My Teaching Philosophy
A phrase by Loughran (2002), “Teaching is more than knowing, and teaching is more than telling,” reinforces Phil Collins’s phrase, “In learning you will teach and in teaching you will learn,” and this expresses my current teaching philosophy. At the moment, I am fascinated by introducing my students as classmates in later years. ” Hello, meet my classmate. We schooled together; only we did it while I stood, and most of the time, they were sitting.” In this paper, I will seek to express my teaching philosophy based on relationships and engagement, a very dynamic paradigm that influences my teaching style, strategies, and practices. My teaching philosophy is not overly static and improves as I acquire more insights into teaching principles and practices that will work in the 21st century. My primary enthusiasm or goal is to be able to constantly recognize and acknowledge the needs of the learners, considering them as personal and dynamic.
I strongly support the social constructivism theory of learning whereby the learning process involves active collaboration with the learners within the context of their culture and context to construct knowledge that is relevant for active learning. Primarily, I believe that the student’s needs are highly dynamic, and values, beliefs, and contexts shape their learning expectations. Primarily, the students will not construct knowledge as a group in the context of the school culture or district but will build knowledge and understanding based on their entire social context.
In short, to support holistic learning, my role and skills as a facilitator for students cross over to encourage the skills of mediation, as explained by Teeters et al. (2021), I aim to create a learning environment where the student can openly communicate their learning expectations as individuals and groups. In addition to building student construction of knowledge on the subject areas, I believe it is important for the student to be equipped with moral agency and socially accepted behavior.
For quality teaching and learning and focusing on strong relationships with the learner, the overall role of the teacher is to cultivate trust and promote independence. First, as a teacher, I need to be confident that the learners will see my social constructivism pedagogy as a starting point to promote active interactions with their environment to support learning. Despite the differences in the social dynamics, I believe learners are interested in approaching learning as a collaborative venture. I will advocate for lifelong learning. The pursuit of knowledge transcends classroom bounds. Education should be a lifelong process that helps develop oneself and one’s profession. It is my effort to cultivate this thinking in my students, whereby they look at learning as an unending journey. Here, my primary role will be to challenge the ideas, thoughts, and views of the learners within the context of their environment.
My classroom also includes acknowledging and respecting the independence of the learners within groups and in their interactions in class. I work to see the students feel like equal partners in the relationship established with peers and the teachers to express their opinions and views independently. To meet this goal, I have to cultivate a genuine concern to listen. Within my classroom, I do not want to assume I have total control of the direction of inquiry but work to ensure the student independently builds relationships with peers and the teachers. For the learners to genuinely raise issues and or concerns, they need to have confidence that I will fairly address their queries. I am working to create an environment where my students will always take risks to speak up about their opinions and views on each subject. This is the best way for them to create knowledge.
In addition to building relationships with students based on trust and independence, my classroom is also characterized by engagement. Primarily, my classroom uses a mix of active learning and flipped classrooms to deliver an interactive learning experience. My role is to support strategies such as group discussions, hands-on activities, and real-world problem-solving aimed at engaging students meaningfully. Here, the goal is to remain sensitive to the unique needs of the learners. Each class will allow students to comprehend more content, and the students who are auditory and kinesthetic learners will have an interesting experience in their classrooms.
Active learning has always increased student involvement, understanding, and content memory. Contrary to this, the flipped classroom promotes more personalized guidance during class time coupled with peer interactions that are important in understanding lessons better. The most effective way to increase active learning is to leverage the value of technology in the learning process. For learning to be active and purposeful, I will encourage the student to process information and ideas in new ways, and technology is an effective tool to foster engagement. For instance, an active and persistent commitment to understanding a subject matter is enhanced through online discussions and peer responses. My personal experiences as a student and an instructor have tested the effectiveness of these strategies.
My deliberate use of highly interactive strategies aims at profound learning. Such active learning exercises as group discussions and problem-solving activities help students realize how the learned concepts apply to real-world contexts, finally building their understanding. This is further complemented by the flipped classroom model that gives room for formative assessments and peer reviews during class time. These evaluations are instantaneous, meaning I can revise my lessons and teaching procedures. Such an approach is based on the student’s needs, making it flexible, dynamic, and responsive. It creates a conducive environment where everyone has equal opportunities to succeed, and learning becomes teamwork.
My classroom provides a mentally stimulating and emotionally supportive environment for the student, each according to their unique learning expectations. I desire to build an environment where the learners express their curiosity as genuinely as possible based on their real-world experiences. For example, I encourage the students to actively and meaningfully examine content within their social space. For instance, building relationships through interactive polls and online simulations to make lessons interesting. As a whole, my teaching philosophy is to be an agent to cultivate relationships and engagement for learners to make meaningful understanding of their environment. I believe in fostering trust and independence for every learner to have confidence they can genuinely develop intellectual curiosity and problem-solving skills for lifetime learning. I shall continue to enhance my teaching philosophy as I learn more teaching principles and practices.
References
Loughran, J. (2002). Teaching about teaching: Principles and practice. Teaching about Teaching, 71-84. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203454473-9
Teeters, L. P., Shedro, M., Alvarez, A., McKimmy, C., & Dimidjian, S. (2021). Teaching as mediation: The influence of professional development on teacher identity in Mexico City public schools. The Teacher Educator, 56(4), 372-398. https://doi.org/10.1080/08878730.2021.1916141