TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world"
Nelson Mandela
Conceptualization of Learning
As a life-long learner, when I found this quote from Mandela it embodied my reason for
learning. Students have the capacity to take what is learned in my class and use it in the
"outside world". I focus on how what I teach is a life lesson and can be used throughout
their life. I feel learning should be a lesson able to be used in life instead of just for
memorization for a test. Learning is so much more than that. It is an opportunity to help
students see the world from different viewpoints, to conceptualize responses to solutions
for issues that may be plaguing the world. In the United States it is a common phrase to
hear "Anyone can be President", however the reality is a student can still affect change
without being President. Learning is nourishing the thirst for knowledge that can be used
in a variety of occupations or as a road map for one's life.
Conceptualization of Teaching
Teaching is also an opportunity to help students understand the world around them. It is
a unique setting where one can encourage students to be successful by just trying. One
thing I have learned in teaching in China is the hesitancy for students to risk being
wrong. Many feel this is shameful and shows lack of knowledge. I consistently tell
students even with my advanced degrees I make mistakes every day and that's how one
can learn. I let students hash out their ideas in group work with a variety of learning
styles in the group. This helps students in many ways such as collaboration, tolerance of
other views and learning from each other. It also allows them to make mistakes without
the fear of consternation of a grade looming over them. Teaching is a collaborative
effort. I feel that I am a facilitator to their learning. It is my responsibility to help them
help themselves learn by making as many resources available to them as possible such
2 as; Visible Learning strategies from Project Zero at Harvard, group jig sawing to allow for collaboration, credible sources for those more introverted learners, open discussions
where they are allowed to question concepts as long as they support their reasoning.
This essentially allows student's natural curiosity about the topic to drive their inquiry.
When the student struggles with the natural curiosity I speak to them one on one to find
out how I can light that spark of learning or overcome an obstacle of their learning.
Goals for students
The goals for students should be that they understand more about the concepts taught
at the end of the unit or year than they did in the beginning. Recently we have focused
on MYP Command Terms that students see in Unit Plans and Task Assessments. I take
them from not knowing by creating a jigsaw group plan of after giving them letter size
construction paper; one person writes the word, another one looks up the definition and
the group must come up with a group consensus of what the definition means (they are
not allowed to use the dictionary definition in order to make the definition mean
something to them) and one person illustrates an example of the word. These papers are
then hung up for the unit for reinforcement as we use the words as part of the Unit Plan
or Task Assessment. It also allows learners to learn at their own pace by having the
papers hung up they can view the papers any time they want. This is an example of how
they progress throughout the unit.
Implementation of the philosophy
The group work, the hanging up of their work instills a life lesson of working with others
and having pride in one's work. Also, as we learn about concepts I make sure to ask
provocative questions about the concept. I have enjoyed seeing students speak about
Current Events assignments with passion and conviction they may be hesitant to show in
class. It is through encouraging research and using what they learn that reinforces my
philosophy that can be used throughout their life. Given a task to complete in a job,
many times they could be asked to deliver a presentation to a group or individual. By
3 allowing students to inquire and research this allows them to develop the self-pride of doing a job well and speak/write with conviction on behalf of their work. As long as I can
teach my students to be successful, productive citizens of the world then my job has
been accomplished and they are "armed" to take on the world.