Megan Walck

West Point MTP

June 14, 2014

Session Eleven Reflection

Through the eyes of a teacher with a belief in research-based practices, seeing that
Session Elevens readings were short in the citation-worthiness department, I was, at first, a little
skeptical. However, sometimes articles simply appeal to common sense. I found this to be the
case in both articles, Enhancing Your Teaching Effectiveness and Seven Principles for Good
Practice in Undergraduate Education.
The first article, Enhancing Your Teaching Effectiveness, appealed to me as an educator,
because I am a firm believer in teaching the whole child. If a child is having emotional, home, or
other outside issues, he or she is not going to do well in the classroom. Also, I feel that students
learn different subject matter at varying points in their academic, emotional, and developmental
stages. It has always frustrated me that we move students up grade by grade, when they might be
struggling in one or more subject areas. This can leave large gaps in understanding and can
creative quite an academic hurdle.
I saw, what I believe, to be an answer to this issue and goes hand-in-hand with what
Enhancing Your Teacher Effectiveness is trying to profess. Recently, my husband and I traveled
to Dubai for a job opportunity. Obviously, as both of us are teachers, we were interested in how
the education system differs from ours. The largest difference we noted is that students progress
through their classes by ability in subject matter, not by grade. For instance, if a student is
particularly adept in mathematics, but needs additional foundation skills in reading, he or she
will continue to move ahead in math, but yet receive remediation in the other subjects. Progress
and promotion to the next level is based on proficiency in a specific area, at any given time. A
student may be in classes that are perceived to be at a higher educational level in the United
States, such as Trigonometry or Calculus, at a much younger age, while still being in a reading
class that we would deem age appropriate. For me, this system of scaffolding and
accommodating the unique needs of the child simply makes sense.
This idea correlates nicely with the information presented in Seven Principles for Good
Practice in Undergraduate Education. For instance, if a student is progressing at his or her own
level per topic area and not simply chronological age, he or she will have the appropriate time to
build meaningful relationships with his or her instructors. Meeting each student at his or her
level of need will also do as the article suggests, encourage active learning and respect
diverse talents and ways of learning. I sincerely hope that future lawmakers and administrators
will take these ideas into consideration when bringing about educational changes.