Teaching philosophy

The meaning of education is a lifelong process that covers all the

experiences, knowledges, and the skills that the individual acquires at
different stages in his\her life (Yero, 2002). There are many purposes of
education; firstly, it makes the person acquire past and present
information of different themes like science, history, and mathematics.
Secondly, it develops the individuals critical thinking by being a
decision making, and problem solver. Next, it also constructs the
individuals capacity to discuss different points of views and have a
fulfilling life (Yero2002). I believe that education is the main key of
making the individual has a self- esteem, self-efficacy, and selfreflection. According to Ferkany (2008) that the educated persons have
more behavioral benefits for example, independence, responsibility
taking, and self-esteem which all assists his\her to has reflective
thinking.
Learning is an ongoing process in each persons life. This means, every
day each person learns new things that develop their thinking, skills,
and personality. Thus, I believe that teacher are important people who
assist to make others learn and improve themselves. I think that the
key to effective teaching is when the teacher plans clear outcomes,
objectives, and instructions with engaging activities while displaying a
high level of enthusiasm. If a teacher loves what he\she teaches, the
students will love it too (Bulger, Mohr, & Walls, 2002). My goals for
teaching are to make my students believe in their own abilities and to
do their best efforts to achieve what they want. I also aim to develop
student learning skills so that students can learn with confidence.
Some students do not believe in their own abilities, and they may not
have a person to encourage them to achieve their goals. For example,

they may have the ability to write critically or draw perfectly but, they
may hear consistently get negative feedback about their work. Thus,
as a teacher, I seek to encourage my students through giving them
positive feedback and I encourage them to share their work with other
students in class to make even the other students feel proud of them. I
always put student work on the class walls and plan constantly for
positive reinforcement for the students who develop their work and
abilities. This way of providing an effective classroom environment
makes students more able to see their work around them which makes
them work hard and feel that the teacher is aware of their progress. As
Diedrich (2010) mentions it is important to apply positive
reinforcement strategies because it is a form of social reinforcement
that motivates the student learning while improving good behavior.
Planning for different activities is an effective strategy to develop
student learning skills like reading, writing, speaking, and listening. To
address this, as a teacher, I differentiate the activities through dividing
classes into low, middle, and high ability groupings. This benefits the
students by differentiated learning while helping them to learn
confidently. I also plan for different learning styles because each
student has their own style of learning. It is very important to apply
different learning styles in each lesson because the teacher has
different students who learn differently from one another (Csapo &
Hayen, 2006). In addition, I consistently apply students centered
method to increase the students social skills like self- esteem. This
method is relating to the constructivism theory; this means the
students learn through connecting their prior knowledge and
experiences to what they learn in the class (Simpson & Froyd, n.d). It is
a flexible learning that allows the students to construct their own
ideas. The teachers role is just guiding the students and facilitates

their learning but, the students have the core role that they
responsible for their learning.
I believe that reflective learning is a significant factor that makes
students thinks critically. This means, it is one way of making students
reflect about their performance and recognize their strengths and
weakness in target areas in their learning. This could be through asking
themselves 5Ws questions (what, when, why, where, and how). It
seems to be like Kolbs learning cycle which makes the learner thinks
about what happen, reflect about it by asking why it happens like
that?, then what they can learn from their learning\experience, and
how they plan to improve it (White, Laxton, & Brooke, n.d). I think that
this cycle assists the learner to be more reflective about his\her
learning and think widely about it. I also believe that providing oral and
written feedback for students helps to improve their performance. This
means, as a teacher I have to give immediate feedback for students to
understand it and know where they are in certain topic or lesson goal.
For example, give an immediate oral feedback for the students
questions and a written feedback for the test next day instead of delay
it to the next week. In addition, provide a good feedback amount. This
means, as a teacher I have to focus on specific main points that relate
to the learning targets instead of writing too much feedback about
something that students do not know about or they do not need it at
their learning level. As Brookhart (2008) mentions that the Goldilocks
principle says, Not too much, not too little, but just right.
Teaching is a hard job but, seeing students interactions and their
learning process develop makes me forget all the hard moments that I
have faced, and its like a reward for me. I will keep searching for new
methods that help me to teach students effectively, and enhance the
education values and commitment of all of my students.

References:
Brookhart, S. M. (2008). How to give effective feedback to your
students.
Bulger, S. M., Mohr, D. J., & Walls, R. T. (2002). Stack the deck in favor
of your students by using the four aces of effective
teaching. Journal of Effective Teaching, 5(2).
Csapo, N & Hayen, R. (2006). The Role of Learning Styles in the
Teaching/Learning Process. Issues in Information System, Vol VII,
(No.1), 129-133. Retrieved from
http://iacis.org/iis/2006/Csapo_Hayen.pdf

Diedrich, J. L. (2010). Motivating students using positive reinforcement.

Retrived October 2, 2016, from
http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1008&context=ehd_theses
Ferkany, M. (2008). The Educational Importance of SelfEsteem. Journal
of Philosophy of Education, 42(1), 119-132. Retrieved in October
4, 2106, from https://msu.edu/~ferkany/jope_610.pdf
Simpson, N & Froyd, J. (n.d). Student-Centered Learning Addressing
Faculty Questions about Student-centered Learning. Retrieved
April 19, 2016, from
http://ccliconference.org/files/2010/03/Froyd_StuCenteredLearning.pdf
White, P. Laxton, J. & Brooke, D. (n.d). Reflection: Importance, theory
and practice. Retrieved in October 4, 2106, from
http://www.alpscetl.ac.uk/documents/Reflection_BAA_article_sub
mission.pdf
Yero, J. L. (2002). The meaning of education. Retrieved in October 24,
2016, from http://www.stoa.org.uk/topics/education/The
%20Meaning%20of%20Education.pdf