It is hard for me to say what areas my strengths and weaknesses are in because I am not in a classroom. I find it hard to teach a class in which I am not the designer. I think that when someone designs a class they put a bit of their own personality into it. There are things in which will be communicated by the designer (given the opportunity to teach) to the students that cannot be communicated to another instructor and I think the class would loose something in translation. As an instructor who is trying to teach a class that someone else has designed, I feel that they would come across parts that they would be unable to effectively instruct because they could not fully understand the meaning behind the assignment or lecture.
I think I would feel more comfortable instruction a course in which the same designer was the training manager for teaching me how to teach the course. I think this would need to be much more than shadowing the designer in his own efforts to teach the course though.
From my experience and comprehension of this topic, I feel that the best Instructor, instructional designer and Training manager would be someone who was skilled in all three. I think this person would the exception to the norm however and not everyone fits that description. However, if someone is skilled in 2 of the 3 roles, then they can come a long way in doing a great job.
As for myself, I think I would rank myself as best at Instructional Design, then Training Manager and I would need the most work as an Instructor. Especially in the younger age groups I don’t feel that I have the energy that I see most elementary ed teachers having. I don’t think I could get animated enough. I enjoy organizing and developing concepts. I think that if I found someone very skilled in instruction that we could make a great team because we could work together in the training manager role. If designing a class, I would want to make sure the instructor had freedom to express their own style. Ideally I would like to write the class, work with the instructor to communicate the goals of instruction and have them decide how it would be best to explain the concepts to the students. Then shadow the instructor as they taught to make sure that I was able to communicate the goals effectively enough.
I think there is a gross lack of teaching of HOW to teach. The competencies and standards are a great start in moving toward this, but there are a lot of teachers out there who know a ton about their subjects but cannot teach them. I find it especially shocking that I could teach a college course after I graduate (and even before in some cases), but because I am not certified, it would take me about 4 more years to get be able to teach 1st graders.
Reiser, R. & Dempsey, J. (2007). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall.
Monday, June 9, 2008
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6 comments:
Katherine,
Once again I agree with you. Your statements about have experience in all three disciplines is what I like to refer to as “field experience”. The author Jacquie McDonald makes reference to that by saying hands-on teaching give her credibility with faculty members.
As far as teaching a course that someone else designed, I concur with your thoughts. As an instructor you always teach subject matter according to your own personal experiences and style. That is one of my problems with teaching “modules”. They have been created by someone else and half the time I am trying to figure out what and why they did things a particular way. They may work, but that is not the way I would have done it.
Jeff Tyler
I also agree. Its nice when teachers are allowed flexibility in how they teach material. I understand that you need a curriculum and standards to make sure students are learning what schools feel is important. But I feel when a teacher has freedom to teach these things how they see fit it will work better than if they are handcuffed. Lets remember that not every group of studens is the same and hence different styles and strategies may work better for one group vs. another.
Tony Vitto
You responded that you feel there is a gross lack of teaching of HOW to teach. In our district we take on many student interns, Miller College in a newer college where they are getting the teachers out into the classroom within the first semester and throughout their coursework. They are able to apply what they are learning in the classroom. I find this extremely beneficial, it gives them a chance to work with different grade levels, different schools and mix with many staff members. It's exciting to see them come in with their new ideas!
Darcy,
I like the program you wrote about that gets teachers in the classroom! With budget cuts and lack of parental involvment extra adults in the school system benifits the schools as much as it does the student teachers... great idea!
There is a personal touch to design. Good point. This book downplays any kind of warmth to get at maximum efficiency. Don't design the lesson for me, help me design it in a way that meets expectations.
Katie,
I completely agree with the fact that there is a gross lack of how to teach going on. Unfortunately, it has become reinventing the wheel over and over again.
When I did my undergrad, they require a specific amount of hours at least observing a classroom before you could even be admitted into the professional level of courses. Then they took that away. You make think that observing did no good but it did. I got students to understand that the commercials they saw about teachers being needed, left out that we need good teachers and they also left out that teaching isn't easy; it is work.
My undergrad program also have some professional courses that require that students go out and participate in a classroom. The problem is that, the pre-interns as they are called, are not necessarily teaching. They are only doing as much as their mentor teachers allow them too; most of the time it isn't much. Too often, the pre-intern is in the classroom where there is an intern teacher also.
A student used to be able to take the professional level courses as long as they had the pre-reqs done and now the dept. wants them to do the pre-internship just before internship. This works for Elementary students because their program requires that they teach in the pre-internship but Secondary students don't always get that opportunity.
The school is working on this, but I think that it needed to be done a lot sooner. Because the result is a student like me that is not technologically savvy, that should have gotten more from my mentor teachers than I did and now doesn't feel confident enough in my ability to teach someone else :(
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