This article features an interview with Mr. James, a mathematics teacher with 13 years of experience. He discusses his teaching philosophy, strategies for teaching mathematics, and effective classroom management techniques. Mr. James emphasizes the importance of empathy, logical reasoning, and self-paced learning in the classroom.
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RUNNING HEAD: TEACHER INTERVIEW1 Teacher Interview Student Name Institution Name
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TEACHER INTERVIEW2 Teacher Interview Every teacher over a period of time hones teaching skills especially when the teacher teaches the same subject and to different grades. The purpose of this paper is to interview Mr James (second name concealed) who is aged about 38 years and has been teaching Mathematics for grade 5 to grade 10 for the last 13 years. He is a post-graduate in Mathematics with a diploma in teaching. He has attended numerous workshops on teaching at school level and has the credit of conducting one such mathematics teaching workshop during 2018 for the younger teachers in his school. James is very explicit that Mathematics is a subject that most students are averse to, scared of and develop an aversion towards as they grow-up. This, he opines, as a consequence of the experiences that children might have had during their early years, wherein they get punished for not learning even simple things like numbers, arithmetic tables, simple addition, subtraction and other operations. He strongly opines that the human mind at younger age is more attracted to colours, shapes and things in two and three dimensions. During early childhood years,the human mind is not yet ready to accept, store and retrieve information. He says that children must memorise “how” to do rather than the answers themselves and he says he has carried this teaching philosophy into higher classes and that is the reason of his success in dealing with higher class learners(Kort, Reilley, and Picard 2011). Most teaching philosophies believe that learning by the rote method, is something that is apt at a younger age and tend to overload the young minds with a large number of things to remember rather than teaching the children how things progress from one to the next. Children at young age tend to get distracted easily, which makes memorising difficult(Pearson, 2014).
TEACHER INTERVIEW3 When there is a punishment that is added to such situations, it become worse and the child develops an aversion which only grows stronger with age, due to early negative imprints that are created. Avoiding punishment, he feels, is possibly the most effective management technique that would be of great help, particularly when teaching complex subjects like math(Guido, 2018). Teaching mathematics, according to James, needs a special logical bent of mind. He says that the teacher is equally responsible for learning among the students and at some point, the onus is on the teacher to ensure that the learning happens(Krantz, 2010). James over a period of time has developed tools and methods to teach different topics as he progresses from grade to grade. He has developed different tools that he uses with different examples while teaching different topics. He emphasizes that it is important for a teacher to teach the “How” rather than the “What.” James goes on to explain that teaching in the earlier classes is more of a challenge because that is the time when the foundations of mathematics is laid, and children develop either a liking or an aversion to the subject. Once the foundations are properly laid in place, then he says it is progressively developing various concepts based on the foundation and moving ahead (National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), 2014). James goes on to explain that he uses a variety of application tools for teaching his subject. For instance, an area like trigonometry, which could get dry and difficult to identify with, he has developed a variety of tools. Things like how to find a height of a building without measuring it. He extrapolates it to finding the height of a mountain for instance extending the same logic. He essentially makes learning more involved and fun. He himself, he says, never
TEACHER INTERVIEW4 takes a serious approach or use angry emotions while in the class, however difficult it is at a personal level or however difficult the class may be behaving and refusing to learn. James gave out a very important clue on class and subject management. The secret, he says, is empathy – the ability to look at things from the learners’ perspective rather than just from the black board side. This, he says is super critical while teaching and for all teachers, irrespective of the subject they teach(International Education Advisory Board (IEAB), 2008). James also speaks of other different class-management techniques like being able to prove logically, what you say; ability to manage your class and their questions; not getting exasperated and losing your touch of the sense of humour and always managing to gain the respect of the students in the class room. He emphasizes the last point and highlights the need for adequate preparation before entering the class room. He speaks of preparing notes, examples and he says he even prepares a few elements of humour and designs situations to use them appropriately. James also highlights the importance of keeping the class in order and not letting the orderliness flow out of control. This he says is not meant to imply that he would be ruling with an iron hand or have utmost discipline in classroom. He highlights the importance of letting some amount of space to allow the students to explore the topic, go on their own after learning the basics. He does this using what he calls Self-Paced Learning of a few topics. He hands out a few topics after the class for the students to learn on their own pace before the next class and in the next class, he ensures he revises the self-learning part and goes on to clarify any questions or doubts that the students may have. He then uses examples to cover the self-learning part and without actually explaining the concept, he uses an application of the concept to make sure the students understand it.
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TEACHER INTERVIEW5 James is a mixture of the old-school of thought and the millennials. He uses technology including models, presentations, videos to make his teaching interesting and absorbing. He advises younger teachers to be empathetic and not use the learning-by-rote blindly but use applications to make learning mathematics interesting(U.S. Department of Education, 2016). Teaching, he reiterates is not a one-way communication but a dialogue, which a teacher must be aware of respond according to the needs of the students. This he says makes learning interesting and teaching very rewarding both financially and emotionally. He signs off, saying he reserves some time weekly for himself to recharge his own batteries.
TEACHER INTERVIEW6 References Kort, Barry & Reilly, Rob & Picard, Rosalind. (2001). An affective model of interplay between emotions and learning. International Education Advisory Board (IEAB). (2008).Learning in the 21st Century: Teaching Today's Students on their Terms.Retrieved April 13, 2019, from Certiport, a unit of NSC Pearson, Inc.: https://www.certiport.com/Portal/Common/DocumentLibrary/IEAB_Whitepaper040808. pdf Krantz, S. G. (2010).How to Teach Mathematics?American Mathematics Society. National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). (2014).Teacher's Use of Research Evidence.Slough, Berkshire: National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). Pearson. (2014).The Learning Curve: Education and Skills for Life.London: Pearson. Retrieved April 13, 2019, from http://thelearningcurve.pearson.com/reports/the-learning-curve- report-2014 U.S. Department of Education. (2016).Future Ready Learning - Reimagining the Role of Technology in Education.Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from https://tech.ed.gov/files/2015/12/NETP16.pdf