Week 2 Reflection

Self reflection

How it affects me?

Materials for teaching is very significant in lesson and it is very difficult to suits each types of learner. In order to come up with an effective material, a teacher supposed to balance between creativity-for learner’s interest-, and also the authenticity of the materials as it is useful for the learners to use in their daily life. Thus, as a future teacher, I really need to be creative to come up with various learning materials as there are many types of learners with different learning styles. This lesson really made me think that teaching is not as easy as everyone thinks because a teacher needs to be flexible and rational at the same time. Also, we need to consider about the learner’s level of proficiency in the classroom. Without the materials, I do not think that I can conduct a successful lesson because I believe that lesson will be more effective when teachers have the teaching materials to scaffold learners’ lesson learning rather than teaching learners using the traditional ‘chalk and talk’ method. Of course it depends on the materials itself whether it is interesting or not, and suits the learners’ level of proficiency.

How does it affect my current level of knowledge?

This lesson taught me the material development is influenced with many aspects. Country’s vision, curriculum goal and objective and school’s administration and objective influenced teachers to develop materials in order to achieve the goal. This targeted goal is the blueprint for designing the materials. Also, teachers need to consider the learners and parents’ goal. I found out that teacher’s belief can change as it is how teachers adapt the influenced aspects and beliefs in developing materials in teaching. For example, when teachers feel that the material is not suitable for the learners, they will change it so that it suits learners’ level of proficiency.

Before this, I never really know and consider about the learners’ style of learning. I always thought that using graphic is the best tool for teaching. I never really consider about the other styles of learning such as kinaesthetic, studial, experiental, dependent or independent. Activities should be variable and should cater for all learning styles and that is why now I believe that the text book is not enough for language learning for some learner. That is why a teacher must come up with materials that can involve learners to interact, give their opinions or feedbacks.

How can I use that knowledge to improve myself?

Knowing that there are different types of learners, the first thing that I can improve myself is to be more prompt when dealing with the learners. Sometimes it is not the learners fault when they cannot learn what the teacher is trying to teach. It might be because the material is not suitable for the learners or it is not for their level of proficiency. It is also very important for me to not have high expectation for the learners. As a teacher I should respect learners that are trying to learn. When they are treated with respect they can perform well. It is impossible for me to squeeze in all the learning styles, and therefore, I think that the materials should be creative and authentic so that learners can relate it to their daily activities as they can use their logical thinking to learn and retain new information in classroom.