My Philosophy

My Philosophy Statement 
In order to begin my philosophy statement I needed to research and revisit the ways of learning from well known psychologists/theorists such as Skinner, Piaget, and Montessori to name only a few. I then began to reflect upon my own tenets of learning. As difficult as it was to narrow down 3 tenets, I came up with 3 that I believe are most important and pertinent to the success of learning. 

My 3 tenets of learning are: 

A safe and respectful classroom environment needs to be established in order for learning to occur.

Students need to see the relevance of what they are learning.

Teacher needs to explicitly model for students in order for them to learn.

 
A safe and respectful classroom environment needs to be established in order for learning to occur. 
 Classrooms consist of a communities of diverse learners where students can learn from each other, take academic risks, support each other, and value listening and speaking. Therefore it is imperative to provide a safe environment where students and adults are respected, where decisions are made, and students can achieve. Although imperative, setting up a safe classroom can be a challenging task for teachers, especially those who are new to the profession and in my opinion those that teach at the middle school level. The term safe classroom environment eccompasses many aspects of safety, not only the comfort for students to share ideas and learn. A safe classroom environment means teaching and learning how to prevent and resolve conflict and promote anti-bullying. Parental involvement and communication is also another aspect of creating a safe classroom environment. Finally, a safe classroom environment must be a physically safe environment. From my experience as an inner city teacher I am aware of the importance of providing students with this type of setting. When students feel safe at school then they attend school and when they attend school they learn. 


Students need to see the relevance of what they are learning.
It has always been my goal as a teacher to have my students relate the subjects that I taught, in particular math and science, to real-life situations.  I believe in order for students to learn and keep that knowledge, they need to see its significance as it applies to their own lives.  Students need to be made aware of the connections school has to themselves, their home, their community, the world, and to the future. As Carl Rogers, a humanistic psychologist states, “A person learns significantly only those things that are perceived as being involved in the maintenance of or enhancement of the structure of self.” (Rogers, 1951). This supports the idea that students need to see relevance in order to learn. But showing or pointing out relevance and connections to real-world situations is just not enough. Students need to take what they learn and actually have the experience of applying it. For example, when a student in a Residential Construction class not only learns about the basic building codes, skills and materials needed to build a simple structure they are then assigned the task of building a simple structure themselves. Application of knowledge can be very motivating for students, by making learning fun, interesting and challenging. In addition, incorporation of hands-on activities that allow students to explore and learn through technology will provide them with the skills needed for the 21st century.  

Teacher needs to explicitly model for students in order for them to learn.
Students need to see explicit modeling by the teacher in order to learn. Teacher modeling comes in many forms. Most teacher’s inherently model rules, good behavior, and skills & concepts. Yet using modeling as a strategy goes beyond those aspects of the classroom. It is important for teachers to model how to question and inquire, how to begin tackling real-world problems, and the thought process of reading for understanding and writing comprehensively. When teachers model or demonstrate for students it provides a clear visual that students can work from. I beleive modeling should be an active process in that as the teacher is demonstrating a skill or concept they should also be modeling what they are thinking, questioning and understanding. By scaffolding instruction through modeling it makes it easier for the students to understand, keeps them engaged and helps them learn. 


When asked to write about a psychologist, theorists or educator that opposes my tenets of learning I found that to be a somewhat difficult task. I think many of the views and opinions of these people are valid yet I don’t believe there is one best way for all to learn. As educators we have experienced a diverse pool of learners and thinkers. Some students may learn best through discovery or active learning believed in by constructivists such as Jean Piaget and John Dewey. Others may learn through stimulus, response, and reinforcement as supported by psychologist and behaviorists such as Skinner and Pavlov. Still other students may follow the path of learning best through transformative or humanistic theories of learning, or a combination of learning styles may be involved. I think as educators we need to take into consideration all of the learning styles and theories and use those to assess our students individually and implement strategies that will meet their needs. 

In thinking about the future of education and any concerns I see our society encountering, I would have to say it would be in the area of achievement gaps. Closing the achievement gap between race and gender is one of the top priorities in education especially in the inner city district where I work.  What I believe to be one of the issues holding us back in closing this gap is the pockets of society not viewing education as important or necessary. The challenge we face as educators is showing our students the importance of having an education in order to be successful and productive in life. One of the problems facing many inner city children is going home to families/parents that lack a formal education and therefore do not necessarily motivate their children to realize the value of an education. One solution to this problem could be to find  more effective ways to involve parents and their children in the learning experience.  Despite all the programs offered and the encouragement and effort made by educators, businesses, universities and the community alike it still appears to be a challenge. In addition, the districts where money is available to purchase technology in and out of the schools and train teachers to implement this feature in the classroom the students will become more 21st century ready. Yet for those districts where it is not affordable those students will not be as ready and therefore the achievement gap will widen.