PED - Pedagogy Module Overview

Pedagogy

Introduction 

Throughout this unit on teaching, consider and reflect upon the pedagogical terms and methodology in relation to your prior learning experiences. First, we will evaluate some seminal educational theories and reflect upon their importance in the contemporary classroom. Next, we will identify four types of learning styles and assess our own styles in a class discussion. We will synthesize the information from your peers and your knowledge of learning styles to create a short lesson incorporating differentiated instruction. Later we will compose a lesson which will then be taught to your peers and submitted for evaluation. You will have the opportunity to incorporate several resources into your lesson including the use of technology. You will revise your lesson plans according to your peers' evaluations. Finally, you will create your own scoring guide for the 2011 AP Language exam.

A word cloud containing important terms from the unit

Essential Questions

  1. Is teaching the best way to learn a topic?
  2. How do different learning styles affect the comprehension of difficult topics?
  3. How can you incorporate feedback into your product to make it better?

Education

Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to the answer to all questions.

- William Allin

As a country, we need bright, enthusiastic, and intelligent students to become the educators of the next generation. Becoming a lifelong learner is an essential perspective for any prospective teacher. It is also a key to success in all fields of study and work.

The role of education is a source of much debate both nationally and locally. Education specialists propose many theories ranging from curriculum to behavior management expressing multitudes of ideas on how we should approach and deliver quality education to all students. 

President Barack Obama's education initiative is titled "Race to the Top." Watch the following video closely for his explanation of this program.

This image is an illustration of a poem by Walt Whitman called "Poem Describing a Perfect School." "Gymnastic, moral, mental and sentimental, in which magnificent men are formed. Old persons come just as much as youth. Gymnastics, physiology, music, swimming bath, conversation, declamation. Large salons adorned with pictures and sculpture. Great ideas, not taught in sermons but imbibed as health is imbibed. Old history taught. Love--love of women, all many exercises, rides, rowing. The greatest persons come--political economy. The American idea in all its amplitude and comprehensiveness. Grounds, gardens, flowers, grains.

Key Terms

  1. Pedagogy: The art or method of teaching.
  2. Metacognition: Refers to learners' automatic awareness of their own knowledge and their ability to understand, control, and manipulate their own cognitive processes.
  3. Bloom's Taxonomy: A hierarchy of thinking skills from low to high order employed during learning: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation.
  4. Piaget Cognitive Development: A comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence that breaks down development into four stages: sensorimotor stage, pre-operational stage, concrete operational stage, formal operational stage.
  5. Modalities: The sensory channels or pathways through which individuals give, receive, and store information.
  6. Visual Learner: Those who learn by seeing.
  7. Auditory Learner: Those who must hear what they are learning to really understand it.
  8. Tactile Learner: Those who need to feel and touch to learn.
  9. Kinesthetic Learner: Those who learn best while moving their bodies.
  10. Differentiated Instruction: Curriculum that offers several different learning experiences within one lesson to meet students' varied needs or learning styles.
  11. Formative Assessment: Any form of assessment used by an educator to evaluate students' knowledge and understanding of particular content and then to adjust instructional practices accordingly toward improving student achievement in that area.
  12. Summative Assessment: Formal assessment used to see if learners have acquired the skills, knowledge, behavior, or understanding that the course set out to provide them with.
  13. Rubric: A scoring tool that lists the criteria to be met in a piece of work.

 

RESOURCES IN THIS MODULE ARE OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER) OR CREATED BY GAVS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. SOME IMAGES USED UNDER SUBSCRIPTION.