Education in Everything

Every teacher has to make important decisions regarding how he or she will teach their pupils in order to maximize student learning and to foster the desired traits in their students, such as independence and curiosity. Different practices and strategies suit different learning objectives and needs, and it is the teacher’s responsibility to evaluate which method will be the most effective. Developing an approach to teaching can help guide educators in how they teach material to their students, since there are many different ways of doing so. However, being flexible in one's approach is also crucial because there are always unexpected circumstances, obstacles, or unique student needs.  

 

Approaches

 

Instruction also relates to the type of approach the teacher will use, such as the constructivist approach, which enourages students to build new knowledge and meaning by connecting it to prior experience. Depending on the subject matter, teachers may choose to use a deductive strategy (going from general to specific) or an inductive one (going from specific to general). In many cases, a learner-centered approach is very effective because students are active participants in their own learning and are allowed share the knowledge they already have with others, which benefits all students. The indirect approach is also useful for students' active participation because teachers simply guide students and facilitate the leanring process, but the children are the ones who direct their own learning. In my philosophy of education, I also discussed the whole child approach, which takes into account all needs of the child, not only their academic needs. 

 

I've used a metaphor of a straight and curved road in order to demonstrate two different approaches to teaching - the more traditional one versus the less traditional, or alternative version. Along the way, I've described some key features of these approaches and what they would look like in the classroom.