Focus on the Learner

In the Education Studies Department at Guilford College, our teacher/learners:

Focus on the learner, respecting individual student's characteristics and needs, and regarding the curriculum as a resource when designing learning activities (Focus on the Learner).

In The Education Studies Program, preservice teachers are encouraged to regard each of their students as a unique individual with a distinctive and wonderful history who has great potential to learn and to teach others. In keeping with this point of view, we support the use of the curriculum as a guide for determining what needs to be taught as observation and analysis reveal how each student needs to learn. We do not emphasize the idea of equipping our teacher/learners with tools for instruction. Rather, we assist them in developing the Habits of Mind to understand the processes of learning, remaining respectful of their students' individual characteristics, attributes, and preferences. Our teacher/learners discover where to turn to find or create appropriate resources to meet their students' needs, relying on their own strengths as researchers, well-grounded in the liberal arts, whose self-assessment provides them with the ability to care for themselves as they investigate what is best for the students they teach.

1. Discovery

2. Guided Exploration

3. Independent Application

Teacher learners have begun to comprehend concepts such as learning styles, multiple intelligences, and learning differences. They occasionally make reference to these concepts when analyzing or discussing observations. They recognize when teachers they observe have altered plans to accommodate for the unique needs of their learners, though they have not yet begun to make such accommodations themselves. Teacher/learners focus more on carrying out the curriculum than on setting priorities for student learning and are willing to provide extra help or tutoring for students who learn differently from the majority of their peers.

Teacher/learners understand that it may be necessary to adapt plans and instructional decisions for some students. They can describe many of their students' unique qualities and characteristics, though they have not yet learned how to alter their behavior or assessment systems to accommodate for them. While they are generally fair to their students they have not yet found a way to define the difference between treating students equally or equitably. Preservice teachers are beginning to experiment with putting the learner before the curriculum and they are willing to adapt lessons with advice and help from cooperating teachers, faculty and/or peers.

Teacher/learners formulate and adapt plans and instructional decisions for their students based on observation and analysis of students' needs. They use language, behavior and assessment systems that are fair, equitable, honorable, and just in respecting their students' unique strengths and next steps. In choosing how to prioritize, they prefer to place the learner before the curriculum. Preservice teachers understand their own limitations and achieve a balance between taking care of themselves and accommodating for their students. They refine their skills and abilities in matching teaching strategies and resources with students' characteristics as they gain experience, demonstrating growth over time.