Foundations Paper

Whitney Tankersley March 30, 2006 Foundations of Education Dr. Johnson Teaching Persona Reflection

Traditionally, teachers have been considered the gateway to knowledge for their students. The teacher provides the knowledge and it is the student’s responsibility to receive the knowledge and apply it to their everyday lives. Throughout history this form of education has been the mainstream for many American classrooms. However, in recent years many different perspectives have been offered to American teachers. From Constructivist to Liberatory, these different forms of education have been examined and re-examined by educators to help them achieve their best teaching skills. Throughout this semester I have gained a great deal of understanding concerning the different pedagogical paradigms. Not only through the multitude of classroom observations, but also through the different movies that were reviewed in class. Through my own experiences with education and watching different educators in their own settings, I have been able to experience a multitude of teaching styles. It is through this experience that I have been able to begin establishing my teaching style and begin my journey to discovering what works best for my students and me. Although the pedagogical paradigms differ in many areas, the most important aspect of each of them is their ability to reach our students. They each take a different approach to making sure our students receive knowledge in a way that is best suiting

towards them. Throughout the semester I have come in contact with two pedagogical paradigms at Metter Elementary school: Transmissionist and Constructivist. The classroom I have been placed in exemplifies these paradigms jointly and it is obvious in watching the students how much more knowledge they have gained from the teacher’s teaching style. Transmissionist teaching is observed as the type of teaching where the teacher possesses the knowledge and his or her student’s are simply “blank slates” that must absorb the knowledge that is being poured into them. It is also considered the type of teaching where truth is already out there and it must be obtained through instruction. This form of teaching is revealed through my teacher’s group instruction. Her students are instructed to sit on the ABC rug after journals every morning so they can do their “group time.” During group time the students learn their letter of the week, review money values, do math problems, review their sight words, and go over basic calendar functions. This exemplifies traditional Transmissionist teaching because of the teacher based instruction. The teacher stands at the front of the classroom and instructs the children on how to correctly pronounce the letter of the week, the correct amount each coin is worth, the right answer to the math problem, how to correctly say the sight words, and the correct order of the calendar activities. Transmissionist teaching was also illustrated in the film Stand and Deliver. In this film the instructor Mr. Escalante, played by Edward James Olmost, coached his underachieving students to not only excel at mathematics but receive college credit for their high school calculus class. The first example of Transmissionist teaching for Mr. Escalante is through his classroom setup. Typical Transmissionist classrooms are set up where the students are placed in rows and the teacher stands in

front and instructs the students. This is how Mr. Escalante’s classroom was constructed. While his students sat and listened, Mr. Escalante presented his knowledge to be absorbed by his students. This is a prime example of the Transmissionist style of teaching. While the students sit and listen to their teacher, the new material is thrown to them and they are expected to learn and apply the knowledge to their lives. Through my experience in the classroom and watching the film Stand and Deliver I have learned how Transmissionist teaching can be very useful and detrimental to my classroom. I am an Early Childhood Education major and teaching young children requires the teacher to learn how long their instruction must be in order for their students to gain knowledge. Expecting kindergarteners to sit and listen for forty five minutes, much less fifteen minutes, is a dream that can never be obtained. Students at that age simply do not possess the patience or attention to listen for that long. However, Transmissionist instruction must be incorporated into an elementary curriculum when it comes to presenting new information. This is detrimental especially when learning the basics of language and numbers. Students at this age cannot teach themselves that which they have never seen. Therefore, it is very important to incorporate this style of teaching when it is needed and to understand the student’s attention span. Not only have I experienced Transmissionist teaching, but I have also been introduced to Constructivist instruction. This form of teaching is exemplified through student-centered instruction. It is also understood that not only does the teacher contain knowledge, but that other classmates do as well. It is also observed that learning is an ongoing process, that it cannot be considered a product. I have seen this repeatedly in my classroom at Metter Elementary School. One of the many examples I have witnessed is

through the student’s journals. Every morning, after the students have put away their book bags, turned in their homework folder, and settled into their seats, they are expected to complete their journal entry for the day. The beginning of the sentence is written on the board with phrases such as; This weekend I…, I have two…, My best friend is…. They are then instructed to complete the sentence and write three more sentences to complete their thought. However, this activity is done entirely on their own. There is no teacher instruction except to help a student sound out a word. Even this is not always done since the students often ask their classmates. The classroom is also arranged in a Constructivist teaching manner. Instead of rows of desks, the students sit at round tables where group discussions are highly encouraged. The students also have the option to sit in different areas of the room during journal time. They can sit in a seat at a round table or they can sit on the ABC rug. Freedom is highly encouraged in the classroom and the students usually use it well. Constructivist instruction is also illustrated during center time. Instead of having the class listen to more group instruction, the teacher chooses to have centers to occupy the students while she works with a small group of two or three students. However, centers are not a time for the students to play and horse around with one another. The centers contain activities such as letter books to help the students learn a specific letter, money worksheets to help the students understand the amount each currency is worth, math worksheets to help the students understand basic mathematical functions, and some kind of science type experiment. These centers allow the student to work freely and at their own speed. After each student finishes one center he or she must share what they did with three classmates and a teacher. The students are very diligent about sharing their work since it proves that they are hard workers and can do the work

correctly. While the students work on their centers, the teacher calls three students over to a corner of the room and works with them one on one. These one on one activities involve lessons on their sight words, letter sounds, basic math, and other review topics. This form of instruction is very effective since the students are forced to learn the material. They are forced to learn the material because they are in such close proximities with the teacher and they cannot hide if they do not know the answer. It has been very difficult to see this form of education present in the movies we have this semester. Many of the classrooms seem to be set up in a Transmissionist form. However, there were small instances of Constructivist education in Dangerous Minds. In this film, a new teacher by the name of Lou Anne Johnson, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, must overcome the attitudes of her difficult students in order to properly educate them. Ms. Johnson discovers that a traditional Transmissionist classroom setting will not benefit her students. They actually scoff at the thought of a traditional classroom with traditional activities. It is through this understanding that Ms. Johnson must make accommodations to somewhat “trick” her students into accepting a Constructivist form of education. When her students do not embrace the poetry that she so desperately wants to teach them, she takes lyrics that her students know and shows them how lyrics to music are poetry. It is through small accommodations like this that the class becomes more student-centered. Since her students do not connect with the “normal” examples for learning, Ms. Johnson simply changes them around so her students will gain the most out of the lesson. Constructivist education is student-centered and Ms. Johnson illustrates accordingly throughout the film.

This year has taught me a great deal about the different forms of education. I have learned that in order to help my students grasp the knowledge to the best of their abilities, I must make accommodations according to their learning style. These basic changes could be the barriers that are holding students back and it is my responsibility as a teacher to make sure those barriers are lifted. It is also important to understand that in order for a classroom to work efficiently, one must incorporate the different pedagogical paradigms at once. While this may seem difficult they can each be incorporated by making small changes to the curriculum. Instead of having a teacher controlled discussion, invite the students to write down their comments about a book and let these comments be the guideline for the discussion. Or perhaps arrange the students in groups and present them with a topic that must be debated in class the next day. These activities can not only help students to understand the curriculum better but to also foster skills they will need in the professional world. Education is a constantly changing machine and if a teacher does not adjust her teaching styles to fit her students, learning will not take place. Incorporating each of the pedagogical paradigms into a lesson is the best way to help students grow into excited learners.