Understanding Your Students: The Role of Reflective Teaching in Diverse Learning Environments
Reflective teaching is essential for educators to adapt their instruction based on student needs. Moving away from traditional methods, teachers should engage students actively in learning, using their experiences to tailor lessons. This approach addresses diverse learning styles and abilities, employing effective strategies such as remediation and compensation. By understanding multiple intelligences, teachers can create inclusive environments that leverage peer interactions, minimize biases, and encourage cooperation. The goal is to foster an equitable learning space where all students can thrive.
Understanding Your Students: The Role of Reflective Teaching in Diverse Learning Environments
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Presentation Transcript
Understanding Your Students Brian Parr- The University Of Georgia
The Reflective Teacher • Students were thought of as empty vessels -“Tabula Rosa” Teachers were the source of knowledge and it was the student’s responsibility to learn.
The Reflective Teacher • The reflective teacher constantly evaluates the effectiveness of their instruction. • Then adapt their instruction to the needs of their students. • Draw on the experiences of the students • Deemphasize lecture and encourage student involvement. • Poor Scholar Soliloquy
Adaptive Teaching • Achieving a common instructional goal with learners of differing learning styles, abilities, etc. • 2 effective approaches • Remediation Approach • Compensatory Approach
Remediation • Effort is made to level the playing field. • Review of math skills before you teach a lesson that involves math.
Compensatory Approach • Method “compensates” for lack of ability or knowledge among students. • Group work • Visuals • Authentic Situations
Intelligence???Howard GardnerFrames of Mind (1983) Challenged that “intelligence could be objectively measured and reduced to a single number or “IQ” score MA 12 ma 12 ma IQ = ------- IQ=100 ------ IQ=133 ------- PA 12 pa 9 pa
Environment vs. Heredity • Are learners born or made? • Language in the homes of minorities. • Can you make up for bad genes??
The Eight Intelligences • Linguistic Intelligence - the capacity to use words effectively, either orally or in writing. • Logical-Mathematical Intelligence - the capacity to use numbers effectively and reason well • Spatial Intelligence - the ability to perceive the visual-spatial world accurately and perform transformations upon those perceptions
Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence - expertise in using one’s body to express ideas and feeling. • Musical Intelligence - the capacity to perceive, discriminate, transform, and express musical forms. • Interpersonal Intelligence - the ability to perceive and make distinctions in the moods, intentions, motivations, and feelings of others.
Intrapersonal - self knowledge and the ability to act adaptively on the basis of that knowledge.
Naturalist Intelligence- observing, understanding, and organizing patterns in the natural environment.
Sternberg’s Definition • Intelligence is the ability to learn and think using previously discovered patterns and relationships to solve new problems in unfamiliar contexts.
Peer Groups • Build groups from different peer groups. • Use students as mentors for less mature. • Build students up to each other before forming groups.
Systems-Ecological Perspective The learner’s behavior is a product of multiple influences that may be conflicting.
Biases in the Classroom • Expectations- The self-fulfilling prophesy. • Tigers, Cardinals and Clowns.
Eliminating Bias • Spread interactions evenly. • Give special assignments randomly. • Pair opposites.
