We discussed various themes we could possibly take away from the reading of culture. An idea we discussed was the notion of how different culture see particular things differently, that is to say what may be fine for one group may be completely wrong for another or out of the ordinary. Then we went even further in discussing the idea of "culture clashes" and where in the learning environment we may encounter such clashes. One area may be in our take over once we are teaching with either the students or teacher. Let me elaborate, with the students it may be that our teaching style is new to them or completely different and unsuited for them since they may have been accustomed to the original teachers teaching style. In addition, we may have some cultural differences with the teachers and may clash with them because we have completely different styles, or we may not like that person's style or they may not like our style of teaching. Everyone is different thus we don't how that will go, we can only hope to have collaborate with someone that can complement our style and if not learn approach the situation with an open-mind and try to fit in as Nunez did with the blind community he encountered. If our situation is that like Nunez and we have to learn to cooperate with a teaching style or person we may not like we have to make the best of the situation and try because we must remember it is temporary and again as Nunez did we will be out of that person's classroom eventually. For example, in my pre-professional experience I was with a really good teacher that well and had good control over his class, but I did disagree in his methods of grading because sometimes he didn't held the students accountable for the material, that is he graded the work just on getting it done sometimes and not all the time on whether it was right. It was somewhat difficult for me because I've been accustomed to getting it done right, but either way I graded as he told me and that doesn't necessarily mean I'll employ that in my own undiscovered, teaching style. Also, we may encounter language and culture barriers in communication, whether that's from the students not understand the academic language or from them not understanding the language as it may not be their first language. It will definitely be a challenge knowing when to use academic language and when not to so that my future students understand me even though I may be speaking the same language. Furthermore, learning about different languages will be fundamental as some of our students may not particularly know well the English language. Working with ELS will be a challenge in may be teaching them the material, but not necessarily in relating to them because as some of those students English is not my first language. I consider myself fortunate in that I might be able to relate to my students and may be there might not be a language or cultural barrier as with others, but that doesn't mean that's going to be the case always. I think developing an understanding of other cultures and languages will definitely aid us in interacting with the students just like Nunez learned to interact with the blind people. The more he went against them the more he seemed to struggle/clash with them, but once he opened up to them a bit he got to a comfortable level with the blind individuals. I think that that sort of thinking may be key once we are out in the field teaching.
No comments:
Post a Comment