Where East meets West

Reflective Practice -  Where East meets We

Soon after graduation I embraced teaching as my career. I believed learning is essential and hence took onboard as a part of my own and professional growth. I had opportunites that came along to help me enjoy my practice in earlychildhood, primary, secondary and tertiary sectors.  Whilst in India I had the privilege to travel various states to see and embrace learning and teaching. Learning was child centred and the modern classroom democratisation (Zalipour, 2017). I had to develop myself to the needs of the changing societal demands by adapting new learning and use of technology in our day to day to learning. It was imperitive to stay onboard with new learning to be able to impart knowledge  more as a role model for the students.

Migrating to New Zealand in 2003 had changed my own perspective of teaching and learning. It paved smooth pathway to enter the teaching  panorama by volunterring in the schools that my children attended, later I pursued the one year Diploma inTeaching Primary which set me up for my career in the Western world. The innate drive and the need to stay on top of the new developments in learning promulgated me to upskill to a secondary teacher and also to pursue a research paper. With  the integration of technology, teaching and learning have taken a new diemension which forced me to learn new methods  and applications to be able to facilitate learning within my own classroom.The child centred learning with a holistic approach became the norm. I was able to redefine my practice through extra professional development on the job  provided by the schools that I worked for and also extra courses that I enrolled to pursue my own learning.
This career has definitely set me up for life long learning, which on hindsight are inherent, embedded values and thrist for knowledge developed  in me by my teachers, parents and colleagues who have been wonderful sources of inspiration and encouragement both in India and New Zealand.

Having a love for learning with flexible fun loving colleagues, employers offered more avenues to develop deeper insights of teaching and learning. For eg: The Word work programme helped me analyse the sound, vowels, consonants , blends  with the newentrants, whilst the digital and collaboration in practice had developed curiosity and avenues for a myriad ways of enticing student population of all ages and stages. The wonderful nature of technology integration provided all curriculum engagement and empowerment to all learners.

The education system whether  in the East or in the West  had similar approaches- respect towards learning, enhancing skills and knowledge, providing the learner with power of personalisation and ample opportunities to make informed choices about their own learning.  Learning is multidirectional -Students can learn from one another, adults and and experts with various modes of communications presented by the innovative technolgical devices. The role of teacher is more  of a participant and a facilitator to the group of students in her care. Learning therefore is lifelong and happens all along, in all contexts and varied circumstances.Taking notes and asking questions with my collegial community and other stakeholders helped me gain knowlege and skills to be  part of this modern learners in the 21st century, which I am very proud to be part of. Whilst, values form the foundation, on which the skills and knowledge are embedded, emancipating and expoentially increasing the potential of the learner to learn. Feedback from my students(Provenzano, 2014) is crucial for my own evaluations regarding my own practice and helps me adapt and upskill myself to suit the needs and styles of my learners.

Lastly with a twenty plus years of teaching, I firmly believe successful planning through inclusion, co-constructed lessons have left an indelible mark on my own practice. Respect for learning, learners, colleagues  had been universal, across East and West.Reflections across ranged from daily, weekly, annually and school wise(BBC, 2017). Reflective thinking help me age with grace in the teaching profession where I can confidently connect to all learners and communicate with ease and facilitate learning with more precision.

References

BBC. (2017, January 31). www.teaching english.org.uk. Retrieved from Reflective teaching: Exploring our own classroom practice: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/reflective-teaching-exploring-our-own-classroom-practice

Provenzano, N. (2014, September 25). www.edutopia.org. Retrieved from The Reflective Teacher: Taking a Long Look: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/reflective-teacher-taking-long-look-nicholas-provenzano

Zalipour, D. A. (2017, January 31). Reflective Practice - University of Waikato. Retrieved from Reflective practice : https://student.unsw.edu.au/sites/all/files/uploads/reflect.jpg