's class room.It's difficult to hadle the class in situation but teacher must be able to handle and control it and finding learning styles or teching techique for individual student needs.Dr.Andy said teaacher might teach somthings that student's interested in or give them motivation by assigning the test or work group so class can be paticipated.Using Vak attack is very helpful.I'll record it and will use it as a teacher in the future.Independent and dependent field are important for understanding process of student in term of different culture which teacher shoul know.
Applications:
-Try to find individual learning skills od student.It is nessasary to indentify a student charecteristic,define what they concentrate it.For example students are in nursery class.It's very hard for them to reconizethe number but if they have fun while learning. They will remember it easier.we can provide the conditions for developing and nuturing cretivity.We can use stamp with wooden number using defferent coloured paints or might put glitter glue on it.
2.I should survey about Independent -depenndent field with students.I'll know how they feel it or might ask student in privatcy and notice students so that reach each student.
3.Teacher should have trust student's ability and believe plus hope that they can have achive thier capable of their skills and find the ways to improve student in their learning.
Thank you
Ms.Rossakorn
Multicultural is the very interesting topic for me to learn because it is very necessary and one of the method that we can learn a lot from the classroom. I found out that Multicultural is both useful and takes risk at once because if u can use it properly it is very benefit and if it’s not it will screw up the learning of the students. That’s why my application for the last week is that
1- Need more learning of different cultures in order to understand the students’ learning absorption. Understanding the students’ different cultures might help a lot about understanding them. As Dr. Andy points out that we need to be careful the expectation on our students as they came in with different background and ability.
2- Also need to know the students individually again which means try to find out which students are dependent learners and which are independent learners. If not our assignments for them can be a very hard; difficult for them and may be cannot go on with the study.
3- Another application is using VAK attack (visual, auditory, kinesthetic). Here we may need to let the students use their own ways to recognize or organize the informations that we gave. Just let them do it on their own but only need to check where there they are learning or playing.
The previous week I was really interested in a lot of things Dr. Andy discussed about such as the preferred channel(VAK Attack), also concepts such as Field dependency, Self concept etc. My Applications would be as follows:
1)When it comes to VAK Attack, I think it's very important that we as teachers understand the preferred channel for our students than the preferred channels for us to use ourselves. However, due to limits regarding curriculum and type of subject sometimes we might not get enough space to actually be creative and use new strategies in teaching. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try. If a class has around 50 students to 1 teacher, sometimes it could be really hard to use the kinesthetic channel for those who prefer that, but as the teacher keeps trying then only he/she will actually know what is really working rather than just assuming things due to previous experiences.
2)When it comes to field dependency, somewhere or the other everybody is kind of in the middle of being a Global thinker and being field independent. However, it is important that our students do both well because when they actually come to the real world and they have to tackle real life problems, they should have had some amount of coaching on how to adapt their thinking or think according to the situation, not being fixed but rather flexible as to what the situation demands.
3)When we're making our lesson plans, I think it's very important that teacher have good knowledge as to how his/her students are going to be and also it's very important to have contingency plans as for example, student's suddenly have no interest about what the teacher is talking about. Therefore, I think, if the teacher is really well prepared in the sense the teacher can take good control of the class and also ensure that the students have learnt something by the end of the class.
-Laxshmi S.
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