Developing as a Teacher Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Developing as a Teacher - Essay Example In regard to motivation, pupils who are interested and active in school tend to have higher goal orientations and higher self-efficacy, which has been shown to be positively related to self-regulatory strategies such as planning, monitoring, and regulation resulting in increased pupil performance (Alsop, Bencze, & Pedretti, 2005). social concerns. As Osborne, Simon and Collins (2003) state, "attitudes are enduring while knowledge often has an ephemeral quality (and) the price of ignoring this simple fact and its implications is the potential alienation of our youth phenomenon that many countries are now experiencing" (p. 1074). Through the learning environment, teachers should motivate their pupils; teachers should convince their pupils to see the relevance of education and learning to their lives; should give their pupils the strategies, skills, and abilities to be successful in the classroom as well as out in the "real world." Therefore, the problem to be addressed in this paper is how teachers can help their pupils to actively engage in their own learning. Pintrich, Marx, and Boyle (1993) describe classroom contextual factors as six structures that define a leaning environment. These structures are: task structures, authority structures, evaluation structures, classroom management, teacher modeling and teacher scaffolding. Task structures deal with providing pupils with authentic, challenging and meaningful tasks in the classroom (Hamilton, 2007). Authority structures address the issues of providing pupils with optimal choice, optimal control and optimal challenge in the classroom. Evaluation structures (or assessment) address the issue of allowing pupil work to be improvement based and mistakes are seen as positive (Hamilton, 2007) and as an opportunity for mastery learning. Classroom management concerns the use of time and norms for engagement in the classroom. Teacher modeling directs the efforts and attention of scientific thinking and scientific dispositions as engaged by the teacher in the classroom. Teacher scaffolding addresse s the issues of cognition and motivation. In many secondary classrooms, pupils are often cognitively, emotionally, and socially dependent on their teachers who formulate the learning goals, determine the type of interaction allowed, and generally require pupils to adjust to the learning environment they have created (Boekaerts, 2002). However, classroom contextual factors such as authentic tasks or projects "without one right answer" that allow longer periods of time for completion may drive off closure and facilitate more cognitive activity and conceptual change" and may serve to actively motivate learners as well (Pintrich quoted in Alsop, Bencze, & Pedretti, 2005). Pupils who adopt a goal orientation approach (motivation) do engage in more selfregulated learning than those who do not (Pintrich, 2000). Self-regulated learning