Pedagogical Reflective Report

When I reflect on my academic career, I realized how the pedagogical approach to problems I learned over the years as a student and Tutor has helped develop my philosophical approach to education as a collective effort where intellectual diversity and critical thinking is respected. I think in retrospect at the time I had the opportunity to teach my first class. As a new graduate in Nigeria, I was mobilized for the National Youth Service Program, a compulsory one year national service, where new graduates are posted to different regions other than theirs with the aim of “producing future leadership with positive national ethos-Leadership.” Soon after my orientation at the school where I was posted, I was assigned to teach Geography. I was eager and curious to meet my students. However, I was caught unaware by the students’ eagerness to learn about me, my culture and ethnicity, which suddenly brought up interactive discussion and difference of opinion about culture, ethnicity and social life in different parts of …show more content…
This, I believe will set the pace for critical thinking among the students and allows the teacher to respect their intellectual diversity. In one of my classes on population, I set the tone for the growing population in Nigeria. I cited an article that attributed the growing population to religious belief and poverty. I debunked religion as a major factor, but rather the cultural heritage of Nigeria people. The approach gave the student the opportunity to explore their critical thinking, using their diverse ethnic background. I had student who were subjective in their analysis, and some who supported the article and backed it up with relevant arguments. Meanwhile, showing respect for individual students intellectual diversity and allows them to make their conclusion based on their experience and what they found to be a reasonable cause for population