Teaching Philosophy
Stephen Brookfield (2006) defines a teaching philosophy as “…a set of values, beliefs, insights, and convictions about the essential forms and fundamental purposes of teaching” (p. 255). A teaching philosophy should serve to support a teacher and guide his or her actions so that the students’ best interests are always of primary focus. It should also come from within and be an extension of the teacher’s identity. When we consider the difficult environment and circumstances that students face today, the authenticity and actionability of a teaching philosophy is paramount.
Students decide to attend college for a variety of reasons, but the essence within these reasons is a desire to grow (Shultz & Higbee, 2007; Cabgrera & La Nasa, 2000). Growth in education has often been defined as accumulating knowledge. This outdated way of thinking about higher education must give way to a different paradigm that focuses on developing the whole student. As our world becomes more connected and complicated, students have an increasing need to reach higher levels of cognitive development. In turn, teachers need to become student centered in their approach. Teachers are no longer tasked with imparting knowledge, but helping students develop abilities to understand and apply knowledge. The increasing needs of our students require an even deeper personal commitment by teachers.
Parker Palmer (1998) believes that teaching is a deeply personal activity. I started teaching without much personal consideration. However my dedication to teaching today has grown out of my personal interactions with students. As a result, teaching has become a significant part of my identity. I realize my role in a student’s life is one of a ment...
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... fluid and revisited. Dynamic environment demands constant organizational change. Training future business leaders demands a higher level of student analytical ability. Help them construct that through project based learning, dialogical interactions, and cross disciplinary cases.
I feel that I am already a good teacher. The question now is how to become a great teacher. Me – I like dialogical – modeling, especially with different topics. ME : Teaching shouldn’t be routine
Vaclav Havel (1998), former president of Czechoslovakia and of the Czech Republic, spoke often of seeing the world from a global perspective. Regarding intellectuals, Havel (1998) said, “Their increased sense of responsibility for this world has not made such intellectuals identify with an ideology; it has made them identify with humanity, with its dignity and its prospects” (p. 208).
Learning must begin with the teacher accepting the role of a learner by being willing to study and by being willing to apply oneself to becoming a professional educator, well prepared, and relentlessly endeavoring to advance one’s practice (Frere, 2005). As teachers apply themselves to becoming learners, then they can more aptly educate others. Teachers should not overlook professional preparation; however, they must also consider part of their efforts in scholarship to be constructing relationships with their students.
I am determined to become a teacher not only to teach various skills and academic lessons to student, but also to help guide them to achieve his or her goals in their lives. According to an article in the Black Collegian, by Nat LaCour, “Teaching require enormous patience, and th...
My goals as a teacher are to help students communicate effectively and foster a desire to learn. I believe these two characteristics are important for students to have because despite what problems they encounter or what situation they are in, the ability to communicate effectively will help them in working with others and the desire to learn will motivate them to make positive changes in their life. As a teacher, I want my students to become interested in learning, both in school and in their personal lives. With these two goals in mind, my role as a teacher is to help them acquire these skills and values. However, effective communication is one of the hardest tasks for teachers because we all communicate in different ways and through different means. This is why teachers also need the desire to learn because it will motivate them to learn more useful ways of communicating and connecting with the students. To help students attain these goals, a teacher who leads by example can demonstrate to students how to communicate to others. In addition, if teachers are excited about what they teach, they will create a better learning environment that will motivate the students to learn. My philosophy of teaching consists of these two traits because after they leave my class, I want them to continue their education with the desire to learn more and to communicate this desire and the skills they have obtained with others.
Education is the means by which a student gains the tools for a successful future. Through education, a teacher is not only teaching facts, but also teaching life skills. Education teaches students discipline, responsibility, and many other life skills. As a teacher, I hope to instill these skills in my students. I also hope to help them develop as adolescents. Education should allow students to fully understand and discover themselves, in addition to giving them the ability to survive in the real world. Education involves respecting every student's race, sex, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and religion. Education should teach the students to think on their own, and to accept and embrace their individuality.
I take a completely humanistic view when it comes to educating children. I believe that Maslow was correct in his belief that people genuinely strive to reach the highest level of their capabilities. I also believe that everyone can reach his/her "self-actualization" if their lower hierarchy of needs are met first. I want to focus on three things: Maslow's levels, how they affect children and educators, and what I feel is the best tool we can give our students before they head out into the world of independence.
Children are our future and it has been a dream of mine to guide them into the right direction by the way of a good education. Having two children of my own, and preparing them for school, prompted me to want to achieve my goal of teaching. Watching their faces beam with pride as they learned something new, made me so proud. Teaching them preschool activities required research in knowing what I should teach to prepare them for elementary school. I used workbooks that I purchased from stores and I printed out worksheets from the Internet to help them learn. I considered myself a traditionalist; I directed the activities and had emphasis on a core curriculum that I planned for daily. After seeing them succeed from my teaching efforts, I decided I wanted to help other children succeed.
Ralph W. Tyler, an influential figure in early twentieth century educational reform believed that “the purpose of life was learning.” He said, “When one ceases to learn, one ceases to live life to the fullest. The biological basis of man has changed little since the cave days. However, each generation creates new ideas and elaborates on those ideas which have previously existed.” With education, ideals set forth from a society or culture can be preserved and create a powerful generativity of knowledge, linking the past with the present while ensuring future posterity.
The role of public education as I see it is to provide every child the opportunity to become a valuable member of society. It is an institution where parents, teachers and the community can collaborate to help each student achieve educational success. It takes all kinds of individuals with different teaching styles and philosophies to achieve this. I believe my role as a teacher is to challenge students to think for themselves, think critically (solve problems) and to encourage learning through lessons that are fun. My philosophy is that I should strive to provide authentic learning experiences through student engagement and collaboration. As an educator it is my responsibility to facilitate learning opportunities whether they come from direct instruction, student collaboration in the classroom, or involvement in community activities.
Many new teachers face a problem when they begin teaching: they are lost on how to create a classroom environment and how to teach because they haven’t taught before. According to The Journal of Adult Education, “Quite often the only barometer they have in assessing the type of teacher they would like to be lies in past experiences of previous professors (Leger & Young, 2014; Reid, 2009; Worley, 2001).” (Hegarty 2015). This phenomenon leads to teachers instead of reflecting on who they want to be as teachers, based on the kind of teacher they liked and disliked in the past. In this paper, I will reflect on this and come up with my own teaching philosophy.
Teaching is not about being a figure of authority, being in control or the adage, “June, July and August.” Those who are in the education profession with those goals in mind will not be effective teachers and they fail those who find themselves at his or her mercy in the classroom. The most effective and successful teachers are those who found it was all they ever wanted to do; found a passion for it that lasted through the tedious process of educating by state standards to make it their profession. They are “called” to teach, another adage in regard to those who are obviously doing what they are best suited to do, something they have a passion for. Anyone can be taught to play a musical instrument to some degree or other but only those with the talent seemingly born in them will become masters of their instruments. It truly takes more than practice and the same is true for the teaching profession; it requires a love and born in talent.
I believe that learning and teaching is an equal process between teachers and students. Teachers learn just as much from students as students learn from teachers. When I become a teacher, I will most likely adopt the philosophy of pragmatism. I believe that knowledge is an instrument for adapting to reality, and therefore is an essential part of life. I want to become an educator in order to motivate children to receive knowledge and use it to better their lives. I dream of helping young children learn to read and write and I anticipate the moment that they look up at me and smile because they understand. I want to be an educator because educators are the most important force in the working world today. Without educators, there would be no doctors to treat the ill, no lawyers to defend the innocent, and no policemen to protect us from harm. There would be no accountants, nurses, psychologists, there would be no one with professional educations and degrees without teachers.
Teaching Philosophy The most important impact I want to have on students is that they remember me as a teacher who cares about their education. I want to leave an impact on each child’s life. My motivation to teach comes from a desire to help others and see student’s excitements as they learn new concepts. I believe teaching is my way to make a positive difference for each of my students.
I believe the main purpose of teaching any subject is to encourage students to think critically and appreciate knowledge. Thinking critically is a skill students, no matter where their lives lead them, will need. A teacher should be dedicated to the content they are teaching and should love what they are doing. The fact that students are learning the subject is not enough; a teacher also has an obligation to foster an enjoyment of learning in their students and to show them how they can apply it to their own lives. Teachers should be able to show students that what they are learning in the classroom is relevant to their own lives. The subject material and the students’ response to the subject material should be helping them learn about themselves, and the people they want to be.
As most say, experience is the best teacher. Those who teach are often described as being good at what they do, are given their honors as an end result of the performance of their students. It’s a fact that most teachers aim at learning as opposed teaching even though their job is to teach. In other words, the crucial objective for teaching is to have a positive effect on learning. In a nutshell, we can infer that the best way to learn is simply by experience. This has been established by (Boud, Cohen and Walker 8) that both experience and learning go hand in hand and is extremely inseparable.
Being a teacher is not an easy task as many people could think. To be a teacher does not only imply to know the subject to be taught, it also includes being willing to constantly improve oneself integrally, as much as updating the resources and materials one uses in teaching. Reflecting and analyzing over and over again the best way to teach to learn and how to make students to extend what has been learned. The many hours spend in the classroom will never be enough to plan lessons, prepare materials, review pupils tasks and exams, as well, all the administrative requirements one has to cover for whatever institution we work. Besides all this a good teacher, a professional one, will have to find the time to keep preparing to improve oneself.