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THE KIND OF TEACHER THAT WE ARE

The Kind of Teacher That We Are

Damaris J. Bujato

Ronny R. Camacho

Universidad Del Atlántico

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THE KIND OF TEACHER THAT WE ARE

According to what I already read in the material provided by the teacher, I deduce that I am inclined to the behaviorist approach, because I feel identified leading a group, having certain knowledge as a teacher, that has already been proven through experience as truthful, and I also like to pass on this knowledge directly through explanation and memorization. At the same time I feel identified in lower court to constructivism, because I do not assume that the group that I am working with, does not know anything, but knowledge they currently have is wrong and needs renovation under the self-discovery of errors. Unlike to my partner, who feels identified with Cognitive psychology approach, the role of the cognitivist teacher is to assist learner's application of the proper learning strategies. In addition to that, my partner sees errors as unsuccessful attempts to understand. However, she is not at all 100% cognitive psychology, she considers that has 19% Behaviorism because she thinks that repetition drill is relevant due to she used this way to learn some topics when she was in the secondary and it worked. In fact, she really likes to develop in learners good languages habits such as good manners; for example, she would not let students tell her by the first name but by “Miss Bujato” or “teacher”. Also, she believes that she is 19% Constructivism as well, because she sees how important it is to take into account the learner as an individual, actively in constructing meaning. So, for her is really relevant when students develop thinking and they relate to language and that is experience becoming a central focus of learning. In the same fashion, when learner´s knowledge of the language is gradually re-shaped, it means that they are assimilating the information. Even, she thinks that she has 6% of the humanist approach because she considers that learning does not end when a young person leaves school and she would not put up with bullying between students. And finally she is 5% Positivism due to she is sometimes open minded.

THE KIND OF TEACHER THAT I HAVE OBSERVED

Most of the time I have observed my teacher, I deduced he was behavioristic, because he was only focused on his knowledge, the one he already had. In other words, whole the information was given by the teacher. He never took his learners to participate in the class, even the students were just trained to use the book and so on. In fact, almost all the topics had to be learned by heart and students did not have the option to choose any activity or favorite topic to write. Moreover, the teacher never accepts that any student addresses him with the first name and he always emphasized that we had to be polite with the authority and everybody, which is good manners. Besides, I might say that he was sometimes humanistic because he did not let students make others bullying.