KNOWING WHO YOU ARE BEFORE YOU CAN KNOW THE LEARNER

Students are diverse with various needs and talents.  I believe an effective teacher needs to understand that we are all wired differently but with the same underlying longings to be fulfilled.  We need to appreciate that each learner has a desire to be valued, challenged and encouraged.   As a beginning teacher, we need to be aware that our view of the learners that are before us, impact how we engage and educate the students.

Van Brummelen (2002) describes how our learning strategies need to consider that the learner is a unique reflection of God, created to love and serve God and others.  Teachers are called to provide learning which enables students to utilise and grow their unique gifts.

There are a range of learning theories and styles, a few being Vygotsky who believed that knowledge is social and is formed through interaction with others (Fraser & Hill, 2015). Jean Piaget believed development is a sequential process.  He stated that, as children mature, they become more capable of learning from their actions and are more effective at interacting with others and their surroundings (Dymoke, 2008).  Abraham Maslow believed in everyone having a ‘hierarchy of needs’, where potential for learning can be developed depending on whether their needs are being met (Fraser & Hill, 2015).

There are various learning styles which include visual, auditory/ musical, verbal, written, physical/ kinaesthetic, social, solitary, logical/ mathematical and having a combination of these.  I don’t believe there is solely one learning theory or learning style that should be used in the classroom.  As we are diverse beings created to reflect a loving, productive and creative God (Genesis 1:27), we are to acknowledge that we are all made with different characteristics, attributes and plans.  The teacher’s responsibility should be to encourage the unique learners that are before them to be secure in who they are by valuing who they are, one strategy would be the use of differentiation in the class to suit the diverse learners.

I agree with most learning theorists like Vygotsky, Maslow, Piaget and Bruner (Barker), as they have valid points but I tend to lean more on Vygotsky because being Pasifika, living and learning in a social environment is embedded in our culture.  Teaching out of who I am is crucial to the learning experience (Graham, 2009), instead of trying to imitate someone else who does not share the same values, gifts and characteristics as myself would do injustice to the learner and who God created me to be. 

This learning theory fits nicely with my subject area of social studies which analyses “how societies work and how people can participate as critical, active, informed, and responsible citizens” (Ministry of Education, 2007).  The theory that we learn in a social context where we study people, places and the relationships between them is what Vygotsky had proposed earlier. This can be used in our subject area by drawing on the past, present and future viewing how people and places change in relation to each other.

Knowing who you are and why you teach the way you do is a great tool for refining your craft of teaching, building wisdom as described by (Fraser & Hill, 2015) “thinking about how we teachers generate our own theories-in-action” (p.23).  When we are effective at relating to others, we develop our own identity through this engagement.  Our students are at a stage in life where they are searching for their own identity.  When we are genuine in our teaching, we can expect the students to reciprocate this in our relationship.  As the teacher continues to reflect upon their pedagogy and what influences this, they are able to build a firmer foundation of who they are, creating a strong identity of who they are in order to teacher from this, building resiliency and self-efficacy.

References

Dymoke, S. (2008). An overview of learning. In S. Dymoke & J. Harrison (Eds.), Reflective teaching and learning (pp. 45-68). London, England: Sage.

Fraser, D. & Hill, M. (2015). The professional practice of teaching (5th ed.). Wellington, New Zealand: Cengage.

Graham, D. L. (2009). Teaching redemptively: Bringing grace and truth into your classroom (2nd ed.) [Kindle version]. Colorado Springs, CO: Purposeful Design.

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Van Brummelen, H. (2009). Walking with God in the classroom (3rd ed.). Colorado Springs, CO: Purposeful Design.