Competency 004
The teacher understands learning
processes and factors that impact student learning and demonstrates this
knowledge by planning effective, engaging instruction and appropriate assessments.
Defense
Implementation is as important
as planning a lesson. A teacher must be able to instruct students
after preparing a lesson. There are many strategies to assist in
instruction. I have always been a better planner than an implementer.
From looking at the various strategies, I am eager to go and use them on
a continuous basis rather than just for one lesson. Questioning strategies
appear to be some of the most helpful parts of the teaching process.
My students need to be motivated and strategies that teach me how to teach
my students through using questions will hopefully keep my students ready
to learn.
Guided discovery will be helpful
to my instruction because it forces my students to think rather than me
giving them the information. It is my goal to help my students get
past the bottom level of Bloom's taxonomy and reach into the higher levels
and critical thinking skills. Although guided discovery will require
more preparation on my part, it appears that it will work will for my students.
Again, I am a planner and therefore a strategy, like guided discovery,
will use my strengths to instruct students. It is my goal to step
away from expository teaching and use guided discovery. Expository
teaching is a traditional approach to teaching, but it does not focus on
the higher learning skills that I want my students to gain. I also
believe that guided discovery will prepare my students for the TAKS test
better than expository teaching. TAKS requires students to be able
to apply information rather than just memorize or recognize the information.
Problem-based learning is
wonderful. I want to implement more of this type of strategy in my
classroom. Students are given a problem and they work to gather information
to solve the problem. There are two types: the inquiry and the problem
solving strategies. Inquiry is used when the students are able to
actually do an experiment. A problem is studied through gathering
data and forming a conclusion. Problem-solving takes a problem and
organizes it so that a strategy can be decided upon, carried out, and the
results evaluated. Both types of problem-based learning keep students
engaged in the classroom environment.
Samples: