Philosophy of Education

Teaching students is an important profession; a profession that cannot be taken lightly.  It is an exciting profession full of challenges, frustrations, and responsibilities.  Through the classes I have taken at East Carolina University and the University of North Carolina Wilmington, professional development, and my experience in the classroom, I have developed a philosophy of education that will be implemented throughout my career.  This philosophy is very multidimensional.   It looks at guiding students to becoming leaders that will succeed in our fast-paced world.  It includes engaging students, integrating technology, and cooperative learning.

Every child has different needs when it comes to education and I believe every need should be met.  I think children should not just learn about various topics, but become engaged in them.  Engaged learners make predictions, fill in gaps, infer and elaborate, take on multiple perspectives and shift between them, “see” the world in their head, connect to other learning and their own lives, and interrogate everything.  This may be difficult for many students, and those that find it difficult will look at learning as a chore.  I want my students to enjoy learning.  I want it to be a pleasure for them. 

I believe in order to develop engaged learners in my classroom I must incorporate many approaches to teaching.  The approaches I use should be adjusted based on the learners needs.  Students need to have freedom and choice in learning that allows for expression and creativity.  They should be able to experiment with things they like and dislike in order to find their strengths and weaknesses.  I feel that giving students open opportunities to explore and experiment, not only piques their curiosity, but also keeps them engaged and excited about learning.

As our world is continually influenced by technology, I feel that is crucial that teaching and learning be influenced by it as well.  Today’s generation of students are constantly using technology every day and I feel that this use is a great way to keep students interested, motivated, and engaged.  Technology is the language of today’s children and, as a teacher; I need to speak that language.  Technology is used in just about every aspect of life and in order to teach my students to be successful I must integrate technology into everything that I do.

Cooperative learning is also an important part of my philosophy of education.  I believe that cooperative learning is very powerful in providing engagement, academic, and social support needed by students to be successful.  This type of learning benefits all of the students involved through the constant peer coaching, encouragement, and feedback.  Cooperative learning requires the students to be more responsible for their learning so that the teacher is able to work more with small groups and one-on-one with students.

                My philosophy education incorporates my belief that children are unique and have diverse learning needs.  It looks at engaging and motivating learners through the use of technology that meet these various needs.  I believe that allowing some freedom and choice in learning will help students to become more interested in their learning.  Cooperative groups help students to become more responsible for their own learning, while keeping the learning engaging and fun.  I believe the teaching and learning that happens in my classroom should provide a foundation for creating leaders that have to ability to succeed in the future.