Educators demonstrate a broad knowledge base and an understanding of areas they teach.
Educators understand the curricular, conceptual and methodological foundations of education and of the subject area they teach. My understanding of standard 6 as one which guides educators to have a varied yet strong pedagogical foundation behind the material taught and the method of implementation. In combination with a thorough knowledge on the specific subject matter being thought, educators can make knowledgeable and informed decisions with a strong experiential basis. It is through this way that educators are able to ensure the best possible learning experience for students.
The artifacts that best represents this standard is on topic of teaching science. First of all, the package lay out the ministry prescribed learning outcomes. Then it draws on various forms of research that suggest different approaches science. Finally, it provides concrete and experiential examples of how science lessons could possibly look like when the theory is put together with ministry objectives. It also exemplifies the aspects of having a broad knowledge base in utilizing theoretical grounding as well as showing an understanding of the subject are in the form of displaying ministry Prescribed Learning Outcomes (PLOs) and possible methods of implementation.
My approach to teaching has evolved considerably into viewing teaching as planning towards completing or going beyond the PLOs and using pedagogy as a means to accomplishing that. As a result, I believe this artifact is one of the many instances which have shown me the importance of basing teaching upon established and well researched theory.
My purpose towards being an educator is not only to know the content being taught and using a teaching method to transfer this knowledge of the subject matter to students, but to use theoretical knowledge to make decision on teaching. It is just as important to firmly know why I’m teaching this material, why I’m employing a particular method, why I’m assessing using a particular method, and why students respond to my decisions the way they do. This is where an in-depth understanding of a broad variety of educational theory will allow me to answer all the “why” queries and this result in effective choices being made.
To accomplish this I will strive to consistently and continue to read research and theories related to the profession of education. Even more practically, I will undoubtedly attend workshops and professional development seminars to keep updated to new developments in the field of education. This, I fell will broaden my knowledge on the what, how, and why I teach any particular lesson.
