Theories of Teaching and Learning

• Teaching involves creating an environment that supports student learning and development.
• Effective teachers understand the impact of their teaching on student learning.
• Teaching is intertwined with learning; great teachers prioritize how students learn best.
• Impact occurs when students learn from our teaching.
• Describing how you support student engagement and achievement is a crucial skill for professional educators.
• Using artifacts and data to demonstrate the impact on student learning is a critical skill.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• Maslow's hierarchy explains human motivation through physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization needs.

Glasser's Choice Theory

• Choice theory suggests behavior is chosen to satisfy basic human needs.

Bandura's View of Self-Efficacy

• Self-efficacy, according to Bandura, is the belief in one's ability to perform a task.
• Self-efficacy is influenced by mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion, and emotional states.

Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

• Teachers should understand each student's ZPD to foster self-efficacy across learning areas.
• ZPD highlights conditions in which learning occurs.

Growth Mindset Teaching

• Change isn't always positive; students require building on existing knowledge for productive learning habits.
• Understanding and scaffolding incremental increases helps sensitive students try new things.
• Using 'yet' to scaffold student learning aligns with observations about students resisting learning.

The Centrality of the Student-Teacher Relationship

• Relationships significantly affect learning, creating a collaborative climate where learners take risks.
• Teachers who know their students can use emotional connections to enhance learning engagement.
• Healthy relationships lead to increased risk-taking in learning.
• Empathy, compassion, and support enhance self-image, self-efficacy, and emotional safety.
• Maintaining connectedness requires self-reflection, humor, patience, empathy, and supporting self-esteem.
• Passionate teachers cultivate staff relationships by investing time, thought, and energy.
• Team teaching, group planning, resource sharing, and peer mentoring are parts of affectively driven practice.
• Connecting with students’ parents and families is a priority.
• Authentic, caring teachers can earn trust and goodwill from students.
• Pedagogical strategies are more effective within healthy relationships.
• Techniques can't replace a teacher’s role in relating to students from the heart and respectfully convey confidence.
• Authentic teaching requires connection to self, subject, reasons for teaching, and students.

Fostering Healthy Relationships

• Healthy relationships are integral to life.

Empathy

• Understanding and sharing the feelings of another.

Empathetic Listening

• Empathetic listening skills are crucial for effective communication.

The Importance of Maintaining an Adult Ego State

• Teachers should communicate with students from their Adult Ego State to show respect.
• Adult Ego State minimizes disrespectful conduct.
• Verbal communication is key to social relationships.
• Transactional analysis helps understand social interactions, choose ego states, and improve relationships.
• Communication occurs from Parent, Adult, or Child ego states.
• Feelings trigger shifts between ego states; responses also come from one of these states.
• When speaking with a student, imagine conversing with a respected colleague to keep calmer transactions.
• Paralinguistic cues like tone, facial expression, and body stance are critical ego state indicators.

Parent

• Represents ingrained authority, conditioning, learning, and attitudes absorbed from an early age.
• Formed by external events and influences during childhood.
• Physical cues involve angry body language, finger-pointing, and patronizing gestures.
• Verbal cues include judgemental words, critical language, and posturing language.

Adult

• Ability to think and determine actions based on received data.
• Controls the Parent and Child ego states.
• To change Parent or Child, one must do so through the Adult.
• Physical cues include attentiveness, interest, straight-forward posture, and a non-threatening demeanor.
• Verbal include asking "why," "what," "how," using comparative expressions, reasoned statements, and phrases like "I think" or "I believe."

Child

• Formed by internal reactions and feelings to external events.
• Can cause anger or despair to dominate reason.
• Physical cues include sad expressions, temper tantrums, whining, giggling.
• Verbal cues include baby talk, expressing wishes, being superlative oriented, and using words to impress.

Important for Teachers to Know

• Effective transactions must be complementary, where the receiver responds from the same ego state as the sender.
• Crossed transactions occur when the receiver responds from a different ego state, leading to conflict.
• Improve communication by being aware of ego states and responding respectfully.
• Paralinguistic and nonverbal aspects convey more than words.
• The 7–38–55 rule: 7% of meaning is in words, 38% in tone, and 55% in facial expression.

Primary and Secondary Behavior

• Primary behaviors are self-initiated responses to environmental triggers
• Secondary behaviors are responses to authority figures addressing primary behaviors.
• Students respond to how teachers react to primary behavior.
• Teachers must control their responsive behavior to prevent escalation.
• It's important to see beyond the behavior, understand its function, and identify the learner's needs.
• Responding with discernment helps identify needs and support the learner.

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APSTs)

• APSTs outline expected knowledge, skills, and abilities.
• Deepening understanding enables alignment with learning environments.
• Exploring these standards prepares for professional placement.
• The APSTs align with other education policy models and research.