Today I revisited a number of concepts that I tried to teach in a mathematics lesson yesterday. My goal for this placement in regards to standard three of the Graduating Teacher Standards is to understand what social and cultural factors have influence on teachers and learners. From reflection on my previous lesson I concluded that I progressed through my material way too fast for these students which therefore left a number of students confused and unsure of what I taught. The concepts I was teaching were ultimately a lot higher than they were currently at but this material relates to our integrated topic and they need a good challenge. Therefore today when I revisited the lesson I slowed the process completely down and went through the processes step by step. This here produced exponential results in the beginning with students ‘clicking’ and gaining understanding in the content. As I progressed through the lesson students understanding and concentration and understanding began to drop. At one point a student sighed, giving up which escalated to the whole class. Straight away my AT jumped in and encouraged the class by saying that they don’t just give up but continue to try. He also mentioned that if they went to their higher level peers then they wouldn’t understand what they now know. It was amazing at this point to how the students’ attitudes changed and they continued to focus. From discussion with my AT he commented on how my ‘fast’ teaching would have been perfect for a high decile class but just the fact that these students are so far behind. He commented on how these students can not handle very complex issues because they do not come from a background of such things and are behind in their overall understanding. The change of mindset, teaching and pedagogy needed for these students interests me and I want to refine my practice over the next few weeks in regards to this. With particular focus on pushing my students but delivering material in a step by step slow process.
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