[MUSIC] Welcome to Foundations of Teaching for Learning. This is week three, putting students first. And lecture one today will focus on a three-way relationship. The question here is, how can we create curriculum which is suitable for all students? As we know that there are many students who come into our class, they come with different experiences and background knowledge. And as a teacher, how do we cope with such a situation. And, as a teacher it's very important to understand the three -way relationship that exists in the teaching-learning process. The teacher, as the main person. And the curriculum, at the other end, and students at the other corner. So, it's constant interaction that happens between the teacher, curriculum, and the students. So, the curriculum is given to the teacher, and now the students is the other variable that the teacher need to focus on. There are a couple examples on student misconceptions. Usually students will think that if an object is light, it will float and if it's heavy it will sink. But there are also other factors to this, for example like density and buoyancy, can influence the ability of an object to float or sink. Another example is about the, the sun revolving around the earth. Commonly students think the sun is the one revolving because it moves from east to west. In fact that is not true, it is the earth that is revolving around the sun. So, these are some of the misconceptions that can happen among students. And knowing these conceptions and misconceptions that exist among students, so it is very important for teachers to think about teaching strategies that will help counter and overcome such difficulties. One example that I would like to say, or share with you, is about a teacher who tried teaching fractions to grade one students. So, all that she did was, she brought a pizza. And asked the students to cut that into half, and later into quarters, and they learned within a few minutes the concept of half and quarter. And this is a very brilliant idea of teaching fractions to seven year old kids. So, these are the ways that teachers can think about the students' background, the knowledge they have, and the kind of strategies that will help them impart that knowledge that they're thinking of. And here is a slide, you may want to take a few seconds to read this, this is an episode of mismatch. A teacher who was thinking that it's a very cool idea to talk to students about the chilling experience that happens in a dentist's chair. But at end of the lesson, the students were very blank, and they were not excited, because almost everyone in the class had never been to a dentist. So, this was a kind of an example the teacher was giving which is not at all related to the students' background knowledge. [MUSIC] And McIntyre, Rosebery and Gonzales, they spoke about the importance of knowing the cultural background. In this slide here, you may want to read this and see what they are talking about, I mean the importance of knowing the cultural background. They say that when teachers do not share the cultural background of the students they can find difficult to bring the students into the lesson. There is also another example that I would like to share with you regarding the importance of knowing students' background. This is a research done by Shirley Brice Heath she worked with two communities, one is Trackton and the other one, Roadville, a white community and the other one with the black community. And the students from the black community somehow could not understand what the teachers were telling the classroom because it did not match with the language that they speak commonly at home. So, the mismatch between what they speak or how they speak at home and school was different, therefore they found it difficult to follow the instructions given by the teachers. And the teachers were thinking that the students from the black community were disobedient and not following what they say, because they simply did not want to learn. In fact, that was not true. It's just the problem of language socialisation. So, these are the kind of knowledge that teachers need to possess in order to help students understand the content that they're trying to convey or teach. So, what is the key message here for us? You cannot make general assumptions that all students are the same. You have to adapt curriculum to the students' background, cultural and socio-economic background. Also, you have to understand their level of understanding and capacity to cope with the particular subject matter or content. Even the language, words, jargons, examples and even the jokes that you make, has to be on the basis of students' familiarity, and practical experience. And translate the curriculum on the basis of common ground, so that the students can relate to what you are teaching them. So, this the key message for teachers to understand the students' background, accordingly create the right kind of learning experiences through the right kind of strategies that can match their ability. Now, we have come to the final section on think, pair and share. With a colleague of yours, you may want to think about, what does it mean for you to put students' learning first? What challenges does it present for you to try and cater to a wide range of needs? Think about these questions, and I shall see you in the next lesson. Thank you very much. [MUSIC]
