Pedagogy – Reflecting on Your Strengths
“There’s no cookie-cutter template for teachers. The most important thing is to know your strengths.” – Sherida Britt, Director of Tools for Teachers with ASCD
Pedagogy is another word for education, the profession and the discipline of teaching. It is the substance of teachers’ daily lives. It has been described as:
- The art of teaching – the creative and insightful part
- The craft of teaching – the ability, skills, and performance part
- The science of teaching – the academic, researched – best practice part
Reflective practitioners examine and use their strengths with pedagogy to have positive effects on student learning. Dr. John Hattie spent years on a “huge study of studies” conducting “research on the research” to find what strategies have the greatest impact on student learning outcomes. He found that “Educating students to have high, challenging appropriate expectations is among the most powerful influence in enhancing student achievement.” If this is an impactful strategy for students, then maybe we should use it as we reflect on our pedagogy.
If we are striving to enhance our achievement as educators, we must also have “high, challenging appropriate expectations.” Reflective teaching means we think about what we do in our classrooms, consider why we do it, and evaluate whether or not it works. This process of self-reflection allows us to explore our own practices, instructional techniques, and educational philosophies. We each walk into our classrooms with different gifts and challenges and effective teachers are those that teach to their strengths. They collaborate with colleagues and connect to the strengths of others to deliver the best quality instruction possible and to meet the developmental needs of their students.
The site We are Teachers shares information on how to identify your unique strengths as an educator. Kristin Gregory, senior strengths consultant with Gallup says, “If you just focus on what’s wrong, that doesn’t create excellence, our greatest opportunity for significant and fast improvement lies in our strengths.” Click on the following link to find an interesting quiz that will help you pinpoint your teaching strengths and provide ideas for the areas where you hope to grow.
http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2015/04/03/teach-to-your-strengths