Teaching Philosophy

Jack H. Achs

2 March 2003 (Updated 28 July 2016)

Executive Summary

I stand ready to take on the enormous responsibility of teaching our children, for therein lies our real future.  At the core of this is my love of children.  I firmly believe in the equal opportunity to learn and the promotion of social justice and citizenship.  As a teacher, my goal is to educate the “whole” child, not just the parts, and to help them grow physically, cognitively, socially, emotionally, and morally.  I believe in a student-centered environment where critical thinking skills can be honed with limited direct instruction and maximum emphasis on collaborative learning.  It is my belief that the best way to learn is through discovery and from each other.  I recognize the need for individual instruction, acknowledging the multiple intelligences, the different learning styles, and the diversity (ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, or skill level) of our students.  More importantly, to my students, I promise to challenge them to have high expectations, excite them and make learning fun, help them develop critical thinking skills, make learning meaningful to them, while providing a safe learning environment.  Only by caring and providing for the needs of our students can I help them to become productive citizens in our ever-changing society, while becoming lifelong learners. 

Why do I teach? 

I teach because of my great desire for community service, because I love children, and because I can make a difference in this world…and I have.  My yearning to teach is one of my lifetime goals.  I have chosen three ways to fulfill this goal: by becoming a teacher, by serving my country in the U.S. Army, and by becoming a father.  My teaching philosophy reflects upon my personal values and genuinely depicts my beliefs, assumptions, and experiences about teaching and learning.  It also reflects the needs of my students, the school, the local community, and our nation.  My philosophy centers on six key tenets: 1) having a positive attitude, 2) the love of the game (teaching), 3) the whole student concept, 4) active learning, 5) being culturally responsive (teachers have the responsibility to teach all students in their classrooms regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, or skill level), and 6) knowing myself and students.  Taken together, these represent what I think teaching is all about and how I present myself in the classroom.  I also recognize that this philosophy will evolve and change as I mature and grow in my new profession.  The process of education invites me to be self-reflective in reviewing the role my students, the environment, and myself in a never-ending form of reciprocal interactions.  As Phyllis Holcomb stated: “Those that can do.  Those that can do more, teach.” 

Teaching Goals         

My overall teaching goals are to 1) nurture the development of the total student and to foster a love of learning and self-confidence, 2) to provide instruction in the basic skills required for active and involved citizenship in our country and community, and to 3) maintain an environment that sustains the safety, well-being, intellectual stimulation, mutual respect, and enthusiasm of all-students and families alike.  I need to motivate students for maximum learning.  Furthermore, I believe in the core education goal which revolves around the democratic vision of a free society: that all persons be provided with an equal educational opportunity in order to develop their intellectual and human potential to become informed, judicious citizens, prepared to make a positive impact on their world.  I must challenge students to be life-long learners and empower them in the process of their own learning and development.  I believe that higher intellectual and character traits (goals) must be promoted and fostered in each student, specifically:

Ø  The ability to act independently and responsibly based upon the accurate assessment of the consequences of one’s actions.

Ø  The possession of values and the ability to exercise sound judgment that encourages fair treatment of others.

Ø  Personal autonomy and control.

Ø  Problem solving, critical thinking, and higher-order reasoning skills.

Ø  The ability to make informed decisions.

These critical intellectual and character traits (goals), along with the development of human potential in a representative democracy, and the notion of students as being life-long learners, represent my goals and thoughts on education. 

The Whole-Student   

I believe in the whole-student concept, which refers to teaching not only at the cognitive level, but in the other objective domain areas as well: affective, psychomotor, and participatory.  I understand the need to help my students grow physically, cognitively, socially, emotionally, and morally.  I teach people and not just subjects.  The film classic Wizard of Oz is a perfect allegory for me as an effective teacher, who like the wizard must help each individual appreciate the potential that resides within each of us, the potential to make the best use of our minds, our hearts, and those traits that can make a difference in the world.  This belief, along with the knowledge of multiple intelligences, different student learning styles, and the diversity (ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, or skill level) of my students beckons me to meaningful and insightful instruction while challenging my students to think critically, question the status quo, and perform at higher-order reasoning skills.  I recognize the need for high expectations while ensuring multicultural approaches to instruction that matches my student’s learning style and my teaching style, to focus on providing an appropriate educational experience for all students, regardless of their ethnicity or background.  As the English novelist George Eliot once said: “…believe that we too can be seen and judged in the wholeness of our character.”

Pedagogical Strategy

My professional teaching (pedagogical) strategy centers on active learning.  Simply stated, students learn better by doing.  The great Chinese philosopher Confucius showed remarkable insight when he said: “What I hear I forget, what I see I remember, what I do I understand.”  I fully support the constructivist and cognitive perspectives with regard to the acquisition of knowledge.  I endorse the theories of John Dewey, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and Jerome Bruner.  Students simply learn better by doing and working in groups.  The classic statement by Bruner says it all: True learning involves “figuring out how to use what you already know in order to go beyond what you already think.”  Thus, my students need to be given opportunities to collaborate with each other, as well as with me, to learn and gain expertise about the subject matter.  My intent is to have facilitated meaningful instruction (lecture) followed by cooperative learning.  Dependent on the student learning styles, the specific classroom environment, and the nature of the content area to be learned, I will move among different teaching strategies stressing student-centered verses teacher-centered learning.  The goal of education is not to have students replicate, but to have them generate, demonstrate, and exhibit.  I must ensure students explore content while honoring diversity and supporting multiple intelligences and different student learning styles.  To that end, I will differentiate my instruction by combining Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences (Verbal/Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical, Visual/Spatial, Musical/Rhythmic, Bodily/Kinesthetic, Naturalistic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal), Bloom’s Taxonomy (Cognitive Domains: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation), and student learning styles ( Sensing-Thinking (Mastery), Sensing-Feeling (Interpersonal), Intuitive-Thinking (Understanding), Intuitive-Feeling (Self-Expressive)).  The integration of these significant pedagogical theories give all students the chance to express themselves, find their hidden talents and callings, and experience the joys of success.  Students who understand their distinctive learning style are better learners which allows them to develop flexibility and adaptability in their thinking, and to set realistic goals about minimizing learning weaknesses and maximizing learning strengths.  Current research has shown the importance of metacognitive thinking and how it helps students reflect on their own learning processes that in turn benefits overall learning and motivates them to improve as learners.  When students engage in this type of “thinking about thinking” they simply become more self-directed and are able to select appropriate strategies based on their unique learning style.  This leads to greater self-awareness.  My instructional strategies will include the following group activities to keep my students involved in their learning process: inquiry, group discussions (Socratic Method), interactive lectures, human relations group techniques, multimedia materials, internet technologies, and cooperative learning.  Only through these active measures can my students progress to higher intellectual and character traits and play an active role in their education process, a life-long process.  It is important here not to lose sight of an ancient wisdom repeatedly reinforced by modern science as stated by Aristotle in the fourth century Before the Common Era: “To learn is a natural pleasure, not confined to philosophers, but common to all.”

Learning Principles

Teaching is more of an art than a science.  However, there are those that think otherwise but I am not one of them.  The great Greek philosopher Aristotle (as you can see, one of my favorite philosophers) once said: “Man is by nature a political animal,” meaning that men are by nature social creatures.  I believe good teachers establish a rapport with their students and in time get to know them, academically and personally.  Teaching is about learning and interacting with your students working towards a common goal.  In reaching this common goal I need to motivate learners so that we can maximize learning.  Learning can be summed up by a simple equation: students working with the teacher equals knowledge.  My principles to accomplish maximum learning are as follows:

Ø  Maintain high expectations.

Ø  Make use of praise, minimize criticism.

Ø  Capitalize on learning technologies (multimedia).

Ø  Balance direct instruction with challenging activities.

Ø  Teach learning strategies (teach how to learn).

Ø  Provide numerous concrete experiences to facilitate concept acquisition (field trips, demonstrations, special guests, pictures, audio and video materials, and oral and written examples).

      Ø  Focus on meaningful skills, concepts, and activities.

Ø  Actively involve students (students learn better by doing rather than listening or watching).

      Ø  Encourage cooperative learning (group rewards, individual accountability, and equal opportunities for success).

      Ø  Ask and encourage questions.  Use the Socratic Method.

Ø  Provide creative opportunities for practice and review.

Ø  Integrate skills and concepts throughout curriculum.

Ø  Build student interest and enthusiasm.

Ø  Effective and positive classroom management (orchestration of all classroom activities and events).  Teachers enjoy teaching, students enjoy learning.

      Ø  Identify and promote cultural diversity.

Ø  Facilitate parent involvement.

Human Nature (Nature v. Nurture): To be published

Assessment & Grading

The primary responsibility of teachers is to instruct, but how do we know if students learned what was taught?  Assessment must be an integral part of teaching and it is a key link in on how or what I teach.  It is an ongoing part of my instruction and not just a culminating activity.  The ultimate purpose of assessment is to improve teaching and learning.  My overall assessment plan will be continuous, valid, reliable, comprehensive, systematic, objective, and efficient (as best I can).  In a diverse society like ours, different students learn by different methods and express what they learn in different ways.  These different learning styles are further accentuated by the student’s diverse background (ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, or skill level).  Therefore, I believe multiple assessment strategies should be used to afford maximum feedback from the student.  Specifically, I will use the following assessment procedures:  observation, quizzes, tests (criterion-referenced), journal entries, oral presentations, performance assessments, individual and group projects, portfolios, interviews and questionnaires, sociometric devices, peer evaluations, and standardized tests.  Some effective scoring rubrics I will use are: 1) Facts and concepts, 2) Critical thinking: issues, information, conclusions, alternative interpretations, and consequences, 3) Significant personalities, terms, and events, 4) Relationships within and across disciplines, 5) Communication: position, support, organization, conclusions, alternatives, and 6) Group collaboration: participation, shared responsibility, responsiveness, forethought, and preparation.  I will make every attempt to return all work by the next class period.  My tests will be basically made of two parts, testing in the lower and higher level of the cognitive domain.  On tests to assess the lower levels in the cognitive domain (knowledge and comprehension) I will mostly use true-false, multiple choice, matching, short answer and fill-in-the-blank (completion).  To assess the higher levels in the cognitive domain (application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) I will use an essay.  In most situations the easy will be worth 10-20% of the test.  Grades will be assigned based on a normal scale (A=100-90%, B=89-80%, etc.) or published school/district policy.  I understand that my tests my have unintentional errors.  Consequently, a test analysis will be performed to determine if the assessment is valid, if not then the test will be partially curved by decreasing the point value ensuring the number of A’s & B’s are equal or greater than the number of D’s & F’s.  There is no limit on the number of A’s or B’s I give.  If every student gets an “A” on a test, great!  Again, tests criterion-referenced, students are not in competition with each other.  Additionally, if more than 40-50% of the students miss a question, it will be thrown out.  The opportunity of extra credit will always be given on exams (and during the course), not to exceed 10% of the test.  I will give out the essay question prior to the exam or give a choice of three on the exam.

Classroom Management:

My classroom expectations are very simple: mutual respect, kindness, and raise your hand to speak.  There are other general “rules” such as being prepared, being on time, completing assignments and homework, and not eating or drinking in the classroom, but these are more administrative in nature.  My behavior management strategy that fits my personality is closely aligned with Lee and Marlene Canter’s Assertive Discipline strategy.  This classroom management philosophy states that teachers should always remain in charge in the classroom, but not hostile or authoritarian in manner.  You cannot maintain rapport with the students if you are always barking orders.  This is akin to leadership- influencing people to do things that they would not normally do themselves, in this case learn.  Teachers must take steps to teach students how to behave acceptably in the classroom.  Additionally, one must identify the student’s personal needs and show understanding and willingness to help, very important fact- especially in a diverse classroom.  Furthermore, students with disabilities and IEPs need this type of teacher understanding and intervention.  Trust must be established between the student and teacher.  Students must be taught, in an atmosphere of respect, trust, and support, how to behave responsibility.  Another important aspect of this strategy is that positive recognition must be used along with invoking the consequences.  Effective praise must be personal and genuine while being specific.  Along the continuum of behavior is the aspect of negative consequence and that students should know the consequence for their behavior.  In a conflict teachers must stay calm, show respect, and refrain from arguing, thereby mitigating and defusing the situation.  A good classroom is one that promotes a pleasant, supportive environment that frees teachers to teach, and students to learn.  In summary, my classroom management philosophy focuses on simple straightforward expectations, establishing rapport and trust, while teaching students how to behave responsibility.  It is funny, we teach students how to learn, about WWII, but we don’t teach students how to behave responsibly.  As the great Winston Churchill once said: “The price of greatness is responsibility.”

Conclusion:

Teaching is my passion, a life goal, a quest.  The three most important jobs in this world, jobs that make a significant impact on our lives, our well-being, and our futures are: fathers & mothers, teachers, and those military personnel defending our country.  I have the great honor to have done every one of these jobs, each representing a key part of my lifetime goals.  My teaching philosophy reflects upon my personal values and genuinely depicts my beliefs, assumptions, and experiences about teaching and learning.  Children are our greatest assets, for they are our future.  After being a father and defending our country I stand ready to continue my dedication to community service and making a difference in this world by teaching our children.  As Phyllis Holcomb stated: “Those that can do.  Those that can do more, teach.”