TCP_PRINCIPLE OF TEACHING

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” This is a quote
from Benjamin Franklin that is very aligned with the video about constructivism facilitated by
Ms. Michelle Thompson because it tackled the importance of having the learners involved during
the whole learning process. While the second video is all about self-reflection and how it is
beneficial in our lives and in the teaching process.
The speaker in one of the videos, Ms. Thompson, shared the history of the constructivism
theory, from the proponents, and renowned constructivists, down to their famous contributions to
the constructivism theory in this modern time. She also shared her story of how she became
interested in this theory among all other principles in the teaching and learning process. Ms.
Thompson talked about also all the key concepts that surround constructivism such as the
learners are the focus of this theory, what is constructivism, how is constructivism being
facilitated, why is the hand considered the chief teacher, the meaning and purpose of
constructivism, and what is constructivism when compared to cognitive and behaviorism.
Mr. Solomon Au Yeung on the other hand started with how self-reflection brought him
into the field of teaching. He also shared that self-reflection is innate in us and that we are all
born with the capability of doing self-reflection. He also mentioned we can also reflect with our
group of friends, and we can talk to our friends though their advice may not be so effective, it
will help us gain different insights that can be useful in our decision-making.
As per Ms. Thompson and all other constructivists, the students are called learners. The
experiences and the observations of the learners in the scientific method helped them construct
their own version of concept or knowledge. When a teacher applies this theory in his/her
teaching style, he/she will let the student explore on their own to help them gain new knowledge.
Another thing that a teacher does to apply this method is by letting the students be exposed to
different scenarios where the teacher can facilitate learning. On-the-job training, immersion
activities, and simulations are the best examples of incorporating constructivism theory in
secondary and tertiary levels of education. While experimentations and educational tours or trips
are the oblivious activities that are aligned with the theory of constructivism.
Constructivism has two major purposes. First is that it helps the learners to be aware of
themselves and the second one is to be aware of the community. In constructivism, we are
becoming more aware of ourselves and how we are reacting in new environments or
circumstances. It also helps us to understand our own multiple intelligence, our strengths, and
weaknesses, as well as tasks in that we excelled. Aside from self-awareness, it helps the students
learn their roles in society by blending and working in groups composed of different individuals
with different upbringings. Through this exposure and group dynamics, competitions are being
set aside and learning engagement became the goal of learning.
In the video of self-reflection, there are only a few concepts that were tackled by the
speaker. First, that time is a very important matter in self-reflection for it is the time to do self-
reflection, evaluate things, and summarize thoughts. Second, there are different barriers to self-
reflection, especially in education, we just must overcome them to be rational thinkers. Lastly is
that self-reflection is important in teachers for they must reflect if their teaching style, teaching
strategies, and teaching routine are effective for their type of students.
As a future educator, the concepts from the video about constructivism made me realize
that experience and prior knowledge have a vital role in the learning process and the concept
from the video about self-reflection made me realize how important it is for a teacher to self-
reflect. From the very start, a teacher must be sure that this path is really for him because, for all
we know, teaching is the noblest job in the world. Teachers are underpaid, have tons of
workloads, and face a very diverse group of students everyday for ten long months in a year yet
the expectation for the kind of students they shall produce is very high. That is why, self-
reflection is important, if you think it suits your capabilities and capacities, there is no doubt that
you’re for in this field. But my greatest realization after watching not only videos of Ms.
Thompson and Mr. Au Yeung but all throughout my journey in this first semester is that there
are various teaching principles that can help produce quality learners. I also realized that we can
incorporate numerous teaching principles but there is no such thing as the best teaching
principle. These principles are there to guide us in preparing the proper teaching materials,
facilitating learning all the way to evaluating the gained knowledge of our students.
Constructivism, /behaviorism, and cognitivism are all theories that differ in goals, focus, and
facilitation but their common denominator is to be the scaffolding of future educators to what
kind of teacher they want to be once they face the real world. Teaching is a tough job if you’re
enjoying it, it is so fulfilling.