At this point in time, my teaching experience has been limited to my experiences as a substitute teacher, and in many cases, a long term substitute teacher.  The daily happenings that go on in various classrooms have given me exposure to many different teaching philosophies and has enabled me to form opinions on what may or may not work for my classroom in the future.  Of the limited exposure I’ve had to various theories, and the research I’ve done, my philosophies and practices embrace a style which combines social development and social learning theories with constructivism.

            According to Vygotsky’s social development theory, children need and thrive on social interaction with their peers.  This social interaction creates an environment in which children develop cognitively while involved in play activities.  In other words, they can learn from each other in a non-structured social environment.  A perfect example of applying this theory to my classroom structure would be the morning meeting.  Having a set period of time for the entire class to sit and interact together can be very beneficial to social development.  I love to play games at this time where all the children are in a circle and one at a time they greet the person on their left, the person on their right, and give each other a compliment.  This proceeds until everyone has been greeted.  Doing this ensures the children are comfortable with each other thus they feel more secure in the classroom environment.  This comfort level will lead to the development of collaborative group work which can be applied to various activities across all subjects. 

            Vygotsky’s theories go hand in hand with Bruner’s constructivist ideas of student’s learning from their own past experiences.  In today’s culturally diverse classrooms, we can learn so much from each other by drawing out each individual’s strengths and accomplishments.  This is very important to a student’s sense of self worth.  A teacher’s challenge is to help each student make connections from what they already know, and apply that knowledge to a new concept or idea, thus creating a new block on which to build.  I envision accomplishing this through collaborative group activities where the children must work together, with each one having an assigned role or responsibility within the group, with all participants working together towards a common goal.  With proper scaffolding, students will interact and learn from each other as they work through the activities or challenges set before them.       

            Bandura’s social learning theory focuses on behaviors, and the importance of modeling the behaviors and attitudes we wish to see from our students.  I am a firm believer in the importance of respect in the classroom:  respect for each other, respect for our self and respect for property.  However, I cannot assume that all of my students will know what respect is or what it looks like, let alone be able to emulate my expectations of respect.  I must teach them what respect looks like from the very first day and proceed to model it each and every day throughout the school year.  If I don’t model the behaviors I expect, the students will not be motivated to emulate them.  I love to do this by incorporating role playing into many activities.  Students really have to think about their roles.  Most will remember the lesson longer using interactive role playing where they play an integral part in their own learning, rather than listening to a lecture on proper behavior, with the teacher being the only one in control.

            I expect my knowledge of various philosophies of learning will expand as I move throughout this program.  With this expansion, my vision of which theories and ideas I incorporate in my classroom will also change.  Of course, each class and each child is unique and with the passing of each year, I fully expect my approach to the new year to change and encompass lessons learned.