Teacher Learning

I cannot help agreeing with the many pointers both teachers provided in their respective reflections. The teachers’ reflections suggested teacher learning be in a community to learn to teach that enable the teachers to develop understandings about teaching, learning and more importantly about their students, and that the teachers know how to use this knowledge. Practices that allow the teachers to act on their own intentions and beliefs and supporting their effort in enabling student to learn. I draw from these pointers in offering my own belief in describing teacher learning.

It is important that as teachers, we ourselves have a sense of where we are going and then how we are going to get our students there. One such practice I find useful to help teachers is reflecting on their work, which will help guide their practice and direct their own learning. Why is it important? My reason is that as a teacher, I need to know what is possible and desirable in teaching first before I am able to decide and direct my own learning and practice. In addition, through such practice, I am able to connect important values which I hold dearly to actualizing it in the classroom practice.

Teachers with deep knowledge or understanding of their subject and making the content accessible rely greatly on an understanding of their students. Both teachers had emphasized the importance of knowing the students well and practiced gathering information after each topic/lesson. I also took up such a practice as I believe that effective communication rests upon such understanding of students’ thinking, experiences and development.

To put these understanding into action in the classroom, teachers then develop tools such as instructional approaches namely differentiated learning and other strategies. Such tools will help teachers to work smarter and to realize their intentions in practice – which is to enable learning for all students.

With these understanding and tools, the teacher is now armed with a beginning repertoire of classroom skills to help the teacher to promote student learning.