Professional Knowledge

Professional Knowledge

I believe that it is important for teachers to utilise their professional knowledge, inclusive of educational research theories, to continually develop their pedagogical approaches for the benefit of the student learning process and outcomes. This is particularly important because teachers are required to know their students, so that diversity factors like cultural and linguistic background, special needs, academic ability, learning preferences and students’ interests can be incorporated into teaching via the use of differentiation strategies (Prast, Weijer-Bergsma, Kroesbergen, & Luit, 2015). Overall, this enables the teacher to successfully incorporate curriculum content into pedagogy in a manner that enables all students to successfully and meaningfully engage in learning (Prast et al., 2015). To me, this demonstrates the importance of utilising the knowledge gained through educational research, teaching experience and professional development programs. Overall, the confluence of these avenues of knowledge for the purpose of developing and improving pedagogical strategies is called practice-based evidence (PBE) (Chorzempa & Sileo, 2019). The use of PBE has been helpful to me because it has allowed for the continual review and improvement of my own teaching practice for the benefit of the student learning experiences and outcomes.

References 

Chorzempa, B. F. S. M. D., & Sileo, J. M. (2019). Practice-Based Evidence: A Model for Helping Educators Make Evidence-Based Decisions. Teacher Education and Special Education, 42, 82-92.

Prast, E. J., Weijer-Bergsma, V. D., E., , Kroesbergen, E. H., & Luit, V., J.E.H. . (2015). Readiness-based Differentiation in Primary School Mathematics: Expert Recommendations and Teacher Self-assessment. Frontline Learning Research, 3(2), 90-116. Retrieved from https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/80732/Prast_et_al_readiness-based_differentiation_2015.pdf?sequence=1