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Learner name:
Salwa Khan
Issue date:
1st August 2015
Submitted on:
1st October 2015
Evidence submitted
Page numbers or
description
Example
Report / Essay
Question 1: part 1
Question 1: part 2
Individual research
Collective answers of
teachers
Question 1: part 3
Question 1: Part 1
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I certify that the work submitted for this assignment is my own. I have clearly
referenced any sources used in the work. I understand that false declaration is a
form of malpractice.
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Date:
ABSTRACT
In this paper I will attempt to analyze the application of pedagogical principlesas
well as evaluate the effectiveness of use of creative and innovative approaches
in my teaching. I will also attempt to communicate with learners and other
learning professionals to meet individual learning needs and encourage
progression. Finally I will discuss how my own practice in planning inclusive
teaching and learning has taken account of theories, principles, and models of
learning, communication and assessment.
INTRODUCTION
Pedagogy according to Dictionary.com is defined as " 1.
the function or work of a teacher; teaching.
2. the art or science of teaching; education; instructional methods." In simpler
language pedagogy is defined as" many different types and variations in
teaching." (What is Pedagogy?, 2015) That said there are a variety of ways that
a teacher can teach her students and many ways in which a learner can learn.
"Learning is more effective when learners are actively engaged in the process of
learning." (K.P.Mohanan)
Part 1
During the course of my teaching planning and implementing my lessons using
Gardner's MI theory has helped me greatly in keeping my students engaged and
through the use of various creative activities.
The learning of my students is made more effective by keeping them motivated
through creative and innovative approaches. In order to evaluate the
effectiveness of use of creative and innovative approaches I must first specify my
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learners. My students belong to two different age groups one group which is my
ESL group ranges from the age of 18-24. These are a group of young Saudi girls
all taught in Saudi schools with Arabic as their medium of instruction and
memorization and drill as their most often method of teaching. The second
group is aged 9-10, whose mode of instruction has been completely in English.
In both groups the need to keep the learners interested, motivated and focused
on task is great as in the first group the lack of understanding English proves to
be an obstacle while in the second the age group itself does not allow for a
didactic approach of long, winding, explanations on any subject.
Bearing in mind the importance of autonomous learning, a lot of my teaching is
project based. For this, the students are either allowed to work individually, in
pairs, or as groups. This allows for both interpersonal and intrapersonal
intelligences to foster as well as reducing the monotony of listening to a lecture.
Through research work, my learners are able to learn not only the content
needed to be researched but they gain additional knowledge while conducting
their research.
At the very beginning of the term these students first need tobe told of
importance of group work and why it is an integral part of their learning
experience. Since these students are used to rote learning and memorization
any new approach or in this case working collaboratively is not considered
'educational' and students use the time allotted to work in groups in the
classroom as time to socialize with their friends and speak in Arabic.So, first and
foremost they need to understand relevance of any activity be it working in
collaboration with a partner or with a group and how it relates to their learning.
In terms of personal development I observed my students to be lacking in
direction and purpose in life so to introduce them to the existential questions
such as 'Who am I?' and 'What is my purpose in life?' I prepared a short lesson
plan. Rather than just discuss or give a lecture on improving sense of self, I
decided to utilize a lesson plan created by another instructor, which consisted of
playing a video of a song by a famous singer ZainBikha"This is Me" and using it
to open first a discussion in groups then as a class on what they believe is
special about themselves and others and consider answers to the question of
what they could do to make a difference in their world. After the discussion the
students were asked to write a statement about themselves on a post-it and take
it and post on a wall outside of class. They were also encouraged to read the
other students' responses and reflect upon them. This activated their
interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, musical, existential and bodily kinesthetic
intelligences.
Students tend to enjoy hands-on activities particularly those which do not appear
to be from their books. So instead of asking students to complete matching
exercises in the book I photocopied the exercises, cut up the parts to be
matched. I then asked students either in pairs or in groups to physically match
the exercises. These ranged from vocabulary, word-meaning, to completing
sentences. Although it was the same information as in students' books
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video again and asked to use their vocabulary words to describe the
advertisement. Another example of using videos is while explaining genres and
using adjectives to describe different movies learners were shown video clips of
different movies (eg. IRobot for science fiction, Ta ash ba Ta ash , a local program
for comedy)and later asked to retell and explain the events seen using relevant
vocabulary. To reinforce a grammar lesson, learners asked to search for a video
on youtube and play and explain to class about the grammar.
For an activity for adjectives students were given a scenario of a hit and run
driver. (Road accidents being quite common in Saudi Arabia) Students were
asked to draw and describe the perpetrator (some decided to draw the cars as
well) using vocabulary learnt on adjectives. This also enabled new learning as
certain adjectives were added to their present list(eg. Long, curly, hair).
For a unit on food, students were asked to prepare a menu card for their own
restaurant, quoting their food served with the prices. They were also asked to do
presentations on presenting a cooked meal from home informing the class about
both the method(using ordinal numbers and transitional language) and the
ingredients.
Students are generally not very keen on participating in role plays. For future
use, I plan to have one lesson on constructing puppets and having students
utilizing them occasionally to bring a variation to role-plays done from their text
books.
Part 2)
Teaching and learning is promoted not only by creative and innovative
approaches but also by effective communication.
One important aspect I learned to encourage progression is to make sure
Learning outcomes are very clear. For example, in one specific term, when
students first started the term they were expected to study from Total English
Book and learning and progression was assessed by its unit and progress tests.
They were able to do reasonably well in their unit tests as most of it was written
test, their speaking was not assessed in the test and it was a form of testing that
the students were used to doing. Teachers were instructed to teach grammar
inductively through activities rather than making grammar an exact focus of
teaching. However, the students were later informed they would be tested
withina two month time period on KET exam a British Exam of which they had no
previous knowledge or preparation and which consisted of Reading and Writing,
Listening and Speaking Parts. This test was extremely difficult as all the nine
parts included in the exam were very difficult for their level of understanding. Its
primary focus was on grammar whereas previously the students had been
focusing on basic conversation skills and functional language required for
vocational students.
Practicing each part of the test separately helped some students however the
majority of the class thought it too challenging. Some of them realized they could
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not pass the test, were demotivated and absences in class became frequent.
Those that did come to class were less confident and less interested in the
lessons than before. In order to improve this situation teachers were later
informed by the college that students that are not able to pass the KET exam will
be given another chance to provided they observe punctuality and regular
attendance. This brought up the attendance percentage as well as helped to
build up more interest in class.
Learning outcomes need to be clear from the outset. For example, in writing if
they are expected towrite a paragraph these learners need to have specific
information of what is expected from them in their paragraph, what the criteria
for assessment will be.Generally in preparatory year programs the learners are
required to write a paragraph on a given topic from the book. For their KET exam
they are required to write either an email, a short note or notices. There are
three specific questions that they are required to answer. As long as the learner
answers the three questions correctly in terms of context they will be awarded
their marks and any small grammatical errors will not lead to marks deduction.
Rather than trying to write paragraphs on topics of "My Best Friend" or "My
House," as they had been used to previously and trying to formulate answers
with perfect grammatical structures the learners were able to focus on the
requirements for the KET Exam and the context of their writing.
Nearly all learners in my class did not have email addresses, rather they all used
the WatsApp application on their phones. So another method of improving
communication with students was usingwatsapp for feedback from students
about any part of lesson that they needed more understanding in or reminding
them about due date for presentations.
Also, usage of watsap promotes openness in communication with students. For
example, if a particular student felt uncomfortable when I asked her in front of
other students to focus on her work rather than talking in her group, she later
sent me a message that she did not like to be admonished in front of other
students and I kept a mental note of that. I was only keeping note of
absenteeism and punctuality in written form, in the future I will keep a written
note of such student behavior and add it to my personal reflections for lessons.
Upon communication with other professionals I learned that most behavior issues
occur due to lack of discipline and educational focus. To overcome this factor the
teacher needs to make the class more enjoyable.
According to another educator one of her students had a tendency for tardiness
and verbal warning were proving ineffective. Besides the college policy of
considering the student absent after a certain number of tardy, the instructor
allowed the student to make up the missed time by having her write as an
assignment the reasons for being late as well as what could be done to resolve
those issues. Eventually, this helped in promoting punctuality as that student
enjoy any kind of writing assignments.
understanding of English was limited and for them to provide me with an answer
they usually thought of it in L1, translated it, then formulated the response. I
tried to limit my questions first and then either let them discuss the answer in
pairs or at least provide them with a minute to formulate their answer and then
allow them to answer. This technique helped in assessing my students more
accurately.
What is Pedagogy? (2015, jun 16). Retrieved jun 16, 2015, from Boundless.com:
ttps://www.boundless.com/education/textbooks/boundless-educationtextbook/curriculum-and-instructional-design-3/instructional-design14/what-is-pedagogy-48-12978/
G. Olsen, M. F. (2010, July 20). The Benefits of Parent Involvement: What
Research Has to Say. Retrieved Jun 18, 2015, from Education.com:
http://www.education.com/reference/article/benefits-parent-involvementresearch/
K.P.Mohanan. (n.d.). Learning Outcomes, Pedagogical. Retrieved jun 15, 2015,
from PBL in Perspective:
http://www.cdtl.nus.edu.sg/publications/pbl/outcomes.htm