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Personal Theory of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment II

Mike Kranick
Field Experience II
The University of Scranton

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In my initial paper, Personal Theory of Teaching, Learning and Assessment I, I noted
factors I had learned from the previous semester such as the teachers need for a high level of
self-efficacy, and student motivation and some of the external factors they face. The paper ended
with formative assessment and its essential role in assessing students rather than only relying
upon summative assessment. All of these factors I wrote upon previously are still incredibly
relevant to teaching, learning, and assessment, which I shall discuss further; however, there are
still other factors that play key roles in these topics, specifically a teachers self-efficacy. I will
expound further upon these topics, as well reference the role formative assessment can play in
guiding my instructional support of students while in the field, even if that means alterations and
adaptations to instruction to further assist and accommodate. Furthermore, this paper will delve
into the how classroom resources play a vital role to meeting the strengths and needs of students,
and end with a reflection upon the aspects of teaching I feel comfortable with and the
improvements I still need to make in my role as an educator. References to my field experience
will also be made as they have impacted my views of the field of education and established
personal factors pertaining to current level as an educator.
What do you now feel differently about? Why do you feel differently about this? What do
you still feel the same about? Why do you still feel strongly about this?
My previous paper detailed the importance of self-efficacys role for both teachers and
the factors affecting student motivation in the classroom. Referring to my last essay, I had
asserted the importance for teachers to have high self-efficacy as it can possibly raise students
self-efficacies:
According to Derosier & Soslau from their research concerning university
students who were student teaching, they state: many studies have linked
teachers sense of efficacy to pupil achievement, pupil motivation, and pupils
sense of efficacy (Derosier, & Soslau, 2014, p. 489). A teachers self-efficacy

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affects their students in positive and negative ways. If a teacher does not have
confidence in their own abilities, how can they expect students to have confidence
to complete their work? (Kranick, 2016, p. 2)
I still agree with this argument as teachers need to have confidence in their ability to complete
their work because a teachers confidence will have a positive effect on their students. To
expand on this thought, I believe that there ways that teachers can build confidence like content
knowledge and comfortability in front of students. Content knowledge and comfortability in the
classroom are the two further essential factors that all teachers need to have in the classroom.
Being knowledgeable in ones content area means that one has a well-rounded view of
the content they are teaching. Essentially, teachers should have the answers, or at least ideas of
the answers, to the students questions. This means that teachers must continue to study the
works they are teaching to become well-rounded experts on their subjects. Another way to raise
self-efficacy is for the teacher to have comfortability around their students. The problem with
low comfortability around students could be that teachers have reservations concerning public
speaking. Teachers could take public speaking classes in order to make up for this deficit, or
even theatre classes to lower performance anxiety levels; however, I will delve deeper into the
importance of a theatre background in my final reflection concerning my comfortability as a
teacher. Another aspect that goes into a teachers comfortability is understanding their students
situations. A teacher must establish a relationship with their students that is based off of mutual
respect. This can be attained by taking the time to see the students as people and getting to know
them personally rather than maintaining the hierarchy that seems to come with the teacherstudent relationship. A high level of comfort in the classroom will almost guarantee an active
learning environment.
How can you use formative assessment to guide your instructional support of students
during your field placement? How can you alter instruction to meet what you observed to

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be the strengths and needs of students? What types of classroom resources can you adapt
to meet the strengths and needs of students? Why did you make these decisions?
Formative assessment played an essential role in my field placement. For my first lesson,
I taught comparative constructed responses in preparation for the students upcoming Keystone
Exams. My formative assessment for this lesson was having students provide me with words
that compare and words that contrast. This was essential to the constructed response, a.k.a. the
summative assessment, because the students received several different ways to begin
comparative sentences and applied these new words into their essays. This formative assessment
worked because the majority of students used these words in their essays; however, this
formative assessment was not enough to satisfy the question in its entirety.
The prompt for the constructed response question was not fully answered because some
of the students only compared how the two stories similar. A comparative constructed response
calls for reference to how things are similar as well as their differences, meaning the students
also needed to contrast the stories. After reviewing a small sample of their responses and
discussing my options with my cooperating teacher, I taught a more intensive lesson the
following week concerning how to fully answer the prompt to a constructed response question.
The formative assessment was a review of the comparative words from the previous weeks
lesson, as well as having the students justify whether the terms were comparing or contrasting. I
also had the students verbalize, in their own words, both what the question was asking and the
elements the rubric demanded for a perfect score on a constructed response essay. This
formative assessment played to the students needs because they it focused on the elements that
they were lacking in in order to receive a perfect score on a test they would be taking in the near
future.
The modification to classroom resources I made with the second lesson was that I used
Microsoft Word as the venue for my presentation rather than a PowerPoint presentation like the

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previous lessons format. I chose Word because I wanted to be able to write the students
responses and display them for all to see. This ensured the students responses were validated by
me and that everyone was able to visualize the responses if they did not hear them. This also
segues into an aspect I am not comfortable with in regard to the field of education: using a
Smart-board or Promethean Board.
What aspects of teaching do you feel comfortable with? What aspects do you need to
improve in?
I am not comfortable with using any type of Smart-board technology. I have not received
any practice in this area; therefore, I make accommodations for myself by relying on Word,
PowerPoint, Prezzi, the whiteboard, and other methods of presentation. I know that knowledge
of how to use a Smart-board would prove indispensable in teaching so I am eager to learn.
Another example of where I need to improve is the fact that I have a crutch as my cooperating
teacher called it. A teachers crutch can be exemplified as their podium they stay behind,
shuffling of the feet, even Linus blanket from The Peanuts. My crutch, in every lesson I
presented, was I carried around my coffee mug with me. I did not realize I had it in my hand as I
taught and therefore must work on this.
I am definitely comfortable with presentation. Having a background in theatre has
provided me with confidence onstage and in front of people so stage-fight will never make for a
concerning issue. Nervousness always occurs, and will always occur, but I welcome those
feelings. The trick to managing nerves is rehearsal, by which I mean being comfortable enough
with the content and ones students. I learned this through theatre classes and preparing for a
performance. This is why I suggest that all teachers should have some experience in
performance, whether that be in theatre, sports, or any type of presentation other than strictly
teaching. Performance teaches self-reliance in order to achieve ones own goals, while

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simultaneously teaching collaboration because of the collective effort to put on a show. This is
the model classroom environment I strive to achieve when I will teach.