2. Human Development & Learning

2.) Human Development and Learning: My understanding of how my students learn. This will construct the way I teach my students: how I pace the class, which concepts I teach and in which order, etc.

The teacher understands how individuals grow, develop and learn and provides learning opportunities that support the intellectual, social and personal development of all students.

Knowledge Indicators - The competent teacher:

2A. understands how students construct knowledge, acquire skills, and develop habits of mind.

2B. understands that students' physical, social, emotional, ethical, and cognitive development influences learning.

2C. understands human development, learning theory, neural science, and the ranges of individual variation within each domain.

2D. understands that differences in approaches to learning and performance interact with development.

2E. understands how to include student development factors when making instructional decisions.

2F. knows the impact of cognitive, emotional, physical, and sensory disabilities on learning and communication processes.

Performance Indicators - The competent teacher:

2G. analyzes individual and group performance in order to design instruction that meets learners’

current needs in the cognitive, social, emotional, ethical, and physical domains at the appropriate level of development.

2H. stimulates student reflection on prior knowledge and links new ideas to already familiar ideas and experiences.

2I. introduces concepts and principles at different levels of complexity so that they are meaningful to students at varying levels of development and to students with diverse learning needs.

"The teacher understands how individuals grow, develop and learn and provides learning opportunities that support the intellectual, social and personal development of all students."

Students grow and change every day. Between elementary and high school, the rate at which they change is far greater than any other time in there life. A teacher must know this in order to correct and efficiently instruct each class they teach. There methods must be altered to cater to the age and maturity level of each student they interact with. An effective teacher will not use the same methods of teaching in a elementary classroom as they would in a high school or even a middle school classroom. There are distinct differences they have to been made in order for the students to respond to your information in the most positive and efficient manner.

*This is a scanned image of a letter that I received from one of my Music Theory students at the Chicago High School for the Arts. He had a little trouble understanding how to construct a major scale so I taught Michael Jordan method (my original method I created just for him). Because he is a Chicago native, I came up with, what I call, the Michael Jordan scale. Most people around the world, and especially Chicago natives, know that Michael Jordan's basketball jersey number is 23. So I explained that a major scale is built with 2 Whole steps, a half step, 3 Whole steps, and finally another half step.