Of course there are different philosophies of teaching - otherwise we wouldn't be coming up with our own philosophy, Dr. Rice would just tell us what the one teching philosophy is.
A teaching philosophy is, as far as I can define it, to what end a teacher structures her class in a certain way. That's wordy. What I mean is, a teaching philosophy isn't just sitting on a throne saying, "I believe my job as a teacher is to help students become better at writing/at reading/morally/professionally, etc." You have to come up with a way to achieve that goal, and a reason for thinking that it is the reason for teaching in the first place.
Let's see, some different philosophies.
1. I believe correctness of form is most important for my students, because in the workplace, form is vital to success.
2. I believe teaching should foster creativity, because the work world will teach students correctness, but the classroom may be the only place where their minds are allowed to stretch.
3. I believe teaching should create socially and morally responsible individuals, because knowledge without responsibility is dangerous.
4. I believe teaching should primarily focus on theories, because once a student knows the theory, he or she can look up specific examples in a text-book, but drawing conclusions from specifics may be too difficult.
5. I believe students should learn to draw conclusions from specific examples, because then the theories become their own, and they develop critical thinking skills.
Okay, I think that's enough. My own teaching philosophy will be based on the needs of students within academia, the needs of students once they leave academia, and a combination of 4 and 5 - I'll give students the building block theories, but ask them to take it a lot further, to develop thinking skills. My teaching philosophy: teach the kids to think critically. If someone can think critically about an essay, he or she can think critically about life choices.
That may be a little over the top. I don't know. I know that's vague, too. How do you teach kids to think? ANd how do you keep them engaged in wanting to learn to think? I'm still working out the details...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I really like your idea (in the "process" post) about having your students read, analyze,and rewrite as process (beginning with something familiar like the news article). But what I like even more, is the method in the context of the philosophy you're shaping in this post. In fact, I suspect that a big chunk of your statement will have already been written in the whole of your postings. It may just be that all you need, when the time comes, is to read them.
I like the concrete examples of teaching philosophies you listed. I can use that list to sort of pick and choose a one sentence philosophy for myself.
I agree that your 4 & 5 are the most important skills to teach students. But we can't ignore 1 either. And I wouldn't want to ignore 2 or 3, because that would certainly create a world I don't want to live in.
I guess it all comes down to balance?
Post a Comment