As the world rapidly changes and instant development happens everywhere, the demand for updating the knowledge and applying it in one’s field is essential. The new methods of modern education such as the technology-driven classroom, inquiry-based learning, and the emphasis on building the skills and values are the right practices for a healthy learning environment. As an English teacher in the middle school for nineteen years, I found myself in need to enroll in the BLCSI program in its second phase. My participation in the BLCSI program had a significant role in progressing my linguistic and professional skills. I will make use of this acquired experience upon the homecoming to the KSA in order to improve the learning process and educational structure in Saudi Arabian public schools.
To start with, I was assigned to level six after the evaluation of the placement test at the UCF global center. I found out that I need to enhance my language skills and mainly my writing skills which were, fortunately, has been achieved by attending the classes daily; I started writing paragraphs, essays, timed writing and ending up with constructing my capstone project. Also, I attended different conferences, activities, and workshops and I had weekly meetings with my mentor Maysa Alasad whom I owe great credits of my success. She has always corrected my grammatical mistakes, mastered the necessary skills in writing and assisting me in my all writing assignments.
Talking about the “Teaching Leadership” classes has positively reshaped my teaching strategies. The course presents a variety of philosophies and methods for teaching English as a Second Language ‘ESL.’ For elaboration, the first class highlights the teacher contribution in the learning process as a role model to the students; this can be achieved by the teacher showing his curiosity about the subject he is going to teach. A research done by Association for Psychological Science shows the huge effect of tough work which involves curiosity on the performance as intelligence. (2011).
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The kind of interaction between the students and their teachers about a topic in the form of curious questions are a sign of ideal learning settings in which students practice healthy thinking and come to wonder about the subject matter at a high intellectual level. On the other hand, the second class of the leadership course emphasizes implementing certain philosophies of education in a modern classroom environment. These two classes have developed my teaching and leadership skills as well as remodeled my teaching philosophies.
One of the philosophies that appealed to me while I was attending the “Teaching Leadership” classes is progressivism. What is distinctive about the student-centered Progressivism philosophy of education is the focus on student’s ideas that should be tested by active experimentation. The learning process is progressively being assessed through the on-going questions of the students. However, since the Saudi education system mainly evolves around the teacher-centered Essentialism philosophy of education, it became a fundamental philosophy in my teaching process for nearly the past 20 years.
One challenge I face as an educator in the K.S.A when applying Essentialism is delivering essential instruction to a large number of students. As an average, I have 35 students in class in a limited amount of time which makes it difficult to deliver essential information to all in around 45 minutes. Thus, two possible challenges that may occur when implementing the student-centered Progressivism philosophy of education in the KSA these are administrative and financial. Financially, the expense or cost of progressivism activities is likely not to be covered by the balance set to a particular school. It is well known that a massive portion of our budget goes
