Teaching & Learning Theories

Teaching, as a profession, is often rewarding yet demanding at the same time. As a teacher, you play a vital role in shaping the lives of your students. However, it’s common for friends or family members who aren’t in the education field to misunderstand the challenges and responsibilities associated with being a teacher. If you find yourself in this position, here are some helpful suggestions for addressing the situation.

1. Share your experiences:

The best way to help your friends understand your teaching job is by talking about it. Share anecdotes and aspects of your daily routine that illustrate what goes on in your classroom. By sharing specific examples of your experiences, such as dealing with different learning styles or managing classroom behavior, you can provide insight into what teaching entails.

2. Discuss the reality of teaching:

Many people have misconceptions about teachers having ample free time or summers off without any work. Make it clear that teaching doesn’t just involve standing in front of a classroom – it involves lesson planning, grading assignments, attending meetings and professional development, communicating with parents, and so on. Help dispel these assumptions by sharing how much time and effort goes into preparing lessons and fulfilling other responsibilities outside the classroom.

3. Highlight the emotional side of teaching:

Teaching is not only intellectually challenging but emotionally taxing as well. Help your friends understand the emotional aspects of the job by discussing how rewarding it is to see students succeed or grow because of your efforts, as well as the toll it can take when they struggle or when they face problems outside school.

4. Organize a visit:

Invite your friends to visit your workplace or attend an open house event at your school. This way, they’ll get a firsthand look at what you do and gain a better appreciation for your role as an educator.

5. Broaden perspectives through social media:

Share articles, blogs or videos related to teaching and education on social media platforms. By doing so, you can educate your friends about current issues in education and provide a platform for healthy discussions.

6. Build connections:

Find common ground and draw connections between your experiences as a teacher and the experiences your friends have in their respective jobs. This will help them empathize with your situation and appreciate the challenges you face.

7. Be patient:

Remember that understanding takes time. Some people may change their views more quickly than others, so be patient and continue fostering an environment where they can learn about your profession.

In conclusion, when faced with friends who don’t understand your teaching job, emphasize the importance of open communication and be proactive in sharing your experiences, challenges, and achievements. By doing this, you’ll help build understanding and foster a support system that appreciates the wonderful work you do as an educator.

As the 2020-2021 school year continues to be marked by change and uncertainty, teachers are continually adapting to new teaching modalities, tools, and classroom environments. One constant that can bring a sense of comfort and familiarity is music. Not only can music enhance the learning experience within classrooms or virtual lessons, but it can also help create a positive environment in which students feel motivated and engaged. Here are three playlists every teacher needs for the ’20-’21 school year.

1. The Energizing Morning Playlist

Kick off each day with an energizing morning playlist designed to wake up those sleepy brains and spark enthusiasm for the day ahead. This playlist should feature uplifting tracks from various genres that get students excited about learning. Incorporate songs they might recognize from their favorite shows or artists, but don’t be afraid to introduce some timeless classics.

Sample songs:

– “Happy” by Pharrell Williams

– “Can’t Stop The Feeling!” by Justin Timberlake

– “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves

– “I Gotta Feeling” by The Black Eyed Peas

– “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Journey

2. The Concentration Playlist

Create a playlist specifically crafted for focus and concentration during individual or group work periods. This can include instrumental pieces, gentle acoustic tracks, or movie soundtracks that provide an ambiance without distracting lyrics.

Sample songs:

– “River Flows In You” by Yiruma

– “The Ludlows” from Legends of the Fall (James Horner)

– “Marry Me” by Train (instrumental)

– “Orbit” by NAO

– “Wildest Dreams” by Taylor Swift (acoustic)

3. The End-of-Day Reflection Playlist

At the end of each school day, it’s important for students to unwind and reflect on what they’ve accomplished and learned. Create a playlist featuring soothing and inspirational songs that help students re-center and celebrate their achievements.

Sample songs:

– “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong

– “Count on Me” by Bruno Mars

– “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley

– “Imagine” by John Lennon

– “Lean on Me” by Bill Withers

In conclusion, music is a powerful tool for teachers to foster an engaging and positive classroom environment. Having these three playlists at your disposal for the ’20-’21 school year will not only brighten your students’ days but could also have lasting positive effects on their educational journey.

Introduction:

Teaching portfolios are an essential tool for educators looking to land their dream job. They showcase your skills, accomplishments, and experiences in a visually appealing and organized manner. Through well-designed teaching portfolios, hiring committees can gain valuable insights into your teaching style, methods, and dedication to the profession. Here are 10 teaching portfolio examples that can help you stand out among other candidates.

1. Visual Showcase:

Create a visually appealing portfolio that uses infographics, charts, and images to effectively illustrate your teaching style, classroom layouts, and lesson plans. This approach can help demonstrate your creativity and ability to use visuals as effective teaching tools.

2. Integrated Blog:

Include a blog in your portfolio that highlights reflections on teaching experiences, articles on educational practices, or even personal stories about life as an educator. Your blog will showcase your passion for teaching and excellent communication skills.

3. Student-Centric Highlights:

Demonstrate your commitment to student success by showcasing projects, assignments, and assessments in which students have excelled. Include before-and-after examples of student work to exhibit growth and progress under your guidance.

4. Collaborative Approach:

Incorporate evidence of collaborative work with colleagues through team projects or shared resources within the school community. This will showcase your ability to work effectively within team-oriented environments.

5. Testimonials & Recommendations:

Include testimonials from colleagues, supervisors, or even past students who can vouch for your abilities as an educator. Such endorsements can strengthen your credibility and make a lasting impression on hiring committees.

6. Curated Lesson Plans:

Highlight a selection of your most well-designed lesson plans that showcase innovative strategies or approaches to different subjects or grade levels. Annotated materials or reflection notes can provide insights into your thought process when planning lessons.

7. Video Demonstrations:

Include video clips from classroom activities or lessons as part of your portfolio to show prospective employers your teaching style in action. These videos can offer a dynamic glimpse into how you interact with students and facilitate learning.

8. Professional Development:

Feature a section on professional development workshops or conferences that you have attended, along with any certificates you have earned. This demonstrates your dedication to refining your craft and staying up-to-date with current educational practices.

9. Educational Philosophy:

Articulate your educational beliefs in a well-written statement that outlines your philosophy of teaching. This will help hiring committees understand the values and priorities that underpin your approach to education.

10. Customized Layout:

Design a customizable portfolio layout that is easily adaptable for different job applications. Having the ability to rearrange or replace sections will allow you to tailor your portfolio to meet the specific requirements of each potential position.

Conclusion:

A thoughtfully designed teaching portfolio that combines the elements mentioned above can set you apart from other candidates when applying for your dream teaching job. By using these 10 examples as inspiration, you’ll showcase your skills, passion, and professionalism – making you an irresistible candidate for hiring committees.

Introduction:

Welcome to the world of classroom letterboards! As a teacher, having an inviting and engaging learning space is essential for creating a positive atmosphere. One way to add personality and inspiration to your classroom is by incorporating a letterboard with motivational and fun sayings. Here are some top teacher letterboard sayings you’ll want to steal for your classroom.

1. “The future of the world is in this classroom.”

A great reminder that the children in our classrooms today will shape the world tomorrow.

2. “Be the reason someone smiles today.”

Encourage students to spread kindness and make a positive impact on their peers.

3. “Today is a good day to learn something new.”

An optimistic message to motivate students each day.

4. “If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.”

Teaching the importance of embracing challenges as opportunities for growth.

5. “Your attitude determines your direction.”

A reminder that how we approach situations can greatly affect outcomes.

6. “Teach, love, inspire.”

A simple and strong motto encapsulating the essence of being an educator.

7. “Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.”

Encouraging students to dive into the world of literature and explore their imagination.

8. “Make today so awesome, yesterday gets jealous.”

Inspire your students to always strive for greatness and make the most out of every day.

9. “Mistakes are proof that you’re trying.”

A comforting message that reminds students that failure is part of the learning process.

10. “Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.”

Motivate your students to bring joy and positivity by brightening up someone’s day.

11. “In this class, we don’t do EASY; we make easy happen through hard work.”

Promote a growth mindset and emphasize the importance of hard work.

12. “Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day.”

Encourage students to find positivity even on tough days.

13. “Teach your heart out!”

Simply put, an expression of passion for teaching and educating young minds.

Conclusion:

With these teacher letterboard sayings, you can easily refresh your classroom’s atmosphere and keep your students inspired all year round. Sprinkle these quotes around your room or change your letterboard message each week to remind students and yourself why you are there – to empower future generations, foster a love for learning, and make a difference in their lives. Happy teaching!

In the world of teaching, few things can be more challenging than keeping a room full of young minds engaged and attentive to the lesson at hand. One innovative teacher, however, has found a way to not only keep students focused but also bring laughter and joy into the classroom. Through her viral attention getters, this educator is capturing the hearts and minds of students around the world.

It all started when this delightful teacher posted a video on social media showcasing her unique and funny attention-getting techniques. In no time at all, her contagious sense of humor caught on like wildfire, with several videos racking up millions of views and shares from people who found her entertaining approach to be a breath of fresh air.

One of her creative attention getters involved using silly voices to grab her students’ focus. For instance, she would mimic famous cartoon characters or celebrities to capture their interest. Imagine hearing your math lesson explained in the style of your favorite movie star or singer — hard not to tune in!

Another popular tactic she employed was incorporating dance moves and body language into her instruction. Suddenly, instead of just verbal cues, students were treated to lively visual aids that helped break up the monotony of a standard lesson. In moments when cognitive overload seemed imminent, those perfectly timed dance breaks gave everyone’s brain a chance to reset while sparking giggles throughout the room.

Of course, no attention-grabbing strategy would be complete without clever wordplay, and this hilarious teacher had an arsenal of puns at her disposal. One example that garnered widespread appreciation online was her play on words involving geometry concepts like “acute angle.” She cleverly turned “acute” into “a cute” angle accompanied by playful facial expressions which delighted both students and viewers alike.

It’s worth noting that these viral attention getters were utilized in a balanced and moderation-focused manner. This educator understands that while humor and engagement are essential in the classroom, maintaining a strong educational foundation is also key. By carefully blending her comedic approach with tried-and-true teaching methods, she provided a genuinely engaging learning experience for students that optimized retention and understanding.

Ultimately, this hilarious teacher’s viral attention getters have not only entertained millions around the world but also served as an important reminder to educators about the value of creativity, joy, and humor in the classroom. Though every teacher’s style is unique to them, it’s undeniable that this joyful approach to education is fostering an enthusiastic learning environment that can impact students far beyond their school years.

This is a group of principles and rules created by Bandura, which puts reinforcement in such an important position and how effective cues are in the areas of reasoning and reasoning on the action. It emphasizes the value of observing, modeling, and copying the behaviors, emotional reactions, and attitudes of others. Social learning theory considers how both cognitive and environmental factors interact to impact human behavior and learning. In this theory, while Bandura agrees with operant conditioning and classical conditioning behaviorist learning theories, he adds two valuable ideas as the following:

•         Behavior is learned from the environment via the observational learning process
•         Mediating processes happen between stimuli and responses

Observational learning: Kids observe the individuals around them behaving in different ways. People whom the kids observe are called models. In society, kids are surrounded by lots of influential models, such as characters on children’s TV, parents within the family, teachers at school, and friends within their peer group. These models offer examples of behavior to observe and copy, e.g., pro and anti-social, masculine and feminine, etc. Kids pay attention to some of these models and encode the behavior. 

They may copy the behavior they’ve observed at a later time. They might do it irrespective of whether or not the behavior is gender appropriate, but there’re some processes that make it more likely that a kid will reproduce the behavior its society deems suitable for its gender. First, the kid is more likely to pay attention to and imitate those individuals it considers similar to itself. Consequently, it’s more likely to copy behavior modeled by individuals of the same gender. Second, the individuals around the kid will respond to the behavior it copies with either punishment or reinforcement. 

If a kid copies a model’s behavior and receives rewarding consequences, the kid is likely to continue doing that behavior. Third, the kid will also consider what happens to other individuals when deciding whether or not to imitate someone’s actions. An individual learns by observing the results of another individual’s behavior, e.g., a younger brother observing an older brother being rewarded for a certain behavior is more likely to perform that behavior himself. This is called vicarious reinforcement.

Mediational processes: Observational learning couldn’t happen unless cognitive processes were at work. Therefore, people don’t automatically observe a model’s behavior and imitate it. There’s some thought before imitation, and this is called mediational processes. This happens between observing the behavior and copying it or not.

Bandura proposed four mediational processes.

Attention: The person needs to take heed of the behavior and its consequences and develop the behavior’s mental representation.

Retention: This refers to how well the person can remember the behavior. It’s vital that the behavior’s memory is developed to be performed later by the person.

Reproduction: This refers to the capacity to perform the behavior that has just been demonstrated by the model.

Motivation: This is the will to carry out the behavior. If the observers don’t consider the vicarious reinforcement important enough, they won’t imitate the behavior.

This is the overall test for how much a person has learned and is usually measured by a person’s capability to solve problems and work on abstract concepts. Some researchers assert that intelligence is a general ability, whereas others state that intelligence comprises certain talents and skills. Psychologists argue that intelligence is inherited or generic, and others assert that it’s largely affected by the surrounding environment. As a result, psychologists have created multiple contrasting theories of intelligence and individual tests that try to evaluate this concept.

According to Charles Spearman, general intelligence or g factor stands for a general mental ability that underlies multiple particular skills, including verbal, numerical, spatial, and mechanical. Spearman used the factor analysis technique to arrive at the theory. Factor analysis is a process through which the correlation between related variables is evaluated to identify an underlying factor that explains the correlation. 

Spearman observed that those who performed well in one area of intelligence also performed well in other areas. He concluded that a single g factor represents a person’s general intelligence across multiple abilities and a second factor stands for a person’s particular ability in one particular area. Together, these two key factors form Spearman’s two-factor theory.

Thurstone challenged the concept of general intelligence. He identified several primary mental abilities that form intelligence, in contrast to one general factor. His model’s seven primary mental abilities are verbal fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial visualization, number facility, memory, perceptual speed, and inductive reasoning. Although Thurstone didn’t completely reject Spearman’s concept of general intelligence, he theorized that intelligence comprises both general ability and several specific abilities, making it easier for future research that had studied the different forms of intelligence.

Following Thurstone’s work, Howard Gardner developed the idea that there’re multiple forms of intelligence. He suggested that there’s no single intelligence, but independent, distinct multiple intelligences exist, each representing unique talents and skills relevant to a particular category. He initially proposed seven multiple intelligences, including logical-mathematical, linguistic, musical, spatial, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and bodily-kinesthetic, and he has since included naturalist intelligence.

Some more forms of intelligence include the following:

Emotional intelligence: It refers to the capacity to monitor one’s own and other persons’ emotions, differentiate between distinguished emotions and label them properly, and utilize emotional information to guide behavior and thinking. Emotional intelligence is vital in people’s everyday lives, seeing as they experience one emotion or another almost every second of their lives. One might not associate intelligence and emotions with one another, but they’re very related.

Fluid intelligence: It’s the ability to solve problems in unfamiliar situations without referencing previous knowledge but instead through the use of abstract thinking and logic. One can apply fluid intelligence to any unfamiliar problem because no particular prior knowledge is required. As one grows older, fluid increases and then begins to reduce in the late 20s.

Crystallized intelligence: It stands for the utilization of previously-acquired knowledge like muscle memory, specific motor skills, or specific facts learned in school. As one grows older and gathers knowledge, crystallized intelligence improves.

This is a graphical expression used to arrange an idea around its important qualities and the examples as well as the non-example of the idea in question. In other words, it’s a visual model that’s sequentially structured and meets all essential requirements of present models while adding an extra element in the form of student interaction. Sometimes, a word map may also be called a ‘vocabulary graphic organizer.’

By using a word map, teachers can engage the students better with the text or lesson. Such a map can even encourage them to think about new concepts or terms in different ways by asking questions like these:

•         What is it?
•         What it’s like? and
•         What are some examples and non-examples?

For instance, in a language class, a word map organizer can engage students in developing a word’s definition, its synonyms and antonyms, etc. This way, students can better comprehend the particular lesson’s vocabulary.

Word maps can also help in maths and science. Say, a teacher in a maths class is teaching the students about triangles, but the students are struggling to understand how a triangle is different from a square. In such a case, a word map can include the word “triangle,” its definition, an example or two (which could be the image of an equilateral triangle and a right-angled triangle) and a non-example (say, a circle or a square).

In a science class where students are learning about the tundra, a word map can include tundra’s geographical region (to answer ‘what is it?’), its features like freezing temperature, treeless, permafrost, etc. (to answer ‘what it’s like?’), and examples of where it’s found, such as Northern Alaska, northern Siberia, etc.

Apart from improving students’ comprehension of a word and vocabulary, a word map can also help them build upon their previous knowledge and represent new information visually. Teachers should guide students on how to use a word map, where to place the target word (typically, in a central box) and the image, suggest phrases or words that will go into the surrounding boxes to answer different questions, and teach how to adjust the number of words they need to map. They should also encourage their students to refer to the encyclopedia, dictionary, or other reference books if they need help completing the word map. They may even share online tools and resources to help students create their own word maps.

This is the ability to thoroughly understand and comprehend units of written materials with little to no effort, especially in terms of picking out new words. To put it differently, automaticity is the ability to do something automatically, without much thought. In the context of mastering any skill or ability, there comes the point where the learner is able to do something without conscious intellectual effort. That’s what automaticity is all about. 

But what it’s like? It can be called similar to riding a bike. When an individual reaches a point of automaticity, he can jump on the bike and ride it effortlessly while waving to a neighbor or talking to someone riding next to him without stopping to think about each move he needs to make, such as pushing the brakes to stop the bike or adjusting the handlebars to navigate a turn.

Automaticity can help teachers by allowing them to focus more on their students and the learning that’s happening in their classroom. Over time and as teachers gain experience, they become capable of automating certain processes, such as planning, giving instructions, and managing the class. This frees up more of their attention and time, which can be focused on handling other vital processes.

Just like teaching, encouraging automaticity in learning lets students process information swiftly and accurately, which improves their fluency. Teachers can encourage automaticity in the classroom, in one way or another, by focusing on extended practice under specific circumstances, as it’ll enhance fluency by developing automaticity. However, there’s a challenge with using extensive practice activities. 

Unless they’re planned carefully, such activities can be boring for students, which will decrease their investment and motivation in the language. Therefore, if a language teacher is trying to incorporate activities that encourage automaticity, he should do it in a way that offers an opportunity for transfer to real-life materials, communication, and even new situations related to students’ interests. But teachers should understand that it takes time to learn. Hence, automaticity won’t develop overnight or even after a handful of lessons. 

To promote automaticity, these are some strategies that teachers may consider:

•         Several refresher/review/recycle activities
•         Multiple group/pair work for elucidation and practice
•         Use of self-pacing, chance, and choice to sustain student motivation
•         Offering positive, personalized feedback
•         Provide students opportunities to ‘transfer’ their learning to new situations
•         Focus on student-centric task-based language teaching where students are given real-world activities, problems, or situations that need them to use language spontaneously and creatively