Teaching Philosophy of Dieter Knowle
I have been a firm believer of holistic medicine all my life and adopted this holistic approach to my teaching. Holistic doctors look at the physical, environmental, mental, emotional, social and spiritual aspects of the human experience. I believe teachers should also consider these factors with their students. Teaching English cannot be just about the linguistic aspect but should also include social, cognitive and affective aspects so that students can acquire learning skills that they can use throughout their lifetime. This teaching statement, which is always in flux reflecting current trends, represents a snap shot of my current views. First, I will discuss my linguistic views and then my holistic views as they apply to teaching English as a foreign language in Korea.
Language is used every day in many ways meeting many different needs. Verbal and non-verbal forms of language have many subtle nuances making communicative language teaching (CLT) perfect for inside and outside the classroom. Because we use language to inform, express and direct, I feel it is important to use the principles of CLT as a foundation for teaching. What led me to CLT? One of my first experiences in Korea was with a businessperson who had been studying English for over 10 years as an adult after graduating from university when I first met him. Most of his teachers were Korean English teachers using the direct translation method where they would present and practice the material and attempt to produce new material. This person knew grammar and vocabulary and could read but was unable to speak or write after 10 years of attending English institutes and private lessons. This person’s interaction with the English language consisted of doing exercises in textbooks like filling in blanks and matching but never really producing any language or interacting with other speakers. However, the biggest crime of all was after 10 years, this person asked me how to study English, that is, how to learn. This experience led me to adopt CLT as a pedagogical ideology.
Out of all the principles of CLT, providing opportunities for learners to focus on language and more importantly the learning process itself empowers students to take charge of their own learning moving from a teacher-centered classroom to a learner-centered classroom. A complementary approach to CLT is task-based learning (TBL). Thus, task-based learning techniques (TBLT) are ideal for student-centered classrooms. Through pair and group interactions, students can produce language using what they already know or with the help of others in their group. By using Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (ZPD) to complete tasks, students can take charge of their learning and start producing language right away. A challenge with TBLT is teaching writing.
It seems one would want to gravitate back to a teacher centered approach when teaching writing. I believe to learn how to write, a student needs to be writing in the classroom with their writing partners or groups and not listening to lectures on how to write. Therefore, I like to use techniques like the ‘flipped’ classroom, group and collaborative writing and peer editing, which complement task-based writing reducing teacher talk in the classroom. When I first read about the ‘flipped’ classroom, I felt it was perfect for TBL. With the advent of technology and the wide spread use of high speed internet and LTE networks in Korea, it is very easy to provide traditional instruction to students online which they can do at home or on the go while riding the bus or subway. Students can watch lectures, slideshows, videos, etc. at their own pace while communicating with their peers and their teachers via online discussions, for example, with Kakao talk. I have had great success using websites, blogs, Kakao talk, etc. with my students outside the classroom. The ‘flipped’ classroom allows students to engage in tasks in the classroom using concepts learned at home with the teacher acting as a facilitator. The flipped classroom allows for socio-cognitive learning in students. A teacher commented in a survey on beliefs about nonnative student writing that “the problem isn’t writing per se, it is thinking” (Jenkins, Jordan, & Weiland, 1993, p. 63). The students can develop their thinking and subsequently their writing in the classroom while using the flipped classroom to learn new content. Now the classroom provides opportunities for learning through activities and allows students to learn how to learn instead of what to learn. One of the activities students can do when performing writing tasks in the classroom is peer editing.
I like to use peer editing to provide in order of most importance compliments, suggestions, and then corrections. Peer editing improves the students' interest and excitement for the revision stage of the writing process. Additionally, compliments and suggestions provide a communicative framework that embraces holistic goals. Peer discussion with their writing partners or groups in the classroom allows for affective, cognitive and social growth. This kind of peer editing fosters positive affect allowing the students to flourish in the classroom. A positive atmosphere in the classroom is important for the holistic growth of students.
By fostering a culture of caring, one can reduce anxiety and increase engagement in and outside the classroom. The holistic development of students allows the teacher to instill confidence, motivation, independence, and responsibility as well as focus on cognitive skills such as problem solving and critical thinking. With holistic learning, students have an impact on what is learned and learn how to learn. With a holistic approach, I am not concerned about the whole class progressing at the same pace. The beauty of TBL is it allows for the holistic growth of students in the classroom at an individual pace. Since students work in pairs or groups, it makes it easy to monitor individual students and at the same time assess their learning needs. Through this holistic process, I can guide students to perform tasks that are more appropriate for them. Moreover, through these tasks, students will gain learning skills including comparing and contrasting, defining, describing, problem solving, brainstorming, creating, imagining, and all aspects of communicating and collaborating. My goal is to help students become lifelong learners who have a strong grasp of learning skills enabling them to succeed at any task life may throw at them. If one considers that a typical freshman English course in Korea has 4000 to 5000 students (200 students per teacher) and the average contact time during a semester between students and a teacher is 25 hours, there is not much opportunity for linguistic growth; however, there is plenty of opportunity for social, cognitive, and affective growth.
My future goals are related to finding new innovative ways to engage students and build confidence in them. If I can effectively lower anxiety and increase engagement and subsequently motivation in the classroom, I believe students will have more opportunities to guide their learning becoming better students of learning. After I started reading Paul L. Marciano book Carrots and Sticks, I became less interested in theories on motivation based on behavioral psychology and more interested in engagement theory which states engagement is key to learning. I believe engagement theory with its holistic philosophy, in which the goal is learning, activities are ongoing and continuous and students seek meaning and self-realization through self-determination, is perfect for a student-centered classroom. This has led me to my current research interests.
I am currently experimenting with video-based process-oriented syllabus to ease student anxiety, especially for a task-based syllabus. A picture, or in this case a video, is worth a thousand words. It seems at least to this teacher that if students can watch their peers going through the process and completing a task they are about to embark upon, it could lower their anxiety increasing their engagement in the task, help students to better understand the requirements of a task and reduce the amount of teacher talk time explaining the task allowing the students to just get on with the task. The pilot study is currently in the analysis stage and the preliminary results will be presented at the next national meeting of KOTESOL if the abstract is accepted.
I am also interested in implementing the 5E learning cycle model in the ESL classroom: Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend (or Elaborate), and Evaluate. I first came interested in this model when I was in science education using teaching inquiry-based science. In science education, the 5E learning cycle provides multiple activities and investigations for hands-on experiences, and in ESL education, we call this TBL. In both, it activates prior knowledge and stretches students thinking, and facilitates all learning styles. Furthermore, they both get students interested in performing tasks. It allows teachers to modify teaching methods and learning activities meeting the needs of individuals and small groups and increasing learning opportunities for each student in the classroom. Thus, I would like to move away from the ESA model to the 5E learning cycle model which seems to provide more flexibility to the teacher.