TEACHING: BY JERE BROPHY

This specific reading is about some teaching practices that help us as future

or teachers now to improve our teaching career or become better teachers

and they include;

1) A supportive classroom climate

2) Opportunity to learn
3) Curricular alignment
4) Establishing learning orientations
5) Coherent content
6) Thoughtful discourse
7) Practice and application activities
8) Scaffolding students task engagement
9) Strategy teaching
10) Co-operative learning
11) Goal oriented assessment
12) Achievement expectations

All these practices are important and I will briefly discuss what they mean

and what I have learnt from each one of them.

Supportive classroom climate

In this practice, teachers are required to create or provide a favorable

learning environment for their students. This is done by the teacher

displaying friendly attributes like being kind, developing personal relationship

with the students, caring for them and praying with them. This will create an

environment where they are not scared or afraid of you and yet respect and

learn when it is time for learning.

Reflection
In my country the relationship between the teachers and the students is so

bad and every time it keeps on worsening. Teachers are the masters in their
classroom and students are not even allowed to ask questions sometimes. As

a future Christian teacher I have learnt that the relationship between my

students and I play a very important role in the learning so I need to keep it

favorable.

Opportunity to Learn
This practice is encouraging teachers to allocate most of the time in the

classroom for learning rather than using it for things that are not important.

For example, instead of dealing with some small disciplinary issues the

teacher can wait and solve such issues after a lesson or class.

Reflection
In my own experience teachers in my school used to follow through this

practice so well but the problem was that they would usually focus on

quantity rather than quality. In this practice however much a teacher uses

the learning times effectively, the students should be able to understand and

learn. I remember we would do a literature book in one sitting but without

learning anything. Therefore, as a future teacher I learn to maximize the

learning time and make sure it is productive.

Curricular alignment
This practice helps teachers understand that the focus of the students should

be set on curriculum goals. The students should be able to understand the

content being taught, be able to know what it really means and learn to
appreciate the value of each of the things being taught. Not only this but

also be able to apply it and use it in their daily lives.

Reflection
In this practice it is very important for a teacher to provide activities that will

help students to practice what has been taught and help them understand it

better. The teacher provides easy ways in which students can be able to

understand the content easily to be able to apply it. In my former school we

used to study just to pass exams but know I understand that students have

to learn to apply what they have learnt.

Establishing learning orientations

Here teachers have to make an effort to prepare their students for the lesson

by reviewing what they have taught in their previous knowledge and

introducing the lesson that is to be taught and give them a reason as to why

they are going to learn that lesson the importance of the lesson to the

students.

Reflection
This is very important because it prepares students thoughts for what they

are going to learn and what I learn here is that teachers have to be so

creative while establishing learning orientations., so that students can be

eager to learn. As a future teacher I must aim at being more and more

creative so that my students can be able to learn and enjoy the learning

process.
 Coherent Content
This practice encourages teachers to relate what they are teaching to other

things around the students. They should not only focus on what is to be

taught, this however requires teachers to perform a lot of research to be able

to make connections with other things. This also includes connecting the new

information to what students already.

Thoughtful discourse
This particular practice calls upon teachers to provide questions that

encourage students to engage with the topic and understand it well.

Questions that direct students to apply what they have learnt and also

encourage students to develop their own knowledge towards the topic or

subject matter.

Reflection
Here as me, I think it is very important for us to let students develop their

own understanding of the subject matter because then they will even

understand the topic better. This also needs the teacher to be creative so

that the students can also enjoy learning this way.

Practice and application activities

Here the teacher surely needs to give students as many opportunities to

practice what they have learnt. This can be in all forms as long as it helps

them to understand and apply the content they have been learning.
 Reflection
In this section, I learn to be more practical by giving students assignment

that will help them be able to apply what they have learnt. Even in my lesson

plans, my assessments should be more related to the topic and help

students apply it in all ways.

Scaffolding students task engagement

According to this practice, teachers should be able to provide all the

necessary assistance needed for the students to take part in meaningful

learning. This can be done by supporting students, helping them where they

need help and monitoring their progresses according to the book.

Reflection
As a future teacher I have learnt that my relationship with my students in

terms of learning does not stop only in class like how our teachers at my

former school used to do it, but even after class it is my responsibility to

follow them up and know that they are learning the things I teach in class.

Strategy teaching
Strategy teaching requires teachers to strategize and teach students things

that they will be able to remember even after school. Teachers try to help

students learn long lasting lessons rather than just memorizing things and

later forget them.

Reflection
To a future teacher like me, this is so important because I what we teach

students they can either remember it to help them or they will remember it
no more. There are so many things I studied in my high school but I even

wonder why I had to study them and yet they are those that are actually

helping me now that my teacher taught me.

Co-operative learning
This is an instructional mode of learning where students learn in pair and

groups. Some students learn best in groups and it upon us as teachers to

create such an environment so that some of those students can learn better.

It also helps students learn to express themselves because some cannot

express themselves in front of the class so this helps a lot.

Reflection
For me now I believe am not perfect but am good at speaking in front of

crowds and one of the things that really helped me was group discussions. In

my final year of high school and even before I used to tell my friends so

many stories and also discuss questions and answers for them and that

contributed a lot to my speaking skills now. So as a future teacher I will never

neglect group learning because it is important.

Goal orientated assessment

Goal-oriented assessment deals with educating teachers to set goals for their

students so that they are able to follow through and monitor their progress

as they move on in their studies. Therefore teachers should set SMART goals

that students can easily measure to see their progress. Once in a while the
teacher can stop and update students on what they have achieved so far and

let them know where they are heading.

Reflection
The teachers I have seen really do not care about goals for that particular

subject but as I have learnt that it is very important that we set goals that

help our students to be focused and straight. This helps the teachers also

monitor their students and also evaluate how they are doing as teachers.

Achievement expectations
Achievement expectations refer to setting goals that challenge students and

helping them achieve the set goals. According the book this includes holding

students accountable, monitoring their progress, believing in them, setting

for them individual goals and helping them achieve them, giving them

encouraging words like, you can do it, well-done, and teacher trying to help a

student understand a concept.

Reflection
Teachers should know that all they do and say while affects their students in

one way or the other. Our responsibility as teachers is to set goals that

challenge our students to excel and be better but we dont stop here, we go

ahead and support them in all ways we can including disciplining and holding

then accountable for their actions and grades.

Work cited.
Brophy, J. (1995). Teaching. Educational Practices Series 1. International

Academy of Education: UNESCO.