What Is Your Educational Philosophy?
Sunday April 6, 2008
Why did you become a teacher? What do you believe about students learning? How do you see the role of teachers in a community?
All of these questions, and more, are clarified in your statement of educational philosophy, a document you likely wrote in your credential program and haven't examined in awhile.
I recommend you dust off your philosophy and refresh your ideals by refocusing on what you believed about teaching in the first place.
And if you never defined your philosophy in the first place, here's how to do it and an example of how it's done.
Comments
I believe that teachers must be pragmatic about the quality of their work, rather than trying to make sure that it reflects their philosophy of it. That is to say, teaching should be based on what the relevant empirical evidence indicates is the most cost- and time-effective way to develop students’ academic skills and knowledge.
So, there’s your philosophy of education - loud and clear.
What I am about to write about will not sit well with some but that’s okay. While many become teachers only a few are teachers. I have had the privilege of working with many needy students and alongside a few exceptional teachers. The exceptional teachers do not complain about the extra help a child needs nor the lack of parent participation but prides herself/himself when that student achieves. Lately, I have noticed a huge change in this profession and unfortunately for many students it means failure. As a sub TA, I have been witnessing many so called teachers who complain about everything. They complain about the standards and how it’s impacting the way they teach. They complain about not having enough time in the day nor getting paid enough. Yet, I have seen these same teachers taking prep after prep, not following any lesson plans, playing solitaire on the computer, and rudely answering a cell phone in the middle of what should be a lesson. Perhaps it’s burnout or just plain tenure, whatever the excuse these teachers should be held accountable for the failure of their students especially when it’s more than half in the class. Children are no longer writing because copies are handed out, or they type it into the computer and hit print. Penmanship complaints? Mathematical problems? Calculators anyone. Technology has come along ways since the 80’s and while we pride ourselves in being technology savvy fact is our brain needs stimulation. When the systems are down how can we hold our children accountable when they cannot hand out the right change nor write up our order. We are failing the philosophy of education when we turn the other cheek and just go along with the flow. Just needed to say my peace, thanks for the ear.
I totally agree with HR. I’d like to know if I could use a quotation from her comment. I am an EFL teacher, and I would like to share it with my students, future EFL teachers by the way. You know, many people want to become a teacher because they think this is a very well paid job, what they do not know is that it requires a lot of effort, trust and hope for someone listen to your words, but most of the time your payment is low.
Thank you very much.
Libby
I am one of those failing students that HR mentioned. I was in one of my business classes one day and for extra credit points we had a math problem that had to be solved correctly. The math problem was a simple word problem. Less than one-fourth of the class received the credit because we simply didn’t know how to do it. I can sit here and recite the formula for distance for you because it has been pounded into my head since God knows how long, but I cant do the simple math such as counting change back when using pennies or adding tax onto something or taking a percentage off. Also, I was never taught how to read an analog clock. Statistics show that for one “bad” teacher (bad meaning the type of “teacher” that HR discribed)it takes a student three years to catch up to where they need to be. What if a child gets one of those their freshman year in high school? That means they wont be able to catch up until their senior year. What if you are in my situation and have them every year? What does that say for me? I feel like a failure.
The teaching profession seems to have grown further and further away from school as a developmental experience. Instead we have placed standardized testing and quantitative results as the reason educational funding. It is my contention that most teachers do not enter into the field of education to see how many high scores they could generate on someone else’s final exam. Conversely, the hundreds of teachers that I have had the pleasure of working side-by-side with have entered the field seeking the intrinsic satisfaction that is achieved when a student overcomes a personal obstacle in the classroom. Therefore I do not believe teachers are theory X workers. I do not believe that they need to be closely supervised. I believe that teachers need to have their opportunity to develop protected. A teacher’s biggest enemy is time. The school day has largely been micromanaged to resemble a military drill for the battle on test day. Teacher time has become so constrained that kindergarten teachers who once taught half a day with a thirty minute naptime are having difficulty squeezing in fifteen minutes of free-time. We need to be giving teachers less instead of more to do. When you become a carpenter you don’t start by building stairs, you start by framing walls. Similarly, when you become a teacher, you don’t need to have web pages, professional development portfolios, or individual development plans added to your workload. Supervisors must protect the developmental process by doing whatever they can to alleviate unnecessary work and create time. One of the authors of our text, utilized an analogy of maintaining a car to promote the need for professional development plans. A more accurate analogy would be of buying a Honda and running it non-stop for 10 months and wondering why it had overheats, breaks down at times, and needs repairs.
HR this is why you are a TA and NOT an teacher.
I completely agree with John. People who aren’t teachers are always the first ones to blame teachers. It takes more than just teachers to educate our students. Where are the parents? Do they make their kids do anything at home, or is the TV their babysitter? I do believe some teachers are bad at what they do. But I believe even more there are a lot of good teachers getting pushed down, or not getting the chance to excel. We neeed to be realistic about what is possible for one person to achieve when an entire class of thirty can’t read properly at the senior level.
I agree with John. Teaching is a career based on government funding, so there is only so much money available for teachers to work with. Also the reason that calculators and equations are more prevalent than word problems is because that is the majority of what is being tested on. If we want to keep our jobs we teach the students what they need to know to do well on a test which as it happens is not necessarily how to write a beautifully penned thank you card.