Finishing my Pedagogy Course in Tampere

Closing the chapter of my life as a short-term pedagogical student, I realized what would fit better with me and what I would like to avoid as a teacher (if possible). Indeed there were interesting concepts and ideas that I absorbed by following the presentations and articles that helped me to perceive the different teaching practices and theories. Even though, we did not have the time to cover in depth most of these theories, I got some important key words for a future reference. For sure, I familiarized with some of the pedagogical terminology (e.g. mastery learning), pedagogical approaches (behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism etc) and the constructive alignment concept which seems to be the ''holy grail'' in higher education at the moment. Also, watching the proposed videos and ted-talks was useful to see different practical techniques (e.g. KWL strategy). Moreover, I understood very clearly that, as a teacher, I need to pay attention to the course description (first!) and make sure that I accurately deliver to my students from the very beginning not only the objectives but the desired ILOs (what I want them to know by the end of the unit) and how they will achieve them through arranged activities, and finally how they will be assessed. I had never heard before about learning taxonomies (Bloom's or SOLO) and definitely these structures can help in designing efficiently the ILOs and the assessment process based on course's objectives.

Organizing a course, I have to be honest that the long monotonous lectures i.e. 6-7 hours is somethings that I will fight to avoid in the future (if I am allowed to). It is over-tiring and possibly not very effective. Moreover, I feel that working with the same peer group through a whole semester does not necessarily help in expanding somebody's horizons. Preparing a common assignment or presentation is not really something that reveals who learnt and what, especially if more than 2 students are involved. Often, a single person prepares the presentations and after that the other members spend 30 minutes to change or modify some elements (I know friends who graduated without never preparing anything by themselves :-)). I understand that people have to learn to collaborate but I do not not how this could be achieved in a more fair and effective way. Also, I have the impression that in a peer group, often one or two students struggle to understand some concepts and the other students are mouth-fed by the experts. In this spirit, I have some concerns about the flipped-classroom technique. For example, unsupervised discussions between the students after reading for example an article could be a time-wasting activity, because reading and presenting the summary of what somebody has read does not mean that one has understood the topic, and some students can also go totally unprepared in the peer meeting causing problems... Therefore, careful design is required, and students should be progressively introduction to flipped-classroom, and I feel that I am not yet prepared to experiment with it.

Some important aspects that I learned during the current classes by observing my teachers was that they were positive, encouraging, devoted and helpful with us, answered to our questions and respected our efforts. I think that this was a big lesson for me because unfortunately in the past I have had teachers who were very uninterested in students. Of course, bad examples are so easily recorded in our memories and we think that this is the normal. But then suddenly, when we follow a fantastic lecture by a professor, for example by Prof. Tadashi Tokieda (this happened when I was working in Bath University) we think that this is just an exception and we just experience it as a random case.

As the years pass by and remembering also my father as a math teacher, I have the feeling that teaching and the ability to engage the students is a talent. Theoretical knowledge, practice and experimentation can play an important role but also the charisma of a teacher to resonate with his students is essential and precious. I am not sure how somebody can explore whether one has this gift but that would be an interesting journey.

I am not sure whether I will follow the teacher's career or not but if my destiny leads me finally to a university auditorium I will try to use all the tools that I have acquired during this period to improve my practices. I wish if that day comes I will be compassionate and creative in order to ''enchant'' my students.