I did not assume that the students were internally motivated, even though they proved to be so, which is why I made sure each student had a clear view of the board and PowerPoint presentation I had created and I kept a 'third eye' on their attention to the material, noting that they were following along with the manual and asking them questions. The fact that I had used the software myself and was quite familiar with it gave me an ease in presenting the material. Not only did I know the material well enough to deviate from a pre-planned script, I could also interweave humorous anecdotes into the presentation, and make the dryer sections of my talk more human and interesting. Combined with the visual reinforcement of the PowerPoint, this created a personal rapport between the students and me. The class was also frustrated by the requirement placed upon them by the organization's leadership that they had to receive an examination in the course content, given they felt they had already devoted a great deal of time to learning about the program. They were eager to get back to work and put what they had learned into action. They disliked being treated like students who had to be 'watched' to ensure that they had learned 'correctly,' and felt (in my opinion justifiably) that the real test of knowledge comes in the workplace, with a technical skill like operating a computer program. Yet despite the resistance to this organizational demand, I tried, through my personal qualities and the respect I had generated amongst all of the learners, including the student...
I think my lack of intimidating presence, my humanness as an instructor and my stress that it was fine to make mistakes given they could be easily undone was well-suited to the similarity of ages of all of the participants and high motivation of the students. Respect and a level of seriousness, with some sense of 'fun' acted as a facilitator to learning and broke down any tension between the class and other persons in the organization, which had been generated by the unfair pressures placed upon the staff because of the outdated system. The class syllabus overall, was probably excessively programmed, in terms of its structure, and the material could have been compressed into one day. It should have possessed more interactive components rather than using a paper manual given that the course was designed to teach how to use an interactive computer system. However, despite these circumstances over which I had no control, I overcame any resistance that my status as an adult teacher and the course requirements and content might have provoked, and all of us as a class created as an engaging a classroom environment as possible.
Educational Theories Guiding Educational Experience Description of an education event experienced I am a dentist, and I have started a course on teaching dentistry. My experience with education was never a particularly encouraging one as my teacher was always absent. When I was at school, the teachers went on strike, and that left us with no attention from them. We had to do much of the studying alone, and all required research
Not at all. It simply means that, in the case of my high school, every learner has a different need for information and processes it differently. So teachers should provide educational strategies that facilitate learning for all students. In my class, there were those (including myself) who could have been given extra credit assignments because we were ahead of many other students. My colleague had some similar experiences in high
He helped us to understand more about his culture and beliefs, and we helped him to understand why he made us feel strange. In the time span of a few weeks, most of us were able to suspend prejudice where he was concerned, and simply see him as another human being on the same basic journey that we were all on - from birth to death and wherever we
Race: Personal Educational Experiences and Reflection Race was seldom discussed explicitly during my early, grammar school education. When the topic of race was broached, it was usually in the context of a lesson on the Civil War or Civil Rights movement. Although such discussions were valuable, they gave the impression that race was something located in America's past, rather than worthy of discussion in the present. However, this did not mean
Educational development is a mix of both formal and informal learning conditions as assessment of my own educational experience has taught me. I cannot say that one is more important than the other; each segment together has taught me different elements -- made me grow -- and combined in producing the 'me' that you see today. In his "Notes for an Obituary," Einstein once noted that the system of education was
Teaching Assistants: The role of teaching assistants is to facilitate access to the curriculum, enable autonomous learning, and promote inclusion. During their work, these professionals sometimes work with pupils with learning disabilities, hearing or visual impairment, physical disability, communication problems, and those experiencing difficulties in behaviors. Consequently, teaching assistants play a critical role to enable a pupil to accomplish increased autonomy, greater social awareness, achieve higher academic standards, and feel a
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