Student success depends on the teachers love of the material and a willingness to convey that love and knowledge to the students. However, when content matters more than anything else, teachers are sidetracked from using methods or strategies that enhance student learning. This hurts students and faculty as well because neither are reaching their full potential.
Some teachers think the best way to improve their teaching is to develop their content knowledge. When teachers have this outlook on teaching they end up with high levels of knowledge, but do not have the instructional methods and strategies needed to relay their knowledge to their students. Content knowledge is no more important than process knowledge, both are essential. What we teach and how we teach it are very important to one another.
Although both of these types of knowledge are essential, the development of one does not improve the other. Content knowledge can be improved through further studies, but if the strategies used to relay that knowledge are subpar, teaching will still be ineffective. Teachers tend to try to blame their ineffective teaching on everything imaginable, from the students to lack of materials. It is ultimately the teachers responsibility to weave content knowledge and process knowledge together to ensure a successful classroom.
The best teachers may not always have the strongest content knowledge but they do know their material, they also know a lot about the process. They have several instructional methods, strategies, and approaches—a collection they continually work on, just as they develop content knowledge. They value the importance of the power of the process to determine student learning outcomes.
Today’s standards r...
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The aim of education is to prepare students as contributing members in a productive society. The essential core values of knowledge, skills, critical thinking capability, and citizenship help students grow into adults who contribute positively to the community. I believe that education’s focus on teaching content matter leads to the development of well-rounded knowledge and skills in reading, writing, speaking, computing, thinking, science, and the social world in which we live. Specific content knowledge in these disciplines contributes to equity in education. Such knowledge becomes an internal asset for an individual and is priceless. Studen...
Whitton, D., Barker, K., Nosworthy, Sinclair, C., Nanlohy, P. (2010). Learning for teaching: Teaching for learning. South Melbourne: Cengage Learning
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As I reflect on my experiences observing in three different classrooms over the last three months, I cannot express how much I have learned by being in the classroom. I began the Master of Science in Education last fall and previous to the practicum experience I had taken 8 classes. I read books, listened to the experiences of my classmates and instructors, reflected on my own education, and tried to imagine how this information was going to prepare me to face a classroom of elementary school students. While I learned theories and skills that should be known by any educator, these classes could not teach me what I most desired to know: what tangible steps could I take to correctly implement all of the correct ways of teaching.
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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.
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In this course I experienced an important change in my beliefs about teaching; I came to understand that there are many different theories and methods that can be tailored to suit the teacher and the needs of the student. The readings, especially those from Lyons, G., Ford, M., & Arthur-Kelly, M. (2011), Groundwater-Smith, S., Ewing, R., & Le Cornu, R. (2007), and Whitton, D., Barker, K., Nosworthy, M., Sinclair, C., Nanlohy, P. (2010), have helped me to understand this in particular. In composing my essay about teaching methods and other themes, my learning was solidified, my knowledge deepened by my research and my writing skills honed.