Assignment One: What do I hope to achieve as a “teacher”, both for myself and the students in my classes?

In order to reflect effectively on my hopes for achievement as a “teacher”, for both myself and my students, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the nature of teaching and learning, its purpose in our society, and also my personal motivations for becoming a teacher. Once this has been achieved I can define my goals as a teacher, also touching briefly on my role as School Counsellor, and for my students.

According to Connell (1985) the nature of “teaching (involves) a labour process without an object…it has an object so intangible – the minds of the kids, or their capacity to learn – that it cannot be specified…” It is difficult to commit to any specific meaning of teaching and learning as Bettina Alt suggested, “I don’t know enough about what I’m doing. I don’t really know how to teach, except by the feel; because I don’t really know how people learn. I don’t think anybody does.” (Connell, 1985) Connell (1985) also suggests the use of collective instruction as a method of teaching. It involves, “the content to be learnt being decided in advance of the lesson… The kids in the room learning the same material at the same time… Only one focus of attention in the room and a pupil whose attention wanders may be criticized… The material is then expanded by the teacher and worked over by the kids.” I believe this is a very narrow and outdated idea of the craft of teaching and there is now much more involved then just teaching the content of a subject.

This is my attempt to define the nature of teaching and learning. I see the characteristics of teaching being to communicate: the knowledge of subjects (e.g. Maths, Science, English), and the knowledge of moral behaviour and norms of behaviour accepted in our society; in a way that will enable students to internalize that information. Internalizing information is part of learning which involves understanding the knowledge that has been conveyed, seeing its purpose and being able to put it in to practice. Another area of teaching involves a balance of both the discipline and nurture of the students. This aids in the development of respect between the teacher and the classmates which I believe is the key to the success of communication in learning. Learning, however, is not only a transaction from the teacher to the class. They both need to engage in reflection in order to improve their personal knowledge of themselves and their worlds and to accept new ideas, situations and people. Combined, teaching and learning make up the schooling process.

The purpose of schooling, I see as a two-sided coin, especially in the new millennium, as society is relying more strongly on educators as socializing agents. After reflection on the nature of teaching and learning one can see that the schooling process is responsible for the facilitation of the knowledge necessary for a students future career and also to foster in a student the attitudes and skills necessary to become an independent adult who makes a positive contribution to society. That is, preparing students to function effectively in both their working and social lives as adults. Schooling is a tool of socialization and teachers are being forced to take on more and more of the responsibility for this task as the family unit breaks down (Between 1981 and 1996, the proportion of families with children aged 0-14 in which both parents worked increased by 13 percentage points, from 41% to 54%.(ABS, 1997) Over recent decades, divorce rates have risen and increasing numbers of adults live as single parents or by themselves (ABS, 1999)). Parents are now stepping back and playing less of a role in their children’s development leaving teachers with more control over the futures of the Australian youth, preparing them for their roles as adults.

In light of the nature and purpose of schooling it is possible now to reflect on my motivations for becoming a teacher. What compels me to the teaching field, and particularly school counselling, is an innate sense that part of my purpose in life is to help people. In my own small way I want to make a positive contribution to someone else’s life. Being a teacher is an excellent way to achieve my purpose, particularly in this changing world were a lot of the responsibilities fall to the teacher to develop the students both personally and academically. I will be able to contribute to the betterment of young peoples lives and, as these young people are in charge of the future of our country, in an indirect way I may be shaping a better country. However, my motivation to go to work as a teacher everyday would be to simply help one student make it successfully into the adult world. That would be enough.

Helping people by becoming a teacher is what I hope to achieve as a person, but there are a number of goals I would like to achieve as a teacher. For myself I would like to be an approachable and trustworthy teacher. I would want the students to know that I am a reliable and willing source of knowledge and support. I would try to achieve this goal by making myself as available as possible to the students, staff and parents. I would get involved in the running of extracurricular activities in order to show my commitment and support to the school and its students. Unfortunately there is a problem with this. A teacher doesn’t want to over fill their schedule or “the thought of going to bed early in the first weeks of school may disappear as you wish for more hours of the day and night.” A teacher should “plan to set aside time during (their) day for recreational types of activities.” (Arnold, 2001) I teacher can only dedicate so much time to the students so I would make it clear that I was available but within boundaries.

Another goal would be to manage a controlled classroom. Classroom management “consists of all the provisions and procedures necessary to maintain an environment in which instruction and learning can occur.” (Clark & Starr, 1991) To achieve this I would have boundaries in place, but one’s agreed upon by the students. Both Arnold (2001), Clark and Starr (1991) make this same suggestion to allow “the students (to) participate in developing their own standards of behaviour.” It is also suggested that these rules be keep simple, reasonable, flexible and too the minimum, “as rigid sets of rules tend to encourage rule breaking.” (Clark & Starr, 1991) Consistency is also important when it come to classroom management as highlighted by Arnold (2001), “it is your responsibility to make sure that the atmosphere of the classroom is one of respect, fairness and consistency for each student.” Students may respond to inconsistencies in the teachers’ behaviour and reactions in class. All students should be treated in the same way. As a teacher I would try to avoid having a ‘teachers pet’ so as to avoid alienating other members of the class.

I would want the classroom to be an open area for discussion. “In a true discussion, all members of the group think for themselves, and all have a chance to express an opinion, no matter how unpopular the position may be…The discussion process – including as it does, defining, applying, modifying, explaining, and reworking ideas – gives students the opportunity to develop concepts with deep personal meaning.” (Clark & Starr, 1991) The students should also be able to use discussion to share any strengths or weaknesses they see in my teaching style so that I am able to reflect on these and become the most effective teacher that I can be. Arnold (2001) uses, what she calls the ‘Student and Teacher Bad Day Diagram’, to review, modify and change in order to improve classroom behaviour. I would also hope that as a teacher I would be able to engage my students in the content of the subject being taught so that they get the most out of my knowledge. This is also a goal I would hope to achieve for the students.

As a teacher the ultimate goal I would set for the students would be for them to emerge from high school as independent, self-supporting and confident members of adult society, comfortable with their own individuality. A further goal would be to see the students learn to respect everyone and overcome their prejudices.

I hope to achieve these goals by conveying as much of my knowledge as I can to the students to prepare them to become insiders ( Insider – refers to the person who is familiar with or tutored in the subject matter, the specific language patterns and the discourse used by others in a particular community of language users. (Love et al. 2001)) of the adult discourse community (Discourse community – refers to the group of people who share the same beliefs and values, which are reflected to a certain extent in their various meaning-making systems. (Love et al. 2001)). This would involve engaging students, using scaffolding techniques ( Scaffolding – a process whereby an ‘expert’ effectively helps someone who is less expert to learn something new, whether this be a new concept, a new word or a new skill. For more details see reference. (Love et al. 2001)), and relating work content to real world experiences.

To build an atmosphere of respect I would begin by showing that I have respect for my-self by being appropriately groomed and carrying myself in a confident manner. It is important to “dress for success”. “You need to note the dress of your colleagues prior to the first day or week of classes … be sure to pay attention to your feet. A teacher walks and stands for hours before sitting down.” (Arnold, 2001) Wearing the wrong clothes would look very unprofessional and being in the wrong shoes, standing uncomfortably, could make you look less confident. I would then lead by example, showing the students respect and reflecting on my own prejudices to overcome them and avoid showing bias towards students. Groundwater – Smith et al. (2000) suggest this as a possibility of overcoming bias in the classroom. They argue that students of different backgrounds are disempowered in the classroom because Australian schools have been modelled on a white, middle-class, education system and student differences are not taken into consideration. The Australian Education Union (1999) suggests “that all schools examine their curriculum, school management and organization with a view to promoting social justice and enabling all students to learn from each others experience and culture.” I would not hide the cultural differences between students but highlight the similarities and hopefully through building respect in these young people it will be a step towards equality. This is in line with the views expressed by Arnold (2001) who said that, “The secondary teacher must embrace differences and not discourage … maintaining respect for all students in the secondary classroom is crucial to academic learning.”

The nature of teaching and learning is a challenging concept that may never be clearly defined and the purpose of schooling has changed as society has changed. In the current climate as a teacher I would hope that I could help my students be prepared for both the working and social world. I would do this by effectively providing them with the knowledge of subject content and the morals, values and norms of society. However, my foremost goal would be to create an atmosphere of respect for all students in the hope that they would carry this sense of equality into adulthood. This is what I hope to achieve as a “teacher”.

REFERENCES:

ABS – see Australian Bureau of Statistics

Arnold, H 2001, Succeeding in the secondary classroom: Strategies for middle and high school teachers, Corwin Press, USA. pp. 11, 14, 75 - 76

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2001, Australian Social Trends 1997 Family - Family Functioning: Families and work
< http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/DAAB7CD8F5C1854DCA2569BB00164F63?Open>

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2001, Australian Social Trends 1999 Family - Family Functioning: Spending time alone <http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/1BA33ACDD780285BCA25699F0005D61A?Open>

Australian Education Union 1999, Policy on Combating Racism, Australian Education Union, Southbank. <http://www.aeufederal.org.au/Policy/CombattingRacism1999.pdf>

Clark, L.H and Starr, I.S 1991, Secondary and middle school teaching methods, 6th edn, Macmillan, New York. pp. 98 – 104, 237

Connell, R.W 1985, Teachers’ Work, George Allen and Unwin, Sydney. pp. 69 - 82

Groundwater-Smith, S Brennan, M McFadden, M & Mitchell, J 2000, Secondary schooling in a changing world, Harcourt, Sydney.

Love, K Pigdon, K Baker, G & Hamston, J 2001, BUILT: building understanding in literacy and teaching, University of Melbourne, Melbourne. (CD-Rom)

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