Answer to Question #216829 in English for Joyce

Question

1. Write the key different between instruction and teaching and provide practical examples.

2. Good teaching in normally loosely defined, as student in education field describe to someone who is not in the field of education, what 'good teaching' is?

3. Explain why teaching is about making responsible decisions for learning. Give examples.

4Why is it important that as teachers in Africa, we have a good understanding of African teaching perspectives?

5.what aspects of African-based teaching can you integrate into your own teaching philosophy?

Answer 1

1. Instruction entails providing step by step directions so that one can complete a task. It is a directive, one person is active while the other person is passive. Information flows one way. For example, a cake recipe gives instructions on how to bake a cake, each step is identified and made to be followed. Teaching on the other hand entails provision of guidance and feedback as another explores and experiences something. It is cooperative, one person is the expert while the other person is the learner. Both of them are active during the activity. For example, in a bakery class, teaching will give a broader scope such that the students will be able to learn the effects of all the ingredients ad the different ways that the ingredients can be prepared.
2. Good teaching entails the desire to share your love of the subject with the students, a capacity to explain the material plainly, a facility for engaging with the students at their level of understanding and an ability to make the material being taught stimulating and interesting.
3. Responsible decision making refers to the ability to make choices that affect you positively in your physical, intellectual, social and emotional bodies. It also means making responsible choices that benefit you and your community. Teachers constantly make decisions in their classrooms. They decisions on lesson content, teaching style, the motivation of the class and also on the resources to use. Responsible decision making for learning allows the teacher to be open to new methods of teaching that may work out better in the end. For example, a teacher and a learner may choose the order of learning on the basis of interest, availability of resources or convenience.
4. Teachers in Africa should have a good understanding of African teaching perspectives as it offers discourse to address the continent's various problems. It also allows learners to search for meanings that relate to their chosen field. It also offers insights into dimensions of human experience made uniquely available through African metaphysical beliefs.
5. Ubuntu principle which is the capacity in an African culture to express compassion, reciprocity, dignity, humanity and mutuality in the interests of building and maintaining communities with justice and mutual caring, is one aspect of African- based teaching that I can integrate in my own teaching philosophy. The other aspect is rationality which is culture dependent.