TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY.

Teaching is the process of imparting knowledge or instructing someone to do something. However, the process of teaching may not only involve knowledge, it may also include different forms such values, manners, skills, behaviors, traditions, and stories.

Although we often associate teaching with professions in the field of education, teaching is something that we all do. Parents teach their children how to eat properly; grandparents may teach their grand kids old stories; we all teach others something or the other. Teaching in an educational institute is undertaken by professionals such as instructors, teachers, tutors, professors, and lecturers. The teaching that takes place in educational institutes is structured. The educators have schedules, syllabus, and curriculum; the students are also categorized into different grades and classes according to their age or knowledge levels. Traditional teaching methods mainly include the educator lecturing the students and the students memorizing or writing down what is said by the educator. But contemporary teaching methods mostly involve the active participation of the learners – the students are made to learn through experimenting, self-study, and experience. Learning is the acquisition of knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences. The process of learning continues throughout all our lives – from the moment we are born to the moment we die. As babies, we learn to eat, to crawl, to walk, to talk, etc. and as we grow up we learn a wide range of other skills. This type of learning happens through observing, experimenting and experiencing.

My teaching philosophy is that learners learn best when they are in a positive learning environment where they feel welcomed, comfortable and safe with each other, in this way I try by all means to make my learners feel this way by constantly reassuring them and making them aware of their roles as learners in this way this creates a positive classroom for everyone. I make it a point that my learners know that they are here to make mistakes, this gives me an opportunity to be in touch with all their misconceptions and me as their teacher can rectify this. I try my utmost to make school an enjoyable activity to all my learners because of the experiences I have personally come across which made me not to be a fan of school.

Learners in the classroom comes from all walks of lives with different sets of values, characteristics as well as knowledge, it is my role as a teacher to be able to use all this information that I know of my learners to teach them things that they have to be taught based on the curriculum policy, also considering all this factors in my teaching shows that I do not take my learners to come to class as empty vessels, but I put their prior knowledge into consideration and I allow them to explore ways in which they are comfortable with learning. I personally believe that building a relationship that is more open minded with the learner promotes effective learning, because, in most cases, when the teacher is strict, learners are unable to open up and be themselves in the class, learning should liberate learners and allow them to be themselves. I also believe in allowing learners to make mistakes while also learning from the same mistakes. I personally create an environment where by learners are free to ask anything and are comfortable in being themselves without the fear of being judged or seen weak. Also, it is important for a teacher to always sets the outcomes of each lesson before starting the lesson in order to make learners aware of what they are intended on achieving and giving them the direction on reaching the goals of these lesson. I also believe in giving my learners fair assessment, which is important for me to reflect and see if my learners understood the work that was given to them. It is important for me as teacher to ensure that learners get a home work or classwork activity after every unit to ensure that they are well prepared for the summative assessments.

Incorporating different medias and strategies in my teaching is also important because learners learn differently, some learners learn by seeing, others learn by touching while others simply learn by listening, this is why in all my lesson, I find new exciting ways to teach my learners in order to make learning much easier and understandable for them.

The important aspect of teaching and learning also is providing feedback to my learners of their activities on time so that they can also have a record of their work and see areas on which they have to improve on.