My client gained a job interview for an English teaching role in the Victorian education sector. This was a huge application that involved addressing 8 selection criteria, each ranged between 400 and 500 words. On completion, the word count for the entire application totalled approximately 4,000 words – that’s bigger than most university/tertiary assignments at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels! Following are excerpts from two of the selection criteria.
Adult Learning Principles:
My experience in specifically utilising the andragogical model within the BBB context is its proven ability to function cohesively with other learning theories. The model aligns with Bloom’s taxonomy, constructivism, and transformation theory. Bloom’s taxonomy encourages higher levels of thinking which aligns with treating students as capable of self-direction. Similarly, the andragogical model, constructivism and transformation theories understand the indisputable influence of an individual’s experience on their learning. Overall as a professional educator, I engage my students via pedagogies that enable them to learn in an environment and atmosphere that is enjoyable and motivating. For example, I provide students with the opportunity for role-reversal, where they are given the task of preparing and teaching a topic to the class as a collection of small groups, each entrusted to teach the class one component of an overall idea or concept. This strategy has been consistent in delivering very positive results, enabling students to have the power of choice and decision as to ‘what’ and ‘how’ to teach on their part, and in turn learn via a more lateral and creative approach – student-led versus teacher-led direction. Furthermore, this approach not only facilitates learning but also serves as an instrumental mechanism in developing students’ motivation, confidence, and team collaboration skills.
Learning Management Systems:
I utilise two Learning Management Systems (LMS) via my computer and iPad. Specifically, I incorporate ‘Socrative’ and ‘Edmodo’ into learning outcomes development within the classroom, and in the provision of student support and learning development outside the classroom respectively. While I utilise Socrative to support learning within the classroom, I employ Edmodo to support students outside of the classroom as an online blackboard and inbox. I post polls, quizzes, and assignment guidelines; and the system enables students to submit completed assignments. One of the aspects I encourage with this LMS is the social networking features which provide students with the opportunity to collaborate on projects, ask questions and work together. I also use this system to design quizzes in almost any format; and save documents, files, and links in the Library and share them with my students. I have found Edmodo to be especially powerful in the context of an English classroom, as the system allows me to review student work and provide instant feedback. This is especially useful when formally seeing students once a week as is the situation in the BHI context. Furthermore, from a professional development perspective, Edmodo has allowed me to interact with other teachers – nationally and internationally – to share ideas and resources.
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Cheers,
Annie Cerone
