Diving deeper into teaching

Diving deeper into teaching (Revised)

Tyler Waller

English 201

Washington State University

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For my research paper I decided to analyze the life of a teacher, I intend to pursue a

career in this field of work. I thought that this would be a great opportunity to research

something I am really passionate about and be able to learn from other’s experiences. As

someone who wants to become a teacher in the future; I am really fascinated by different school

systems, different ages, how they learn, and really the mind of children in general. Teachers play

a huge role in every individuals life and a lot of the time it goes unrecognized. They are the

people you see on a daily basis growing up. Their impact is substantial: they single handedly

shape your academic growth and maybe they have even given you advice from time to time

Their job thrives on children’s well being. Whether you hate them or love them, its very hard to

get rid of them. Ultimately, teachers play a crucial role in child development and are one of the

most important and influential individuals of society. My intentions of this paper is to expose

the life of teachers. By taking a deeper look into the foundations and philosophies, teacher

demographics, and even what it take to be considered a “good” teacher.

There are many aspects that go into being a teacher, one of the most important of these

being the philosophies behind how cognitive development work in a growing child’s mind.

Piaget and Vygotsky are two of the most influential figures behind these concepts. They largely

focus on how to best receive and teach information. Although both these guys were pioneers in

cognitive development, they had differing views and beliefs. Piaget rooted his cognitive theories

in the biological context based on 5 principles. Reason is rooted in action; it stands on two “a

priori” mechanisms, adaptation and organization; reason is “pure” and nontemporal;

structuralism is an independent concept (Alves, 2014). He focused a lot of his theory on

spontaneous concepts, suggesting that a lot of formal development and scientific understanding
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was rooted in personal experiences. Implying that thought and development was natural.

Vygotsky found that cognitive development was historical, rooted in the deep principles of

evolution. Vygotsky too found 5 principles in which he would establish his theory on. He wanted

to think of psychology in a different, more scientific context. He also believed in the value of

social interactions leading to better development. Spontaneous and scientific concepts did not go

hand in hand but instead they worked in opposite directions and crossed paths and at that point

they worked in cooperation. Spontaneous concepts proceed from the concrete to the abstract;

scientific concepts, from the abstract to the concrete. These concepts alone do not work, and

result in failure to properly develop. But together they create a beautiful format for the minds of

children to develop properly. The work these 2 philosophers have done for teachers and

education general is highly noticed. Without their findings or even their concurring beliefs, there

would not have been much foundation to build on the many educational systems.

Another concept deeply rooted in the current educational system is the ability to be both a

teacher and a learner. That may sound confusing, but all those who want to grow in the

profession of education must be able to learn as well as they can teach. Through learning, you

can pick up on certain skills from others that you may adapt and as a result elevate your abilities

as a teacher. How to be a learner by Matthew L. Sanders outlines the true value of being a

learner. Often it is forgotten that teachers are learners as well. Everyday they learn just as much

or even more than their students do. The best teachers are the ones who can balance teaching and

learning properly, but it is hard to perform both role efficiently. This book brings up a very

interesting concept, that “Who you become as a result of your education is the culmination of

your everyday actions and efforts.” (Sanders, 2012, p. 7) Similar to learning, you only get as
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much out of teaching as you put into. If you're a teacher that is unwilling to put in effort outside

the classroom or after class ends then you will not grow and ultimately you will fail as a teacher.

By becoming a learner, you attain skills in creativity, critical thinking, communication skills, and

character. All features that define a great teacher. With this book I have been able to better

recognize what a teacher is about and how they visualize themselves as both a teacher and a

learner. As a teacher, you also need to show caring through your curriculum, assessments, and

teaching styles. Though these are not the first things that come to mind when thinking of a caring

teacher, they are still essential components that a teacher must understand to be an effective

teacher. Some ways to be a caring teacher when it comes to pedagogy is slowing down if you

can see lessons are hard, providing enough open time if students need additional help, or even

providing extra materials for tests or homework (Weinstein, 1998). As I’ve realized it's the little

things you do as a teacher that leave a lasting impact on your students.

One critique of the current educational system in the United States is the lack of male

teachers, especially in the elementary departments. There is a common belief rooted in the

concept that women tend to be more nurturing than men, and because of this they are better

suited for a career in teaching. While this may have some truth behind it, another approach

should be identified. Masculinity in the educational system should not be looked down upon,

instead it should be embraced and welcomed to those males who choose to pursue a teaching

career. Masculinity inside the educational workplace as a teacher is something that I hold at a

very high standard. Because there is a lack of male teacher, it is the duty of all male teachers to

embrace being a man and loving what you do. It clearly suggests that schools are “girl-friendly”

and that there needs to be an urgency to make schools more “boy-friendly”. Men make up 25%
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of all teachers and only 9% of elementary teachers (Sternod, 2009). This source agrees with this

concept. This is the problem, this is a very crucial time in a boy’s life as they are developing and

they start to reflect and imitate the things they see. If male teachers continue to dwindle in the

elementary department, then growing boys will begin to lose their masculinity and that will

cause a whole new wave of social problems. This is not in anyway support of a gender-biased

society where one gender reigns over another. This is simply a reminder to embrace masculinity

and who you are. Not only do they bring a gender variation, they also bring new thoughts, new

ideas, new concepts to pursue in the future. As a male, I may be biased. But it is known that men

and women do not think alike, they have different skills and talents. Bringing in positive men

into an occupation like education, where it is heavily populated with women has shown to

improve students learning experience. Another source I have found to support this claim is

“Gender, race, and the politics of role modelling : the influence of male teachers”. This book

really evokes the reality of the lack of male and minority teachers in the United States, this is a

topic that is extremely important to me, in consideration that I am both. The book states that

education has encountered a “moral crisis” in which there is a shortage of male teachers

(Martino, 2011). Although this seems like it is not that big of a deal or can be easily solved, this

crisis has left lasting effects. Most boys growing up are not drawn to pursuing careers in

education, and this book suggests that this stems from a lack of male role models as teachers,

mainly in primary education. This problem is all over and may even start at the top, as most

school school systems are not even looking for male teachers to hire at their schools. One thing

that I found really interesting is that students with a positive male influence in their life actually

perform better in school than those who don’t. This simple statistic has a deeper meaning than it
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appears. For a lot of low-income students, there aren’t really a lot of solid male influences in

their home and school life. By introducing some male figures as teacher, maybe students will be

able to find guidance through a male and perform better or even pursue a career in education.

There is no definite standard that makes a teacher better than one another. Different

students need different things and that is the beauty behind a variety of teachers. No teacher is

exactly the same, they may pick up certain traits or techniques off an another teacher but

ultimately they will adapt that trait to better fit their personal teaching style. This document

(Franzoni, 2009) does a really good job of identifying what a teaching strategy is and its

importance to students. Additionally this source relates back to the common use of technology

and its relation to teaching. The focus is on the development of learning styles with the intentions

of personalizing a student’s learning process. As a teacher it should be your ultimate goal to

reach everyone of your students. By doing this you sometimes have to change your personal

teaching preferences in order to reach a certain student. The underlying fact is that everyone

deserves the right to learn. This article takes a more scientific approach to teaching and that is an

approach I have never taken before. With that being said this article is not one I might base my

paper on, but there are some components of the paper that are useful. While there may not be an

exact formula or report card defining a great teacher, using Charlotte Danielson’s framework for

teaching is a very good way to gauge yourself as a teacher. It provides the basic jobs to be

fulfilled by any teacher, but unfortunately it is something that not alot of people know about this

tool. There are 4 domains; planning and preparation, classroom environment, instruction,

professional responsibilities (Danielson, 2013). Planning and preparation focuses on the

understanding of your pedagogy and use of resource to assess students. Classroom environment
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focuses on creating a safe environment for all to learn and thrive in. Instruction talks about the

importance of open communication between student and teacher while also practicing flexibility.

Finally, professional responsibilities highlights the expected duties to be fulfilled by you not only

as a teacher but also an active member of the community. In each domain, there are 2-5 elements

that describe the specific roles a teacher should meet throughout the year. This framework also

allows teachers to identify aspects that they see themselves thriving at while also seeing the

aspects in which they see they may need improvement in. It can also be used outside of teaching,

it has been shown to be effective for coaches, mentors, and even counselors.

I am from California and personally my intentions are to return there to begin my

teaching career after I graduate college. Because of this I decided to do a little bit more research

in the California’s educational system. “Similar Students, Different Results: Why Do Some

Schools Do Better?”​ ​takes a deep look into the the California school system, effectively

identifying the state’s ability to teach students of all backgrounds and learning styles. Many

experts have found that California’s K-12 academic content standards to be one of the most

challenging systems in the United States. These standards were adopted in the late 1990’s

(Williams, 2005). This document allows the audience to experience in depth look at the

California educational system, their use of research is very essential to the credibility of their

findings. Like many other states, California is facing a standard based reform, with hopes of

establishing standard that are to be met by all public schools inside the state. This reform

includes but is not limited to changes in curriculum, assessments, professional development,

financial resources, and accountability systems. I have found no bias inside this document, their

research is strictly based off of surveys, teacher and principal reports, and in class curriculum
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standards. The research does focus on the standards of “low income” students and school, which

may leave a gap in information for private, high income schools. Another strength includes in

this research is that it clearly states how this study is different from others. A prime example of

these differences is that a total of 257 schools from 145 districts participated in this survey

(Williams, 2005). They also surveyed teachers and principals from all spectrums of API

performances. California is a big state with a lot of different social status and this document

provides credible evidence of from each geographically and economically different section of

the state.

Outside of this document, I took it upon myself to interview a teacher in California. The

individual I decided to interview for this paper is Janine Williams, she is a Kindergarten teacher

in San Diego, CA. She teaches at Willow Grove Elementary in Poway Unified School District

(PUSD), the same district I attended growing up. She has been a full-time teacher now for 3

years, she spent a couple years substituting and even was a PE teacher for half of the year.

Janine grew up in the San Diego community and attended schools in PUSD from elementary

school all the way through High School. Because of her experience of attending the district

herself, she values the academic and social growth of each student she gets the opportunity to

interact with and this reflects in her actions as a teacher. Because of her dedication towards the

ultimate wellbeing of each of her students, it makes her a great advokit for ELL students as they

first begin their academic career. One aspect in particular that I was very interested in hearing

about was what she found most rewarding about teaching ELLs and then alternatively what she

found most challenging. She has found that especially because she teaches kindergarten, that you

can see so much growth not only from an academic standpoint but also socially. She has students
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that come to her that speak almost no English and struggle to talk and interact with their

classmates. But then because of the hard work she puts in to facilitate English vocabulary

growth, she sees them gradually build confidence to speak in class, to play with other students on

the playground, and just ultimately take steps out of their comfort zone. For me personally,

those kinds of effects you can have on children are what I find most amazing and inspiring about

being an elementary school teacher. But I also know that in order to see growth you must face

challenges. Some of the challenges that Ms. Williams has faced being an ELL teacher are that a

lot of her non-native English speaking students are not receiving a significant amount of

language practice at home. Some of the things holding these students back reflect onto their

parents. A lot of ELL student’s parents are forced to work multiple jobs in order to provide for

their family and survive through expenses that come with living in California, especially in San

Diego county. Because of this, these parents are not able to find enough time to work with their

child at home on the things they are learning inside the classroom. A huge part of student growth

comes from practicing your school work at home and then creating repetition until it becomes

natural. It is especially challenging for her as their teacher, because she sees their potential and

how much more they could be doing but she can only control how much support they are

receiving inside the classroom. She is also aware that there is a language barrier, that some

parents don't even speak english themselves. This makes it almost impossible to receive support

outside of the classroom, and you can only do so much as teacher of classroom of students.

Being a teacher comes with a lot of work and dedication and I understand that some days may be

harder than others but at the end of the day being able to sit back and see all the growth you have

made happen must be one of the most rewarding feelings you could experience.
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Another role as teacher is to best prepare all your students for standardized testing, this is

where states are able to assess the academic success of districts, schools, and each student in the

state. This is a big controversial topic at the moment. Standardized testing has been something

that has been discussed and debated for a long time now. People commonly question their value,

fairness, and validity. It is something that been around for a very long time and has made a lot of

students scared and forced to take. The purpose of the tests are to evaluate all that you have

learned in a year based off of preset standards, but recently it has been found that they aren't very

fair to all students. Thus some parents, students, and even teachers have stood against the

requirement of yearly standardized tests. This document provides an in depth look at

standardized test and their relation to those students who perform well and those who perform

poorly. The main keys that should be taken out of this are that There is a link between academic

achievement and mindset, different mindsets set up students for variations in success, and

teachers have a huge impact on how students score on these tests (McCutchen, 2016). By simply

giving feedback to a child can improve his or her test scores, this is because they will be able to

see where they went wrong and be able to correct it for future reference. Additionally a teacher’s

support can give student enough to confidence to perform higher and not feel rushed or nervous

when testing.
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Bibliography

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7​(3), 24-34.

Danielson, C. (2013). The Framework for Teaching Evaluation Instrument: 2013 Edition.

Princeton, NJ: The Danielson group. Retrieved from ​https://www.danielsongroup.org/framework/

Franzoni, A. L., Assar, S., Defude, B., & Rojas, J. (n.d.). Student Learning Styles Adaptation

Method Based on Teaching Strategies and Electronic Media. ​IEEE,​ 778-782. https://doi.org/

10.1109/ICALT.2008.149

Martino, W., & Rezai-Rashti, G. (2011). ​Gender, race, and the politics of role modelling : the

influence of male teachers​. Retrieved from ​https://ntserver1.wsulibs.wsu.edu:3447

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over time. ​Learning and Individual Differences,​ ​45,​ 208-213.

Sanders, M. L. (2012). ​Becoming a learner​. Institute for Communication & Leadership

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Wash.: Washington State University

Weinstein, C. S. (1998). “I want to be nice, but I have to be mean”: Exploring perspective

teachers' conceptions of caring and order. ​Teaching and Teacher Education,​ ​14(​ 2).

Williams, T., Kirst, M., & Haertel, E. (2005, October). ​Similar Students, Different Results: Why

Do Some Schools Do Better?​ Mountain View, CA: EdSource.