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The importance of getting feedback when teaching
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Engage in professional development
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Today’s school climate demands collaboration, teachers can no longer work in isolation. Why? Collaboration can be defined as, “teams of teachers who work interdependently to achieve common goals – goals linked to the purpose of learning for all – for which members are held mutually accountable” (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker & Karhanek, 2004, p.17). Handy (1995) stated that people who collaborate learn from each other and create synergy. Futernick (as cited in McClure, 2008, p. 1) “after surveying 2,000 current and former teachers in California, concluded that teachers felt greater personal satisfaction when they believed in their own efficacy, were involved in decision making, and established strong collegial relationships. What are the benefits of teacher collaboration? Goddard, Goddard, and Taschannen-Moran (2007) indicated that recent reform efforts in education have included an emphasis on increasing teacher collaboration. If research evidences that teacher collaboration increases student achievement, then why are not all schools collaborating?
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The goal is to build teacher capacity, thereby improving individual educators, instructional teams, and the entire school over time” (p. 14). A chief responsibility of building principals is to improve teaching and learning and thus improve student achievement. Feedback is powerful in improving teaching and learning, building capacity, and improving student achievement. Hattie and Timperley (2007) stated, “feedback has no effect in a vacuum; to be powerful in its effect, there must be a learning context to which feedback is addressed” (p. 82). Feedback providing a learning context is powerful, without a learning context feedback is only words. Building capacity with teachers means helping them grow within their
Goldstein argues a problem with education policy is, “American policy makers require every public school to use the same strategy…” (261) When facing the problem of inequality in education a teacher needs to be fluid with his or her curriculum. In fact, one of the best ways to allow for fluidity is through peer-to-peer help. Goldstein states, “(teaching hospital model) allows best practices tailored to a specific school to be passed from professional to professional.” (255) Peer-to-peer help not only does this allow for constructive feedback, but also it allows teachers to learn from one another. While policy makers might not know a schools demographics and unique situation teachers in the school will. Thus, teachers can help one another on their unique problem through a collaborative process. Peer to peer help allows for the design of, “creative curriculum materials and to lead school turnaround efforts.” (232) The problems associated with inequality can be thought out and explored through teachers working
In 2010, Charlotte Danielson wrote an article, “Evaluations That Help Teachers”, for the magazine The Effective Educator. The purpose of this article was to explain how a teacher evaluation system, such as her own Framework for Teaching, should and can actually foster teacher learning rather than just measure teacher competence, which is what most other teacher evaluation systems do. This topic is especially critical to decision-making school leaders. Many of the popular teacher evaluation systems fail to help schools link teacher performance with meaningful opportunities for the teachers to reflect on and learn from in order to grow professionally. With the increased attention on the need for more rigorous student standards, this then is an enormous opportunity missed. Students can only achieve such rigorous expectations if their teachers can effectively teach them, and research has shown that teachers who are evaluated by systems that hold them to accountability and provide them for continuous support and growth will actually teach more effectively.
Collaboration in the world of education has become an increasingly popular method of addressing a variety of school issues, such as curriculum design, behavioral plans, professional development and management of resources. One of the areas in which collaboration is becoming more popular is co-teaching in special education, where special education teachers and general education teachers share the planning and instruction responsibilities for inclusion classrooms (Friend & Cook, 2010). As academic standards for the education of students with disabilities are held to the same standards as their typical peers due to the No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the co-teaching model has been increasingly implemented to meet those needs. Most research has shown co-teaching to be effective in the inclusion classroom, though there are a few studies which have refuted its significance and identified reasons for problems in implementing a successful co-teaching program.
One aspect I believe all schools should have is the element of safety at school. A student cannot efficiently learn without first feeling safe. In Joan Lipsitz and Teri West’s What Makes a Good School? they say, “In high-performing schools, the adults work together to provide a web of emotional and social support for the students, not just in the services the school provides but in the attitudes and relationships the adults establish with students” (Lipsitz & West, 2006 p. 83). Schools should not only provide services such as counseling, or food to take home to support their mental and physical safety, but ensure that the teachers employed at the school are making meaningful relationships with the students so they feel safe within the classroom. Another common theme seemed to be the idea of teachers working together, which I think is a great idea as someone who is a future teacher. In the article Piece by Piece: How Schools Solved the Achievement Puzzle and Soared, Karin Chenoweth states, “The point of teacher collaboration is to improve instruction for students and to ensure that all students learn” (Chenoweth, 2009 p. 116). Other than all the schooling that teachers receive a major way of how they learn to teach is through their own experience. Sharing experiences with other teachers can help to modify lessons, or to share out ideas that will better prepare a teacher for their own class. Thus ensuring that students get an education that has been improved upon to become even more beneficial to
I recently took a course on cooperative discipline and found that many of my own beliefs and practices involving discipline in the classroom were validated and reinforced throughout the class. Students do choose how they will behave and the best way (maybe even the easiest way) to get them to make the right choices in the classroom is to foster a feeling of mutual respect and to give them a sense of responsibility or classroom ownership. Kids want discipline, or maybe to put it differently they want structure and predictability. And the nice thing about Linda Albert’s cooperative discipline model is that it gives the students exactly what they need. But what are our responsibilities? Linda Albert tells us that “the ultimate goal of student behavior is to fulfill a need to belong”, so it is our job to fill that need by helping the student to feel capable, connected, and able to contribute (in a positive way) to the group.
In summary, I believe an effective teacher has the most influence on an effective school. Because of this, I consider Cooper’s characteristics centered on effective teaching as most important. I do also believe that fostering effective teaching skills through effective professional development programs are essential to creating an effective school. Furthermore, I would not discount the roles of non-teachers in the school setting, as they contribute to a school’s overall effectiveness too.
Traditionally, teacher development typically occurs through trial and error in the isolated confinements of each teacher’s classroom with some periodic whole-group professional development (Goddard & Goddard, 2007). Within the past few decades, many schools and districts, including ours, have considered and experimented with Professional Learning Communities (PLC) as an alternative framework in guiding a more efficient development program for their teachers. PLCs are focused on enhancing student learning through developing teacher practices. The concept of PLC relies on using structured collaborative sessions amongst teachers within the school to build internal capacity. Through PLCs, teachers critically reflect on current practices, brainstorm solutions, and obtain help and advice from others in a supportive growth-oriented environment over an extended period of time (Vescio, Ross, & Adams, 2008; Nelson, 2009; Scher & O'Reilly, 2009; Bolam, McMahon, Stoll, Thomas, & Wallace, 2005). The theory of change guiding PLCs holds that by providing teachers with targeted support from within the school community, as oppose to hiring additional outside experts, professional developments can become for efficient. Implementation of effective PLCs requires intentional effort, school-wide and possibly district-wide restructuring of teacher schedules, and additional resources. For schools considering implementing PLCs, it is important to understand the logic of action and the benefits of PLCs as it relates to teacher improvement and increased student achievement.
A teacher today needs to have an ability to relate to and create partnerships not with their students, but also families, administrators and other professionals. This ensures that all persons involved with the education of the student are on the same page. All involved then work in harmony and help each other achieve the common goal of educating the student in the best possible way for the best possible result. (Wesley, 1998, p 80)
Through exploring multiple learning theories and reflecting on my own teaching beliefs, I have developed my own theory of learning. As I developed my theory, I wanted to consider what it takes to be a highly effective teacher. An effective teacher must have mastery of instructional strategies, classroom management, classroom curriculum design, and use assessments as feedback (Laureate Education, 2010a). By using a variety of instructional strategies, teacher’s can meet the learning styles of all the students in the classroom. Effective classroom management can lead to students feeling safe and more willing to take risks. When a student feels comfortable to take risk, then learning will increase and the students’ confidence will grow. Classroom management also creates order in the environment, which will allow effective learning to occur. By understanding curriculum, the teacher can target skills and causes learning to take place. Teachers need to deliberately plan lessons around standards and specific goals based on curriculum and the school’s mission (Marzano, 2010). Assessments need to be use to guide instruction and used as a “method for improvement and mastery,” (Marzano, 2010). While determining my own theory of learning, I believe that I need to consider what effective teachers demonstrate in the classroom.
Collaborative learning is a situation where two or more people attempt to learn something together. Dillenbourg, P. (1999). Lev Semenovich Vygotsky, (born in 1986), introduced his theory that, human development—child development as well as the development of all human kind—is the result of interactions between people and their social environments. What this states is that the development of a “higher education” is the product of comparing and contrasting ideas of others ultimately to conclude a solution to a problem as a whole or group. Everyone’s input in a collaborative situation will play a role in final solution.
Building Leadership Capacity in Schools by Linda Lambert touched on a number of key ideas. Lambert provided examples from different schools, principals, and her experiences on obtaining and sustaining leadership capacity while developing her character. Lambert points out that to build leadership capacity in schools there should be participation by parents, students, and staff. Also these are the same characteristic as to becoming a great character in society. In this paper I will talk about the staff and there level of participation. Lambert points out that conversation with individuals about their roles as a leader should take place as individuals take on the task of leadership and character development. One key element in the text was the level of participation and degree of skillfulness for leadership capacity while trying to discover your character. Another element in the text that I found key was to break the dependency relationships on staff and the principal. As we work toward building leadership capacity and charcter, it will take time and time is a big factor on building leadership capacity because there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done that we would like to do without strategically planning leadership meetings.
Collaboration between a general education teacher and a special education teacher is important to a student 's academic success inside the classroom. Students who require special services need general education teachers and special education teachers to be in sync on all matters education. This coordination by both teachers will give each student the best possible chance at a quality learning experience. Accomplish collaboration can be difficult because of varying reasons. Findings by Eccleston (2010) suggests that successful collaboration combines four traits. Those traits are being thoughtful, knowledgeable, compassionate, and having leadership skills (Eccleston, 2010). Even though both teachers have their own pedagogies, earnestly implementing
In order for learning to take place in the classroom the teacher has to put in place an effective teaching and learning strategy. Being an effective teacher is not something that can be achieved instantaneously but rather something that has to be continuously developed and improved upon over time. Petty mentions how good teachers are not born but rather make themselves and that effective teaching comes from learning from your mistakes and successes. Petty, p. 516, 2009. This process involves teacher reflection and assessment of the effectiveness of different teaching strategies used in the classroom. It is only then that teachers can learn and advance themselves.
With the proper guidance and support, teachers can achieve academic excellence in the classroom. They follow their principal’s vision and share their goals. Teachers also serve as leaders in their classroom. They share their vision and goals with their students promoting positive attitudes in the classroom. Just like it is important for principals to respect and understand what their teachers need, students also need the support, understanding, respect and empathy from their teachers. When teachers demonstrate commitment in the classroom and set high expectations they raise the level of learning in the classroom. Teachers that work with the students and their parents to understand and meet their needs will achieve positive academic outcomes. Students engage in learning with positive attitudes and strive for high achievements. Teachers work together with their leaders to improve their teaching
We need to continuously assess and evaluate our students so we can set appropriate goals for each student and individual instructions. Each child learns different, so as a teacher we need to have different styles of teaching for positive reinforcement.