my teaching philosophy
We have learned different Philosophies of education and among these philosophies, which is the best?
Philosophies of education were made to guide us in our teaching and I believed that we should not box ourselves into one philosophy. There are many philosophies that are applicable, we could use a combination of all the philosophies or some of it to come up with a better transfer of learning. Having learned all of them, I was inspired to come up with my own beliefs that will help me in educating the learners.
I believe that each child is a unique individual who needs a secure, caring, and stimulating atmosphere in which to grow mature emotionally, socially, intellectually, and physically. It is my desire as an educator to help students meet their fullest potential in these areas by providing a least – restrictive environment and invites sharing of ideas.
My philosophy of teaching aligns to Progressivism believing that children learn best through discovery and learning by doing. This philosophy focuses on promoting progress and improving the self and society. The emphasis would focus on the learning process: develop thinking skills, better interpersonal relationship and meeting students’ interest. The students would be encouraged to be creative, express their own ideas and appreciate differences between themselves and others. My responsibility would be to guide and stimulate curiosity and interest in students and push them towards problem solving.
As a math teacher, math being the most prominent subject areas where students struggle the most, my philosophy includes encouraging a lot of individual thought and creativity in the classroom, in effect causing students to become adequate problem solvers and analytical thinkers. I want to instill in their minds that math is not difficult to understand rather it is easy, fun and interesting. I should project on them the attitude of “I CAN” that they can become good problem solvers, critical thinkers and citizens if they will do their best for the betterment of our country.
Moreover, the ideas below also include my philosophy of teaching:
I believe in the value of power and language. The value of power and language in teaching is very important. We should be very careful about what to say to our students especially the young ones because they have sharp memories. We are their hero, model, and inspiration in the class so we must teach them correctly and give our best shot.
I believe that teaching and learning involve reflection and action.
We should not just teach and teach the content rather we should allow our students to think and reflect on the lessons we taught them. Our students have brilliant ideas which they could put into writing like asking them to write on their reflection log all the things that transpire them on the lessons presented to them. Through this, we could also track their level of understanding.
I believe that teachers and students stay abreast of technology.
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I believe in integrating students’ learning into something that they know or value. We just don’t teach the content or the subject matter to our students but we also connect the content to what they know or what is relevant in their lives. Just like teaching Math, I give word problems that are real or authentic so that they could relate and could solve the problem. Teaching something which they are interested in will be very remarkable for them.
I believe that all children have the ability to learn and the right to quality education. All youths regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, and capabilities should have the opportunity to learn. Who knows, our future President or hero will be from a low-class family.
I believe that teaching and learning are reciprocal processes. Learning should not be coming all from the teachers. When teachers nurture individual talents in each child, we can build self–esteem and may encourage a life – long skill. By supporting these special abilities, teachers can guide students’ research and students can, in turn, enlighten teachers about subjects in which they may not be as knowledgeable.
Education should be seen as a desire to acquire all possible knowledge, not as a requirement or something that can be formally examined by tests. There are different ways that children learn and I believe that using varied methods of instruction is the most effective way of teaching different types of learners.
I believe that the children should be involved in planning activities in the classroom. By distributing jobs among the children and everyone in the classroom, the students will form a sense of togetherness. This eventually will create a community within the classroom.
I feel that this community of learners is essential for the students to perform effectively and efficiently. The teacher will also be a member of this community and will not be seen as unapproachable or as the only leader.
Employing constructivist methods of teaching forces, the learners to take an active role in their education by making choices and assuming responsibility for intelligent inquiry and discovery. For example, when letting them do the performance tasks/projects, experiments, reports, etc., allows students and teachers to discover individual strengths and weaknesses. This approach facilitates differentiated activities for each student’s ambition or goal and making the subject more relevant to every student’s life.
Students will learn more if teachers will adopt a mentoring role. In my subject, Math, I do mentor when I checked their solutions and answers. I could see the misconceptions of the students and I give immediate feedback so that they will improve and do better on our next exercises/drills.
Mentoring students achieved personal growth. To be a mentor to every student, a teacher must project positivity, exhibit flexibility and confidence, set high expectations for oneself, and demonstrate fairness and consistency.
Moreover, learning is a continuous process, meaning whatever we learned today may be learned or it will be learned by the next generations. New sets of ideas, trends, and issues will be formed and developed. Indeed, we are in this field as a calling from God to serve, guide, teach, and transform the lives of different types of learners to become good citizens of the country.
