The focus area I have chosen for this inquiry is to create a supportive and productive learning environment that is safe and fun for my students to develop their mathematical thinking and reasoning. This is based, in part, on my teaching philosophy (Figure 1). A personal goal of my teaching placement is to adopt teaching practices that can offer my students a safe, morally-affective, positive and inclusive learning environment, where they can be fostered and encouraged to freely and actively explore, discover, learn and construct their knowledge, reasonings and skill sets. This goal aligns with the Melbourne Declaration values and its ensuing educational goals for all young Australians and the AITSL standard (ACARA, 2012; AITSL, 2016).
My …show more content…
The pre-test data provided my mentor reveal a wide range of learner variance. Differentiated instructions appears to be a suitable response for supporting the learning of this diverse mixture. The challenge is how do I enact it in my class without marginalising the students? How may I group them and avoid the social stigma that may highlight their differences in ability (Topping, 2001)? Ultimately, my goal is to be able to support, include and engage all my students (Kershner, 2009) in some productive and meaningful learning (Tomlinson, 2001).
Initially, my students are grouped by their abilities and differentiated my instructions according to their pre-test data. However, grouping students by their abilities could marginalise them (Kulik & Kulik, 1992). Research has also revealed that middle and secondary students prefer to be given similitude treatment with respect to their learning (Vaughn, Schrumm & Kouzekanani, 1992, as cited in Scruggs et al., 2012). This is ostensibly evinced in the feedback that I gathered by listening to them throughout the second lesson – for instance, the weaker students requested to be allowed to just work on the exercises at the beginning of the lesson. Hence, for subsequent lessons, I subtly change their grouping based on their readiness with the lesson topic (Tomlinson, 2000). I change the wordings in my instructions, and shorten …show more content…
Maintaining a serious and stern class environment because it is a core disciplinary subjects does not necessarily help them learn better. As a matter of fact, over the last year and a half, I often observe how quickly students become disconnected and disengaged when teachers are overly controlling and strict in their teachings. Many become affectively distracted, show their dislike for the subject and a disdain for the teacher. And it usually becomes another challenge to re-engage them again. As a teacher, I prefer to keep a healthy connection and trust with students knowing that I am for them, so that I can continue to support their
My …show more content…
The pre-test data provided my mentor reveal a wide range of learner variance. Differentiated instructions appears to be a suitable response for supporting the learning of this diverse mixture. The challenge is how do I enact it in my class without marginalising the students? How may I group them and avoid the social stigma that may highlight their differences in ability (Topping, 2001)? Ultimately, my goal is to be able to support, include and engage all my students (Kershner, 2009) in some productive and meaningful learning (Tomlinson, 2001).
Initially, my students are grouped by their abilities and differentiated my instructions according to their pre-test data. However, grouping students by their abilities could marginalise them (Kulik & Kulik, 1992). Research has also revealed that middle and secondary students prefer to be given similitude treatment with respect to their learning (Vaughn, Schrumm & Kouzekanani, 1992, as cited in Scruggs et al., 2012). This is ostensibly evinced in the feedback that I gathered by listening to them throughout the second lesson – for instance, the weaker students requested to be allowed to just work on the exercises at the beginning of the lesson. Hence, for subsequent lessons, I subtly change their grouping based on their readiness with the lesson topic (Tomlinson, 2000). I change the wordings in my instructions, and shorten …show more content…
Maintaining a serious and stern class environment because it is a core disciplinary subjects does not necessarily help them learn better. As a matter of fact, over the last year and a half, I often observe how quickly students become disconnected and disengaged when teachers are overly controlling and strict in their teachings. Many become affectively distracted, show their dislike for the subject and a disdain for the teacher. And it usually becomes another challenge to re-engage them again. As a teacher, I prefer to keep a healthy connection and trust with students knowing that I am for them, so that I can continue to support their