Educational Psychology Reflection paper

As teachers, we will all be using a variety of strategies to assist us with instruction in the classroom. No longer can we rely simply on our perceived “intuition” to teaching, going in with blinders on and totally unprepared. The commander who goes into battle roughshod with no plans is surely doomed, as are all the unfortunate souls “privileged” to be serving under him. It’s important to note that many first year educators will be more concerned with the look of their teaching methods rather than whether or not the children are actually learning. Those students may be a useful stepping stone of experience for this teacher, but the disservice done to them later in life may be irreparable. In reality, the world of education is continually changing and we must be up to the challenge.
Part of being prepared, for me, has been the insights and lessons gained through Educational Psychology. These are important strategies that all teachers must be armed with long before entering the classroom doors that first fall. One strategy that I found particularly important is the fact that teachers must have an extensive grasp of students’ inclinations, behaviors and characteristics when developing and planning lessons. We must know where these young learners have come from to even begin to know where we can take them. This is where more informal assessment and formative evaluations can be the most helpful, identifying the students’ existing strengths and interests and the possibility of mastering new and challenging skills before a unit has even begun. Another positive assessment strategy is the use of portfolios, which is a collection of a student’s work systematically over a lengthy period of time. Writing samples, specific projects, audio and video tapes, art pieces, or combinations of all of these can be a great way of determining a learner’s improvement over time. This is particularly useful for students who learn differently and excel in areas other than the sometimes dreaded standardized test. In my own classroom, I would not hesitate to use these tools in an attempt to reach every single child. It also could be a much more accurate reflection for next year’s teacher to study over and see progresses that a student has made. This can be much more informative than a simple letter grade. The fact that Susan got a “C” in Reading last year doesn’t tell me much, nor does it give me any clue what interests she has that I might capitalize on in future lessons. Sometimes it is the landmarks that tell us more of where we are going than a confusing map, no matter how detailed it is. When it comes to educating, can we really risk losing even one on the battlefield due to poor planning practices? The article on “Grades That Sabotage Good Teaching” was particularly fascinating. I had never thought of the fact that some teachers might see a classroom full of “A’s” as failure, because it meant that their class work was just too easy or that they were teaching a “skate course”. While no educator wants to hand out excellent grades like they’re handing out candy or stickers, surely we should never strive to fail some students who are struggling just to make our classes look challenging. “Only the strongest survive” should never be an over reaching motto for teachers. It is our destiny to make them as strong and capable as they can possibly be. We are, after all, preparing them for battles all their own. When they are lost and without a map, we should have made sure we taught them about road signs. I believe we should set high expectations so that the students reach further than they ever thought possible, but never so far that they fall and never make the attempt to get up again. Then they have given up, and we have lost them forever. This is the definition of tragedy. At that point it may not be they who have lost, but we as the teachers. Loser lose all.
These lessons relate very well to the teacher characteristics outlined for students in the College of Education’s conceptual framework. Teacher candidates are to be proactive, meaning that they make decisions prior to a problem escalating or causing further damage. This can be seen in the lesson of teachers first considering students’ behaviors and characteristics before lesson planning, and using this information when designing curriculum for a particular class. By gaining an in-depth knowledge of the individual skills and needs of those learners entering the classroom, the educator has not only proactively enhanced learning and mastery, but has shown empathy for each child’s particular circumstance. The teacher has also entered the school year as an adaptive advocate for learning, which is really what we should always be. The lesson and planning time was not simply an innocuous “cookie cutter” format for whatever class might come in to learn, but was specifically tailored for the needs of these specific young minds. There may also come a time, later in the year or even earlier, when it becomes apparent that the class is not moving as fast as the teacher had hoped for in a particular lesson. This would surely be another instance when the wise teacher, in spite of having a set time and plan to finish a unit, would pull back and allow them to catch up, adapting material for that particular circumstance. This may pay off in dividends later, and the child who at that one moment would have turned wrong and never came back, might just have been saved. The wise axiom “none should be lost” will be written upon every true teacher’s heart, always. The descriptor of leader would be in the forefront of the lesson on grades sabotaging good teaching. A true leader, which is at the heart of the best of teachers, knows that it is best to put the interests of others first. In this case, we must not worry about how an all “A” class makes our ego look to others in the school. Clearly if the material is too elementary we must change it, but if they all excel it is our duty to rejoice, for we can know that our job was well done. We are to be advocates for our students, leading them to better things- but we should never take the role of an adversary. This was not put in our job description, and it was never intended to be.
The goals of education should be to make students strive to do their best, and to give them the best tools to do so. Those in class today will be voting and politically involved tomorrow, so it behooves us to turn our country’s future over to the best and the brightest. It also makes sense to prepare learners for the very real notion that in rough economies, the more educated a person is the better their life will be. The playing field is slanted, but it can be slanted in their favor. It’s simply not enough to go out into the world of today with just a high school diploma or a GED. Struggling job markets demand greater education, sometimes in any field. Teachers can be role models of excellence for these young minds, but it will also be up to the community and to parents to point them on the right path. Every choice, every wrong turn, every missed opportunity will have a consequence- some so much so that they will never get that chance ever again. The key is to supply students with an internal compass- always pointing in the right direction. They may turn wrong occasionally, but with the foundations that we have laid out for them, they should always be able to turn back again. Sadly, some just will not be saved, no matter what we have done, because of individual choices. As teachers, however, we must go in every day with the knowledge that all can be saved, and we must never rest until every tool has been given, every strategy tried, every last hope has been exhausted. Sometimes even when there is no compass, no map, and no way back from where these children have gone, there may just be something we have taught them once that will lead them up and out. The commander going into battle will one day find in wonderful surprise that so many of his unit have returned to him, not because they instinctively knew the way or because they had a map in hand, or even because they knew all the answers to every test he had given them, but because he had taught them to look for the road signs. In the end, it made all the difference.