Education is a vast and expansive field.

Throughout time many have

contributed a great wealth of information to help understand and
decipher the process of learning. Vygotsky, Pavlov, Skinner, De Bono
are some of the names that spring to mind when thinking about the
notable contributors to the field of education. Teaching in the twenty
first century draws heavily on the findings gained from each and
every contributor that helped in understanding how adolescents
learn. Undertaking the unit of understanding and engaging
adolescents learners, one was exposed to a wealth of knowledge in
helping decipher the learning process. The most notable to the
writer were the notion of self-direct learning, the notion of operant
conditioning, and the theory of constructivism. This essay will delve
deeper into the insights gained, its importance and relevance to
teaching in secondary education, will outline whether it has changed
or confirmed prior assumptions about young learners, examine
whether it helps understand and teach students, and finally suggest
if it will impact on the writers own educational practice.

Self directed learning is a simple concept to grasp and understand.

Its premise is to allow the students gain knowledge and
understanding according to their own pace and learning habits. It
seems like a great alternative to the often less regarded teacher
centered learning. Why you may ask? Well for starters by
implementing self-directed learning it is argued that students will
become more interested and engaged with the content. They can
focus on parts where they are struggling and speed ahead with
parts they are confident in. Furthermore, it can be done anywhere
and anytime, its not confined to the traditional school classroom.
Rather than having the traditional setup of a teacher-centered
approach of standing in front of the class and continuously churn
information onto the students. That approach is thought to be
outdated and frankly less effective with the students of the twenty
first century.

Having the students learn by themselves has its advantages as

outlined earlier but it also has its disadvantages. For starters, not
every student is going to have the skills and confidence to learn and
study by themselves, as it requires discipline. The notion cant be
used for junior high school, meaning you can only implement it with
HSC students where by then its hoped they have the discipline and
maturity to study by themselves. Its important to allow secondary
students the ability to depend on themselves when learning. Its
only through this notion that high school students can gain
resilience, confidence, understanding and be better organized.
Therefore, making SDL or self directed learning relevant to high
school students. Having used this notion in his last practicum at
Strathfield girls high school, the writer probed the students on some
feedback to which the majority of was positive.
Implementing this concept was done with the coordination of the
supervising teacher in charge. Year 11 business studies was chosen
due to the fact that year 12 were close to their HSC exam and
shouldnt be disturbed but also because year 11 were considered to
be the most beneficent from being exposed to SDL. As year 11 still
had a year of schooling left for them to complete. The concept was
implemented gradually to help the students ease into it. The
concept was introduced explained to each student individually; any
outstanding issues were answered and resolved. SDL worked
flawlessly and it made the writer consider implementing it at a
younger stage. It confirmed that if the students had the discipline
and courage to study and learn on their own then they are ready to
undertake the concept of SDL. Furthermore, the writer believes that
senior high school students should be exposed to this type of
independent learning to help prepare them for life after school,
which can involve tertiary studies that heavily relies on self-direct
learning. It also equips the students with life long skills of resilience,
confidence and independence.

The concept of SDL allowed the teacher to learn about their

students in a unique way. The students become more open about
their learning and organisational skills. Furthermore, the teacher
was exposed to the areas where the students needed the most help;
similarly the teacher was exposed to the students strongest points.
Once outlined, the teacher was then able to help address each point
and help the students become better learners. The impact gained
from such an experience allowed the writer to become more aware
of the various students abilities, it was an eye opener to see the
different ways students learned and this in turn allowed the writer to
adjust their practice accordingly. The writer believes that the once
the teacher has assessed the students strengths and weakness, he
should then communicate it that information to fellow colleagues
and parents to help devise ways to help foster and enhance the
students strengths and help address their weaknesses as well.

Operant conditioning presents the teacher with a multitude of ways

to reinforce positive behaviour and detract and punish negative
behaviour. This notion is highly useful in teaching, more so in
secondary education which deals with adolescent learners. The
notion can help foster engagement, better behaviour and serve as a
deterrent when used by teachers. It is safe to safe that the writer of
this essay has used this theory in his recent practicum placement. It
confirmed what was already known to the writer, adolescent
learners need some form of motivation to continue on with their
positive behaviour, and needed form of deterrent when engaging in
negative behaviour. Simply put, if you want a certain type of
behaviour to happen over and over gain then it must be rewarded.
The reward can range from a simple smile, a sonorous clap to
acknowledging the action with the whole class. Similarly, if a
behaviour needs to be ceased, then some negative reinforcement or
even punishments such as detention is to be introduced.

It is safe to say that operant conditioning is relevant in secondary

education. The reasons include, it helps student engage and focus
more by being acknowledged, it helps the bad behaving students
cease their unwanted behaviour and engage with the content, the
bad behaving students know what the consequences of their actions
are if they were to continue on with their behaviour. Furthermore,
operant conditioning sets out a precedent for students to follow as
they become aware of their actions. Furthermore, punishment was
used a deterrent to bad behaviour, every time the writer warned the
class with detention they would cease their bad behaviour and pay
attention to the teacher. Whilst positive reinforcement was used in
drawing the students attention to acknowledge the positive
behaviour exhibited, eg: everyone lets give a round of applause to
Cindy who did a great job with this poster. The writer believes that
operant conditioning is highly important in secondary education, as
its a behaviour management strategy that has a high success rate
and is effective when it comes to classroom management.

The writer believes that operant conditioning is highly effective

when used correctly; as it has helped him understand his students
better. This was achieved when observing the students reaction to
both positive and negative reinforcement. It helped the writer
connect better with his students through dialogue, and by figuring
what their behaviour pattern. The writer found that bad behaving
students simply needed some positive reinforcement to help them
focus on the task at hand. He also found that some students needed
constant acknowledgment and appraisal to help them engage with
the content.

Operant conditioning had quite the impact of the writer and his
educational practice; he believes that operant conditioning is highly
useful when used correctly. However he also believes that teachers
should use a variety of teaching strategies to help foster positive
behaviour and cease negative behaviour. It impacted his
understanding of student behaviour, his understanding of students
and the motivation and drive needed for students to focus. He
believes that a useful strategy would be for the teacher to
constantly use operant conditioning throughout his lessons as a way
to enhance learning and understanding.

The theory of constructivism deals with learners constantly

generating meaning to new information and ideas. Its a theory that
the writer believes to be of high value and importance. He believes
that a learner should be able to construct meaning from knowledge
gained in the classroom, rather than simply absorb that knowledge.
Secondary education is a crucial stage in a persons life, its a stage
where adolescents learn more about themselves, their surrounding
environment and how society works and operates. Therefore, its
vital for the students to be able to generate understanding from
various information sources, therefore better preparing them for life
after school.

In implementing constructivism centered activities such as mind

maps, making and presenting a poster and analyzing an image the
students learn to generate meaning from information and ideas. It
confirmed to the writer that generating meaning is not easy; its a
complex task that needs the student to think critically and
creatively. It also confirmed the writers own belief that each
students will generate a different meaning to each other, even if
they to acquire the same information. This is due to the students
own experiences, personality as well as cultural morals and ethics.
Furthermore, this theory has allowed the writer understand his
students better by observing their understanding of the content, this
can be done through formative and summative assessments. It
allowed him to see how unique each student was in terms of their
thinking, as well as highlight the students weaknesses and
strengths through their understanding.

The constructivism theory has impacted on the writers teaching

practice in many ways, the most notable of which are: the writer
understands each student has a different understanding to a given
content, as mentioned earlier this stems from the students own
experiences and personality. Furthermore, it has allowed the teacher
to come up with different ways to enhance student understanding,
this can be achieved using different teaching strategies such as:
Blooms taxonomy where the teacher will use a different variety of
higher order thinking routines to help push and challenge their
students; multiple intelligences where by the teacher will design
their activities around their students learning preferences; and
V.A.K (visual, auditory and kinesthetic) where the teacher will deliver
their lesson in a more visceral method depending on their students.

In summation, teaching in the twenty first century has evolved and

moved on from the traditional teacher centered method. This
allowed students be better equipped and better skilled to meet the
challenges awaiting them after secondary education. The theories
and concepts discussed throughout this essay allow the teacher an
insight on how to effectively engage and teach adolescent learners.
The insights gained reflect on the experiences and practices of the
writer. Upon implementing the insights and strategies mentioned in
this essay the writer believes he has become more aware,
knowledgeable and experienced in teaching adolescent learners. He
also believes that the overall outcomes of these insights will have
an impact upon his teaching practices.