My Teaching Philosophy
I want to be a teacher because I want to facilitate student’s learning, and inspire them to better society. I hope to achieve this by creating a community of learners, where all students will actively be engaged in learning from one another. I believe that each child will grow and thrive in the learning environment that I provide.
The learning environment that I aim to offer should be welcoming, safe, inclusive and motivating. I believe students learn best when they feel comfortable and acknowledged. The environment that I’ll provide will ensure that students have a right to learn and teach, to actively participate, share ideas and opinions and make mistakes. I believe an inclusive learning community supports the diverse needs, abilities and learning styles of students, by enabling learners to work at their own level and comfort. I believe reinforcing positive behaviour with positive consequences is an effective way to motivate students. I aim in providing students with both verbal and external reinforcements for positive behaviour, effort and improvement. When learners are recognised by their teachers and peers they feel appreciated and valued. I believe it is vital for teachers to recognise and positively reinforce positive behaviours immediately so students are aware why they are receiving the reinforcement and so the positive behaviour can occur again. I am confident that giving out positive reinforcements is essential when building a community of learners as students who are motivated have energy, enthusiasm, want to learn and are actively engaged in class. Providing students with positive reinforcements for displaying positive behaviours is also beneficial as it helps increase self-esteem and self-determination. All classrooms present a unique community of learners that have diverse abilities, needs and learning styles. I aim to use student centred learning, to cater for all and enable them to learn from one another. By doing this, my intention is to instil students with confidence and give them responsibility during class. My role as a teacher will be to facilitate learning, instead of giving the students’ knowledge/information. I believe an effective teacher is one that guides and assists students in learning for themselves. I aim to present students with open questions instead of answers and provide students with many open tasks that enable them to construct knowledge on their own. I believe it is the role of the teacher to provide students with meaningful learning experiences that cater for all students and that are relevant and related to the students’ lives, so they can become active and informed global citizens. I believe student learning takes place through collaborative and supportive environments that provide opportunities for social interactions and cultural influences. I am to provide students with many opportunities to work with their peers and to have rich classroom discussions. Children are unique; they each have different life experiences, have different backgrounds, different learning styles and different ways of understanding. I want to allow students to work with their peers, as they are able to listen to the diversity of ideas and perspectives of others, share opinions and learn from one another. I believe students learn best when others are offering them assistance and support. I aim to use a variety of teaching and learning strategies that will foster social interactions and rich classroom discussions. I hope to create a learning community that has successful, confident and creative learners who are always engaged and motivated to learn. As teachers, I believe it is our responsibility to nurture students to become more active and responsible for their learning, in an aim to better prepare them to become global citizens. |