What do you see when you see excellence in teaching? I see someone who is organized and has created an enjoyable, engaging environment-teachers who keep the students engaged in learning and also help everyone learn. I see excellence in teaching when I see teachers who have "fun" with their students, teachers who listen to their students and keep the students from being bored. Excellence in teaching is also surprising the students with unexpected activities, rewards, or information. How do you know when your students are learning? There are many ways to know that students are learning. You can often tell just by the looks on their faces that show whether they are confused or enlightened. You can tell by verbal cues from how the students respond to the questions you ask or how they contribute to class discussions. You can tell from a written assessment or merely a show of hands. If they are not responding the way I expect them to then I realize I have to reteach a concept or go back over something that may not have been explained in a way that they can understand. If you are tuned in to your students it is quite easy to tell when students have checked out by the way they look at you or don't and by the responses they give you. What brings you joy in teaching? When I see how far the students I started out with grow in a year. By keeping track of their stages of development, I can see how much they have learned and how their attitudes and behavior have developed. When my students tell me at the end of the year that they don't want to leave, I know that I have created a warm, nurturing environment. I feel like I am doing something right. It's not entirely about what the tests say. As long as they're learning, showing growth, and enjoying themselves in school and have enjoyed their fifth-grade experience I am happy and feel like I have done my job. How did you develop a personal philosophy of teaching? I constructed my philosophy one course at a time through integration of the most prominent and influential pieces of knowledge from each professor and textbook. During the course in special education my attitudes about special education students were formalized when I thought about what kind of an educator I uld be if I did not accept the challenge of working with special needs students to fullest extent of my abilities to positively influence people. My philosophy was also formulated by my personal experiences as an elementary school student. I have always been passionate about learning, so I look back at what I loved about being at school, what I admired about my teachers, and what lessons and activities provided me with the best experiences to prepare me for the future. Figure 7.1 A Personal Philosophy Example Prior to completing this assignment, I had not given much thought to my own teaching philosophy nor taken a reflective analysis of myself as a teacher. Because I have only been in the classroom for five months, I feel like I am just now "getting it" and discovering the type of teacher I am and want to be. Just like our students, the diversity among teachers guides each individual classroom. The values that I hold with high importance will be displayed throughout my instruction, regardless of curriculum. In my initial teaching experience, I have held an eclecticism viewpoint due to gathering as many resources and as much advice from peers as possible. However, as a scientist, I also strongly relate to the experimentalism philosophy and always try to incorporate an element of discovery for my students. Experimentalism draws from the notion that we are constantly adapting our viewpoints and collaborating with one another to make discoveries (Kurtus, 2001). As a science teacher, this is an idea I am constantly trying to promote with my students. Science is always changing and with this change comes the opportunity to make discoveries and collaborate with peers to find answers. I believe experimentalism closely connects with science in a way that other philosophies do not. Existentialism and realism promote more abstract and individualized viewpoints, in my opinion. With increasing advances in technology and communication, scientists are able to experiment and collaborate with peers easier than ever before. As I try to incorporate an integration of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) into my curriculum, I promote student-centered learning and self-discovery for my students. The research has shown that true understanding of concepts comes from individual internalization rather than oral or written reception of material. In my recent science methods class, my professor discussed her "three touch method” with instruction. She pulls out the main concepts and subconcepts from the curriculum documents and plans to instruct on each topic at least three times and with three different styles (verbal, written, kinesthetic, etc.). This is a practice I have started to integrate into my lesson planning. Taking curriculum documents and pulling out the main concepts that unite all objectives from within a unit is a necessary skill that helps connect all parts of my instruction back to the original goal. Experimentalism also connects to the scientific inquiry process. Student-centered learning and inquiry-based activities give students the opportunity to discover for themselves by going through a problem-solving and critical thinking process that leads to retention. I also stress to my students that there are many answers to a given problem, and that problems and failures are often a necessary Experimentalism also connects to the scientific inquiry process. Student-centered learning and inquiry-based activities give students the opportunity to discover for themselves by going through a problem-solving and critical thinking process that leads to retention. I also stress to my students that there are many answers to a given problem, and that problems and failures are often a necessary pathway to success. In connecting teaching with epistemology, I try to foster a meta-cognitive process within my classroom as well. As I encourage my students to make their own discoveries, I try to guide their cognitive processes to work through their own assumptions on their way to understanding. A deeply rooted understanding through a process of experimentation and analysis is the key to learning science. I encourage my students to embrace change, ask questions, and then go on a journey to answer them. While reflecting through this paper, I realize that my teaching philosophy does pull from a variety of sources. I aim to encourage individualization in my students through identifying problems and discovering solutions for themselves. I constantly have to stop myself from giving every answer or explanation; even though the processing might take much longer, it is more beneficial to my students to individualize my instruction through their own personal experimentation. Reflection is a crucial part of teaching and something I will aim to work on throughout the next school year. Through changes in curriculum, I will always use my own philosophies and interpretations to serve my students to the best of my ability. Angie Marsden Philosophical Perspective Paper June 19, 2012 Defining Events in Building a Personal Philosophy of Teaching Certainly, high-profile events on the education scene affect the type of teaching and the content you are required to study. Knowing the effect certain events have had on teaching and learning when you were a student will help you better understand your own philosophical perspectives toward schooling. There have been defining moments in society as well as in our own lives. We learn about defining moments in the world of education in history and foundations of education courses. Defining moments change the way we go about our business. In many ways the launch of Sputnik in 1957 was a 9/11 of the mind. It changed the ways Americans thought about the future. It initiated a reexamination of the purpose of schooling and school curriculum. The National Science Foundation (NSF) made millions of federal dollars available for the development of modern science and mathematics programs and materials. Another defining moment was the publication of A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983), which prompted a renewed focus on student achievement and the condition of schooling in America. HOW DO PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES HELP TEACHERS UNDERSTAND STUDENT LEARNING? her classroom Ms. Cyra believes that teaching and learning are a social process and should be shared by everyone in the classroom. everyone is a teacher. By developing a mutual respect with my students and creating an environment that is comfortable and relaxed, my students are eager to share information and stories. I wish there were more time to just have conversations with my students about what they think, what they know, and what they know how to do, but the pressure of standardized testing limits how much time teachers have truly get to know their students. I know there are days that I learn as much from my students as they learn from me. You no doubt took a philosophy or logic course as part of the core requirements for your degree. Understanding philosophical thought prepares teachers for critical thinking and reasoning and constructing logically sound arguments. The study of philosophy helps teachers sift through ideas and articulate thoughts in ways that others can follow. Understanding the practices of philosophical perspectives helps teachers learn how to look and listen, how to engage in meaningful discussions, and how to recognize the many ways of thinking about teaching We all seek answers to questions in order to make sense of our worlds. In translation, the word philosophy can be defined as "love of wisdom," though it's clear we don't all have the same questions or view wisdom in the same way. Philosophers have thought long and hard about their philosophies and about the implications their perspectives have for learning and teaching. Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Axiology Three different branches of philosophy are concerned with seeking answers to different types of questions. Metaphysics is concerned with questions about the nature of reality and humans' attempts to find coherence in the realm of thought and experience. Questions on teaching and relationship between learners and teachers. Epistemology examines questions about how and what we know, and how knowing takes place. Questions dealt with in the study of epistemology may include "Where do ideas come from?" and "How do we pose and solve problems?" The axiology branch of philosophy deals The metaphysical Questions or content or ema In 340 BCE, Aristotle declared that metaphysics involves intuitive knowledge of unprovable starting points (truths) and demonstrative knowledge of what follows from them. Teachers want to know why some students are successful at particular tasks while other students struggle with them. Can a child choose whether to learn or not to learn? Is the ability to learn determined by factors outside of a student's control? Is understanding of specific content necessary to a successful life, or is the way in which the content is learned of utmost importance to the learner. The manner in which a teacher approaches the content and how the child interacts with the content depends somewhat on the teacher's attitudes about human nature. Diann Musial, from Northern Illinois University, believes that a teacher's classroom approach is linked to the teacher's metaphysical beliefs: "If the teacher believes that very specific basic knowledge is crucial to the child's intellectual development, it is likely that this teacher will focus on the subject matter. If, on the other hand, the teacher holds that the child is more important than any specific subject matter, it is likely that this teacher will focus on the child and allow the child to provide clues as to how he or she should be instructed" (). A. Johnson, Dupuis, Musial, Hall, & Gollnick, 2005, p. 308). Children are real. How they develop and learn is, at times, metaphysical. Ways of Knowing, Learning, and Teaching In the concern over how students learn, what they should learn, and how they should learn it, educators connect epistemology and education. Epistemology is the study of the origin, nature, methods, and limits of knowledge. Epistemology is the science of how we learn and teach, and encompasses the range of questions educators face in designing the very best schooling for children. Education is focused on how students best learn the knowledge they must have and how teachers learn the necessary behaviors to facilitate student learning. When classroom teachers puzzle over which educational goals should be met and how these goals might be achieved through teaching practices, they are dealing with questions about knowing, learning, and teaching. In Plato's discussion of epistemology, he argued that in order to grasp reality or know, individuals use understanding, reason, perception, and imagination. You will also learn about Jean Piaget in your course work and how his program of naturalistic research helped teachers understand child development. Piaget was primarily interested in how knowledge developed in human organisms, and he termed his general theoretical framework "genetic epistemology."
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