A04jtyler

Janice Tyler

Results of Teaching Style Inventory

ST = 10 NT = 56 NF = 42 SF = 26

The result of this inventory were not indicative of the description of a typical day in my class presented in the class on-line discussion board. If we had been assigned to describe a day in our classroom as we would like to “run” our classroom there would have been a much greater match between the two. Rather, my daily classroom activity reflects the desires of the state to inflect ST instruction upon all students in an effort to assure that all students “get the basics.” Under the guise of offering a safety net so that “no child will be left behind” state reductionist policy converges with federal policy and funding to make my classroom the modern MI equivalent of Andersonville (Civil War POW camp in SW Georgia -- another institution long cherished by Georgians). There seems to be an underlying assumption in the foundation of this course that teachers are free to exercise some degree of freedom in organizing their classes. Unfortunately when a school has been designated as a failing school by the state, then the state is compelled to restrict school operations so that the faculty of that unfortunate institution has little or no authority to design instruction or introduce innovation. Sadly, the schools that most desperately need creative and innovative teachers who would engage in technological applications and incorporate new learning/teaching models are the schools that will be least likely to allow teachers to undertake such innovations.

The difference between my learning style and my teaching style is there is a larger relative SF component….this is because so many of these students have had such problems just getting to America, I tend to stress the Comfort aspect over the Challenge for most of the year. If I had take taken the learning style inventory when I got off the plane, or soon after my arrival in the United States I would likely have been much more SF in my approach to learning than I am now. So I see a planned transition from SF to NT/NF activities as necessary for immigrants and refugees who make up such a large percentage of my classes.