The Planning and Design of an Educational Journey

Tyler Anderson

March 11, 2009

Seattle Pacific University

EDU 6526: Survey of Instructional Strategies

Washington State Approval Standard ‘L’ (principles of effective practice), ‘O’ (effective

instructional strategies), and ‘P’ (instructional strategies for reading, writing, critical

thinking, and problem-solving):

In completing this assignment, I have assessed and reflected on several different

instructional models. It has helped me to gain a clearer understanding of effective

teaching methods in the science classroom with consideration to my personal educational

philosophies and teaching style.

1

I am building a boat. It will be a large boat with white sails that reach high into

the sky. As the engineer, I will construct this boat out of the finest quality materials. It

will be strong and steady and beautiful. I also have the unique opportunity to build and

sail this boat in any environment that I choose. It can be launched into a dark and stormy

sea, or into an ocean of clear blue water and bright sunny skies. As the captain, I will

lead a crew of students who will travel on our boat. They will be required to work

together in order to make our boat sail. Our destination will not be as important as our

journey. Our quest will be one of knowledge.

To start, I need to decide under what conditions I will begin the construction of

our boat (classroom). What is the climate like? Is it sunny and warm with just the right

amount of steady wind? How will I use my personality and character to influence this

atmosphere? In regards to this, I embrace two fundamental thoughts: Personality is a gift

at birth, and character is built each day by choices. My personality is unique and

unchangeable. It is something that I was essentially ‘born with’, and it will provide a

distinctive flavor to how I teach and add some color to my classroom. My personality is

one that is naturally people oriented, a steady and loyal supporter, amiable, empathetic,

and intuitive. I also am expressive, influencing, social, entertaining and flexible. My

character, on the other hand, is a series of choices that I make throughout my life. I can

build character. Character also adds to the atmosphere of the classroom, and it has

drastic implications on student receptiveness.

In considering the idea of character development and its implications on

classroom environment, allow me to frame it within the context of how I wish to lead my

students. Leadership begins with the will, which is my unique ability as a human being to

2

align my intentions with actions and choose my behavior. With the proper will, I can

choose to love my students. Love is a verb. It is an act of extending myself for others by

identifying and meeting their legitimate needs, not wants. Those legitimate needs include

being loved, which constitutes that I be patient, kind, humble, respectful, selfless,

forgiving, honest and committed. These actions make up my character. When meeting

the needs of others and loving them, I will be called upon to serve and even sacrifice.

When I serve and sacrifice for my students, I will build authority, which is the skill of

getting people to willingly do my will because of my personal influence. It is only then

that I will become an effective leader and captain of our ship. It is this air of love and

good character that will fill our sails as we journey onward.

I bring up my beliefs about personality and character because I believe that they

are fundamental to meaningful education. The reasons for this are twofold: (1) I believe

students will learn more when they are lead by a teacher of good character, and (2) I

believe that moral education is of vast importance. To expound these thoughts, assume

that the terms ‘teacher’ and ‘leader’ are synonymous. As a leader, my mission is to

possess the skill of influencing students to work enthusiastically toward goals that are

identified as being for the common good. Those goals may include acquiring new

scientific knowledge and understanding, or they may include gaining a clearer

understanding of self and others. Students will be more receptive to learning new ideas

when those ideas are being presented by a person of authority and in a classroom with

high moral standards. The question then becomes how I will specifically go about

teaching science and morals effectively. There are a few distinct teaching models that

should assist me in this process.

3

Again considering the atmosphere of the classroom, I want to touch on personal

models of teaching. Personal models focus on the students themselves as well as the

relationship between the teacher and student. One such model, the nondirective teaching

model, is based on the work of Carl Rogers. He believed that positive human

relationships enable people to grow and therefore that instruction should be based on

concepts of human relations as opposed to concepts of subject matter. This model is a

student-centered approach to education and one in which individual needs and goals are

prioritized. It requires that teachers be understanding, empathetic, respectful, accepting,

and supportive of students (essentially, that they love their students). Educators are to

facilitate learning, carefully guiding the presentation and subsequent comprehension of

ideas. Facilitation requires great skill in asking pointed questions rather than simply

giving the right answer, and great patience in leading students to opportunities of self-

discovery. Students should be encouraged to think for themselves and use their personal

needs and values to effectively direct their own educational decisions. Nondirective

teaching also necessitates adjusting teaching styles so as to meet the various multiple

intelligences of students. Once again, the foundations of this model coincide with my

view of a teacher/leader as an authority who chooses to serve and sacrifice in love while

meeting the legitimate personal needs of students.

One of the greatest benefits of personal models of teaching is that they provide the

proper conditions for students to achieve higher levels of self-esteem. I agree with

everything that Carl Rogers writes in his article, “Teacher Effects Research on Student

Self-Concept” about the importance of empathy, respect, praising, accepting student

ideas, and asking for thinking. These are all important in helping to foster self-esteem in

4

our students. I would only caution that we be careful not to view self-esteem as

something that we can instill in our students by simply being nice. We cannot expect that

praising our students, forming meaningful relationships, encouraging them and making

them feel good will automatically elevate their levels of self-esteem. We need to be

careful not to feed into a myopic and selfish mentality that so many people fall victim to.

People have a natural tendency to seek affirmation, affection, encouragement, and love

from outside influences such as other people and things. However, students will never

develop higher levels of self-esteem solely from outside sources. The important thing to

remember is that self-esteem comes from within. It is about living life from the inside

out rather than from the outside in. Teachers can and should model this in themselves,

but that may not be enough.

This being said, I believe that the best way teachers can help foster student self-

esteem is to allow them to face difficult tasks and then provide them with the tools and

guidance necessary to succeed. They need the opportunity to work hard at something and

to accomplish goals. They need to take action. They need to do. They need to realize

that they are capable, important, and self-sufficient. We can encourage them throughout

this process and facilitate their learning, but it ultimately has to come down to them being

responsible for their own successes. It is only then (from within), that students will truly

acquire higher levels of self-esteem. So how can I specifically help them succeed?

As stressed earlier, the environment in which our boat will travel is of great

importance in fostering student well being, communicating moral and academic

excellence, and instilling good values. These are explicitly and implicitly taught through

personal models, which help to create the climate in which our boat will be sailing. Now

5

I must focus on building our boat. What tools and materials will be used? What are the

specific methods and tools I will use to help students succeed not only personally but also

academically? To this I turn to two other instructional families: Information-processing

and social models.

Even though I have stressed moral and personal education thus far, it should be

noted that another primary function of education is to effectively promote intellectual

knowledge. For me, this means educating students in the area of science. As a science

teacher, I will largely depend on the scientific inquiry model to instruct my students. The

essence of this model is to involve students in a genuine problem of inquiry by

confronting them with an area of investigation, helping them identify a conceptual or

methodological problem within that area of investigation, and inviting them to design

ways of overcoming that problem (Joyce, Weil, & Calhoun, 2009). It is a methodical and

inquisitive model, and it provides students with the opportunity to discover truths through

thoughtful exploration. This exploration leads to meaningful and lasting learning,

because the students have constructed the knowledge themselves. It is much different

than direct teaching methods and lecture-based instruction, where knowledge is being

spoon-fed to students. Through the scientific inquiry model, students will have the

chance to take ownership of their education through self-discovery.

Obviously, not all science can be taught via the scientific method of inquiry.

Some foundational knowledge must be established before we can expect students to

figure out concepts and ideas on their own. Besides direct methods and lecture-based

instruction, I particularly like the idea of presenting information in the form of advance

organizers. Formulated by David Ausubel (1963), an advance organizer consists of

6

information that is presented prior to learning, which can then be used by the student to

organize and interpret new incoming information. It may seem that advance organizers

contradict the idea of inquiry learning and the scientific method of discovery, but I

believe that they work well together as an effective model for teaching in the science

classroom.  One example I think of involves laboratory experiments.  How easy would it

be to simply provide step-by-step instructions for a science experiment, with no

background information?  The students would have no problem simply following

instructions and recording the appropriate results.  But does it have any real meaning if

the students have not been properly equipped before hand with a certain degree of

knowledge and understanding?  The very purpose of a lab is to provide hands on

experience and self-discovery for a concept or idea that has been previously discussed.

Moving back now to our ship analogy: I have chosen the environment in which to

sail and I have settled on some instructional models that will serve as the ‘body’ of the

boat. However, our ship will remain idle in the port without a great deal of cooperation

by the crew. I am no expert on the actual process of sailing, but I do understand that it

requires a group effort in order to safely and effectively navigate the open seas. In this

respect, I want to encourage the social instructional models of cooperative learning and

group investigation in my classroom. These models lend themselves nicely to the science

classroom and inquiry models of instruction, as they allow students to work together in

the search and discovery of knowledge. In working together towards a common goal,

students generate synergy. Synergy is defined as the whole being greater than the sum of

the parts. It is the synthesis, or bonding together of energy. In other words, many

students thinking and working together will more than likely come up with better vision,

7

better plans, better ideas, and a more complete understanding than students working

alone. They will have the opportunity to learn from one another and generate not only

better academic knowledge, but also social knowledge. This social knowledge is yet

another important aspect of education, and it is our responsibility as educators to

encourage the development of good social skills in our classrooms.

Planning the location, construction, and operation of this hypothetical sailboat has

been a journey in and of itself. I have learned much about myself and which methods I

will choose to successfully lead my students in their quest for knowledge. There are no

doubt many different means to an end – students will learn concepts and ideas via any

number of instructional methods. However, I find it imperative to take my personality

and character (which are the core of my being) and use them as the foundation for my

teaching style. From there, I hope to use the proper educational models to teach

intellectual, social, and moral knowledge effectively.

8

References

Joyce, B., Weil, M., & Calhoun, E. (2009). Models of Teaching. Boston: Pearson

Education, Inc.

9