Educational Philosophy is as important as compass. The educators will not have clear direction without it. This is a tool that helps teacher to think of the best learning atmosphere for the students. Teaching Philosophy answers questions like ‘Why I teach?, What I teach? How I teach and How I measure the effectiveness?’
“I believe that students are like empty bottles. As a teacher, I will always remind myself that I once became student and will do my best to teach students about life and about school things. I will help students to understand things and fill their intellectual needs to make them ready to life. I will always involve them in learning activities and keep them interested in all lessons we will have. And lastly, I will measure their performance through individual and group works. I will assure that most of their activities will be based in real life situation.”
Let me explain my Teaching philosophy.
- Why I teach?
Being a teacher and looking for reasons to motivate oneself in doing something is not easy. You have to go through different experiences and down sides to become a great one in your field of career. All experts have gone from becoming student, so do I. I have seen how bad it is to have your efforts unseen by the teacher. Therefore, I will be mindful of every effort shown and expressed by my students in the classroom, I truly believe that efforts should be appreciated, not ignored. Teachers should see all the efforts no matter how small, silly, or irrelevant it is.
- What I teach?
We, teachers, are muscling the situations in the 21st century. Thus, teaching methodology and content should cope the challenges these days. School heads, administrators, and the curriculum should be considerate of what to be taught. It should be developing students how to be globally competitive. As a teacher, I have to provide learning environment that will allow students to practice real life situation. Having this in my classroom, I can assure that learning is becoming meaningful to them. Learning by doing by John Dewey is the key principle of this learning methodology. This is also supported and backed up by progressivism theory for my desired approach will enable students to experience learning. Role playing is one of the best choice when it comes to experiential teaching.
- How I teach?
As 21st ESL teacher, I must consider various principles in teaching my students, knowing that Thomas Armstrong unveil the trend of Multiple Intelligences. The challenge for teachers nowadays is how to cater different needs in the classroom. Considering the multiple intelligences, the 21st century teachers must provide various learning activities that will keep the students challenged and interested as well. This is one of the key factors to keep the classroom conducive to learning and keep the learning meaningful. One of the best strategies in making students engaged in learning is to make them work as a team. I have witnessed the effectiveness of this activity over the years. It helps passive students to engage in learning process and helps active students practice leading a group. The greatest achievement of teachers is the success of their students. That is the reason why letting the students do the job in learning things is truly effective strategy. Another best classroom activity is Reading Race. This activity is not a practice of real life but is practice of skill, scanning. The students have to be in pair in doing the scanning. This activity is a booster because learners usually see reading as boring thing to do, but I think this game can change their perception on reading.
As a summary, role playing is best in practicing real life situation no matter what the topic is and reading race is a booster to change the way students view reading activity.
- How I measure the effectiveness?
Measurement has been proven vital in all areas of learning. This must be done with accuracy and validity. Teaching Principle has to be crucial one when it needs to be assessed. In assessing students learning after conducting my methodology in teaching students, I have to consider checking the objectives of the curriculum. These must be aligned to the assessment tool. The result of the assessment must show the changes between the pre-teaching to the post teaching. In which, if my activity in the classroom is about reading a text. The assessment must check if the students truly understood the reading material and the students must be able to apply the context of learning to the real life situation. Moreover, if the focus of the class is about learning the language. The students must get a good result in which they can apply the context either written or oral activity. They must show that they can use the concept in their everyday life.
As a summary, assessment tool must reveal if the learning through particular teaching principle is effective or not. This teaching principle is more likely similar to Progressivism theory. Learner-centered is what I believe effective in all aspects of learning.