An Autobiography of Learning Experiences to Date, Illustrating How They Have Influenced Your View of How Teachers Can Help Learners

Produce an autobiography of your learning experiences to date, illustrating how they have influenced your view of how teachers can help learners.

Since the age of three education has played an important role in my life, with certain teachers and experiences having a major influence on my life, more so now that I am studying to become a teacher.

My earliest memory of my education is when I was in reception in primary school. My teacher, Mrs Herbert was the best teacher in the school, to me at the time. She was friendly, fun and very caring towards the entire class. I remember that she used to keep a tub of fizzy fish sweets in her cupboard, which we used to be allowed if we had behaved extremely well that day or if we had handed in good work. I remember that this became an incentive for me to work hard and behave well every lesson.

Throughout primary school, I saw my teachers become sterner and the work become harder. All of my teachers however, remained friendly and seemed to care a great deal about the class. I do not remember an awful lot about how my teachers went about teaching their lessons, however I do remember that we used to go out on field trips in order for us to gain better understandings of the topics we were studying, e.g. going to Beamish to learn about the Victorians.

Overall my experience at primary school was enjoyable and really influenced me to work hard in my further years of education. The next step being Secondary School.

I found the jump from primary to secondary school quite big, as I went from having one teacher to having different teachers for each subject. This to me was when, even indirectly, I started to look at how the teachers carried out their lessons and how they were towards me as a student, this instantly saw the separation of my ‘favourite’ teachers. As well as this, friendship groups started to form, and I feel that the friends I made played a big part in me enjoying school. I found that we would all use spare time, be it break or dinner time to work together doing homework or extra class work, making sure we understood by helping each other.

I had several ‘favourite’ teachers throughout secondary school, most of which were favourites for similar reasons. These teachers, I felt, made an effort for us to enjoy the lesson. They would use different teaching methods, e.g. quizzes, practical work, games etc, in order for us to understand the different topics we were being taught. In my opinion, doing this made our lessons fun and interesting, as no two lessons would be the same. I also found that these teachers seemed to genuinely care about their students, taking the time to get to know their class and helping with any issues we may have had whether it be subject related or other.

There were also teachers within the school who I did not like, and again those teachers had similar traits. In their lessons I felt uneasy, scared in some cases to answer questions in case I got the answer wrong. They did not seem too bothered to be teaching us as they would stand at the front and talk at us in a monotone voice.

Secondary school, my friends and teachers did however, play an important role in making me who I am, and helping me get the grades I needed to get into college.

My college life was very different to any experiences in school. I found that the lecturers taught and treated you as adults rather than school children, relationships were very different, which reflected in their teaching. Responsibility was thrown upon us, and I found that the lecturers played more of a guiding role, allowing us to work things out for ourselves and make our own mistakes, however being a helping hand if we were stuck or confused. This would be helped by keeping the lectures informal, fun and interesting, equipping us with the skills we need for independent research in preparation for university.

The transition from college to university was quite pleasant, as the attitude expected from me and that of the lecturers was pretty similar to college except on a larger scale.

Overall, my experience has showed me that ‘good’ lecturers are those who care about the progression and development of their students.