Week 5 EDCI 5065 Reflection

Todays brainstorming activity asking "What is a good teacher?" helped to inform my perception of an ideal teacher. I noticed myself focusing more on the emotional aspects of teaching first, including caring and patient characteristics. Being a supportive mentor in the classroom is therefore the teacher I aspire to be morally. In regards to cognition, though, I realized my beliefs of challenging students to explore their interests. A good teacher holds high expectations for her students while supplying immediate feedback in positive manners (i.e. constructive criticism, offering 1:1 support, praise). This reminds me of the model we completed on Mitra in regards to emotion and motivation. As a class we discussed the need to possess positive emotions so that joy can be a motivator, using the example of a playground.

I am glad we learned about the teenage brain today because it opened my mind to the physiological conditions of cognition. Watching videos, with breaks in between for discussion, was an excellent way to introduce this topic. I particularly liked the Born-to-learn.org video because it provided an insightfulness to the adolescent way of thinking. It gave foundation to the statement that a good teacher has to allow natural curiosity to flourish so that learning is encouraged throughout a lifetime. Risk-taking is a part of human evolution and so teachers need to encourage this in a safe way. Reverting back to the first paragraph in regards to supplying challenges, these videos challenged me to begin thinking of neurophysiology and how it influences learning. As a special education teacher I need to possess a sound background knowledge of the brain to understand how it effects individual students' performance. This plays a huge role in motivating students, especially in understanding the best way you, as a teacher, can model behavior and provide extrinsic motivators.

If students are intrinsically motivated then optimal learning will occur because they are driven by an interest and/or enjoyment in the material. Intrinsic motivation gives students a purpose to learn. Giving students freedom to pursue natural curiosities will provide creative opportunities. Creativity is so important because it is an essential skill for all people to have. Most jobs require employees to be creative and to be able to think on their feet. Teachers therefore have to perpetuate this creative aptitude in the classroom and can do this by allowing students freedom to explore the topics that interest them. Dan Pink supports this cognitive flexibility, suggesting that problem solving and creativity are driven by loosely bounded instruction. Of course the teacher has to provide guidance but ultimately the students are going to learn what they want. Mitra also supports this intrinsic motivation with his minimally invasive theory, suggesting a system of learning orientated around the self. The teacher's role, then, is to encourage this intrinsic motivation by openly discussing the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, acknowledging the importance of grades while making clear that learning is itself important, and encouraging a learning community in the classroom.