CHANGING FROM A THERAPEUTIC TO A DIAGNOSTIC TEACHING PRACTICE

Today I invite you to reflect on how you see your teaching practice. In order to help you, there are four questions below:

1) What are the three things you do to help your students learn?

2) How do you know this things help?

3) Where do you get evidence of what helps students learn?

4) Now, choose the sentence  that is most appropriated regarding your teaching experience:

(   ) The teacher will teach therefore students will learn.

(   ) The teacher will teach so that students can learn.

My point today is to make you reflect whether your teaching style favors a therapeutic or a diagnostic approach. A therapeutic practice will heal, repair and fix while a diagnostic one will look for problems, assess and investigate. Most teachers tend to favor the therapeutic one because they just focus on the “right here right now” because they claim there is little time to anticipate situations for teachers have very stressful and busy routines. I can see this teachers’ point of view but I do believe we can work more focused on a diagnostic practice if we allot time for planning and reflection. Teachers who see the teacher’s job as teaching and the teacher as knower will find a hard time to shift the way they teach. On the other hand, teachers who see the teacher’s job as learning as well and the teacher as acknowledger will see teaching as a very magical moment, where we can make a difference in someone’s future. What about you? How do you perceive your teaching practice, let’s reflect upon it?

Are you a highly efficacious teacher?

Probably, you have already asked yourself this question a couple of times but do you know how to evaluate how eficacious you are? I list below  some attitudes and characteristcs a highly eficacious teacher has:

  1)   Efficacious teachers will put forth a high degree of effort in order to meet their commitments.

  2)   Efficacious teachers attribute failure to things which are in their control, rather than blaming external factors.

3)   Efficacious teachers also recover quickly from setbacks, and ultimately are likely to achieve their personal goals.

4)   Efficatious teachers enjoy and learn by observing a peer succeed at a task because they know  it can strengthen their beliefs in their abilities.

5)   Efficacious teachers know a positive mood can boost one's beliefs in self-efficacy, while anxiety can undermine it and they strive for it on a daily basis. A certain level of emotional stimulation can create an energizing feeling that can contribute to strong performances.

Well, if you answered NO for any of the statements above it does not mean you are not a good teacher. My point in this post is  showing that schools and companies, by and large, have just a 10% of efficacious employees. 70% are efficient staff, in other words, teachers that meet deadlines, follow prodecures and techniques but rarely will they venture to go forth. (Welch) I strive to be part of this 10% share.What about you?

Furthermore, it is important to point out that teachers with a high sense of efficacy about their teaching capabilities may have an easier time motivating their students and enhancing their cognitive development. These teachers may also be able to rebound from setbacks and more willing to experiment with new ideas or techniques. Low efficacious teachers may rely more on a controlling teaching style and may be more critical of students. (Woolfolk Hoy, 2003 and Bandura)

"Schools in which staff members collectively judge themselves capable of promoting academic success imbue their schools with a positive atmosphere for development that promotes academic attainments regardless of whether they serve predominantly advantaged or disadvantaged students. “ ( Bandura)

Olympic Games: exploring the pronunciation of Sports Score

It is a sure thing sports is a topic students are generally fond of talking but something I have felt is that when it comes to talk about sport score they usually have a hard time. Reflecting upon it, I came up with an activity aimed at teaching the right way to pronounce sport scores and I think there is no better time to explore it as Olympic Games are on!!!

Procedures:

Split the students in groups of 3 or 4.

Give each group a small piece of paper with some sports scores. Sample Sentences: 1)The score was 2-0. 2) The score was tied 6-6 3)The score was 3-2.

Now students are supposed to record on their cell phones the way they think the score should be pronounced. After, when all the students are done with the voice recording, they play it for the whole group. Then the teacher can go to the site http://www.englishteachermelanie.com/pronunciation-how-to-say-different-numbers-in-english-video/ so that they can compare to their answers or the teacher himself can teach them the right way.