Standard 6

Karen Donohoe

EDU 486

February 10, 2015

Standard #6

Standard 6     Reflective practice in diverse settings  

1)     Educators should continually reflect on their practice to extend their knowledge, improve their teaching, and refine their evolving philosophies of education. 

2)     They should stay abreast of developments in the profession, and be able to think critically about various teaching practices. 

3)     Educators should continually strengthen their knowledge of subject matter through scholarly study, professional reading, and discussion with colleagues.

4)     They should deepen their understanding of children’s learning and development through classroom-based action research.

5)     Educators should be open to change and innovation, continually engaging in the process of professional growth.

            I interpret this standard as being able to further your knowledge   continuously. It is important for teachers to be engaged in the continuous development of their own learning in order to be the best teacher they can be. It is    important that teachers are updated on the constant changes of the education world. New state standards and requirements are continuously changing and improving, and it is important for teachers to educate themselves about these changes so they are able to apply them in the classroom effectively.

            I think that this standard is so important, because innovation is so prominent in our generation. The ability to adapt and improve should be a constant goal as a teacher. I have faced this throughout my years at Wheelock by having the English Language Learner courses added to our course requirements for the elementary education majors. Although the pressure of adding two additional required classes gave me anxiety, I am so grateful for them. I feel so much more knowledgeable about ELLs, and I have grown to be extremely interested in teaching ELLs.    

                      

            I believe that I have met the requirements for part 1 of standard 6 through my philosophy of education paper (6A) and my revision of this paper. (6B) During my prepracticum course, I wrote a philosophy of education paper in the beginning of the semester and again at the end of the semester where I reflected on changes in my philosophy. Article 6A is a section from my philosophy of education paper from the beginning of the semester:

Children’s lives are influenced by their environment, community support, and family or other close relationships they have. I am taking another class on resiliency, and I think that what makes children resilient is similar to what influences them. A caring teacher that takes the extra few minutes to check in with a student and make sure they are understanding can give a child confidence and a sense of affection that can make them want to do well in school. It is as simple as a person believing in the child to motivate the child to do well in school or in life. Teachers have a large influence on children because for ten months out of the year the children are with their teachers five days a week. Family relationships also have a lot to do with how children are influenced. I think that children are easily influenced by the people they spend the most time with, and also the people they respect and trust the most.

            This is an example of extending my knowledge from other classes into my own philosophy of learning. Resilient children are children whose negative life experiences are mediated by positive life experiences helping to rebalance their development.  In the section above, I suggest that a teacher can serve this role.  The next section 6B is my revision of my paper at the end of the semester, after I had spent time in the classroom.

I still strongly believe in this statement of relationships are the greatest motivators. I would like to elaborate on this a littler more. The classroom teacher that I am working with now is very sweet and kind with the students, and I really admire it. It is important to be kind to the children and have a strong relationship with them. It is difficult to have a strong relationship with a student if you are always strict with them and only talk about school related things. A strong relationship is well rounded and requires different connections between two people.

            6B shows my ability to reflect on my teaching and thoughts of teaching through expanding my thoughts further on the significance of teacher student relationships. While I commented on teacher-student relationships in artifact 6A, now that I have had the chance to observe one, I am even more convinced of the centrality of the relationship extending beyond what is required academically.

  I have achieved components 2 and 3 of standard 6 related to improving teaching practices and expanding subject matter knowledge in the area of mathematics.  On my first day in my full time practicum, my teacher was teaching math and she told me to jump in if I was confortable, so I did. Once the students started asking me for help, I realized that the technique that they were being taught to do division was something that I had never seen before. The students were using a T chart and dots to do their division problems. I realized that I needed to take a step back and observe my teacher and also teach myself how to use this technique before trying to teach the students. To become more knowledgeable about the subject, I observed my teacher and  took notes. I went home that night and used what I had learned that day in math class to do some division problems using the method that the students had been taught.

Agryris (2011) refers to Schon’s (2001) research in the area of teacher reflective practice when he distinguishes between detecting an error and correcting it versus absorbing knowledge over time that becomes ‘theory’ and choosing more permanent actions to increase teacher effectiveness.  In the example that I shared regarding the mathematics approach, I realized that I needed to pause, observe my teacher’s technique and compare it to my own, and place myself in my students’ shoes in order to be effective.  After the experience, I realized that I should begin to study alternative techniques in other areas of math that I was unfamiliar with.

In this example, I observed my cooperating teacher and used my notes  to strengthen my knowledge of the subject matter and more specifically, of the technique that she was using. Image 6C, below, are  the notes that I took during class that helped me to teach myself the math that my students were learning, that I had never learned as an elementary student.   

           

In another example that reflects classroom-based research indicated by component 4 of standard 6, I conducted  a focused observation of five-second interactions between the teacher and the students. I kept track of positive, negative, and neutral interactions. I found that a lot of the interactions were neutral, because the teacher was asking the students a lot of questions. I also noticed that the teacher’s response to  students’ responses was neither positive nor negative, because there was a lack of response at all. I was able to research the classroom dynamic in this observation by focusing on teacher -student interactions.

This small classroom based research led me to examine my own thoughts about children’s learning and participation rates.    I wondered, for example, that if my cooperating teacher responded to the students’ answers positively, (whether they were right or wrong), if their attitude towards learning would change, or if their participation would increase.  Below is an image of my observation notes.

You need a closing paragraph here that brings the essay together:

Talk about the importance of teacher reflection in improving practice and why it is essential to teaching.

Where are your references?  Remember that you need full citations at the end of your essay.