Educational Philosophy

            As a novel teacher, my educational philosophy is still developing and changing, as it should.  With all of the experiences over this past year, my first year of teaching, my thoughts of good teaching has been fine tuned and molded.  While the education program prepared me for some aspects of teaching, nothing can prepare a person for all that teaching requires until one is thrown into their own classroom and hold all of the responsibility on their own.  To be a good teacher, one needs to connect to the students, know the students and understand how each student learns.  Most importantly, you must think like a student when teaching-constantly asking the questions “So what?” and “why is it important to know this?”

My philosophy on student learning and development includes a constructivist approach as well as teacher-centered instruction.  I believe that a student must first understand the basic concepts of a unit, which is where I often do PowerPoint notes and class discussion.  Then once the students have the basic ideas of a unit, they can do more student centered activities to build and elaborate on their understanding of the unit.  I think that a student benefits and develops best when they have differentiated instruction because not only does it foster interest and adaptability but it also strengthens more skills than if a teacher were to use only one or two approaches.  Another skill that is important for teaching is to conceptualize the material (Walker & Solstis, 2004), which teaches the students how to think and speak about a topic.  Taking any subject, conceptualizing information is easy and effective, by simply making distinctions, defining, naming and noting significant differences to help the students make connections.

Teachers should vary their instructional methods because of many reasons. Differentiated instruction has proven to be very effective teaching.  One of the most important is that students learn in different ways, as I have previously discussed. But also because I do believe that teachers need to stay energetic and enthusiastic, so if they are always doing the same thing over and over again, their motivation seems to dwindle.  By varying one’s instructional methods, it mixes things up.  If I find myself doing the same sort of lesson over and over again, I can feel myself getting bored and see my boredom rubbing off on my students.  I teach five Civics classes- all heterogeneously grouped so it is very easy to get bored teaching the same content over and over again.  So as important it is for me to vary instruction for my students, it is also important for me.  That being said, it is important for a teacher to try to use similar methods throughout the year so that the students can master the skills necessary for those lessons.  This helps prepare them for the future when other teachers might use similar instructional methods. 

                     It is easy to understand that not all people learn the exact same way; however, one of my professors would argue that there is no real proof that students have different intelligences like Gardner successfully argued.  Part of me agrees with my professor and then part of me does really believe in the idea that we have multiple intelligences.  I think that some students do benefit from sitting and listening to someone speaks and writing down information that they are expected to know.  But then when I am in my classroom watching my students as we are doing some of the more teacher centered lessons, it is a serious struggle for them to stay focused.  Any special education teacher would argue that students differ drastically in their approaches to learning.  However, at a high school level, I feel that some students will give up if they struggle to learn new things in comparison to some of their more advanced peers.  The problem is not that students differ in learning but that they go beyond recognizing the issue and address it.  I have spent countless hours after school with students who are interested in addressing their issues.  Some students have a really difficult time focusing during group work and prefer to work on assignments alone.  Some students thrive in a lesson that involves working with others and truly value what different perspectives can bring to a learning situation.  Some students would rather right notes all day long than do a project that involves any sort of arts and crafts.  Some students would rather give an oral presentation than write a paper.  I feel as though a lot of the choices students make in regards to their approach have to do with self-efficacy.  Many feel that they are only good at one thing or the other and would rather just accept that fate than to work on improving the skills that they want to improve.  That is where I come in as a teacher to help the students improve on those skills and build up a “tool box” of skills that they can use in approaching learning obstacles.  It is important to be a progressive teacher (Walker & Soltis, 2004), and to evolve as the students evolve.

                     At the end of the day, it is important to remember why we teach, what we teach and why all of it is important, especially why it is important to our students.  Each of the students have different pathways beyond high school and it is important to relate the curriculum to their lives (Walker & Soltis, 2004).  So if the students are planning to join the work force, than make the curriculum work for their future so they value it, and the same theory applies to those who are college bound. The “so-what” factor is very important because the students are not going create a passion for learning if they do not understand why it is so important to them.  The connections that a teacher makes between the information and the student is arguable the most important factor in effective learning and teaching. 

Reference:   

Walker, D. & J. Soltis (2004, 4th ed.). Curriculum and Aims. N.Y.: Teachers College Press. ASCD: Educational Leadership.