My Philosophy of Education
What is Teaching?
As a teacher, I believe it is my responsibility to facilitate students while they grow towards meeting their own social, emotional, moral, and academic potential. My role as a teacher is to guide students through their learning journey, providing extra support or challenge when necessary, and introducing them to new avenues of thought or enquiry. While doing so, I must allow them the freedom and responsibility to make their own decisions, construct their own knowledge, and prepare them for a future in which they will need to be dynamic, flexible, and adaptable; able to compete in a global society; and possess the inter- and intra-personal skills which will allow them to work effectively in fluid environments while maintaining their own wellbeing. My approach to meeting this goal is by basing my teaching on the theories and practices of holistic learning, social-constructive learning, and enquiry-based learning.
It is important to have high expectations of students both behaviourally and academically. With this in mind, I make the objectives, expectations, and success criteria clear to them as I believe that even young learners need to develop the skills of self-assessment and reflection which will help them to continue progressing towards their learning goals. A key aspect of my teaching is using formative assessment to evaluate my students’ current progress towards these goals, and setting differentiated tasks with an appropriate level of challenge which will allow them to take the next steps, while providing the support, guidance, and feedback that enables them to do so.
Emotions and Relationships
Crucial to performing my role as a teacher effectively is the establishment of warm, supportive, and caring learning relationships which are grounded in a safe and welcoming physical and emotional environment. A classroom must be a place where students feel respected and have the confidence to be unique, take risks, and try their best. I take pride in my restorative classroom management skills, which are based in the formation of a classroom community in which every student is a valued and unique member of the team. This has an overwhelmingly positive impact on classroom behaviour and the development of social, emotional and moral competencies, but it also benefits the students’ academic attainment by forming a strong foundation for effective learning. It also empowers students, who are responsible for self-management and know that they are valued and have the support and respect of their peers and the adults around them.
What is Learning?
I believe that learning should be authentic, and that learning objectives should be based around the development of real-world skills and capabilities. Outside of school, our lives are not compartmentalised into individual subject areas such as Maths or Geography, and I believe that our students’ education needs to reflect the holistic nature of the challenges they will face. Similarly, the modern, global society we live in now requires flexibility and the ability to problem solve. As such, I take a collaborative and project-based approach to teaching. I emphasise the application of skills which my students will use in the greater world such as teamwork, communication, independent research, higher-level thinking and problem-solving. I prefer to take a theme-based approach to planning curriculum content, allowing students to develop multiple skills and construct knowledge in various different subjects simultaneously while investigating a particular topic.
In line with these values, I employ authentic summative assessments, tasking my students with research projects, written or multimedia production tasks, oral presentations and real-world tasks which necessitate the application of skills. While written exams do serve a purpose in summative assessment, I believe that they should be considered only a snapshot of what a student can recall at a given moment in time, under stressful conditions, and therefore a lower priority to more authentic forms of summative assessment.
Reflective Practice
Being a naturally reflective person assists me in my role as a teacher and fosters the growth of my professional skills. I believe that to be an effective teacher it is essential to constantly question my own decision making and evaluate my own performance to ensure I am doing the best for my students, with their individual needs and goals in mind. In essence, my teaching philosophy converges on fostering students as adaptable, empowered, global citizens. Through a blend of differentiation, scaffolding, authentic learning, and reflective practice, all grounded on a values-based approach to education, I endeavour to inspire moral and mindful students who embrace challenges, value diversity, and become lifelong learners poised to make meaningful contributions in our ever-evolving world.