My teaching philosophy is based on a basic assumption that ...



Jennefer Cardenas

Philosophy

Final Draft

My teaching philosophy is based on a basic assumption that education should be child-centered, rather than focused on the teacher or the content area. The role of a teacher, then, should be guided by students’ needs. Having this view point I consider myself a progressivist. My personal philosophy of progressivism is basically quite simple, the student comes first. We must orient our teaching toward the needs of the students at all times. As a future teacher I have certain hopes and goals to fulfill one day and one of them is to prepare a learning environment that involves authentic hands-on activities for my students.

Learning can become complicated and difficult for students, especially with all the teaching to the test and textbook nonsense. Why not make learning fun again by preparing authentic hands on activities? Authentic learning activities are learning activities that enable students to see the connections between classroom learning and the world beyond the classroom. I have come to believe that if there are more authentic in-class activities more learning will take place because students will be engaged and will want to learn more. Students need activities that are not make-believe textbook ideas; they need activities that are connected to real life. If we assign authentic activities, we are more likely to promote meaningful connections between classroom subject matter and real-world contexts and, as a result, more likely to find students applying what they learn in school to their own personal lives. An example of such an activity that I would arrange is this writing assignment: students would be asked to write to a local newspaper about a current issue in their local town; as an outreach the newspaper would publish the students’ concerns in an article to the public. This assignment would be very effective because the students would be making real connections and seeing the results of their hard work and dedication. This assignment would be less effective if they were making up a problem and writing about it to a friend in “dragon land or a fantasy land”. The main purpose of this assignment is to apply more real life situations in the student’s life and to promote meaningful connections. This assignment also teaches the students about problem solving and communication.

In the book Becoming a Teacher ,studies were conducted that have shown that students who write stories, essays and letters to real people show greater improvement in writing than those who do not. Knowing that authentic activities promote learning, we should practice applying it to the classroom more frequently. I think that as a progressivist, authentic and in class activities should be mandatory in a classroom. Authentic activities are more engaging than just teaching right out of the book and students would create meaning and engage in a more in depth way.

Being a progessivist entails a lot of work and dedication. I believe that this philosophy holds all the good qualities for a GREAT teacher. I also strongly believe that a teacher who practices being child-centered can really impact the way learning takes place in the classroom. Being a progressivist ensures me that someday I will become a successful teacher, but most importantly, it ensures me that my students will be successful.

Bibliography

1. Parkay, Forrest. Becoming a Teacher. 6th ed. Boston: Pearson 2004 pg. 86,319

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