My Teaching Philosophy
Teachers hold a lot of influence on students at a very impressionable time in their lives. It is important that I am aware of how I carry myself and what students will learn from me as a person not just what they will learn from the content I deliver. As professor John Hattie’s work found that teachers have the largest impact on a learner’s achievement (Hattie, 2012), I must be consistently stepping back reflecting and checking myself for preconceived notions and prejudices I may project. I employ a very holistic approach to teaching and have an awareness of the hidden curriculum within the school environment. With this in mind, I want to develop a classroom environment that is accepting and respectful of all the individuals in the room.
Students face hardship that I may not even be aware of, so I am always conscious of how I interact with students and how I allow other students to interact with each other in my classroom. My classroom management style would lean towards positive reinforcement as apposed to harsh punishment. I take a step back from the misbehaviour and consider what may be at the root of why there was an outburst, before giving in to the attention the student may be seeking. I aim to use a range of students as examples of good work and behaviour particularly if they are often labelled as ‘problematic’ as to me reinforces this negative behaviour should I neglect them as positive examples. I aim to create lessons that are both engaging and exciting to keep students actively learning and motivated. I find that this diminishes the likelihood of disruptive behaviour.
As a teacher, I promote a student-centred learning approach to keep them engaged and help them develop a growth mindset. I put them in charge of their own learning by getting to know my students and asking them what supports they need to succeed. I found as a student that I responded better to some learning styles such as visual learning better than others. To keep students’ accessibility at the fore of my lessons I employ Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, to include a range of learning modalities in the one lesson. This allows students to access the material being delivered in a way that works best for them. An example of how I do this is when carrying out demonstrations I get students involved through various ways allowing a few students to participate in the making part of demonstration with instruction from me particularly if I know that student responds well to kinaesthetic learning. While this demonstration is going ahead, I like to ask students questions around the reason why we may be doing something. These higher order questions outlined by Blooms taxonomy encourage critical thinking in students, something I find is particularly important to develop in the youth of today.
I have had a very positive experience in school, something I know many people do not relate to. I want my classroom to be that one place where a student that does not enjoy school may look forward to coming to. I believe that learning can be fun and exciting. It’s about getting things wrong but coming out the other side having reflected on the learning involved in making that mistake. It’s about finding the beauty in trial and error and the problem solving one must engage with to figure out what it is they want to make and how to make it. My classroom will be a space where mistakes are embraced for what they can teach us, and I will demonstrate this as a teacher. I am by no means perfect and a finished learner just because I have a degree, I am always a learner, and my students will know this. I can learn just as much from them as they can from me.
