This is the second episode of the five-part series about writing your professional teaching practice for the purpose of Advanced Higher Education Academy of UK fellowship application. In this episode, I will explain how I teach and support learning. References will be appended in the last episode.
I am believer of Constructivist
Philosophy. As such, my primary consideration in the teaching and learning
process is for my students to find and create meaning as they work through in
performing and achieving the standards of the learning outcomes. When students
are able to create meaning in their works, they are more engaged and they take
ownership of their learning (Crawford, 2003).
I
begin my classes by introducing the lesson with either of the following
techniques: asking a rhetorical question and telling a relevant narrative,
administering a quizlet using Kahoot, or showing a video presentation.
These are all meant to activate schema or prior knowledge or reconnect/extend their
previous learning experience with the new learning outcomes (Bradsford, 1985). After the concept of the language (grammar, reading and writing, listening
and speaking, research) is taught through an analysis of a model textual and/or
aural structures delivered inductively in a short lecture using Active Board, I
proceed with group activities either by pair or by a group of four. Each pair
or group member is given a defined role to do in response to what is required by
an authentic communicative problem by which their tasks are contextualized
(Bens, 2005). Before commencing with their work, they are given an orientation
on the assessment criteria by which their work will be evaluated against. A checklist is also provided, at the end of the group or peer session, for
the students to be able to implement a group or a peer review by themselves
thereby promoting self-directed and reflective learning (Anderson, 2002).
In
order to generate meaningful engagement, students’ activities require an
application of sets of language skills to create a specific communicative form.
For instance, paraphrasing and summarizing skills are used to compose a
synthesis report; comparing and contrasting skills for proposal report; and
cause and effect skill for case study writing. When students understand the
functions of their communicative works in the industry, they are more engaged to
perform better. In fact, whenever I contextualized writing and speaking
learning activities in a situation where students put to practical use sets
language skills together, their performance scores are significantly higher
than those that are not. This informs my practice about the importance of authentic
context in generating meaning in teaching.
Moreover, I also see to
it that my class peer or group activities are drawn to be varied in order to
accommodate diverse learning styles including kinaesthetic learners who are
often left out in language learning (Emelianova, 2013). For instance, providing them the opportunity
to design graphical aids and to organize simulated role plays for writing,
speaking, research presentation, and mock assessments which often stimulates and
engages this type of language learners. Consistent student survey results
indicate a strong preference for these types of learning activities for some
types of learners. This preference is at the forefront of my teaching practice.
Pedagogically, these
group activities are planned with embedded enabling skills to scaffold or help
students build upon from basic skills to complex skills that subsequently prepare
them to do individual communicative tasks, complete their personal writing and
research portfolios at their own pace, and eventually receive, reflect and act
upon individualized formative feedback (Azevedo and Hadwin, 2005).
To illustrate this, last semester when a cohort of students in my EL5001
or Introduction to English Communication are diagnosed to be wanting in
sentence construction, a basic skill in summary and synthesis writing, I have
devoted significant contact hours for us to look into word formation, simple
and complex sentence constructions, as well as identifying and correcting
fragments and run-ons. When their grammar and vocabulary performance ratings
indicate that they have achieved competency on this skill, I have to reinforce
it by applying it to a higher order writing skill which is paraphrasing
sentences, and thereafter to paraphrasing a narrative and an expository
paragraph. Eventually, these students achieved a pass mark in the course and
they have demonstrated at an average a satisfactory writing competence in task
completion, logical organization and cohesion as stipulated in the rubric. This
reinforces the importance of scaffolding as a learning support in my teaching.
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