Standard 4 Meta-Reflection: Pedagogy
How Instructional Models Influence Student Academic Success
Standard 4: Pedagogy indicates I need to engage students in learning experiences that are meaningful, stimulating, and empirically proven to promote intellectual growth.
I created this artifact as part of the final course requirement for the Survey of Instructional Strategies. This paper was a reflection of the two teaching strategies that influence student achievement and well being in my classroom. Reflecting on why I use particular instructional strategies impacts student learning because I am more purposeful as I plan lessons. If I have set a clear target students are better able to reach that target. Using empirically proven teaching methods allows me to learn from the best practices of other teachers to improve student learning and well being in my science classroom.
As a science teacher I use Inquiry on a regular basis and expect students to construct their own knowledge and answer their own questions. This gives students ownership of their learning. I use direct instruction quite often as well. Direct instruction allows me to guide students through the metacognitive processes after their inquiry activities like analyzing and synthesizing their ideas. Using direct instruction after an inquiry activity also gives me opportunity to have students explain the evidence they have collected during their inquiry. Together we make connections between the activity and the standards. I have found that this empowers students to ask themselves questions about how they know what they know.
Both of these research-based instructional strategies give me a template to focus my instruction so that it is meaningful and stimulating. Incorporating research-based instructional strategies purposefully will increase student learning no matter what strategy I use for a particular lesson. Both of these strategies do not work in isolation. I also should use cooperative grouping, jigsaws, advance organizers, and other strategies, to access students’ multiple intelligences.
