Involvement and Participation in Education
While I am studying to become a teacher through the PGCE course, is there along the journey a few thoughts and perspectives which I develop in my mind of how a teacher should present class. Each day there are a few things in the PGCE course in which I can familiarize myself if I think back to my school days.
Things like how it feels for a teacher to present class during the time when I was a learner in class. Another thought is how I was as a learner in class and how my thought pattern was back then compared to now. In my school days I was more of a listener than a talker, but I did participate in activities which was presented in class by my teacher. Mostly activities that interested me.
As I think about it now I came to a question which made me thought. Why was I more of a listener than someone who answers? Was I too shy to answer? Did I struggle to formulate a answer in my head back then? Or did the teacher actually create a environment in which I felt suitable for me to answer a question in class?
If I compare myself from now to the person I was back in school, I will answer more questions in class now as back then. This makes me think. Did my teachers in school actually create a opportunity for me to feel comfortable in to answer more question? I'm not sure, but I think they could have done a bit more to encourage me or my fellow learners in class to answers more questions or at least think more critically.
And this is something that kind of makes me think even more. Would I be different today if they did encourage me more in class to become involved more or participate? And that is something which I am very curious about.
These are a few assumptions that goes through my thought process. One thing I can say now from studying for 3 years in university is that involvement and participation in class is key to learn more and to understand better. The reason why I am saying this is, because it allows us to use the knowledge we have in our minds and challenges us to better ourselves. To be continuously curious about things. Asking or answering questions in class stimulate our thought process and lets us develop more perspectives or thoughts which we never encountered before.
Something that stood out for me while I was reading a article of Wills (2015)
Applying Mindfulness to Mundane Classroom Tasks (I bet it is something that stood out for a lot of my fellow classmates) was how she created a opportunity for her learners to interact in class through creativity by simply using a bowl of water which is placed on the learners desk. This is a good example of something I wished my teachers would have implemented more in our classroom environments. Not that I am saying that they were bad teachers. I believe they were still excellent teachers and they helped met to get where I am today. The thing which I think they lacked a bit of was to encourage or motivate learners to participate.
If teachers motivate learners to participate or to get involved more they will become more comfortable in the environment of the classroom. This would allow learners to become more confident to interact more in class. It will become a habit and once they develop this habit they will stat improving themselves. They will improve themselves through learning new things through interactions in class. To gain new knowledge, information, opinions and perspectives of others. This is the type of environment which I started to longed for as I continued my study's in university.
So for me as becoming a future teacher, I will definitely create more opportunities for my learners to interact more and to try and develop their level of confidence in order for them to feel more comfortable and learn better in school.
Wednesday, 16 March 2016
Wednesday, 9 March 2016
The potential of self-learning
The potential of self-learning
Have you ever wanted to learn something which you found interesting or you are curious about, but you seem to find yourself not having enough time to learn that something, because of busy schedules, long working days, accelerated societies and even a mountain of projects that you need to complete?
This thought pop's up daily in my life and I will stop for a moment and would think about it for a while. Trying to figure how society would actually be if we had to learn on our own meaning that if we had no schools or education institutions to provide learning practices. I must say that it would have been difficult in the past, because of the difficulty of trying to get uphold of information or at least the process of getting information took a bit longer compared to the 21st century where gaining access to information are quite simple and easy. Just Google it :-).
The idea which I am trying to create in this blog is that what if we could have the opportunity to learn something we actually want to learn and learn that through self-learning? I believe here lies great potential.
First of we need to consider that to gain information today in the modern world is way more easier than the past. Due to the technological advance society we live in. So for us to gain information we can just simply click on a button and then we would receive information in an instance.
This gives us the opportunity to learn something, because we can get quick access to information, but the problem we have today is that we learn things at educational institutions or at schools which does not interest most of us or even stimulate creativity in our minds. After watching the documentary about the "The Independent project" there was a quote which one kid said that in the education institutions they learn student about the world yet they keep them isolated from the world.
To me that quote is true. How can we actually be expected to be learned, but we are continuously being forced by other things such as to sit in a classroom in which a lesson is presented which is a lesson that has no value for us in terms of our interests and the life we want to live. "The Independent Project" to me is a good example of how we as students can actually educate ourselves, because we know ourselves better and we understand ourselves even if some institutions say that we only discover ourselves once we reach a higher grade in school or once we are working.
I believe that self-learning has great potential, because you can then actually learn something you want to learn and once you learn stuff you want to know you start to create a responsibility. You then want to know more of what you are interested, so you try to find more ways or sources to gain information. This process I believe helps us to discover ourselves and provide us the direction in the type of job we want to work in one day.
Have you ever wanted to learn something which you found interesting or you are curious about, but you seem to find yourself not having enough time to learn that something, because of busy schedules, long working days, accelerated societies and even a mountain of projects that you need to complete?
This thought pop's up daily in my life and I will stop for a moment and would think about it for a while. Trying to figure how society would actually be if we had to learn on our own meaning that if we had no schools or education institutions to provide learning practices. I must say that it would have been difficult in the past, because of the difficulty of trying to get uphold of information or at least the process of getting information took a bit longer compared to the 21st century where gaining access to information are quite simple and easy. Just Google it :-).
The idea which I am trying to create in this blog is that what if we could have the opportunity to learn something we actually want to learn and learn that through self-learning? I believe here lies great potential.
First of we need to consider that to gain information today in the modern world is way more easier than the past. Due to the technological advance society we live in. So for us to gain information we can just simply click on a button and then we would receive information in an instance.
This gives us the opportunity to learn something, because we can get quick access to information, but the problem we have today is that we learn things at educational institutions or at schools which does not interest most of us or even stimulate creativity in our minds. After watching the documentary about the "The Independent project" there was a quote which one kid said that in the education institutions they learn student about the world yet they keep them isolated from the world.
To me that quote is true. How can we actually be expected to be learned, but we are continuously being forced by other things such as to sit in a classroom in which a lesson is presented which is a lesson that has no value for us in terms of our interests and the life we want to live. "The Independent Project" to me is a good example of how we as students can actually educate ourselves, because we know ourselves better and we understand ourselves even if some institutions say that we only discover ourselves once we reach a higher grade in school or once we are working.
I believe that self-learning has great potential, because you can then actually learn something you want to learn and once you learn stuff you want to know you start to create a responsibility. You then want to know more of what you are interested, so you try to find more ways or sources to gain information. This process I believe helps us to discover ourselves and provide us the direction in the type of job we want to work in one day.
Wednesday, 2 March 2016
Teaching through Social Media
Teaching through Social Media
The Social Media is taking storm in the modern world we live in now. It is only recently that I discovered this year that the social media can actually be used as a tool to teach in class. As Professor FWM Knoetze ( all credit to you Prof.) presented to our PGCE group of 2016 about using twitter and blogger as a method to teach. I was immediately intrigued and amazed that the social media could actually be used to present a lesson. Not that I have not discovered online lessons on the social media, but that apps such as Twitter and Facebook can actually be used in a class environment. To teach and learn students.
This made me very curious on what type of social media tools I could use to present in class in my specified curriculum subject studies which is geography and life orientation. After reading the articles of both Provenzano and Davis in which their articles resolve around the use of social media in the classroom, it gave me some certain ideas on how I can actually use the social media to present a lesson. If you think about it today the social media are easy to be accessed by students in class while a teacher or lecturer is presenting even when they don't know of it. So why not make use of their easy access to the social media in class to present a lesson with relevance to your specified subject you present to learners?
In the article of Provezano there were mentioning of various methods of use of social media teachers use as a tool in their classes. One particular social media app that were mentioned that stood out for me was called "Remind". This app sounded very good to me as it is a one way communication system. This app allows teachers to send reminders or information regarding their work to their learners. However only the teacher can send messages and his/her's students cannot reply on the app, but only receive information.
Geography and Life Orientation is my curriculum study field and the subjects that I would like to teach and present. By using the social media as a tool to teach in class and present my lesson, it could potentially enhance the learning experience of my learners one day. In the field of geography technology already plays a major role in the development of the field. Examples of technological components or software that is being used in Geography is QGIS, GPS or GIS etc. Some of the social media tools in which I will use in Geography would be Facebook. Facebook allows us to see where people live and this is a good way for us to explore the different environments and residences where students live. By using Facebook I could get an indication where the learners in my classroom live and maybe present a lesson according to the environment in which they live.
For Life Orientation I could ask my learners in class to create a video that consists about the importance of being healthy or to present a presentation about health risk issues and to post it on Youtube and present it to my class. These are only a few ideas I just came up with as I red the articles, but I am very interested to search and explore many ways of using the social media as a tool to present my lessons.
This made me very curious on what type of social media tools I could use to present in class in my specified curriculum subject studies which is geography and life orientation. After reading the articles of both Provenzano and Davis in which their articles resolve around the use of social media in the classroom, it gave me some certain ideas on how I can actually use the social media to present a lesson. If you think about it today the social media are easy to be accessed by students in class while a teacher or lecturer is presenting even when they don't know of it. So why not make use of their easy access to the social media in class to present a lesson with relevance to your specified subject you present to learners?
In the article of Provezano there were mentioning of various methods of use of social media teachers use as a tool in their classes. One particular social media app that were mentioned that stood out for me was called "Remind". This app sounded very good to me as it is a one way communication system. This app allows teachers to send reminders or information regarding their work to their learners. However only the teacher can send messages and his/her's students cannot reply on the app, but only receive information.
Geography and Life Orientation is my curriculum study field and the subjects that I would like to teach and present. By using the social media as a tool to teach in class and present my lesson, it could potentially enhance the learning experience of my learners one day. In the field of geography technology already plays a major role in the development of the field. Examples of technological components or software that is being used in Geography is QGIS, GPS or GIS etc. Some of the social media tools in which I will use in Geography would be Facebook. Facebook allows us to see where people live and this is a good way for us to explore the different environments and residences where students live. By using Facebook I could get an indication where the learners in my classroom live and maybe present a lesson according to the environment in which they live.
For Life Orientation I could ask my learners in class to create a video that consists about the importance of being healthy or to present a presentation about health risk issues and to post it on Youtube and present it to my class. These are only a few ideas I just came up with as I red the articles, but I am very interested to search and explore many ways of using the social media as a tool to present my lessons.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)