In my teaching I employ principles of learning in the following four areas: lesson planning, lesson structure, meeting learners’ needs and assessing learning. I like to do and use my session plan as it serves as a guide and makes me feel confident. I will set ground rules for standards of acceptable behavior. In communication theory, a linear style of transmission is used to communicate ground rules to my learners, although a circular model is used in developing/agreeing on the ground rules with my learners. The two principles of using my session plan and setting ground rules are teacher-led and it is embedded in the behavioral learning theory.
With lesson structure, I will always introduce the topic, tell learners’ what the lesson is going to be about and what is expected to be achieved during the lesson. This principle is cognitivist, communication is linear, the teaching style is autocratic and the learning is teacher-centered. After this introduction, I include a middle section of paired or group learner activities and an ending in which I summarize what has been learned. With paired or group learner activities, the learning theory is cognitivist, the teacher is a facilitator and teaching style is democratic. Learning is learner-centered as learners’ discover things for themselves in a group learning setting.
An area for improvement in my own application of theories and principles of inclusive learning/teaching will be to ensure that I differentiate learning to address different ability levels in my class. I will use the Blooms’ taxonomy to state the different outcomes. From a humanistic learning theory, I will give a learner with learning disability access to a teaching assistant to offer relevant