Maintaining Your Commitments and Goals as a Teacher
The Situation
Faculty members with whom you study in your teacher-education program may point out that it can be difficult to practice what you have been taught when you obtain a teaching position. In some of your courses you will learn that it is important to teach students how to understand complex material and how to solve problems in your subject-matter field. You also will learn how to help them do this. In concluding parts of this chapter you will see that helping students in this way is an overriding goal of nationwide efforts that are underway to improve and reform elementary and secondary schools.
But when you actually begin to teach, you may well encounter obstacles. You might find that you do not have sufficient, appropriate materials to emphasize meaningful learning. Your class or classes could be too large, or include too many very-low-achieving students, to allow you to easily apply what you have learned. Most insidiously, some of your new colleagues may disparage your efforts to emphasize growth in students' comprehension and thinking skills. These colleagues may have concluded that many students are not willing to work hard. They will often tell you that you should "stick to the basics" that some students have not mastered. It is not too early for you to begin to consider, as you study this textbook, how you might respond productively if you find yourself in this situation.
Thought Questions
- How many years of teaching might be required for you to acquire the experience necessary to teach effectively in a difficult situation?
- What might you do to "hold on" to your philosophical commitments to help students acquire meaningful skills and subject matter if or when you have difficulty applying what you have learned in your own classroom?
- Which teaching approaches and strategies in your professional preparation courses seem to be most practical in terms of application in "real" classrooms?
- To what extent should you be willing to modify your goals and commitments based on what happens to you when you become a certified teacher? To what extent should you resist doing this?
