My Teaching Philosophy is an ideology that will evolve once I begin my journey as a full-time teacher and will keep changing through time and experience. Nevertheless, my teaching philosophy has a strong structure and well-developed foundations that direct me as an educator through the teaching process. I have stated five main human values that together hold my beliefs as an individual and an educator. Diversity represents variety, uniqueness, and peculiarity. Accepting that humanity is all about diversity has been a complex task to achieve for humans since the beginning of time. Today we can see the disastrous results of humans trying to change others and in denial of heterogeneity and diversity. Teaching acceptance comes along with inculcating respect: respect for everyone’s rights, life, opinion, appearance, interests, personalities, status, culture, religious beliefs, ethnicity, and every single trait that characterizes an individual. Without respect, neither a positive learning environment nor an effective working society can be developed. Teaching respect, implementing, and preaching respect is one of the primary responsibilities of educators. Respecting diversity leads us to back to uniqueness and particularity. Part of what makes an individual unique is the creativity within them. Creativity is one of the hardest capabilities to refine but is an innate ability that every human possess. Teachers must help their students experiment and interact with their creativity since being creative applies to all aspects of life. An individual must be creative with their decisions, with their work, their studies, their hobbies, their conflict-solving strategies, and with external and internal relationships. To build relationships, individual must engage in effective communication. Another principal task of a teacher’s vocation is to teach effective communication skills and techniques. In the classroom, communicative and socially interactive approaches must be taught and practiced. Students must learn how to correctly identify and approach their audiences in order to achieve effective communication. Kindness is a value that is practiced as well and is a concept that many do not dominate. Is important to understand that some people are not kind naturally due to experiences or personal experiences that hold them back from acting nice. Education is the answer to many conflicts and situations that human societies face today. Teaching and involving kind actions and techniques in the classroom management and instructional plans is something that educators must do.
Now, the selection of these five values is supported with different teaching theories that shape the foundations of education, especially second language acquisition. Lev Vygotsky’s Social Constructivism (1978) claims that the relationships and interaction that humans develop between each other are the foundations for effective functional learning communities. Interaction is described as the source of knowledge acquisition and experience advancement. The five values that shape my teaching philosophy are worked and found within human interaction. Social Constructivism offers the best scenario to teach diversity, respect, creativity, effective communication, and kindness. John B. Watson is father to the Behaviorist Theory (1930) to which Ivan Pavlov added his own Classical Conditioning theory/approach. I firmly believe in designing educational, learning environments that target the values and the curricular material that must be taught. Conditioning the classroom is done through the management plan, instructional plan, and design of learning activities. Offering the students, a conditioned atmosphere that will direct them towards their and the teacher’s goals. Every strategy in my philosophy considers the student’s affective factors and current circumstances.