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OPD iV: Essay 2

Future problems in teaching practice

We as secondary school teachers have a lot of things to improve in order to contribute to a better education and of course to students become better and better.

So, for purpose of this essay I will explain in first place, what I think are our challenges in general, I mean, for all English teachers; then I will explain mines and how I think I can become a better teacher.

In first place teachers have a lot of challenges:

·         To educate students: By education I do not mean academic knowledge, I mean values and abilities. Before become English teachers, we are just teachers, so as such, we cannot stay at academic level. We need to teach values, behaviors and abilities to our students. They need to know how to be respectful to other people, how to be perseverant and how do their best for improve their environment and their country. And even if that is not our job as English teachers, it is as teachers in general.

·         To motivate students: We should find the way of motivate our students, in the English learning and in general learning. We must find what are they attracted to and use that stuff to get and keep their attention. But also we must teach them to be motivated not by extern factors, but by their own desires and goals.

·         Develop abilities: Students must learn to use the knowledge they have, not just to memorize concepts. And the only way we can reach that level with our students is by changing the evaluation way because, we must stop evaluating just concepts and reach deeper evaluation levels.

·         Reach a communicative approach: By searching interesting and attractive materials for students, and by making activities that make them get interested in class, teachers must involve students into a communicative environment in order they can learn English in a more real way, just by practicing and working in pairs, and with topics they are interested in, we can make students to get truly interested in the subject, and then they will learn English in a more meaningful way.

·         Teacher vocation: This challenge is one of the most important, because a lot of people do not really want to be a teacher, however it is important that teachers love their job, love what they do, because just when you love something you will do your best for be better at it.

My special challenges as a teacher are:

·         The most important thing I need to get better is in my time, I mean, sometimes I think I am to slow that I cannot finish all the activities I have planned. So I need to learn how to organize my time in a more effective way and to follow every activity such as I have planned it.

·         Another think I need to improve is the level of my voice, but I do not know how I am going to do that, because I need that people listen to me always, this way it is better to catch and keep attention from the class. However I think I have a not enough strong voice because I should talk really loud for students can listen everything.

·         And finally, I am not sure if I need to be better at this, but I think I do. Maybe I must be more strict and serious with students, maybe that way they will not become so loud to fast. However I am not quite sure about that, because I think is better for a teacher to gain our students confidence by making a interesting class and teaching them things they are interested in, that by yelling at them all the time.

At the end of the day teachers have a lot of challenges, but it is important to realize that education and improvement of students in English, history, Spanish, science, and all the subjects do not depend just of teachers, but also of parents and family, and of government, because sometimes it is really hard to  work by ourselves. When teachers are not supported by the other education elements such as students, it is hard that we/they do not feel alone

OPD IV: Essay 1

Skills of the English teacher: Weaknesses and strengths as a teacher

The purpose of this paper is to defend the following proposition: when learning a second language is mostly effective the contextualization of it that the simple use of grammatical tools. To achieve the main purpose of this essay, it is structured as follows: in first place there  will be a brief introduction to the topic; then the body of the paper focus on the explanation of various tools and strategies that facilitate the contextualization of language, and in the explanation of why these strategies facilitate learning a second language, the explanation of the previous strategies is related to the abilities and tasks that the second language teacher must achieve in order to attain a successful learning of the second language; eventually it explains the conclusion of the initial statement.

By way of introduction is necessary to understand that we live in a globalized world in which space and time barriers have been overcome by advances in technology, allowing a greater rapprochement between different populations around the world. One benefit of globalization is the cultural exchange, however to achieve this cultural exchange is still a barrier: the diversity of languages. As a result, it is necessary that the world's youth, specifically the Mexican, be ready to face language the barriers that are submitted, and that rather than seeing them as obstacles, be seen as an opportunity to approach to different ways of thinking and living. If it pursues this objective it is necessary to transform the way of teaching  a foreign language, to pass from a routine experience, isolated and detached, to a fascinating experience to open our doors to other cultures.

 Once understood how necessary it is to transform the teaching mode, we must ask ourselves how will we  achieve it? And how will the new learning strategies generate much more interesting learning?

First it is necessary to rescue that  the Mexican school has a serious problem in the teaching of foreign languages ​​(specifically English), it remains teaching traditionalgrammar. So the first step to solve this problem is to move from a grammar approach to a communicative one.

A very interesting strategy to achieve this is to appeal to the curiosity of students, especially their curiosity about other cultures. That's when teaching a foreign language must become cultural, this means not to focus exclusively on the mastery of the language but also know the other elements found in a culture, such as know the customs, the history, the traditions and even the fashion and youth behaviors that are at the moment. This will  achieved an identification with the foreign culture and hence the interest in learning the language will increase.

To achieve this, it requires the use of attractive materials for the learner, as well as simulation of similar contexts  of the foreign culture to their own culture . An example of such contexts may be situations of travel, tourism, airports and so on. Or any kind of  communicative contexts common to live anywhere, but not within the country itself, but simulated in the foreign country, that is, if we are going to simulate a situation in a restaurant, it must not be simulated within a Mexican context, in the case of teaching English, you can take an British context, Australian or American.

Another strategy recommended is the use of music and games to draw interest to the foreign language.

Another strategy is the use of different forms of expression, not only focus on verbal expression. This means that we, as teachers must use another kind of expressions ways, such as movements, gestures, images, sounds, body language and a lot more, by making this, we teach our students that there are a lot of ways to communicate an idea, and we encourage them to do the same.

Finally, the description of the strategies mentioned seems to be a highly effective proposal to appeal to student interest, it is very likely to be achieved mainly focus their attention on the language. Thus, through the development of different skills the students will learn in a more effective way that  with the simple language learning and use of grammar.  This means that the teacher must develop himself the ability and task of an intercultural learning before he can teach it to his students.

Didactic Sequence*

A didactic sequence is a group of activities created in order to reach an objective. Those activities must follow an order and an organization. That means that each activity has its own purpose and all of them work together in order to reach a bigger objective.

Another characteristic of didactic sequences is that they must have a rhythm too.

According to Zabala Vidiella, didactic sequences must have the following characteristics:

•  “They must test the previous knowledge of the pupils and adapt the class to the level of knowledge of students.” (Rodriguez, n.d)
•  “The contents of the class must be meaningful and must represent a challenge for students.” (Rodriguez, n.d)
• “They promote mental activity and construction of new concepts.” (Rodriguez, n.d)
• “They promote autonomy and met cognition.” (Rodriguez, n.d)

• The didactic sequence must develop in students knowledge, abilities and attitudes. And must help the student to take his abilities outside the school. (Obaya, n.d)

A didactic sequence for English must have four main elements:

1. Activities: “What students will be doing in the classroom.” (Harmer, 2006)
2. Skills: “Which language skills  se wish our students to develop”
3. Language: “What language students will practice, research or use”
4.  Content: “Select content which has a good chance of provoking interest and involvement.

Cognitivism is a theory that began on 1960. It arose as an opposition to the behaviorist approach of the time. Cognitivism is based on the mental processes that students use in order to reach understanding. Some of those processes are perception, memorization, thinking and resolution of problems.

Cognitivism was the basis of the constructivist theories of the time. It as related with Vigotsky and Piaget´s theories and it supported them.

Some of the principles of Cognitivism are:

The subject is an active part in knowledge and the relationships between it and the environment are very important in order to acquire a real learning.

The own reception and organization of knowledge is pretty important to get understanding as well as the strategies that the subject use to it.

Human beings are able to learn by themselves, using the elements around them and using their previous knowledge too.

Learners construct their own knowledge by making their own information structures.

Cognitivism is based on the idea that people construct their knowledge by changing the understanding, meanings and concepts  of things inside them.

Besides using constructivist theories (Piaget, Vygotsky and Ausbel), Cognitivism also use other knowledge theories, including the Information Processes one.

So, at the end of the day, Cognitivism is about how students learn by themselves, constructing their own knowledge using all tools around them, including social interaction, previous knowledge and culture.

But on the other side we have the Metacognitivism  theory too.

This theory goes beyond the first one, because it is concerned not just about  the students building their own knowledge, but also how about they realize they are building it.

Metacognitivism is based on the idea that students must know about the strategies they need to apply in a specific time in order to reach understanding.  This means that students will be able to know about their best developed abilities and the worst develop abilities in order to take as much advantage as they can to take control of their own learning process.

If they can do that they will regulate their own learning process and will create effective  strategies to  reach the best understanding they can.

http://www.eumed.net/libros/2007c/322/secuencia%20didactica.htm

http://www.izt.uam.mx/contactos/n63ne/secuencia_v2.pdf

Why it is important to keep communication with students in order to improve their knowledge?

Mexican education has a new challenge, to become a formative education, this means that students must learn not just about historical dates, facts and concepts, but they also must develop abilities and good attitudes for become an positive and important element of society.

Traditional education used to teach students to memorize concepts, students must be able to know a lot of dates, mathematical concepts, parts of the sentence and parts of the body, but it didn´t matter if they were not able to apply that knowledge to the real life (Monereo, 2007).

Actual education concerns about students being able to apply knowledge to the real world, but also they must develop abilities and attitudes such as responsibility, respect, team work and others in order to become a competent element for society (Monereo, 2007).

So, nowadays education must be communicative. This means teachers and students must feedback each other, and talk about their objectives, their goals, their desires, their problems and their interests. This way teacher will help students to get ready for live in a society.

When people communicate each other they can know about each other and they can help each other to reach common goals. I traditional education, teacher must talk and students must be quiet, but with this way of education teachers couldn´t really know if the students had personal problems that limited their learning or they didn´t understand the topic.

However, actual education promotes communication, specially from students to teachers. Students need to ask questions, to give their ideas, to make discussion, to defend their point of view. In first place because with communication abilities they will have a better development in their future job and relationships with society; in second place because secondary school students are teenagers, and is our duty as teacher to guide them when they feel insecure, Mexico has a lot of problems such as addiction to drugs, familiar issues, violence etc., and if a teenager is in the middle of a problematic situation, that can affect not just their academic development, but their entire life too.

Because of the importance of communication in education I made a research about the opinion of the students around the topic.

55 students answered a small interview with the following questions:

Do your teachers talk to you about your personal life or the school?

Would you like they talk to you? Why?

What would you like to talk to your teachers about?

Do you think communication between students and teachers will help you to improve your learning process? Why?

Most of the students answered their teachers didn´t talk to them about anything. This shows how Mexican communication between teachers and students must get better.

When students were asked if they would like to talk a little bit more with their teachers they answered:

	Number of students	Percent
Yes, I would like to talk more to my teachers.	27	49%
I don´t know, maybe.	14	25%
No, I would like to talk more to my teachers.	14	25%

Those students who answered they would like to talk more with their teachers, said that teachers don´t talk to them a lot, but they would like to talk to them about their learning process, about hobbies and other stuff, in first place because maybe that would help them to reach a better understanding of the subject, but also because if students and teachers can talk, they will get more confidence with each other.

The students who didn´t know said that maybe they would like to try this idea, that could be interesting and help them in school.

The students who said they would not like to talk to teachers said that they had friends for talking about their problems, they have no confidence with the teachers and the students´ life is not business of the teacher.

As we can notice must of the students would like to have a better communication with their teacher; there are also students who are not pretty sure about the idea, but they are considering that possibility; and finally those students who are not interested say that there is no confidence with teacher.

With the results of the research I conclude that we teachers must improve communication with students and show them how they can count on us when they have any kind of problem, show interest in their life and in their learning process. Even if they seem not interested, we must show them support and maybe they will come to us if they need help.

Finally there are some advices to improve communication with students:

1) “Begin on the first day of school”

2) “Be proactive”

3) “Become an active listener”
4) “Make sure you say, “I heard you.”

5) “Do unto others”

6) “Use non-judgmental and non-accusatory communication”

7) “Communicate clearly and briefly."

8) “Serve as a model of honesty and dignity."
9) “Accept repetition”

10) “Make humor an integral part of your communication.”
 (USC TA Wiki, n.d.)

Information sources

-      Monereo Carlos Conference (2007). Available on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbugPz0nMyk

-      USC TA Wiki. Communicating Effectively with your students. Available on: http://uscta.wikidot.com/conduct-effective-communication-with-your-students

Students surveys

Research*

How do students learn? *Based on the studies about The theory of multiple intelligencies*

The studies about the learning process are pretty important in order to help our students to get a better comprehension, understanding and application about what we try to teach them in the classroom.

“I want my children to understand the world, but not just because the world is fascinating and the human mind is curious. I want them to understand it so that they will be positioned to make it a better place. Knowledge is not the same as morality, but we need to understand if we are to avoid past mistakes and move in productive directions. An important part of that understanding is knowing who we are and what we can do... Ultimately, we must synthesize our understandings for ourselves. The performance of understanding that try matters are the ones we carry out as human beings in an imperfect world which we can affect for good or for ill.”  (Gardner, 1999.) 

Because of that, this essay is based on the research made by Howard Gardner about multiple intelligences and education, so we teachers can discover which are the most effective ways our students learn English.

Let me start by talking a little more about this important Psychologist.

ﭪ    Howard Gardner´s Life

Howard Gardner was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1943. Howard Gardner's interest in psychology and the social sciences grew (his senior thesis was on a new California retirement community) and he graduated summa cum laude in 1965 (Smith, 2008).

Howard Gardner then went to work for a brief period with Jerome Bruneron the famous MACOS Project ('Man: A course of study'). Bruner's work, especially in The Process of Education (1960) made  a profound impact on Gardner .     (Smith, 2008).

Howard Gardner beg  in  to get  interested  in human cognition. He proceeded in a very different direction to the dominant discourses associated with Piaget and with psychometric testing. (Smith, 2008).

ﭪ    About his theory

ﺱ    The Intelligence

Howard Gardner defines intelligence as “the capacity to solve problems or to fashion products that are valued in one or more cultural setting”    (Smith, 2008).

He develops the existence of the following 7 intelligences:

©      Linguistic intelligence involves the ability to learn languages, and the capacity to use language to accomplish certain goals. This intelligence includes the ability to effectively use language to express oneself rhetorically or poetically; and language as a means to remember information    (Smith, 2008).

©      Logical-mathematical intelligence is the capacity to analyze problems logically, carry out mathematical operations, and investigate issues scientifically     (Smith, 2008).

©      Musical intelligence involves skill in the performance, composition, and appreciation of musical patterns. It encompasses the capacity to recognize and compose musical pitches, tones, and rhythms      (Smith, 2008).

©      Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence entails the potential of using one's whole body or parts of the body to solve problems. It is the ability to use mental abilities to coordinate bodily movements       (Smith, 2008).

©      Spatial intelligence involves the potential to recognize and use the patterns of wide space and more confined areas     (Smith, 2008).

©      Interpersonal intelligence is concerned with the capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people. It allows people to work effectively with others     (Smith, 2008).

©      Intrapersonal intelligence entails the capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate one's feelings, fears and motivations    (Smith, 2008).

ﭪ    The application of the Theory to education

According to the approach and methodology of Mexican basic education, nowadays Howard Gardner´s theory can be completely useful. In first place because nowadays education is about develop in students the capacity to be successful, independent and competitive in their lives, not just their academic lives, but also their social and personal lives. This means that today intelligence is not just about a wide and deep knowledge of science, is about the ability of searching the right information for achieving our own purposes.

Besides, if we talk about our specific subject: English, the Multiple Intelligences theory of Howard Gardner is pretty useful and maybe some of the intelligences he talks about s even more useful for our purpose as English teachers.

In first place we must notice that English students develop Linguistic Intelligence, because it is used when people are learning a new language. And according to our methodology, students will develop this intelligence when they practice the foreign language, when they read original and authentic texts and listen to authentic conversations. Every time they can be practicing the new language into the right context they will be developing the linguistic intelligence.

In second place students develop the interpersonal intelligence too, because we teachers must apply the constructivist methodology. And according to Piaget and Vygotsky theories, the child can develop real knowledge and learning just by interacting with the world around him (“Desarrollo Cognoscitivo,” n.d.). Vygotsky is the one who refers to the construction of knowledge by interacting with classmates and adults, but also he refers to the interaction between the child and the elements of culture, such as society, values, family, history, traditions, etc. (“Desarrollo Cognoscitivo,” n.d.). So, if we connect the principles of the methodology we teachers must apply with Howard Garner´s theory, we conclude that students develop their interpersonal intelligence too.

ﭪ    The Research

According to the survey applied to the students and the observations made during the lessons, the results are:

Intelligences	Bodily-kinesthetic	Linguistic	Interpersonal	Logical-mathematical	Intrapersonal	Musical	Naturalist	Spatial
Percent	70%	41%	41%	40%	35%	31%	31%	27%

*These are the percents that most of the students obtained in each one of the intelligence tests.

So according to the results we can notice that the most developed intelligence is the kinesthetic one, with 70%; then is located the linguistic and interpersonal ones, both of them with 41%. But on the other side, we notice that the less developed intelligences are the spatial, the naturalist and the musical ones.

This research is pretty important because it can help us to take advantage of the most developed intelligences in students and to help them to develop the ones with a lower level of development. For example, in English it is very useful that they have a linguistic and interpersonal intelligence highly developed, because they will help with the construction of knowledge and the acquisition of a second language. But also, when we know about their kinesthetic intelligence we can take advantage of it too, we teachers can create more activities in which students use their body and their movements, and that will help them and us to reach a better learning.

At the end of the day is pretty important that teachers make this kind of research with their students, because that will help them to create new strategies in order to improve their English learning.

ﭪ    Information Sources

- Lane Carla. Multiple Intelligences. Available on: http://www.tecweb.org/styles/gardner.html

-Multiple Intelligences. Available on: http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.php

-Smith, Mark. (2002). Howard Gardner, multiple intelligences and education. Available on: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm.

- Teoría del Desarrollo Cognoscitivo de Piaget y Vygotsky.

Essay

How do students learn?* [Essay]

When we talk about learning process we must have in mind different aspects, like the age of the students,  their interests, their reasons to study, the subject we teachers are trying to teach, and of course,  the motivation that our students have.

Learning is a wide field in education, because it has a lot of aspects, actors and characteristics that related each other can improve or make worse the education. Learning has also a lot of troubles and a lot of people trying to find an effective solution for each one of them. One of those troubles is that in the different levels of education, children, teenagers and even adults do not want to learn anymore and seem to care about nothing that happens around them.

Because of that, the present essay aspires to answer the following question: How do students learn? First by exposing the trouble about the students that nowadays are not interested in acquire knowledge; second by explaining some important aspects about some  learning theories; and third by presenting a personal point of view about how education should be and also making some suggestions.

By way of introduction, let me start by saying that the present essay is focused in the learning of a second language (English) in the High Schools of Mexico.  The learning of any subject, but in this case of a second language (English) requires interest, disposition and motivation by those who are interested in learn it, but also requires to take advantage as much as we can of the age of students, because it will be easier for them if they start the acquisition of a second language at an early age.

 Krashen´s theory talks about the existence of "different periods for acquire a second language. He says that it is easier to a child to acquire a foreign language since his birth until the age of 13 to 15 years, after this period, people will have more troubles for speak and develop a foreign language(Schütz, 2007, S.K)".

But in Mexico we have a serious problem, we do not take advantage of the age of the children , because the teaching of English begins at age of 11 or 12 year old, when students are about to finish their rank of age for learning in an easy way a foreign language, so we are wasting all the childhood of our students.

On the other hand, we have a second trouble, when students start the study of English they are teenagers, and they are crossing for a phase in their lives in which they don´t know who they are or what they want, so they have personal identity issues and they are not interested in acquiring any kind of knowledge, including English.

So, when we have these important troubles, what we teachers must do for our students learn?

I consider  that the communicative approach for the teaching of a foreign language is pretty good, because it reflects the real interest of students when they are learning a second language, this real interest is communication, when someone is learning English he or she wants to communicate, wants to be understood and wants to be able to understand the other person who is talking to, so grammar rules get less important when the main function of knowing a second language is communication.

By other side, "knowledge is built when persons interact each other" (Meece, 2002, p.35)this means that any kind of knowledge will be easily acquired when people are talking to each other, when they are exchanging ideas, because when students work inside a team, they will help each other and they will correct their own mistakes.

But also it is very important that students reflect about their own knowledge, that they find their own problems and figure out how to solve them, that they become the main subjects of their learning process, by making their own analysis, reflections and conclusions

So, what I mean with this three aspects is that for a student learn English it is necessary in first place that they find it useful for they can communicate with other persons, so if they follow this way, they will practice and will improve their language; in second place, it is important that they get  in touch with other students who have the same interests, purposes and objectives, for they can work together in order to help each other; and in third place, it is important that the teacher does not give them the way in which language works, but they should discover it by themselves by reflecting, analyzing, and finding the resolution to their own troubles.

However there is another important element in the process of learning a foreign language. This is motivation, and most of this motivation should be promoted by teachers, because we should find the way to encourage our students to learn, we must elaborate strategies in order to they get involved with the topic, and they feel motivated to learn, because without motivation, students will not care about learning.

So, as we see, most of the work of student´s learning is responsibility of the teacher, because he or she must create all the necessary conditions for  students learn, it is not just about exposing a topic to them, it is about encouraging them to reflection and use of language, to practice and interaction with their classmates.

However, despite all the elements before are necessary for students to learn, at the end of the day I can say that  for achieve a real learning of the students we must make deeper changes in the Mexican system of education, because all the good ideas and theories that must be applied can be really useful if they  are applied in the right way, the Mexican system of education is not just about proposals of excellent methods and theories, it is about a total transformation in the system, for create the best conditions  in order to apply it, so, it is true that we teachers have a great responsibility to prepare good classes for students can really learn, but we need the cooperation and coordination of the entire Mexican system of education.

Essay*