In the UN’s Declaration of Rights of a Child, it lists the different rights children should be entitled to. I strongly believe in this and base my approach to teaching and learning, both inside the classroom and wider community, on these 10 rights. As a teacher I believe that children need to feel safe and understood in order to learn. I also believe that learning is a life long experience that does not stop but schooling is the period in which, we as a person, learn to embrace it. Schools and classrooms have the ability to shape a person idea on learning for life and this is where life long learners are developed.
Documents such as the NSW Quality Learning Framework and the NSW Institute of Teacher’s, Professional Standards Document help to shape how a teacher facilitates and passes on that idea of life long learning. As a teacher it is important to understand the pedagogy of teaching and how best to use the different learning theories inside a classroom. My goal inside a classroom is to provide a safe, nurturing environment in which students are intellectually challenged and supported. As a teacher, I believe, that these ideas are not just limited to the classroom but rather teachers are in the forefront of bringing these values and ideas to the wider community.
Quality Teaching Framework
I believe that a classroom should be a place to provide not only a learning environment but also a place that is safe, enjoyable and friendly. Students may not always have a place that can provide these important actors so I feel that a classroom should be conducive to their needs. The classroom itself should be free flowing and comfortable for learning and without “visual pollution”. As the school falls into the microsystem of the ecological systems theory (Berk, 2007), it is important that students feel that their basic needs can be met.
The quality of learning within the classroom is also something that must stimulate the mind and support higher order thinking. I believe that students need to be challenged whilst at the same time allowed to learn at a pace that is to their abilities. There is no one size fits all approach to any student or class and as a teacher it is my job to try to cater to the best of each need of the students.
Learning needs to be significant for each individual within the classroom. Linking to the idea of intellectual quality, significance is important to a students learning. Methods such as scaffolding are important to build on a student’s knowledge but can be hindered if the significance is not present. My belief is that ideas such as “busy work” are both a hindrance to students and teachers.
Professional Teaching Standards
Within these three major ideas of the “Quality Teaching Framework” are other such links including assessment, communication and other areas mentioned in the Professional Teaching Standards. All these elements represent an integral part to successfully building a positive learning environment.
For myself the first two elements highlight both the ideas of Significance and Intellectual Knowledge. For me as a teacher I believe that teachers need to be comfortable with content in order to pass that knowledge along. As part of that, the second element must come into play. Understanding student’s needs is integral and as a teacher I believe that by not understanding the content, you will be unable to understand your students needs.
Assessment is vital to understanding where a student is in terms of their particular needs. This clearly interlocks with the previous elements. For me as a teacher assessment needs to be wholistic in order to best gauge that student. In order to ensure this all forms of assessment, both formative and summative, must be used. Regardless of content, assessment must attempt to span all forms to best understand the student’s needs.
Classroom communication stresses the importance of knowing your students levels. I believe that it is important to have a policy of clear and open communication both with students and the wider community. Without good communication a teacher would be unable to transfer the ideas to the students. Teachers need to be good actors in order to help make lessons significant and inspire students to learn.
As mentioned before, it has to be understood that without the safety element students will not learn, in my opinion. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Berk, 2007) safety is ranked highly and this helps to stress the idea that a person needs to feel safe to be comfortable. In order to making learning important, one must assure that the environment is safe.
This also stresses the importance of managing a classroom. Without positive classroom management it is impossible to best provide a safe classroom. I believe that, like individual learning styles, no classroom can be managed the same. Classroom management must be specifically cater to the changing class dynamics but the one key idea, for me, that does not change is that a teacher should always have clear and open communication.
As learning is something a person does throughout their life, I believe that it is important for teachers to lead the way. With the fast pace of changes in technology it is easy to understand why people must constantly be adapting and learning. Much has changed in the area of teaching over the last few decades and it is important, as a teacher, to be learning and changing methods in order to ensure a quality-learning environment.
With all this said it is important, in my understanding, that as a teacher one must link it all back to the wider community. Using the ecological systems theory (Berk, 2007) it is important to understand how there are many different systems that can affect the one person. For me, these systems need to be understood to provide a positive learning area for students.
For me ultimately a teacher is helping to shape new members of the community. Through this idea, I believe, that teachers need to have an understanding of the elements and principles of what society expects. This is why teachers need to understand and value the different principles involved, in order to better society and the members of society. Principles are important and in a profession, such as teaching, it is imperative that these be transparent and understood. Documents like the NSW Quality Teaching Framework and the Professional Standards Document help to guide a teacher’s style in order to better not only the profession but also each member of society both present and future.