aixeloucastillotalag-blog-blog

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LEARN TO TEACH, TEACH TO LEARN

As a current University Lecturer, I can personally relate when I read the first module about the Twelve Principles of Effective Learning and Teaching. Some of the principles learned from this module are already applied and there are some that need to be put in practice. After all, all these twelve principles should be observed for an effective learning and teaching.

Students learn in many ways and in different ways. They are unique with each other in terms of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics. And the combination of these KSAOs becomes their strengths and weaknesses that make them different in the way they learn. Therefore, teaching students according to their specific learning styles will result in improved learning.

I personally believe and experience that if students take responsibility of their own learning, the longer the retention of the learnings to them. When you let them be responsible of the things that they have to know, but with the proper guidance of the teacher, the more they understand the concepts because you are giving them freedom to do it on their own way which they think would be most effective for them. Learning is retained if they really put themselves to it.

As the leader of the classroom, I can set the mood and standards inside. If I want the class to be interactive, I make students recite and be participative. I expect them to be active in every meeting such as sharing their thoughts and perspectives about a certain topic, do collaborative or group activities, perform oral presentations, and the like. I provide them with a timeline of what needs to be accomplished including the criteria on how their performance will be assessed or evaluated. If I set the standards high, the more they put hard work and sense to what they are doing, and eventually get to see their fullest potential.

Giving feedback enables one determine his or her performance. Both the teacher and the learner should provide and receive feedback about one’s performance, so they can be able to identify if there are things that have to be addressed regarding each performance. In the case of the teacher, he or she should be aware of how he or she handles the class, the classroom and his or her students. Thus, necessary actions should be taken by the teacher for the improvement of his or her teaching. Likewise, the student should also receive feedback on a regular basis about his or her class performance, and progress once feedback is given. Through this, the student would know the areas that he or she has to work on. Receiving feedback is not a guaranteed correction or solution to one’s performance problems. Once the problem and reasons have been identified including the necessary actions that have to be taken, have also been acknowledged, the learner should be provided of the alternatives to correct or improve his or her performance. The teacher should help the learner to resource the actions or the means for the actions to be accomplished. For instance, both parties have mutually recognized that the learner has inconsistently been attending the class because he or she is a working student that leads to his or her poor class performance. Then, both parties have decided or agreed on the actions to be taken such as attend the class as scheduled, participate to class discussions whenever possible, submit deliverables on time, etc. The teacher should resource the actions such as allowing the learner to attend another time slot that could possibly fit the working schedule of the learner (this happens typically to teachers handling the same course/subject to different blocks/sections), give chance to still submit missed deliverables, have flexible consultation hours to accommodate students with concerns, and the like.