Teaching Philosophies

 

Teaching Philosophies

Philosophy is defined as a  study of theories of knowledge, truth, existence, and morality, or matters of right and wrong (Kauchek & Eggen, 2010). In my future classrooms, my teaching philosophy will delivered by an axiological approach as well as an epistemological approach. These two schools of philosophy harmonize together to blend a teaching philosophy that is rich in morality and understanding.

Axiology follows the principle of integrity (Kauchek & Eggen, 2010). Not only do I plan to practice integrity myself, as a teacher, but I also plan to teach integrity to my students. As a teacher, it is my job to provide a service to parents and students. My service is to educate my students to the best of my own personal ability. To ignore my duties, and simply do the bare minimum to educate my students would be a disservice to my community (Kauchek & Eggen, 2010).

Along with educating my students on the core curriculum, I also plan to instil in them a sense of morality and integrity as well. I want to bring a sense of humanism into my classrooms. Since the separation of church and state, people believe that there has been a decline in morals being taught in the classroom. I want to provide a humanistic approach to teaching morality, by separating religion and the general moral compass. Morals do not have to be derived from religion, but can also be surfaced, understood, and embraced by learning about humanistic approaches and human rights.

I plan to incorporate this humanistic approach by teaching empathy to my students. I want my students to leave my classroom with a new sense for their peers and other people. I want them to understand that their views and their presence in the world is very small, but very connected. I like to use the analogy that everyone is the star of his or her own show, but each person in the world has their own. Each of them are also a player in each other’s show. Ultimately, they get to choose the role in which they play in another person’s life. They get to choose if they want to be a hero or a bully. How their character is viewed in another person’s story typically comes from their own actions. I want to teach them to control their actions by considering the feelings of others. I feel like this is how integrity and morality is built.

Epistomology is another approach I feel is necessary and productive to a classroom philosophy. Epistomology tells us that practice and experience is the way that students come to know what they have learned. It is important to teachers because our beliefs about how students gain knowledge and understanding affect our choices of teaching methods (Kauchek & Eggen, 2010).

I plan to use epistomology in my classroom by observing the ways that students learn best. There are many different ways to teach; and there are many different ways to learn. In order for my lessons to be the most effective and comprehensible for my students, I must understand the most efficient ways for my students to practice what I am teaching. I like epistomology because it incorporates the constructivist idea that the best way to come to understand something is to construct the idea ourselves by experience.

I plan to provide my class a variety of different ways to experience the content of each of my lessons. I think it is vital to student success to teach content in a visual, auditory, and kinesthetic way (Purdue University of Indianapolis, 2008). Since all students experience, learn, and construct ideas differently, teaching through these three different learning styles gives each type of learner an opportunity to construct the idea for themselves. I plan to closely observe each student during each lesson to gather data as to which type of learner they are. Once a student has exhibited success in a particular learning style, I can divide the class up into three groups, based on which learning style suits them the best. These groups will practice together in the manner of learning that is most comprehensible to them.

I feel that axiology and epistemology are two of the best philosophies to implement in a classroom. I feel that they encompass philosophy as a whole by teaching the importance of experience, practice, and integrity. Each of these aspects in philosophy is vital to the success of my future students.

 

References:

Kaucheck & Eggen, Introduction to Teaching. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc, 2010. Copyright.

 

Purdue University of Indianapolis (2008) Three Learning Styles

Retrieved from http://blc.uc.iupui.edu/Academic-Enrichment/Study-Skills/Learning-Styles/3-Learning-Styles