Education : Psychology of Teaching and Learning – Reasons for Teaching

It was time for another class. Yes, I was still looking forward to these long sessions in Psychology of Teaching & Learning class. So far, I was gaining an education; learning about learners and the people who taught them. In our second class we reviewed a very popular question.

I am sure many of you have asked this question, why do teachers choose to teach? Well, we reviewed the possible answers to this question; seeing as we were being trained as teachers. The answers were just as generic as they would be for someone of a different profession.

Men and women choose teaching because it is a solid profession. The world will always need educators to guide the process of the sharing of knowledge and helping people to master various skills. People also choose teaching because:
– it provides job security
– there are always job openings or vacancies
– it allows people to satisfy their altruistic urges and give back to society
– it grants intangible rewards; a joy or satisfaction in seeing someone accomplish their goals
– it provides free time in the summer where you have two to three months to rest, relax, recoup, vacation or work another job
– it matches the individuals personality
– it matches the person’s skill set

Further into the class, we reviewed the definitions for education, learning and psychology. It was established that all humans begin the learning process from inside the womb and up until they died. Of course, considerations were given for extenuating circumstances like severe disabilities.

This class sure was chock full of psychology goodness because we also briefly mentioned several learning theorists; that is:

Brunner- cognitive learning
Pavlov – classical conditioning
B.F. Skinner – operant conditioning

I kept surveying the time and it crept as slow as a 99 year old on a cool Sunday evening. We soon ventured off into groups to develop skits which represented instances were these theories occurred. We met the challenge head on and the various skits were accurate and entertaining.

I don’t know how we managed to do this, but old man time caused us to still cover another subtopic; that is, factors affecting learning. I could tell you one factor affecting my learning this night sleep and disbelief; but cho, soon to home and to bed.