Feature Photo by Andrew George on Unsplash
Pedagogy is a term I had heard before, but never fully knew the meaning. So, when learning about the concept of pedagogy my thoughts immediately went to the different teachers and instructors I have had in the past and how their methods impacted me as a learner. After reflecting on my different high-school experiences, it led me to think of 3 individual instructors, one being Mr. Brown, my grade 12 English teacher, Mr. Black who was my grade 11 drama teacher, and lastly Mr. White, who was my grade 10 math teacher. (Their names are kept anonymous) Each of these individuals had an important role in my life as my instructor, and I would argue the reason for that is due to the pedagogy they used in their teaching process. With that said, the role they played was not necessarily always a positive one, as one of these teachers ended up having a negative impact on my learning experience. In this blog, I am going to explain and demonstrate each of the different forms of pedagogy these instructors, their learning theories, and each of their digital literacy levels used in order to engage with their classroom, and by the end the reader should be able to determine which instructor had the best impact on my learning and which instructor had the worst impact on my learning.
Mr. Brown
Mr. Brown took a different approach to his instructing methods, as his priority was to innovate and find new ways that actively engaged the learner with the mandatory education model set by the school district. For example, Mr. Brown was required by the school district curriculum to have the students be able to critically reflect on varying pieces of media, which in his rendition meant one activity the students had to do was choosing one of their favourite songs, and one randomly assigned song to read the lyrics and provide annotations to the lyrics. This is a form of Constructivist learning theory, by allowing students to choose a song of their preference, while also exploring the digital literacy and connectivity in students by focusing on what is important to the learner, instead of a basic curriculum.
Mr. Black
Mr. Black had a focus on Social Learning theory, as his classes and drama exercises were constantly focused on the interaction and creativity through students engaging with each other. There would often be activities where students would have to reflect another persons actions and respond accordingly, a specific example being the drama exercise of “Yes and?” where you would improvise a scene with a partner, and the only correct response to an action was to reply with “Yes, and?” in order to never shut down ones ideas and to build upon the action. Mr. Black’s pedagogical views expanded into the digital format too, as he would often create different ways of learning through digital networks that reflect a networked pedagogy model. This form of reinforcement and repetition was prevalent in Mr. Black’s classroom.
Below is an example of the basics of Social Learning through the film “Big Daddy (1999)”
Mr. White
Mr. White had more of a traditional teaching style that did not necessarily engage with any of the newer learning theories, as his style of teaching focused more on the basic foundations and exercises you might expect from a traditional math classroom. Plenty of practice questions, all out of a paper textbook that had the answers in the back. Mr. White did not have the same digital literacy or networked pedagogy that would engage with the classroom and motivate the students to learn. Rather instead Mr. White’s main focus was on getting through each topic as fast as possible and leaving the rest of the class time to allow the students to do practice questions quietly.
“The supreme art of the teacher is to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
Albert Einstein
Each of my previous teachers demonstrate a different level of teaching in relation to the pedagogy they each represent and the focus on digital networks and literacy to allow the students to learn in different ways. Each of these instructors had natural flaws, as the school district can be very firm on what is and is not accepted in a classroom; for example physical attendance was mandatory in each of these classes, which actively opposes the ideas of digital and asynchronous. And while we know that digital learning has shown to provide more flexibility for students who may not always be available, societies acceptance of digital learning as the foundation for education still remains weary.
Click this link to read an article on how different teaching styles affect the student
The role of the instructor creates a massive amount of importance in the 3 different scenarios I experienced. If the instructor for each of these classes were the exact same, it would stand to reason the students experience in each of the classes would be the same. However, Mr. Brown, Mr. Black and Mr. White are all individual people, and their pedagogy made all the difference in my personal learning experience. Below you will find a quiz that directly questions your knowledge from the reading of my blog.
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