I always wanted to become an educator and this course made me so excited to practice teaching professionally. I was offered to become a Science teacher abroad 3 years ago and I turned it down because I feel that I am not yet ready. I know that despite my qualifications that there is something missing and I do not want to practice or influence young students who might feel demotivated if I am not a good teacher.
This course made me realize a lot of things that I can easily relate to. Some of the things that I have learned here were part of my everyday life. I have learned how the learning theories affects learning processes and how we can incorporate these theories to improve our teaching methods, content, assessments and learning processes.
I have been an English teacher for Japanese students for 3 years and now that I feel that I am equipped with the knowledge that will be helpful when I design my instructions, I know that I will be a more effective teacher. I will employ all the learning theories and will apply it depending on the subject matter or content and the background of the students. Occasionally I think that behavioral learning can be effective if done properly and balance is always the key. I will be more of a constructivist type of educator as I believe that students need to be able to relate new information to their existing knowledge so they can understand the concepts better and reach equilibration. I will also take advantage of information processing theories so the students will know how they can remember important concepts better and how they should organize and prioritize information with the help of specific, achievable and time-bound learning objectives which promotes higher order thinking skills. I will always also try my best to be a professional teacher so the students will respect and listen to me which is past of the social learning theory. I will introduce social collaboration so they can also learn from MKOs (the more knowledgeable others).
The issue that we have is that a lot of teachers have a lot of qualifications in various subject matters, but they did not study professional teaching. Although this will be easy to learn if the teachers have mastery of the subject this course also gives them the foundation to design instructions and update the curriculum because they will know how to provide guided opportunities for the learners to achieve their maximum learning potential. I will suggest that the government should require teachers to undergo professional teaching courses with emphasis on curriculum, various forms of assessments and learning theories, so they will be able to facilitate learning that promotes not only summative grades but various learning outcomes which might be different with each student. Every student has unique learning styles and capabilities and they need to feel accepted and challenged within their own limits.
Eunice Abadicio 