Needs of Society, Schools and Students
1. The Mission of Schools
Schools are agents of education that exist to transmit culture, teach knowledge, skills and dispositions, promote learning, develop a multicultural and global perspective, and foster the social, physical, emotional, and intellectual growth of students.
2. The Nature of Learning
Learning is an active process. Learning involves the use of existing concepts and constructs to develop new meaning as new experiences and information are encountered. Meaningful learning occurs when an individual relates new knowledge to old knowledge (Dembo, 1991, p. 276). Thus, learners create their own understanding. Learning occurs at different rates. However, all students, when provided appropriate instruction, will learn important objectives.
3. The Nature of Teaching
Teaching is a reflective and developmental process that requires judgment, action, and the capacity to analyze and revise instructional decisions on the basis of insights and judgment. These insights and judgments must be rooted in deep understandings of teaching, learning, learners, and subject matter, and how these factors interrelate in the teaching-learning process (Barnes, 1990, p. 13)
4.The Role of the Teacher
Teachers are responsible for providing youth with disciplined study of a wide range of human knowledge, skills and dispositions and for serving as facilitators in assisting students in the process of constructing and connecting meaning. Thus, the primary role of the teacher is to facilitate learning for all students.
The teacher also has the responsibility to nurtu
re, build, and support human connections (teacher-student, student-student, and teacher-teacher) that facilitate positive and productive learning environments. Schools have an ecology and a culture. Teachers play an essential role in shaping and maintaining this culture. In doing so, teachers must be good stewards who work to develop and maintain a comfortable and safe physical environment and a positive, enabling emotional climate, and productive learning environments (Goodlad, 1990, p. 46).