Week 1: Visions for teaching and learning
Introduction
In this first week you will start to think and reflect upon your ideas about teaching and learning. How do you recognise good teaching? What ideas of learning and knowledge do you find convincing? Would you describe your own practice as ‘learner-centred’? This week will provide an opportunity to explore these questions and relate them to your own practice. You will also find out about Open Educational Resources (OER) and TESS-India, a large-scale OER Teacher Education programme.
In total there are seven activities in this first week, including a quiz that is part of your portfolio of participation. In this first activity you will start to consider and articulate your vision for effective teaching and learning.
Activity 1.1: Your vision for teaching and learning
Articulating your vision for teaching and learning is useful because it helps you to make your goals and ambitions explicit, and enables you to share them. It will also help you to judge the effectiveness of your actions as a teacher educator.
[
] Note in your study notebook some key words or phrases to describe your vision for quality classroom teaching and learning. The following questions might help you to think about your ideal classroom:
- What would you observe teachers and students doing?
- What role are teachers playing?
- What characterises teacher–student relationships? How do teachers treat students?
- What sort of learning is taking place?
(Guidance on using your study notebook can be found in the document ‘Your study notebook [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ’.)
[
] Watch the short videos of Sir Ken Robinson speaking. Sir Ken is an eminent educationalist and in his talks he expresses his personal position regarding the role of teachers, drawing on explicit moral values that embrace principles of truth, justice, fairness, equity, inclusion and ethical actions.
What similarities and differences are there with your own vision?