I really enjoyed going through the Teaching & Learning unit. It allowed me to expend exponentially my understanding of teaching and showed me that there are different pedagogic approaches to teaching. My vision of teaching now embraces other ways of communicating a knowledge through games, objects, group discussions or any activity that can be used as a catalyst for learning. I have a better understanding of my role as a teacher, as a facilitator and of the flow of energy/ creativity /learning /love circulating back and forth in a teacher/learner relationship. I am more aware of my teaching context and more importantly of the learning context of my students. I feel that by having integrated the knowledge gain during this first PG Cert trimester I now teach with more confidence, empathy and passion. I also lessen and see better.
Another area where my comprehension has grown is the learning experience. As a dyslexic I am fully aware that my learning experience is paramount for retaining and accessing learnt knowledge. I always thought this was due to dyslexia and had never realised to what extend this was also true of everybody else. I am fascinated by the learning experience and what impact it can have on the acquisition and retention of knowledge. I love the idea that the learning experience if enjoyable and memorable can become a catalyst for learning, in other words how one learnt is paramount to the understanding of one’s learning.
I have met and conversed with a wonderful and diverse group of peers who were in the same PG Cert boat than me! Their fascinating insights and the sharing of different experiences and feedback gave me an incredible source of tips, ideas, support and many learning experiences. It also made me more confident by realising that I now have the pedagogic tools and frame of mind to always look into my own teaching with the aim to improve the learner’s experience, the learner/teacher relation and the learning outcome.
And finally, I really enjoyed being taught using the very same pedagogic methods than the course teaches. It allowed for a very pleasant and instructive unit where the impact of these pedagogic methods on the learning outcome was demonstrated by us to us!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.