Learning objectives
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
• Demonstrate a foundational understanding of how students learn
• Conceptualise pedagogy as the complex relationship between teaching and learning
• Identify how sociocultural factors can influence the development of a child's identity, and how awareness of these factors can influence a teacher's pedagogy
• Describe different pedagogical approaches that can inform a teacher's practice
• Outline the factors that contribute to the pedagogy of effective teachers
Introduction
No two teachers go about the business of teaching in the same way, which is to say that each teacher's way of teaching is unique. The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) require that teachers not only know the content and how to teach it, but also know their students and how they learn. This chapter will introduce the concept of pedagogy and the centrality of relationships between teacher, student and content, as a defining feature of one's pedagogy. Pedagogy is the most outward expression of how a teacher considers that teaching and learning best take place. Teachers should always base their decisions on ‘how’ to teach on their understanding of how the students in their class learn best. Forging relationships with students and developing an understanding of the ways in which the identities of children are shaped is critical, as this will influence how a teacher's pedagogy develops and adapts. A number of different pedagogical frameworks will be explored in the chapter, which concludes with a discussion of some of the key elements of exemplary teaching and how these elements are embedded in pedagogy. As you read this chapter and consider the concepts that are introduced, it will be important to continually reflect upon the age of the students and the subjects that you will be teaching.
OPENING VIGNETTE
Palmer, in his work The courage to teach (2007, p. 11), points out that:
Bad teachers distance themselves from the subject they are teaching – and in the process, from their students. Good teachers join self and subject and students in the fabric of life. … Good teachers possess a capacity for connectedness. They are able to weave a complex web of connections among themselves, their subjects and their students so that students can learn to weave a world for themselves.