Essay Sample on Intentional Teaching: Maximizing Children's Learning Outcomes

Introduction

Educators strive to meet individual child needs by implementing the best teaching methods and learning approaches. Intentional teaching is a strategy that educators implement to extend children's thinking, build their interests, strengths, and ideas. In this way, it is a purposeful method that enables educators to challenge and maximize a child's learning process. Through intentional teaching, educators can implement deliberate decisions and actions that facilitate the achievement of specific outcomes in a child's learning and development. Being an intentional teacher, therefore, means acting purposefully with a goal on how to achieve specific learning outcomes. Intentional teaching enables educators to take an active role in children's learning and therefore, should be implemented to help learners achieve their goals.

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Intentional teachers strive to improve critical facets in the learning environment (Epstein 4). Such professionals are keen on creating an emotional atmosphere as a way to enhance kids' learning experiences. This aspect implies that an intentional teacher deliberately selects learning materials and equipment and strategically position them in areas where children can use them for learning purposes. In terms of planning, intentional educators purposefully choose learning materials, activities, and contexts that meet children's needs. Also, they plan when and how specific learning materials should be integrated to enhance learning.

Purposeful interaction with children is a critical feature that defines an intentional teacher. In this regard, such teaching professions foster good relationships with the children purposefully to challenge and extend their skills. The intentionality of teaching approaches and teacher-children relationships, therefore, constitutes being an intentional teacher. However, such teaching professionals should understand the benefits and the outcomes of instructions implemented in classroom settings (Bredekamp 375).

Intentional teachers take the lead in learning activities while working with children to improve their experiences rather than dominating their learning processes. These professionals promote collaborating among children and can choose to involve other people, especially those that have particular expertise which can support learning. Examples of these people are close friends and children's parents. Besides fostering collaboration, intentional teachers offer children opportunities to extend their skills and knowledge in the context of secure relationships. Teaching professionals, in this regard, gauge when to provide challenges and opportunities through reflection and provocation.

The ability to create a learning environment that encourages pupils to use creativity is another feature that constitutes an intentional teacher. The aim is to ensure kids experience a learning environment that fosters their growth and development. Techniques such as the use of visual materials enable educators to create contexts that are essential in stimulating pupils' interests. This aspect implies that intentional teachers use their creativity to enhance kids' learning and development in all spheres of the curriculum. Where some strategies might not be appropriate or safe for learners, intentional teachers use their skills and creativity to enhance learning experiences. In cases where the teacher wants to work directly with children, he/she do so by questioning, encouraging, negotiating, listening, instructing, and challenging them.

Positive Guidance Strategies in Classroom Settings

It is essential to use positive guidance or discipline strategies since it has lasting effects on a child than punishment. The most critical positive guidance strategies are monitoring behavioral patterns, providing understanding to a child during adversary, and nurturing trusting relationships. Monitoring changes in behavioral patterns is an integral component in a child's early childhood education. From a learning perspective, observing a child's behavior is the basis for supporting kid progress towards learning goals through counseling programs. Teachers encourage positive behaviors by monitoring how a child behaves over some time. Whether positive or negative, educators analyze how often the behavior occurs, where it occurs, who is involved, and when it happens. From this positive guidance strategy, teachers can limit the development of unacceptable behaviors and help them make thoughtful choices.

Providing understanding and supporting children during adversary is another essential positive guidance strategy. Teachers, in this regard, have a responsibility to help children cope with adversaries within the school environment. Under this strategy, educators offer alternatives that enable children to accept the matter of fact without developing a perspective that their mistakes are tragedies. The reason is that a child becomes angry and upset when things go wrong. Such feelings negatively impact a child's learning experiences, and therefore, a teacher should focus on what a child could achieve as a way to preserve his/her dignity.

Nurturing positive relationships enables teachers to focus on enhancing a child's behavioral outcome while building their self-control. Educators listen to children as a way to understand experiences, which could be shaping their behaviors in the school environment. In this way, teachers should promote positive social interactions and communication as a way to create an environment that enhances a child's emotional, physical, and psychological development. Also, this strategy requires teachers to plan a safe environment that enhances a child's well-being, self-control, self-esteem, and dignity.

Conclusion

Intentional teachers implement deliberate approaches that enable children to achieve specific goals and outcomes. These professionals encourage collaboration among children as a strategy to support learning. However, they take a leading role in helping children to achieve specific results. These teachers use their creative skills to improve the learning environment. Also, they integrate learning materials to meet children's learning needs in classroom settings. Teaching professionals, however, should focus on promoting positive guidance strategies as an approach to build children's self-control besides enhancing positive behavioral outcomes.

Works Cited

Bredekamp, Sue. Effective practices in early childhood education: Building a foundation. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2014.

Epstein, Ann S. "The intentional teacher: Choosing the best strategies for young children's learning (Rev. Ed.)." Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (2014), https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4276/6a16313527b74a69e7180622b96047fa6f99.pdf. Accessed 28 September 2019.