Philosophy of Education

When I wake up in the morning I like to have tea. Tea fits me, we are alike. I enjoy when things are calm, I like the order, the organization, and the simple things in life. But my energy overtakes the calm, even though it still exists. I like to get out there in the world everyday and make someone smile. I like to exert the kind of energy that lights things on fire in a million ways. I laugh and joke often, it makes me feel happy, and others feel even happier. It even inspires. Where do I fit in? In teaching. A job designed to help me influence people to be happy, which means they are learning and growing everyday. I get to “be the change I want to see in the world” as Gandhi said. What better way to start your education, than with tea? It is a combination of order, spunk, passion, happiness, simplicity, and excitement. Tea has a million wonderful qualities; they need to be put to positive use.
In my experience in Education 262, which focused on Middle level education studies, I learned that middle school is much like a whole other world of teaching. Teachers in the middle school have to be motivated, know how to shine, care extra about the students, and really want to work hard towards the goals of the entire school. These things happen in all schools and all teaching positions - however, it seems special in middle school, like a whole other experience. These young students are in such a significant point in their lives and middle school teachers get the opportunity to help them find and shape themselves in the most positive and exciting ways.
The question of how I will teach seems simple to me. I will teach so that my students will learn. I will tweak and grow and change and encourage until they do, as hard as it gets. To support that, I wanted some advice from some experts. From the educational history and from the philosophers of education, we can only grow and learn. In examining these concepts and ideas, I find a more graceful way of explaining my own theories and plans for my teaching strategies. In taking a closer look at the continuum of education theories, I found that I truly fit into the non-authoritarian category of existentialism. Out of the different theories, this one demonstrates the most focus on the individual and encourages the concept of each individual creating their own meaning in life. Choice has always been something I had been passionate about in the educational field. I think it’s essential for students to have choice in the curriculum under the majority of circumstances. As a teacher, I want to guide my students to make positive choices and decisions and giving them those opportunities is essential for that form of learning. Existentialism also implies the importance of self-discovery for students, which is generally reached by student-centered curriculum and personalized learning. These few concepts are also very central to my beliefs. Each student is different and individual and I would like to teach to each of them with the help of their own feedback, evaluations, and advice. The more you know the students through allowing them to plan around their interests and make their own learning experiences meaningful, the more information you have about the students for planning future lessons. Student-teacher relationships that are strong, professional, and caring all at the same time are something I will be striving for each day. Existentialism highlights the importance in these types of relationships and promotes personal connections and interactive communications within the relationship. I want to help students work towards making informed and morally sound decisions in their lives. This support requires a trust between the student and myself that will come alive through a positive student-teacher relationship and an ongoing, encouraging learning environment for everyone.
My beliefs lie in existentialism mostly because of the idea of student-centered learning. Who knows themselves better than the students themselves? The best way to reach them is to guide them to reaching themselves, teaching themselves. They know better than I do in the beginning which ways they like learning, learn best, feel connected to the subjects, and why they get thrown off or disconnected from the classroom. I can learn the most about how to teach the students from the students themselves, which is a concept completely supported by existentialism. In viewing the definitions of constructivism and reconstructionism I found that constructivism is basically a theory of knowledge which argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from their lives, situations, and experiences and reconstructionism is a philosophy that puts emphasis on the addressing of social questions and a journey to create a better society and worldwide democracy - each of these theories have a highlight of my personal beliefs. For constructivism, I definitely believe that students will always learn best from experience, which is something I intend to promote thoroughly in my classroom. For reconstructionism, I believe that students should be working towards bettering our society, beginning at a young age and time. This element is incredibly important for them to be adapting to ways that they can move forward and connect with and make changes in society. Giving them those connections early on will give them the confidence that they need to make changes.
I also connected with a few of the ideas within the theory of pragmatism. The concept of the students learning from experience is essential to my form of teaching. I am excited about student advisory programs and extracurricular activities in a lot of ways and will work to encourage my students to get involved in school outside of the academic realm. The experience of working with groups, teams, hands-on activities, and just learning by doing, is one that cannot be replaced by textbooks. Programs outside of the classroom focus on different social interactions as well as ways to develop thinking about choices, consequences, and decisions. These programs coincide with the theory of pragmatism in their support of experiential learning and developing because pragmatists learn through the use of their sense, which is encouraged in this type of activity. As a partial pragmatist, I truly believe that learning in constant and never ending, regardless of the method.
Through exploring the different philosophers that have encouraged and influenced education over the years, I found many connections to own beliefs. Confucius was a believer that his students should be “motivated and active learners who would take the initiative in their learning” which is a belief that I also hold. I want my students to develop a passion for learning and bring that to each class period. This leads to the belief of educating the whole student, giving all areas of education an important role, physical development included. The educational system is a place for students to develop in numerous ways, not only in the form of academic achievement. I think this is essential in education, because physical health supports mental health, and they will work together to promote proper thinking and clear efforts towards learning. It’s my personal belief that you cannot have one without the other, and learning the importance of each and how they contribute to overall learning and health is essential. Pestalozzi was another philosopher that supported that idea of education the “whole child” in his efforts to especially reach out and provide disadvantaged and poor children more opportunities for bettering their lives and their education. Emotional and social needs were important to Pestalozzi, which he believed were supported by a loving and caring student-teacher relationship. If the teacher can connect with the student and understand their struggles and hardships, it will be easier for them to teach that student by working with and around the issues. Booker T. Washington was another advocate for holistic teaching. His education motto being “hand, head, and heart” speaks worlds to the efforts made with social and personal connections to ensure proper educational strides. An overall development of the student as a person is the kind of development that I would like to setup a support system for within my classroom.
Other philosophers support my personal belief of being a caring teacher. Jesus is one of these philosophers. He believed that the role of a teacher is basically “a kind and caring teacher of all – men and women, young and old, poor and wealthy.” This is important to me because I believe in the theory of equal opportunity and fair treatment, as well as accepting every person just as they are. Jesus also believed in using a large variety of teaching techniques to reach each kind of learner and each individual, which is something I strive to do within my teachings. Augustine had similar beliefs in the fact that he thought “the teacher should love the students, assess their prior knowledge, and teach with enthusiasm, motivating the students to want to learn.” This is one of the most important theories for me because I want to use my positive and outgoing energy to encourage the students in my classes to engage themselves in learning and knowledge for now and for the future. I want to motivate them by expressing care and concern. In the theory of care and concern I want to be sure that I consider all students fairly and equally. Many of the philosophers touch on the importance of this idea in education. Comenius is one that believes that students should be educated regardless of social background, religion, sex, or intellectual ability. He believes “teachers should encourage, be kind, give individual attention to students, and be open to all learners, creating a non-coercive atmosphere in which the subject matter is presented with variety and practicality.”
Each of these philosophers’ theories and ideas highlight many aspects of my own personal teaching philosophy. I find it so important to keep my own ideals and theories in check while examining other people’s points of view and theories. My own philosophies are a branch of previous ideas and experiences mixed with my own ideas and experiences thus far. These will continue to build and grow with knowledge I gain from teaching, researching, reading, thinking, and experiencing new things.
My personal history makes me who I am and encourages my stand to constantly be myself and shine the way I was meant to. Throughout my schooling, I was a part of a rather small educational system. My graduating class of only 69 students was low on the scale of ethnic diversity and diversity in socioeconomic levels. This, being a part of a somewhat sheltered education, had major benefits when it came to programs and classes. The class sizes were always small and the teacher to student ratio was always fair. For extracurricular activities, though we had few choices, we were able to excel because of the smaller numbers. Success is a wonderful feeling, and these factors made it more likely that we could succeed. I enjoyed being a part of many teams and activities and getting the chance to shine and build self-confidence all the way through my education. Like the extracurricular activities, the elective classes were limited on choices, but they were always strong experiences that I am thankful were still provided at a smaller school.
Of all of my years in kindergarten through senior year, my fifth grade year was my greatest experience. Mr. Buckingham was the teacher that taught me how to balance different subjects, transition easily, work harder on the ones I struggled with, and truly excel in those subjects I loved. After I went into the middle school so terrified of the changes, I learned from him that school was still fun. I got to make new friends, play plenty of games, keep my good grades, and make a real friend in my teacher, all while I was learning – every day. My favorite project of all was an enriching ongoing writing assignment that could make my class laugh, my writing skills improve, and help us enjoy the task of writing for school. In his class there was immense variety in learning styles and activities and we learned and learned and learned. What an amazing experience.
In those twelve years I not only learned about a variety of subjects, I learned my strengths and weaknesses, my likes and dislikes, social interactions, personal responsibility, how to have fun while learning, the consequences of a poor effort or bad choice, all of the ways to learn and create experiences, and most of all, how to use prior knowledge and experiences to excel. My background will affect my professional teaching career every single day, by reminding me of my experiences and helping me relate to students and their experiences. Sometimes my background will remind me to teach in different ways, sometimes it will remind me when to discipline and not discipline, but it will always remind me of the importance of learning and the immense effect it will always have on students. Using my experiences and prior knowledge will improve my own teaching every day.
I selected the teaching profession so I could make positive changes in students’ lives through positive thinking and environment. I wanted to show students how to have fun with reading, or how to write to express feelings. I wanted to share my enjoyment for learning with others and stay connected to such a large group of citizens that hold so much hope for everyone. To be a superior teacher, I will have to care every single day. I will have to smile and encourage and frown and discipline and I will always have to do those things with the best interest of the students in mind. Superior teachers create a learning environment that is stable, understanding, caring, comfortable, positive, and encouraging. These tasks are something I will work my whole life towards achieving. I will let my students feel secure by building trusting relationships with them. I will show understanding when the torments of their age level are above their efforts to learn. I will be caring by staying involved and give them my full and honest attention. I will demonstrate a comfortable environment where they can learn, excel, and still feel able to share their concerns or happiness. I will stay positive for them, knowing that my energy will dissolve into their work and their efforts. Most of all, I will encourage them to do the best they can with the things they love, to try new things, to step outside of the box and the boundaries, and to test their own limits.
By becoming a teacher I get to gain a connection with such a hopeful and amazing part of the world: the youth. I get to stay challenged in my career while laughing and joking, making social connections, and encouraging others. I hope to contribute to others’ attitudes by being a positive and comforting educator. I hope to give as much to my colleagues, as I hope to gain from them and our experiences together with our students.
Each of these personal beliefs and theories will impact the format and organization of my classroom. There are multiple elements involved in this setting. The first is my personal organization and lesson planning. My goal for my classroom is to be prepared each and every day. If something unexpected happens, so be it because it is bound to happen, but I would like to have set plans for each day, at the very least written in a casual form. I will use agendas on the board so that students are aware of the format of each day. Ultimately, I would love to have a wiki that maps out the entire class format from assignments to due dates to project information and resources. This is such a positive way to promote organization, implement it, and help the students stay on task. The physical setting of my classroom is fully going to be depend on what works best for each group of students, whether it be groups or tables, rows, or a circle, we will make it work together as a classroom. How well the students are focusing and interacting will vary, and so will classroom format. The most important thing in physical setting is that students feel comfortable, engaged, attentive, and encouraged.
My personal teaching philosophy that addresses motivation is simply, do it. The students will do it, I will do it, their friends will do it, and hopefully with the collaboration of fellow teachers and classrooms, the entire school will do it. Each student should get motivated. I want to center a lot of my teaching and learning on goals and checkpoints, setting the students up for solid feelings of accomplishment and achievement. The successes they experience will carry on their motivation. The students should feel constant internal and external motivations based on their hand in making choices about their learning, creating assignments, and progressing themselves through their education. The environment itself will be one of positivity and promotion to help them keep high spirits and attitudes within the classroom. Aside from that, I want them to motivate themselves by working towards greater goals and by taking a part in helping others stay positive and motivated. We are a learning community and must work together to support each other’s strengths and weaknesses and help each individual through their highs and lows. A safe and comfortable environment will motivate the students in multiple ways.
Discipline is always a really difficult theory to define and project. I want students to be aware of consequences for any actions that are considered negative. These consequences and general rules will be made very clear within my classroom and will be in place in order to promote the students to simply make better choices. Students should feel at ease and at comfort in my class and should not feel threatened by any means. To maintain both discipline and comfort there needs to be a mutual respect that occurs between students and myself. If this can be established, the likelihood for punishment and discipline will decrease, but never disappear. It is important for students to learn in my classroom that choices in life come with difficult consequences.
Assessment in my classroom will be often, exciting, and positive. Students will be faced with a lot of choices and decisions to make, a lot of reflection, opportunities for creativity, and very solid content. The combination will help to motivate them to complete assignments, projects, units, and more. Learning should be intriguing for the students and I want that to be most obvious within their assessments. This is very much linked to classroom climate. I want to display student work and I want the students to feel comfortable with that. Self-expression is so important through middle and high school, it is when these kids are finding out who they are and where they are going. I want them to have a comfort level in my classroom that allows for this self-expression and exploration.
With multiple forms of assessment come multiple forms of teaching and learning. Students will always have various ways of learning and performing. Each will have his or her style and preferences. I will do my best to accommodate all of them, but in reality, this is one of the most difficult parts to think about. With experience, I will gain tactics on how to incorporate each learning style and ability into each lesson, unit or project. For now, I will hit every base. I want to keep working with every learning style in every lesson until it’s a mastery; until it’s almost second nature. Besides, what fun would a lesson be without a handful of ways to teach it to students?
As a teacher, I believe I am a leader. I am so proud to stand in front of my students and tell them about myself while teaching them about how to find themselves. I am proud of who I am as a person, my attitude towards life, my goals and aspirations, and my successes so far. I want to be a role model for these kids. Positivity and encouragement can help any and everyone. It is more than important to me that these kids are looking to me for advice, motivation, strength, and guidance. It is my job to deliver. I strongly believe that I can do this portion of the job of teaching. I want to help students learn for life, love and respect themselves, and move forward with positive attitudes and energy.
These philosophies and ideals make me who I am. I stand for something, as a teacher, an advocate for students and learning. In any school district, I can promote the love of learning and the love of life. My goals for teaching and education can bring motivation and positivity to my school. I am looking to be a part of a learning community; place of support, encouragement, motivation, positivity, learning, acceptance, and love for the students and their futures. By promoting my philosophies and ideas, I can promote the learning of these students, the acceptance of who they truly are, how they truly learn, and the million places they will go. I want to help a school district give opportunity and life to each student, I want to be a leader and a motivator for these kids, and help them find themselves as learners.