Philosophy+of+Education

 Schools provide education in many aspects of a student’s life, whether academic, social, or extracurricular. As a teacher, I see my role as a mentor: one who will instruct students intellectually through content and also support the students in his or her ambitions. In order to be such an effective teacher, I recognize the need to be flexible, to integrate both lecture and discussion/activities, to know and understand my students as people, and to help my students develop and refine important communication skills.

 Flexibility is essential to teaching and maintaining positive relationships with students and a positive learning environment. Classrooms are diverse, in terms of students, and the differences between these students are important to acknowledge. Diversity is not only a difference in socioeconomic status, race, and gender, but also in the way that students learn and the types of activities or discussions that occur in the classroom. Flexibility is necessary in these situations because no two classes are the same. One class may be quiet, while in another class each student participates. Knowing the students and being able to change lessons based on the needs of those students is fundamental to effective teaching.

 To further create a positive learning environment, there should be a balance between lecture and discussion. This type of instructional diversity ensures the probability that students will remain focused during a particular lesson. Although it is sometimes necessary to lecture students for full periods, there are many ways to involve the students by asking the class critical questions and allowing students to voice their own questions and misunderstandings. In discussion situations, I believe the teacher should act as a moderator and allow students to answer one another rather than giving the students their own answer. Through discussions students learn from one another and learn about one another through their interactions.

 Treating the students as people with outside interests and goals, I think, is often overlooked in the classroom. It is easy for a teacher to assume absolute authority and structure the class in such a way that students lose out on developing communication skills, verbal and written, as well as getting to know one another. By getting to know those interests and goals of students and asking how they are doing in other aspects of their lives, teachers demonstrate that they care about their students on more than just an academic level. Teachers must provide support for students in his or her outside activities to build a positive relationship and to help motivate the students to succeed academically and in future goals.

 Finally, through education, teachers help students develop vital skills that the students will use for the rest of their lives. As a social science teacher, students must develop good writing skills in order to form arguments and provide evidence in its support. Interaction with primary documents and practice with writing arguments and other assignments require students to think critically about what is written, said, or shown, and what is left out. Communication skills are imperative in every profession and I find the social sciences and history more specifically to be a way for students to develop and refine such skills.

 Teaching is not an easy profession, but many teachers are passionate about what they do. I want to be a teacher because I recognize the potential in all students to achieve his or her ambitions. There are many resources available to educators now, through technology that we have the ability to change the ways in which we teach our students and the new skills they may gain. Education is, most importantly, a learning process. A teacher constantly learns from his or her students how and what to improve in lessons in hopes of making the material more relevant and meaningful to the students’ own lives.