After several years of teaching both private, individual lessons and in a high school classroom, I have come to believe that learning does not simply involve the act of sitting in a classroom while an instructor presents information to the students. Learning is an active, physical, and intentional process that requires collaboration between students and instructors. It is the process of considering information one receives, deciding how it fits with previously accepted knowledge, deciding how to act upon the information, and then applying the new knowledge in a safe environment.

            While learning requires effort on the part of the student, the teacher must provide the opportunities necessary for the student to learn. Just as learning is not a passive action completed at a desk, teaching is not a monotonous action done at the front of a room alongside a slide show. To encourage my generally attentive and eager to learn students I move about the classroom, emote a high level of energy, and provide a safe and positive learning environment. Maintaining student interest, providing effective learning activities, and supporting students in a positive manner as they put their learning into action cumulatively define my perspective of good teaching.

          Teaching involves presenting new concepts in digestible chunks and designing activities for the students that will help them to form connections to these new ideas and prepare them to put the information into action. The Cognitive Load theory states “that working (or short-term) memory has a limited capacity and that overloading it reduces the effectiveness of teaching (Fullbrook, 2020).” An example of such an activity would be for students to interpret a recorded speech, focusing on the processing time they utilize before beginning each piece of information. The first time they interpret a recording, they should do so in their typical manner. The second time they interpret the same recording, students should intentionally wait an additional two seconds longer than they would typically. A third recording would have the students wait four seconds longer than their norm. Using the same recording and focusing on the extension of their lag time allows them to progressively improve upon their working memory while simultaneously avoiding a cognitive overload of the same working memory. After completing the lesson and a self-assessment for each interpretation, students would then produce a new interpretation of a different recording that would receive feedback from the teacher as well as being evaluated once again by the student, with both continuing to focus upon the processing time used.

          In this activity, the student and teacher play active roles in all of the learning that occurs. Research by Han, C., & Fan, Q. supports the idea that allowing students to compare an instructor’s assessment of their work to their self-assessment of the same work allows them to better identify areas in which they can improve (2020). Based on this research I began last year to implement self-assessment with my high school students for each major project, and the progress they have made on each subsequent performance assessment has been more pronounced than in previous years. I feel that self-assessment is even important in an interpreter training program (where I hope to soon begin teaching), as even professional interpreters must regularly self-assess their work to ensure they are providing effective and equivalent interpretations.

          Another strong point of Cognitive Load Theory is that removing distractions from the learning environment helps move the material a student is learning from working memory into long-term memory more quickly (Fullbrook, 2020). Since I personally struggle to stay on task for long periods of time, I tend to break my classes into chunks, staying on activity no more than 20 minutes at a time. Students can then take a quick mental break before shifting to a new topic and allowing their brains to be ready to take on the next challenge. I will also break big sets of information into smaller chunks to learn over the course of a few classes rather than all at once. This process, called interleaving, has been found to be more effective than learning all of the material at one time (Lang, 2016, p 65-67) As the material becomes engrained in their minds, they can take in more new information without feeling overwhelmed, and once again feeling well leads to being able to more effectively learn.

            Of course, in order to achieve an effective learning environment, the instructor must take the first steps to establish strong, trusting relationships with their students. Recent research has shown students who have positive interactions with their teacher achieve more highly than in classrooms where teachers do not establish such relationships with their students (Allen, J., Gregory, A., Mikami, A., Lun, J., Hamre, B., & Pianta, R., 2013). My goal for teaching in an interpreter training program environment is to begin establishing a positive rapport with each of my students from the first day they enter my classroom and to actively maintain that rapport throughout their time in the program and beyond. I wish to always be a trusted resource for past and present students to come to with questions and ideas.

          I have seen first-hand what a difference a positive teacher can make when I decided halfway through my first year of teaching to abandon some of the practices and perspectives taught to me by the teachers whom I worked alongside. Detentions, threats, and extra stern approaches to classroom management had gotten me practically nowhere. It was at that time that I was fortunate enough to have a brief mentoring session with another teacher in our school who gave me a radically different view of teaching – one that comes from a place of positivity, mutual trust with our students, and the assumption that students do well when they can. Since that time, I have employed a student-centered approach, where-in I provide consistent positive reinforcement and consider what each student needs from me in order to be successful. I have seen a drastic change in the dynamic of my classroom, improvement from all students in their performance assessments, and a significant reduction in negative classroom behaviors.

          While I have learned a great deal in my three years of teaching in a high school setting I know I can always improve upon my teaching methods, and I continue to strive toward improvement on a regular basis. I am furthering my formal education in an Interpreting Pedagogy graduate program at this time and am currently applying for a Master’s of American Sign Language Education program. I also check in regularly with my students to find out what is working and what is not working for them, and adjust carefully so as to balance the provision of excellent education with a supportive and safe learning environment. I intend to continue to keep up with current teaching research and best practices by attending workshops, taking advancement courses, and reading new articles and textbooks, as well and maintaining my own mental and physical health so that I may continue to be a source of positive energy and encouragement for my students at all levels of secondary and post-secondary education.

 

Resources

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Allen, J., Gregory, A., Mikami, A., Lun, J., Hamre, B., & Pianta, R. (2013). Observations of effective teacher-student interactions in secondary school classrooms: predicting student achievement with the classroom assessment scoring system--secondary. School Psychology Review, 42(1), 76+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A330251040/EAIM?u=jack91990&sid=bookmark-EAIM&xid=ef47e741

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Bradbury, N. (08 November 2016). Attention span during lectures: 8  seconds, 10 minutes, or more? Physiology. https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00109.2016

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Fulbrook, P. (2020, August 17). Cognitive Load Theory. The Definitive Guide. TeacherOfSci. https://teacherofsci.com/cognitive-load-theory/.

Lang, J. M. (2016). Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. JOSSEY-BASS INC, U.S.

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Han, C., & Fan, Q. (2020). Using self-assessment as a formative assessment tool in an English-Chinese interpreting course: student views and perceptions of its utility. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 28(1), 109–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2019.1615516