Addressing student resistance to learning—Lang (163) brings up a valid point that is good for us to remember—when you encounter students who resist what you have to teach them or who don’t seem to get it—take some time to figure it out. There are many reasons why we don’t stop to find out, but should any of those reasons matter when our goal is to educate our students? This process could take some of us out of our comfort zone which isn’t such a bad thing. However, I believe that Lang’s point is that students come to us with many pre-conceived notions and experiences. As the educator, it is our responsibility to help them process new methods of learning and content, as well as process how their prior experiences and knowledge play into this learning. I see much of this playing out as Lang discussed Perry’s three stages of intellectual development (164-170). If we take potential reasons for students’ resistance to learning when we first notice them, then I believe students will proceed through Perry’s three stages with a better grasp of the content we are trying to teach.
Students as people—Lang’s Week 8 addressed many of the issues that we’ve already talked about in class. I mention this topic again only because I believe in the importance of knowing our students. We are educators and to turn a blind eye to our students’ individual needs and circumstances is just wrong! I truly do not think that getting to know our students is optional—it is mandatory. Regardless of our various fears, we can still get to know our students. This connection will have lasting results in our classrooms (i.e. behavior, management, attendance, participation, assignment completion, etc.). We have talked in other chapters from Lang and Davis that our effects do not go un-noticed by our students. Students should feel comfortable approaching us and we choose to what degree of “comfortable” is acceptable for each of us.
Diversity and inclusion throughout—Davis’s chapters 5-8 are clarifying issues that we have already discussed in class. However, I still have to relate these back to Langs’ Weeks 7 and 8 because if we know our students as learners and as people, we are already taking into consideration diversity, mentoring, monitoring participation, disabilities, and any other type of individualized needs. Also, as we’ve addressed this in class, there are University policies that also remind us of our responsibilities to our diverse students and their specialized needs. I don’t know how many people addressed this in their own teaching philosophy, but I know that, for me, it is an assumed responsibility that comes with being an educator. Like many things in education, there is not a one-size-fits-all approach or student.
The value of informally assessing students—I appreciate the various tools Davis discusses in Ch.32 and I have used a variety of these tools. However, I think that we actually do this daily when we are in class with our students through eye contact, body movement, and using our other senses. I have two concerns with informal assessment: (1) How can we accomplish this with on-line courses and still have the same effect? and (2) I truly believe that it absolutely depends on what we do with the information received in these informal assessments that have more of an impact on our students. When we assess, are we giving students the impression that certain issues or topics are more important than others or are we just gauging a level of understanding so we can more forward?
Student motivation—We have discussed this throughout the course thus far, but I believe it is a topic that should stay at the top of our teacher “radars” as we design a course, write our syllabi, teach the course, evaluate all the components, and make any necessary modifications prior to teaching it again. Just as students need to be intrinsically and extrinsically motivated (D Ch. 31), teachers need to be just as motivated and the students (and you) will notice the difference!
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