Teaching in America

Course Reflection

Teaching in America class

I have found the Teaching in America course extremely valuable, interesting and enjoyable. I have learnt a great deal from the course, as most of the topics and issues such as the history of American education, critical pedagogy and issues surrounding ELL in US schools, were things that I had never covered before. 

From some of the reading that I carried out over the course I found out about some of the teaching philosophies that have influenced American education. It struck me how much the philosophies that have shaped teaching in America have evolved over the past 100 years, and how they seem to present conflicting ideologies. The essentialist philosophy which identifies a set of core skills and knowledge base that every child must acquire sits in contrast with the child centered progressivism theory. It was interesting to learn that perhaps over different times in American history, throughout different states or districts, the educational philosophies could vary so much. Sean explained that even today, teachers have the freedom (to a certain extent) to teach in whichever manner they choose. In England, I feel that although teachers can teach under any philosophy, from my experience the huge expectations and high amount of pressure for teachers to produce high examination results, means that most stick to tried-and-tested methods.

I found it interesting that the text claimed that many progressive teaching methods were still being used in classrooms across America today. For me, the progressive method is much more positive and I like the child centered approach that it represents, emphasizing the academic and social development of the child. Problem solving skills and the ability to discover new knowledge and form independent views are also aspects of progressive education that I would expect to find in an American school. Indeed, on a visit to the Great Northern School District, Eileen Nave explained how she encourages her pupils to find the answers to their own questions instead of volunteering an immediate answer. She uses a sign over the board which simply reads "THINK" to remind her pupils to try to discover the solutions themselves. This is a great example of the teacher being a facilitator for learning, another theme which emerged over the course.

The part of the course which I found most enjoyable was the media project. It was very enjoyable to be given the chance to search for our own sources and be creative! Nicola and I picked up on the theme of cultural diversity throughout the articles that we read, however we also identified that there were two conflicting presentations of this theme in the media. On the one hand, the media had identified several problems facing cultural diversity such as culturally isolated schools with low standards and high social problems and high staff turnover. On the other hand, we came across several media pieces which showed cultural exchange and changes to assessment criteria to reduce the attainment gap between cultural groups. I was very pleased with the poster that we created to demonstrate our findings:

'Cultural Diversity' poster for media project