My
Philosophy of Education
Changes made during Block II are in Red.
I believe that teaching is an important profession that is full of many challenges and blessing at the same time. It is my belief that educators should be able to demonstrate flexibility and strategic planning appropriate to a wide variety of learners for effective, transformational systemic change. It is with the use of flexibility and strategic planning that a teacher will be able to reach so many students on a level and in a manner in which the student will be able to learn. A teacher should be knowledgeable in the subject area in which they teach. This is supported by the following comment “By broadening the knowledge base and highlighting the educator's production of knowledge, teaching can become a more mutually beneficial occurrence (Golombek, 1994).”
I believe that children are eager to learn when they enter elementary school; they want to find out and know about everything. Since the students are eager to learn I feel that it is the teacher’s job to keep the students interested in learning through encouragement. The students are the ones who need help in accomplishing their goals that they set and need a structure environment in order to do so. It is my belief that it is that teacher’s job to make sure that the classroom is a structured environment so that learning can take place and so that the student is comfortable. If a student feels comfortable they going to learn more than if they do not. Therefore, for the most part, it is the teacher herself who determines the nature of the learner.
It is by
belief that the curriculum being taught in the schools should be
developmentally appropriate and should also be based on the students’ knowledge
base and their abilities. I can support my beliefs with the following: The content of the instruction should match
appropriately the students' knowledge base and experiential background so that
newly acquired information, skills, and dispositions can be internalized and
generalized to future situations both in and out of educational setting
(Danielson, 1996). I also believe that the curriculum should be
developmentally appropriate because if content of the curriculum is not
developmentally appropriate then the student will not be able to completely
understand what is being taught. Even though teachers do not have control over
the content of the curriculum, I do believe that the manner in which a teacher
delivers the curriculum is what will impact the manner in which the students
process the information being taught.