Over time, I observed this student gain greater mastery of the subject and find purpose in studying American history. We set the goal of having him go to the whiteboard and lead discussions of World War I at least three times during the semester. We practiced and walked through concepts. As I learned to modify my teaching style to restrain myself from carrying the class from a response standpoint, this student began to progress. I deliberately began leaving out aspects of Word War I history and would look to him to fill them win when I asked questions of the class. Soon, he was participating and is now on his way to presenting three times in front of the class.
What this experience showed me was that having emotional intelligence and situational awareness as an instructor is critical if students are to be given the opportunity to intellectually challenge themselves. It also showed me that too much coaching, too much sharing of information was actually making some of my students pull back from participating. Being comfortable with silence in the classroom after asking particularly challenging questions is never easy; one feels as a teacher that silence needs to be filled. Yet as Mrs. D'Amour has pointed out, these silences are exactly what students need for reflection as well. All of these factors came together based on the experiences of helping this young man realize that learning isn't situational or external, it's about facing down challenges within yourself to grow intellectually, socially and emotionally. The experiences of working with scaffolding techniques for this young man also showed how critical it is for students to have a strong sense of mastery over a subject, along...
These insights gained form the scaffolding exercise also illustrate how important inductive reasoning is to the learning process. What unified or galvanizes all of these aspects together from personal experience, as was very clear form working with this young man, that just the act of creating an individualized lesson plan communicated that the faculty of Myra S. Barnes Intermediate School believed in him; they are in his corner.
All students need that re-assurance that educators are in their corner, they are there for them if they need help. Far from the didactic, pedantic approaches to teaching the rely on authoritarianism that tend to alienate rather than include students, even the most challenging inductive reasoning and debate energizes a class to become part of the learning process.
Conclusion
Teaching professionals must prepare students for an increasingly turbulent, competitive and challenging world. They must have the confidence to learn and confront their own doubts about learning and cognitive abilities if they are going to continually grow and adapt to society as it will most likely change significantly in their lifetimes. Educators must therefore challenge themselves to have the emotional intelligence and situational awareness to choose the best possible approach to teaching a session, course or semester that leads students to form a strong sense of autonomy, mastery and purpose with regard to their learning and cognitive reasoning strategies. The many objectives of lesson plans can be accomplished based on a strong foundation of learning confidence.
