Phase 4: Action.

Differences between teach and mediate pedagogically

Teaching: it is the transmission of information and knowledge from the teacher to the students. Teaching allows the students to assimilate content and accumulate knowledge.

According to Contreras (2013), there are two approaches applied to teaching:

      Passive transmission: students are considered as recipients who, through o imitation and reiteration, will be able to reproduce the knowledge that was transmitted to them.

•        Learners are passive elements.

•        The teacher's job is to repeat and make the students repeat.

•        Learning is conceived as cumulative, successive, and continuous.

•        Oral and visual exposure of the teacher is privileged.

•        The student must limit himself/herself to imitate, attend, and correct.

     Active school:  the teacher interaction is intended to promote manipulation, and experimentation by students.

•        Teacher focuses on guide, promote, and support the learning.

•        The students build their knowledge.

•        The important thing is that the student develops abilities and skills for life.

•        The student is the core.

•        Educational materials designed for students play a central role

Mediating: it is a form of interaction that allows the mediators to help the learners to develop their learning potential, and to assimilate learning strategies, through regular contact with them. It is the process between the knowledge that the student possesses and the knowledge that he is intended to acquire. A mediator is a guide in the construction of knowledge of each student. The pupils must be the protagonist of their learning process through mediation and self-discovery.

According to Contreras (2013), there is an approach applied to mediation:

•       Reconstruction of knowledge: It takes into account the types and ways of learning of students

•       With the teacher´s support, the student appropriates scientific knowledge.

•       Significant learning

•       A mediator must do her/his self-evaluation and self-correction to adapt his methodology to the needs of the students

The implementation process of the action plan

During four (4) weeks I had the opportunity to increase the motivation and interest of the students in the class, through a proposal, which contains short activities, that allowed the learners to feel more engaged with the class funnily and interestingly. The idea was to use technology and the internet to foster the development of specific language skills.

               Richards (2014) has pointed out that “today, the internet, technology and the media, and the use of English in face-to-face, as well as virtual social networks provide greater opportunities  for  meaningful  and  authentic  language  use  than  are  available  in  the  classroom (p. 2)”.

Changes in interactions with students.

I have changed the way that I used to prepare the classes because I was usually worried about the contents, but during the last month of the academic year, I was concerned about the minutes of the class that I was going to spend doing a special activity, according to the proposal that I have designed.

               Actually, it was rewarding to observe that most of the students focus on the activity and I could catch their attention with a simple game, riddle, fable, video, and so on.  Of course, after the short activity, my students come back to the class willing to learn something new much more motivated and it makes me feel glad.

Resources you have used

The student’s feelings about the process

A short video about the process

Phase 4_Action from Olga Milena on Vimeo.

Link: https://vimeo.com/483861068

My feelings about the process

The proposal has allowed me to understand that my job as a teacher goes beyond the English contents. Hence, I need to reflect on students´ purposes and goals in order to create joyful learning environments. Thus, I need to move from my comfort zone and take risks in the classroom trying innovative pedagogical techniques that promote the process of learning in a pleasant and meaningful way.

               Most of the time I have been influenced by the Passive transmission approach, in which learning is based on the transmission of knowledge to the student, but each day I have been reflecting that it isn´t the right way of teaching, and the proposal has been an excellent tool, as a source of inspiration for new insight and more innovative possibilities about the overall understanding of what learning and teaching are.

References

Contreras, I. (2013). De la enseñanza a la mediación ¿Cambio de paradigma o cambio de nombre? In Revista Educación 19(2), pp. 5-15. Recovered from https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/educacion/article/view/8452/7979

               Delgado, A. (2013). Pedagogical Mediation and Learning. En Revista de Lenguas Modernas, N° 19, 2013, pp. 513-522 / ISSN: 1659-1933. Recovered from https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rlm/article/view/14033/13339

               Richards, J. (2014). The Changing Face of Language Learning: Learning Beyond the Classroom. In RELC Journal, Vol 45, 1, pp.1-18. Recovered from https://www.professorjackrichards.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Changing-Face-of-Language-Learning-RELC.pdf

               Richards, J. (2013). Creativity in Language Teaching. Plenary address at University of Hong Kong, 5th June 2013. University of Hong Kong. Recovered from https://www.professorjackrichards.com/wp-content/uploads/Creativity-in-Language-Teaching.pdf

               Tebar, L. (2011). El perfil del profesor mediador de aprendizajes. In El profesor mediador del aprendizaje (2nd ed., pp. 99–128). Bogotá D.C.: Editorial Magisterio. Recovered from http://bibliotecadigital.magisterio.co.bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co/libro/el-profesor-mediador-del-aprendizaje-0