Personal Philosophy of Education Teachers - Essay Example

The basic needs of my are individual learning needs, needs related to socio-economic status, needs associated with gender differences, and special individual needs. While addressing these needs, I can get maximum results only if I take into consideration, the environment in which teaching takes place, that is, school, family and the community. Again the impact of the environment upon the students could be physical, social, emotional, and disciplinary (rule-based). The students need a “secure family environment”, the economic means to pursue their education, to be successful in the competitive environment of the school, to keep interest in what is being taught, a sense of power and autonomy, a clear knowledge of one’s behavioural “limits”, “acceptable outlets to express feelings”, and a sense of “dignity” (Curvin, Mendler and Mendler, 2008, p.14-20). It is in view of the above discussed needs in their totality that it is observed, discipline has to be married with dignity (Curvin, Mendler and Mendler, 2008, p.14-20). The students are found to learn best when the teacher possesses a consistent personal philosophy of education so that “an acceptable theory of discipline (for all occasions and events) can be evolved to provide needed direction and help reduce teaching complexities and and increase effectiveness (Edwards, 2008, p.23). The major benefit of having a philosophy of education is that it “serves as a guide and helps eliminate problems that stem from having to make decisions without the benefit of a firm set of principles” (Edwards, 2008, p.25). Personal philosophy of education can be defined as “a consistent well-understood system of beliefs and associated theories” that a teacher depends upon for guidance in his/her professional acts (Edwards, 2008, p.25). In practical sense, the personal philosophy of education is a set of explanations that tell “how children learn and why they behave as they do” (Edwards, 2008, p.25). Apart from this theoretical explanation, it also provides “appropriate information regarding teacher-student interactions that best promote learning and proper decorum in the classroom” (Edwards, 2008, p.25). There can be instances when a teacher behaves in contrast to the philosophy that he/she holds or to the best philosophical perspectives outlined by educationists (Wolfgang & Glickman, cited in Edwards, 2008, p. 31 - 32). But once the teacher has evolved a concrete philosophy of education, there is always an option for the teacher of comparing one’s bahaviour and actions with that philosophy and correcting deviant behaviour and actions. The students learn best when the teacher defines all the professional practices, leadership and management skills and behaviours related to personal effectiveness based on his/her personal philosophy of education (National Institute of Education Singapore, n.d.). The professional practices are related to various aspects like, supporting the growth of the child, ensuring quality in the learning exercise of the child, providing quality learning of the child in CCA, and cultivating knowledge through perfect command over the subjects taught, encouraging reflective and analytic thinking, promoting initiative, rendering knowledge with a creative edge and with a focus on the short term and long term future requirements (National Institute of Education Singapore, n.d.). Similarly, leadership and management skills to be exercised by the teacher have to include winning hearts and minds of the students through empathising rather than mere systemising and also through understanding the classroom environment and developing the children (Baron-Cohen, 2004, p.2-6; National Institute of Education Singapore, n.d.). Leadership and management is also about working with others, which in this particular context is related to working with the parents and in teams that include students, teachers and the school administration (National Institute of Education Singapore, n.d.). Finally, the third aspect of ensuring that the students learn best is all about incorporating behaviours of the teacher related to personal effectiveness (which is basically a matter of knowing oneself and others) into his/her personal philosophy of education (National Institute of Education Singapore, n.d.). This can be achieved through tuning into one’s own self, exercising personal integrity and legal responsibilities, understanding and respecting others, and resilience and adaptability (National Institute of Education Singapore, n.d.). To exercise control, while combining different elements of these human development theories, I would be using a combination of “theory-based” and “eclectic” orientations and creating a discipline model that includes, “teacher effectiveness training” and “democratic discipline” with a discipline approach that is based on “correction” as well as “prevention” (Edwards, 2008, p. 31). To employ democratic discipline, which is the core concept of this approach, I would tell my students what I expect from them and also will ask them what they require from me so that my control and students’ autonomy are both respected (Curvin, Mendler and Mendler, 2008, p.21). I would “differentiate instruction based on each student’s strengths” and would be good listener to the students, thereby again enabling student autonomy (Curvin, Mendler and Mendler, 2008, p.21). I would use humour wherever possible so that it can perceivably lighten the control that exercises (Curvin, Mendler and Mendler, 2008, p.22). I would “offer choices” for my students so that they feel they have a minimum level of autonomy (Curvin, Mendler and Mendler, 2008, p.22). But I would not accept any “excuses” from my students because that would be affecting my control (Curvin, Mendler and Mendler, 2008, p.22). I would search for options to modify and thereby “legitimize misbehavior” of students that I am not immediately able to put an end to (Curvin, Mendler and Mendler, 2008, p.23). For example, if a boy is continuously misbehaving with girls, I could possibly organise a drama improvisation session with a theme related to sexual harassment and further ask the students to sum up the reasons and consequences of the same after viewing all the improvisations. I would also let the students “take responsibility for themselves” and as part of the teacher effectiveness training that I impart myself, I would also “be responsible myself” and will not be making any excuses” (Curvin, Mendler and Mendler, 2008, p.22, 24). 2) I have taught in a classroom where the student profile was problematic in terms of culture, socio-economic characteristics, gender dynamics, and individual learning needs. The school was located in a community where there was prevalent poverty and crime. As it was prominently an Asian community, with a majority of Muslim population, I had to be careful about the gender dimensions of teaching, learning and general behaviour. Many girls in my class were already married and a few of the Muslim girl students became school dropouts after their marriage. The boys were prone to be associated with the crime gangs and drug sellers who frequented the streets. Generally, the poverty prevalent in the community was also compelling many students to drop out from school and work for meeting the needs of the family. There was also alcoholism, widespread as a serious problem among the community, which led to the disruption of peace in families, which in turn affected the performance of the students as well. I had to face a few classroom management issues in this class. As majority of students came from poor families, and hence many students worked in part-time jobs during night hours, I found it very difficult to sustain the attention of the students throughout my lecture sessions. I knew that many students were nodding and sleeping not because they were uninterested in the topic or in my lecture, but they were simply tired. As many students were from the Muslim community, they needed regular time offs within the lecture hours for their regular prayers. Once when I made the students perform a play for a school function, a Muslim girl had to hold the hands of a boy on stage and this created quite a furore in the neighbouring community. The girl’s parents initially decided to discontinue the studies of their daughter fearing the scandal but later I could convince them that such an incident would not happen again. Two of my Asian girl students were married and they needed to be absent during their pregnancy and child birth. When they returned to the class after almost eight months of absence, I had to give special classes for them on lessons they had skipped. A number of boys in my class were allegedly having close links with the drug sellers on street and I had to address this issue as well as find out ways to improve their horrible academic performance. There were also many students whose academic performances were very unsatisfactory owing to parental discord and divorce. Generally, all the issues discussed above had a negative impact on the behavior as well as academic performance of the students. 3) When all the aspects of teaching profession get tuned to the teacher’s personal philosophy of education, a consistent approach towards discipline can be achieved (Edwards, 2008, p.24). As discipline is all about the “relative amount of freedom or control to be exercised by teachers and students”, the teacher has to find the appropriate human development theory that suits his/her personal philosophy of education so that the best approach to discipline can be defined (Edwards, 2008, p. 23). The best theory would be the one that balances perfectly between “teacher’s control” and “student’s autonomy” (Edwards, 2008, p. 31). As one single human development theory does not address all the nuances of this balance, it has to be a combination of “management”, leadership”, and “nondirective intervention” theories (Edwards, 2008, p. 31). I would be using a combination of “theory-based” and “eclectic” orientations and creating a discipline model that includes, “teacher effectiveness training” and “democratic discipline” with a discipline approach that is based on “correction” as well as “prevention” (Edwards, 2008, p. 31). Following the eclectic tradition, also I would be adopting a: Rational, empirical model of teaching in which the members of the profession are seen as research-based problem solvers taking whatever policy demands or intellectual changes they are given or experimenting, based upon existing and new knowledge, to see how the problems may be solved (Muijs and Reynolds, 2005, p.316). My personal philosophy of education, in practical sense, would be based on a number of beliefs- 1) all children have “intelligence” and “a capacity to learn”, 2) learning happens when “learners assimilate new experience with prior knowledge”, 3) “learning varies with the degree to which learners’ needs for inclusion, influence, competence and confidence are met”, 4) “skillful teaching requires informed and continuous decision making based on an understanding of multiple and interconnected areas of performance, repertoires and matching versus learning a prescribed set of behaviors”, 5) “skillful teaching” demands “systematic and continual study of (…) knowledge bases”, 6) “the total environment of a school has a powerful effect on students’ learning, 7) discrimination in terms of socio-economic status, race, gender, culture, health etc. will affect the performance of students and must be countered with “active” anti-discriminatory teaching interventions (Saphier and Haley-Speca and Grower, 2008). I would rather be empathising rather than systemising in my approach towards the problems related to the diverse student profiles (Baron-Cohen, 2004, p.2-6). I am adopting this stance because I believe that while dealing with persons as compared to objects and events, systemising will never be able to address the requirements of the communication situations involved (Baron-Cohen, 2004, p.2-6). For example, in Singapore education scenario, it can be observed that “schools play a major role in inculcating Singaporean values and character” (OECD, 2011, p.161). My personal discipline approach of democratic discipline and teacher effectiveness training is in coherence with the “teach less, learn more” policy of the Government of Singapore (OECD, 2011, p.161). The leadership and management skills that I will exercise are to be based on the aim to: Touch the hearts and engage the minds of the learners (…) with less dependence on role learning, repetitive tests and instruction, and more on engaged learning, discovery through experiences, differentiated teaching, learning of lifelong skills, and the building of character through innovative and effective teaching approaches and strategies (OECD, 2011, p.163). I will have to anchor my responses to the students in concepts of multiculturalism, gender equality and socio-economic differences. Taking into account that there can be very distinct differences in “cultural norms” and associated “learning styles”, I will be adopting a multi-culturalist perspective to the process of teaching and learning (Edwards, 2007, p.343). In this regard, I will also have to monitor my own behavior with respect to cultural biases (Edwards, 2007, p.343). I will not allow the socio-economic backwardness, gender, race, or culture of a student to become an excuse for his/her low performance but would motivate him/her to move beyond those limitations through better learning strategies like group learning, heterogenous learning and peer tutoring. For those students who are compelled to work on a part-time basis owing to the poverty faced by their family, I would encourage them to make an arrangement of work hours so that their learning is minimally impacted. I would also try to find ome financial support for them either from the school, or from the community or service agencies so that they can stop working and concentrate in their studies. But for such students, as far as they are working, I would employ a flexible approach regarding attendance. I would also offer them a choice to come to be on holidays for special tuitions, provided I have no other urgent personal engagements. I will also assign the best performing students in the class to help these working students to recoup their skipped lessons. Regarding gang involvement, drug seller nexus and criminal activities, I would adopt an approach that combines prevention and correction. I would make it a point to promote a class room ethics which says that no student would ever indulge in such criminal activities and would form a heterogenous team inside the class room to monitor such activities and try to convince abrrative students to come back to the fold. Instead of reporting incidents of criminal activities outrightly to the principal, I would first try to talk and listen to the student involved. I would tell him/her the consequences that he/she will have to face in case he/she continues with such activities. If this approach does not work, then I will impart a visit to the home of the student concerned so that I could better understand why the student is behaving in an erratic manner. If I feel convinced after that visit that the parents could be involved in finding a solution, I would try to meet the parents and talk to them. If I feel that the parents are not competent to tackle the issue, I could get the help of a counselor to talk to the student. I would also initiate a general discussion in the class on the general social issue involved and would present them with some reading assignments with books that deal with the issue. Similarly, regarding the early marriages and wife-students of my class, I would combine a cultural-sensitive and gender-sensitive approach. If female students are made to “identify with the roles provided for them” by the prevalent patriarchal society, then “they often accept lower expectations for themselves” resulting in their less successful academic performance (Edwards, 2007, p.354). But if they are encouraged not to accept the roles provided for them by the society, they would be caught in a lonely fight with the society. Hence I would choose to have a balance between these two extreme stands. I would be flexible regarding my girl students getting married even as they are students but I would talk to such students about the other options available for them if they concentrate in their studies for the time being and marry later. If they are compelled to marry by their parents, I would offer to talk with their parents. In such conversations, I would be cautious not to indulge in culturally unacceptable behaviour from my side. In case I fail to convince the parents to stop the marriage, I would encourage the student to resume her studies after marriage and would offer special direct teaching to help her recoup when she comes back to the class after marriage. To win the attention of the students coming from various problematic back grounds and cultures, I would be adapting my teaching style by incorporating many different teaching strategies, tools, and different communication methods. When students fail to concentrate in the classes during my lectures, I would offer them supplementary audio-visual presentations and activity-based learning options. I would also be making close links with the community involved so that their help could be sought when in need of a social intervention which often happens. (word count : 1480) References Baron-Cohen, S. (2004) The essential difference, London: The Penguin Group. Curwin, R.L., & Mendler, A.N. (2008) Discipline with dignity. Association for supervision & curriculum development, PA: ASCD. Edwards, C.H. (2008). Classroom discipline and management. NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Muijs, D., & Reynolds, D. (2005). Effective teaching – Evidence and practice. London: Sage Publications. National Institute of Education Singapore, (n.d.) SingTeach Jan/Feb 2012: Prepared for the teaching profession, Retrieved from http://www.nie.edu.sg/office-teacher-education Organisation for economic Co-operation and Development, (2011) Strong performers and successful reformers in education lessons from PISA for the United States, Paris: OECD Publishing. Saphier, J., Haley-Speca, M. A., & Gower, R. (2008). The skillful teacher: building your teaching skills. (6th ed.). MA: Research for better teaching, Inc. Chapter 2. Read More