SLC | S21W3 : Teaching Practice

Greetings, dear friends it's the third week of the Steemit Learning Challenge for season 21, and I'm delighted to be part of this contest organized here by the brilliant teachers. This week we are looking at Teaching Practice. A beautiful topic that I will also want to share my thoughts on it.

Here in Nigeria, we train teachers mostly in the college's of education and that is where I found myself too since after my service year. It is important to mention here that teaching is not a profession you just wake up and start because you are brilliant because there are many things you need to learn before impacting knowledge to others successfully.

I had a teacher in my secondary school days, he was very good in his field because he knows it clearly but his only issues was that he doesn't know how to effectively transfer this knowledge to us. So that is where the training of a teacher comes into play. Here in college before you are certified you will be given the opportunity to carry out your Teaching Practice so that they will know if you can deliver or not.

Having said all of that, you will agree with me that I have a clear idea of what Teaching practice entails so without further ado, let's go straight into the topic of discussion and then answer the below questions.

Tell us what your specialty is and what you would like to teach your students in the next hour-long meeting? (1 point)

I'm a computer scientist so my speciality is teaching computer practical to my students. Usually, here in the college we use 1H for lecture because there are many courses offered by the students.

If for instance I have an hour to deliver my lecture, as usual I will always use my lesson plan which means that I may have already had the learning contract with them so they already know all the do's and don'ts of the class and I also have my classroom management which they should be aware of.

So with the limited time given to me to deliver this course I will likely take them on the basics of computer which include the definition, components, difference between hardware and software devices.

Now these may look elaborate to be done within the timeframe but since it is a practical course where we find ourselves in the hardware and software laboratory then it becomes more easier since I will just show them practical the said device.

With practical approach, I have noticed that students understand better as they see what we are teaching and the also touch it and not just some theory that the may not get to see or touch the equipment and that means that there are possibilities that they may see it outside and can't even recognise it.

Tell us about how the learning takes place from the beginning to the end (input-process-output)? (2.5 points)

On this day lecture, I started by asking the students question with regards to our last meeting and this is to know the level of their understanding with regards to the last class we had. In the ethics of teaching this model is necessary because it help the teacher to know if he should go ahead with the new topic or he should go back to the previous topic.

There response was quite impressive and that lead us to the next topic of the day as it is highlighted in the curriculum. Since the course today is building from the previous, I was sure to have laid the foundation then I started by explaining the new topic to them.

For the lecture, I discussed extensively hardware components of the computer system where I made mention of some of the hardware components we have in the lab and the once not present in the lab as well and also I discussed their basic functions.

Immediately I finished delivering my lecture, I went ahead to have a discussion with them with regards to the topic as this is one of the methodology I use for my lecture. The class was opened for everyone to make contributions, ask questions and also select students to provide answers based on their understanding and their knowledge gained from the lecture.

So this aspect always makes the class fun and interesting because everyone gets to participate in whatever we are doing in the class. I always try to ensure that everyone contributes to the class so I pick students at random to always answer questions asked by fellow students or the questions I asked.

So based on the explanation I have given above you will notice the input which is myself delivering the lecture and the process which is the students getting to understand what I'm trying to teach and the output is where the question and answer are thrown and discussed. Everyone is a key participant in the class which makes the class a lively one.

How do you ensure that after the learning activity there are changes in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor aspects of students? (2.5 points)

To ensure that there is changes in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor aspects of students after the learning process, I always ensure that everyone has a little idea of what we have discussed and that is why I take atleast 10-20 minutes daily after delivering the course to have a discussion also a question and answer section with them.

Also, I don't allow them to go out of the class without giving them a task to do such as a classwork or a homework to keep them busy at home. Whenever I give them this tasks, they are always deliver very well and in the aspect where I see them not doing well, I know that I will have to throw more light on the aspect in my next lecture.

As a teacher that is the major method of assessment I use to check if the students really understand what we are teaching and also to get them more familiar with the task we are doing. Without all of these tasks it becomes difficult for them to revisit their books and that makes the next lesson tough if you want to recap from what you taught initially.

So with the method stated above you will find.out that there will be more changes in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor aspects of students because they passed through alll due process to get the knowledge and they also made little effort on their own by working alone in the class through classwork and also at home through the homework task.

Sometimes, depending on the type of practicals we are doing I group them and then give them a task so that they can learn from each other. There are many things I may not be able to give them in the class due to limited time but the will get that from their colleagues through the group task.

Whether the methods and strategies you use are appropriate, how do you develop methods and strategies in future learning meetings? (1 point)

Methods and strategies to teach are developed mainly before you go into the class or while in the classroom. I have a method to teach my students and that method is discussion method. Now there are situations where this method may not come out with expected results so what I do immediately is to change the method to adopt to what the students will gain maximum understanding of the course.

So this is were change of method or strategy comes in play when you are already in the class. Also these helps to know the kind of the students I'm teaching and that will enable me plan a new method and strategy in the future.

So in my opinion developing strategies or method of teaching solely depends on the type of students you are transferring knowledge to. You may have your method but if the method doesn't give maximum output based on the understanding of the students then you must consider changing it into something that will yield maximum output.

Share videos and photos, make sure you and the students must be visible (3 points)

Here in the question, I will use pictures I have from my previous class to make a simple animation video because my school where I lecture, we are currently on break which means that I can't have a section at the moment to make a video while I teach.