How my schooling encouraged me / did not encourage me to work things out for myself in my own way.

 According to constructivism way of learning, people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. So knowledge is created not acquired that way we are active creators of our own knowledge. To do this, we must ask questions, explore, and assess what we know.  

Reflecting on how I was schooled, right from primary level the teachers of English used to give us English books and we ready stories on our own and we were required to answer some questions from what we had read and this made us think on our own. My mathematics teachers used to give  me numbers to do on my own and if I failed them , he could always guide me and tell me to do them again on own which I believe made me feel part of Mathematics and finally become even a Mathematics teacher. In secondary I did many subjects and for science subjects the teachers used to take us to the LAB and I was able to carry out Physics, chemistry and biology practical’s on my own. Our physics teacher used to group us and give us work do  in groups and then we had to discuss those numbers in front of the class, he also used to give us a tip of the next lesson and he could tell us to go and make summarized notes from the library books. It helped to pass physics.

However to some extent apart from the science subjects which do have a practical paper most of the lessons where teacher – centred. No practical part of it. It was teacher coming in , good morning , where did we end , let us continue.  I remember teachers used to give us notes after notes and we had to read that for exams. There is an exam we set and I gave a different definition of a certain term in Biology which I had read from a certain book I got in the school library the teacher crossed it and when I requested him to check it out in that book, he just said I WANT THE DEFINITION I GAVE YOU IN THE NOTES ONLY. This made me feel I can’t do anything on my own apart from what the teachers have given me. It was not right.

Using my strengths in my teaching

“Intelligence is the capacity to do something useful in the society in which we live. Intelligence is the ability to respond successfully to new situations and the capacity to learn from one’s past experiences.”
—Dr. Howard Gardner

Some of my unique mix of intelligence include;

 Interpersonal

I love working  with a friend and then spend time explaining what we have learnt to   someone else

 Mathematical-Logical

I like  diagrams/lists

I like using memory maps and spider diagrams.

I prefer summarising  topics .

Physical

I love seeing theories in in  picture form , games

I like moving  around when  learning, reciting things like an actor!

     Intrapersonal

I tend to create conversations inside my head about what I am trying to learn

    In my classes  I  use this theory to teach to every student’s unique intelligence

    combination by

1.             Integrating multiple approaches to Physics concepts. I  set up ‘learning centers’ where students approach material in different ways, such as building models, making collaborative decisions, solving deductive reasoning problems, and illustrating.

2.    Asking different questions. For example after reading about a concept in Physics, I  ask students “questions about what they remember (Mastery), questions that require explaining and proving (Understanding), questions that require the use of their imagination (Self-Expressive), or questions that invite students to reflect on and share their feelings (Interpersonal).

3.    Making models to help in explaining some concepts.

4    I always include a demonstration and experiments using the locally available materials in most of my Physics lessons and I always see them excited when they the principle demonstrated and I make sure it is one of the learners to carry out the demonstration.

5      I have also started using Videos, and audio explanations to cater for the linguistic intelligence.

6     I encourage them to collaborate and share always their experiences.

Some of the ways of knowing my students' mix of intelligences better is by integrating multiple approaches in my instructional teaching materials.

Discovering their unique mix of intelligence guides me to fit them exactly where they can fully reveal their potentials. For example in case there is a diagram to draw, those who are physical I encourage them to come out and draw a diagram on the blackboard. Those who are good with numbers , I encourage them to come up and calculate a number on the blackboard ,or in groups .

“As free human beings we can use our unique intelligence to try to understand ourselves and our world. But if we are prevented from using our creative potential, we are deprived of one of the basic characteristics of a human being.”    Dalai Lama XIV

LEARNING EXPERIENCES PROMOTES REAL LEARNING

CREATING LEARNING EXPERIENCES IN CLASS.

Authentic learning is real life learning. It is a style of learning that encourages students to create a tangible, useful product to be shared with their world. Once an educator provides a motivational challenge, they nurture and provide the necessary criteria, planning, timelines, resources and support to accommodate student success. The teacher becomes a guide on the side or an event manager, a facilitator not a dictator. Processes become the predominant force and the content collected is organized appropriately into portfolios.

Instead of vicariously discussing topics and regurgitating information in a traditional industrial age modality, authentic learning provides a learner with support to achieve a tangible, useful product worth sharing with their community and their world.

So in order for real learning to take place learners need to go through experiences to enhance it.

As teacher I have tried to create learning experiences in my classes by;

Encouraging collaboration among students, this I have seen it produce positive results. The learner when I give them tasks and in groups encourage them to collaborate the work is always done in time.

 Encouraging students to be innovative, this helps them to be creative and makes them creators.

I always set tasks that encourage creative thinking rather than just cramming.

To promote authentic learning experiences, as a Physics teacher I try in my lessons to always relate the Physics concepts to the real daily life situations.

By inspiring, mentaling them to be self-reliant rather than just looking at the teacher as the sole sources of knowledge.

Apart from imparting knowledge and skills, teachers also help children to define who they are. From daily interactions with teachers, children learn whether they are important or insignificant, bright or slow, liked or disliked. Teachers transmit these messages by the way they speak to children, their facial expressions and gestures, and by the amount of time they devote to each individual learner. Often teachers point out students’ deficiencies more than praising them for their efforts and (small) improvements.

To be successful as a teacher, I must attend to what students do, what they say and how they perform. Teachers should observe children’s reactions in class to find out whether they are ‘getting across’ to them. Thus, teaching is not a matter of reading from a textbook, or dictating notes, but a participatory process. Teachers rely on a variety of ‘signals’ from their students. ‘Eyes on’ behavior means students are paying attention. Squirming behavior means they are tired or bored. Affirmative nods of the head mean they follow and understand; puzzled looks mean they are confused……

Such characteristics of quality teachers almost always have to do with a teacher’s ability to relate to students as individuals in a positive way, treating them with respect, making lessons interesting and varied, providing encouragement and telling them to believe in themselves and their own abilities. This means that positive teacher-student relations and classroom climate must be important factors influencing how children experience school. 

How I immediately create authentic learning Experiences in my classes. 

• I give them tasks that require them to relate the physics concepts to their daily life experiences.
• I give them hands on tasks where they always carry out an experiment on their own and after they answer some questions depending on what they have observed in the experiment.
• I encourage the students to verbalize their knowledge and thinking.
• I give them opportunity to reflect on their learning. 
• I give tasks and encourage them to collaborate to construct the solutions. 

HOW REAL LEARNING TAKES PLACE

Sylvia's experience of learning English is a great lesson to any one who is looking for real learning.
For in her video she shares how she didn't know English and yet in the class that is what her teachers used as a means of communication , but her testimony shows that she was ready to learn and was not ashamed to ask . she opened up and started with the little she knew.
Through constant practice she was able to learn. The teachers also were of a great help they never denied her they took her in and never gave up on her.

HOW WAS IT FOR ME?

Real Learning is caused by experiences and I have many experiences having gone through different levels of learning, but I wish to share with you my experiences with CCTI.

CCTIonline  is an online course  that trains the teachers in integrating education with technology .

After  being  enrolled  for this course it was my first time to do an online course  and it all looked at first mystery to me , you know just sitting there  on the laptop or computer   and receive instructions from the tutor miles away  just online, I had to adjust , change my attitude and get ready for the change.

I had to learn how to interpret the questions in the absence of the tutor, it is at this point that I thank our tutor Mr Ngcobo Senzo , for though all instructions where online they were very clear , and the questions where calling for critical thinking which really helped me to learn how to stand on my own in learning what I was required to learn.

There is, for example  when it came to opening up a blog , YouTube channel  , cu ration site , I knew nothing about these . When it came to the final assignment where we had to create a multimedia presentation, it was another challenge because we had to use programs like PowerPoint, movie maker, but I was not well conversant with it , so I started browsing the net and finally I was able to produce a presentation.     I learnt a lot  through the guidance  and encouragement of my tutor and my colleagues like Geoffrey , Margaret , Patricia and others.  And I will never forget that experience it made me feel, Yes one can really learn by being ignited and this creates creators.