As I have focused my previous blogs around the social side of education and have looked at how and why classroom relationships between student and teacher are important, and what could wrong with these classroom relationships and how the teaching learning environment is important in supporting the social emotional side of education. For the penultimate blog I want to show the difference between two different educational environments and teaching styles. I will focus on presentations, which I have given and reflect on the personal experience of how it felt as a teacher/presenter. What this course has given us is the unique opportunity to look at education through the eye’s of the educators/teachers. I feel that this experience allows us to be more objective about the social side of education and what it means as teachers as well as students.
Traditional
The traditional learning environment see students set out in front of the teacher usually in rows with a blackboard or projector situated behind the teachers (Theroux 2002, Johnson &Johnson 1991). This has not change pretty much since education became compulsory in the UK.
Relan and Gillani (1997) this is the best way of teaching curriculum to students because;
It allows the educator to control the education conversation process between teacher and student or between students. This allows the conversation to constructive and to not go to far of topic.
This traditional teaching environment also allows the teacher to instruct larger groups of students.
As the educational conversation leader the teacher can determine time scale of the conversation, allowing equal time to each individual student who is participating in the conversation.
This environment allows better use of course textbooks by teacher and student, also allowing a sort of educational fail-safe for the teacher.
Conformity may be a seen as a maladaptive way of seeing education on this module, but it does help to have a basic structure for everyone to follow. Traditional education is not only about learning but also about teaching, which many researchers seem to forget. To provide a supportive environment where everybody benefits, it helps if there is structure and content in place (Doyle, 1977).
In reflection the environment provided by this more formal traditional way of teaching did not suit what I was trying to achieve. Although this format does provide a structure, that see the audience in front and the information projected behind. It allowed me to take my time and follow the structure of the information that was provided by the slides. It also allowed me to use text from a pad that I had written the night before in preparation for my presentation. There was nothing nurturing or supportive about this style of teaching, the connection I was hoping to create with the audience felt forced and unnatural at best. As by the time I had got to the interactive part of the presentation (the questions), suddenly time or the lack of it became a deciding factor.
This module does only provide a glimpse of what it is actually like to teach. As suggested by Taylors (2010) blog, the environment provided by this type of educational teaching setup can and does hinder the success of the learner, but in reflection it can and does also affect the effectiveness of the teacher. As also suggested by Savill (2013) the current traditional system of education does not motivate the learner past the limits of the educational structure itself. This type of educational setup offers little as platform for which strong and positive educational relationships can be formed.
Alternative
For this presentation I chose a less traditional style of presenting/teaching, this was in hope I could achieve my goal of providing an environment where the listener played a more active part in the presentation. The set up was the same as the traditional format, the information provided was behind the presenter and the audience in front, but that were the similarity ended. This presentation is centered around the cooperative style of learning of education. This learning style has become one of the most accepted practices of learning in education over the last ten years. Although, most teachers old and new are not yet fully skilled to incorporate this type of learning in a classroom environment, and many feel uncomfortable when using a cooperative learning strategy (Cohen, Brody, & Sapon-Shevin, 2004). The music model of cooperative learning best describes what I hope to achieve with this presentation. The Music learning model of cooperative learning provides:
Empowerment to the listener through the choices they would have to make throughout the presentation. The listener has a more of an interactive role to play in the presentation.
The listener plays a useful part in the presentation as the listener will play an active part in how the information in the presentation is formatted and presented.
The music model should keep the listener motivated through its format and keep the listener interested in the presentation, as the listener has a major role to play through this type of learning.
The teacher/presenter plays a more regulating role rather than that of leadership in information provided, and as part of the conversation they should share a more caring and supportive relationship with the listeners.
The music model focuses on the success of the learner/listener, rather than the success of the presentation and the information provided by the teacher/presenter.
This type of presenting and learning is design for the presenter/teacher to enjoy the process as much as the listener/learner. Research suggests that this type of learning is shown to motivate learning in listener/learner (Jones, 2009).
In reflection I felt this type of teaching strategy created a more natural and nurturing relationship between presenter and listener. The information simple just flowed naturally through the interaction of the listener and presenter from slide to slide. As the presenter I no longer felt the pressure to present appoint to the information provided by the slides. The interaction of the group choose the direction of the information present, I felt part of the conversation.
So in conclusion although the traditional method of teaching does offer a laid out content and structure to teaching, but it works on a one size fits all methodology. As research shows teacher like learner are individual and one size fits all really does not fit anyone at all. After I adjusted the method in which the information was presented every thing just fell in to place as a presenter. As argued Parkes (2013) cooperative teaching and learning methods does offer a better foundation for more positive educational relationships to be formed.
References
Cohen, E. G., Brody, C. M., & Sapon-Shevin, M. (Eds.). (2004). Teaching cooperative learning: The challenge for teacher education. Suny Press.
Doyle, W. (1977). Learning the Classroom Environment: An Ecological Analysis. Journal of Teacher Education, 28(6)
Jones, B. D. (2009). Motivating students to engage in learning: The MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 21(2)
Parkes, K. (2013). http://kp1203.wordpress.com/2013/10/31/should-we-bother-with-lectures/
Taylor, D. (2013). http://psue34.wordpress.com/2013/11/15/the-success-of-music/
Johnson D, Johnson R. (1991) Learning Together and Alone ed3, Sydney: Allyn & Bacon
Relan, A., & Gillani, B. B. (1997). Web-based instruction and the traditional classroom: Similarities and differences. Web-based instruction, New York: Educational technology Publications
Savill, S. (2013). http://simonsavill.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/blog-1/
Theroux, P, 2001 Comparing Traditional Teaching and Student Centered, Collaborative Learning
msjbp 
Reblogged this on Psychined Index.