Reflection On Learning
I have been working as a TAFE business teacher at Kanagn Institute in Melbourne, Australia for the last six months in a higher secondary school. This business course has helped me understand topics like business administration, management, industry, services and others. The course widely covers areas like electrical, child care, information technology, hospitability, management, tourism, retail and others. This course provides skills that are required for employment. Thus, after the completion of the course, I feel well-equipped and confident. The TAFE course is less time consuming and is light on the pocket. As a teacher, I believe creating a friendly environment inside the classroom (Tran & Vu, 2016). The students feel comfortable and at ease. They should have the freedom to ask questions, and there should be a scope for open discussion. Group discussions should also be encouraged among students. As a teacher, I try to implement new methods of teaching so that learning is not tedious but fun. Apart from textbook learning children should be taken out for field trips that can involve research and projects. Inviting guest teachers and speakers can often develop interests and curiosity in students (Zollo, 2017). Children should be made familiar with reality rather than fictional stories and characters. Australia is a country that consists of many ethnic groups and communities. It is a diverse country where people speak more than one language (Bracaj, 2014). Therefore, a teacher should keep in mind the matter of inclusivity. No student should be made to feel different, and none should be discriminated. When it comes to classroom learning, I feel that the teacher should pay attention to the environment of the classroom, as this is where the students will spend most of their time. As a teacher, it is important for us to make students feel safe and comfortable. Students will not look forward to coming to school if they feel threatened or vulnerable (Furlong & Smith, 2013). I do not believe in handling or dealing with students with rigidity.
To facilitate learning it is not necessary to be strict all the time. If they see that a teacher is not approachable then they might get discouraged and demotivated to some extent. This can hamper their studies greatly. A teacher should also have the flexibility of mind to understand that not every student is a quick learner (Harris, 2017). Hence, it is very important to be patient with every student. I have understood over these years that one learning technique cannot be implemented for every child. A particular technique may benefit one or two student but not all. Hence, implementation of various techniques is necessary (Fullan, 2014). This will help them grow and develop their creative faculties.
The most surprising thing, I was able to learn about myself that is wherever I have taught, I found that at first, I was not at all comfortable in speaking in front of the small groups even. The teaching profession and after undergoing the technical course, I was able to grow my speaking capabilities in front of the groups of the children (Hagger, McIntyre & Wilkin, 2013). This enables me to speak in front of the whole classroom, and then I found out that I was more comfortable in speaking in front of the large classroom than the small groups of student. This not only increased my speaking capability nut also increased the efficiency of doing the multi-task while giving lectures. During my teaching profession, there are many factors, which I have learnt from my experiences. The most surprising factor that I have been able to adopt is to understand and read the expressions of the students to gauge my comprehension. This also made me enable to interact with my students, more dynamically through both in the formal lectures and the informal ones and the less formal interactions enable to grow the student-teacher relationship with the student (Rich, 2015). There was another surprising aspect that I thought I would not be confident enough in explaining my knowledge my views in front of the class and after going through this profession, I found that I was able to find out that I was confident with my knowledge that I need to convey among the students of the class. As a student, during the TAFE business course, my professors use to have an endless pool of knowledge and being the student we can accommodate an ample amount of knowledge from the lectures of the professors (Ruskovaara & Pihkala, 2013). There was less need of the additional information, the way we were taught the management techniques and the business process and the management theories, there was less need of the additional information. Thus, by undergoing the techniques of their teaching process, I was not sure whether I will able to teach in that confident manner and whether I will have that endless knowledge in every aspect of the subject. This business management and the technical theories behind business management need to be explained in the proper way to the students (Zepeda, 2013). I found from the teaching experience that I have all the authenticated knowledge and the authenticated ways of teaching that I have surely adopted from my professors during the course. I was able to found that my students lost their interest in many of the subject but that authenticated process of teaching allowed me to gain their interest in the theories of the business management process. They started to have their querries in that boring subjects, from which I was sure that they started to gain interest on my subject. This is so because that we only faces querries when we took interest in understanding the subject at every aspects and those queries what they use to share was not irrelevant, and all the queries are more expected to arrive whenever the person tries to understand the subject at depth. Many times there are some situations when the student had most interesting and the surprising questions, which I was able to solve and was able to explain the solution to them at depth. This was surprising to me as I thought I would be inefficient in solving the problems of the student as the queries of the students were unknown to me and I thought I would not be able to solve those problems as I thought I don’t have that ample amount of knowledge in solving those surprising queries. The very exciting consequences of this incidence were that I gain the chance of incorporating those question during my discussion. There I, thought that it would be more effective for my student if I introduce all those questions and their solutions for my next batch, this helped me to upgrade myself as well as my teachings (Ellington, Fowlie & Gordon, 2013). This helped me to find out that the new teachings that will be beneficial for my students. All these surprising factors that I possess, it was unknown to me.
According to me, the teaching strengths that I possess is the teaching techniques in large classrooms. My teaching techniques will promote the process of learning and the retention of the materials for the students. I am fortunate enough that I had those experienced professors who enabled me to gain all the positive disciplines, which I will require for the implications of the desiring teaching techniques (Dicke et al., 2015). It is said that the informations provided are better remembered when it is tested by applying or by understanding the ways of applying that techniques than just by restudying the informations. Thus in my teachings, I have implemented the technique that I generally not only informs the students regarding the business study but also encourages them to understand the application of the business studies and the theories and the technical business management process (Bleach, 2013). This needs to be checked that the students have not only gone through the informations provided to them about the subjects but also understood it at the depth. This checking process can only be understood that building in the opportunities for the mini-tests of knowledge during the class. I have seen that this process of teachings also allowed encouraging the students by attempting the mini-tests in the class, and also my taking part in the discussion. As it is only possible for those student to participate in the conversation, who have gone through the subjects and had knowledge regarding the subject at its depth (Lambrechts et al., 2013). I use to also to encourage the students to explicitly learn the materials that are provided to the students in the class, which will help them to link the other additional informations regarding the topic. This enhances the knowledge of the subject for the student, and they will also not be able to interact with me if they know nothing about the subject that is not by going through the subject, then they cannot interact in the class. My teachings depend mostly on the interactions with the student (Rienties, Brouwer & Lygo-Baker, 2013). The technique that I have personally involved in this teaching technique is allowing the students to participation in the group discussion as being the student of the same course I know the importance of the group discussion (Ziegler, 2013). This group discussion allows the student to involve their knowledge and to share their personal experiences regarding the subject, also encourages the student to acquire the additional information regarding the subject. The student get encourages by participating in the group discussion and also by debating with the knowledge, they have on the subject. The unique teaching strength that I believe I have is that when any student find any difficulties in understanding the subject, I use to take it as a fun challenge by providing the student with the right analogy or example for the technical theories and the management process, that generally clears the problems of the student (Cherniss, 2016). When I was the student of the same course, I had no frustrations in going on asking questions wherever I have faced doubts, but there were my professors who helps me to find out ever explanations for the querries, I have on the subject. My professors use to explain the things by taking examples that helped me to understand the concept in an elaborate manner. I have made it one of the personal challenge for avoiding the doubts of the student by clearing the concept of the subject in the lecture. The business motivations are need to be understand by the students for which I think that I should make the students an expert in understanding the business strategy of any business and also the targeted audience of any business (Seikkula-Leino et al., 2015). This is always easier to handle in the small classrooms, but it is also possible in the larger classroom also. When generally I teach in the larger classrooms, if any student find difficulties in any concept and struggling to get the concept, then I treat them in the different way. This way is that I generally encourages them to walk with me after class or I provide them with with some different examples in the following subject (Tran, 2013).
I have attained various workshops on the TAFE business and the TAFE teacher qualifying workshops, this workshop helped me a lot in my professional fields. I have learned various techniques in these workshops, which I use to implement especially in defining the information technology concept. I gained different techniques from where the students will be able to apply to get the quick information on the subject. The student for getting the additional information regarding the concept requires special access. I generally provide all the access that I have obtained additionally from the workshops to gain the additional sources related to the study. This workshops also provided me more informations and the legal access including all the academic integrity issues that are generally inaccessible for the TAFE student. Another TAFE workshops taught me how to foster in the dynamic classroom, and it will also upgrade my performances as the teacher as well as working more effectively. These techniques also allow the teacher to keep the students more and more engaged in the learning process and also more active in the learning process.
During my teaching process, I decided to distinguish between the explicit and implicit knowledge. This is also important for the student to explicitly learn the material provided by the subject teacher. The education process will be fully worthless if the students are unable to take and to understand whatever they have learned beyond the examination. The way to promote the explicit knowledge of the materials by building in activities wherein the students generally links the concept to the other concept of the course and need to apply these concepts to the issues of the student’s interest (Creese, Norwich & Daniels, 2013).
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the TAFE business course that I have taken have helped me a lot in understanding the various topics including the business management, business administration, industry and the services. This course generally gives the entire idea of the skills required for the employment. This course was also less time consuming and is also light on the pocket. Thus, applying and utilizing all the knowledge provided during the course, I have pursued the teaching profession of this subject. My professors had the endless knowledge, and their teaching techniques inspired me to choose this profession. As a teacher, it is my belief that the friendly classroom environment enables the student to interact more with the teacher and could easily clear out their queries from the teacher. Apart from the classroom training, the student would be more encouraged if they are involved in the fieldwork and the research project. This course also needs the involvement of the guest lecturers, who can provide the authenticated additional information regarding the subject. I believe it to be a wrong way of teaching where any student found themselves to be discriminated or different from the other ones and it mainly takes place for the impact of the teacher on the student. I have acquired mainly useful skills from the TAFE seminars and the training workshops that I have attended. This study will help to find out my training knowledge and my teachings process of the TAFE course.
References
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