EDCI 5065 Week 2

If students are allowed to and feel comfortable developing their own ideas through participating in the classroom and asking questions, then successful learning and personal motivation can occur because the students will be interacting directly with the subject matter, learning how to challenge a topic by questioning it, and grasping how to communicate with their teacher and peers.


     In his essay, “Teaching and the Moral Life of Classrooms,” David Hansen writes, “Character and personal disposition materialize over time. They take form through potentially any contacts an individual has with other people.” Personal disposition provides an outlook that others perceive unconditionally. Oftentimes, disposition can distinguish an effective teacher from an ineffective one. Not only should the teacher provide lessons on their content area, but also it is crucial for them to be role models and mentors for their class. Classroom life is ever evolving and it is the teacher’s responsibility to provide moral meaning, virtue, and, most importantly in my opinion, a belief in their students to excel.
Working with “teaching” as a metaphor is a way to push towards one’s individual values concerning teaching. Every teacher demonstrates their own beliefs through their teaching strategy. How well and effective these values come across is dependent on the individual. Judy Yoro tells teachers to be as critical and self-reflective as possible. Externalizing the internal is a significant practice in the life of a teacher because it causes one to acknowledge and adjust their methodology.
     Video clips from Dead Poets Society, Whole Brain Teaching, and “Science is Messy” exemplify the diversity of teaching and testify to the fact that every teacher develops competency in their content areas through various means. Some teachers need full control over the classroom while others encourage the free development of ideas and deconstructionism. Whatever your teaching strategy is, it is so valuable to remember your own disposition and how it influences the classroom. As we learned in class today from the ‘Human Development and Learning’ discussion, it is absolutely necessary for teachers to provide a safe environment for the self-exploratory stages of adolescence. If the teacher reveals a sound system of values then the students will emanate this as they look to the leader of the classroom.