TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

ROLE STRUCTURING: DUG DEEPER

In courses Field Study 1 and 2, I have crafted a teaching philosophy that gives emphasis to the structure of roles which serves as a core of teaching and learning process. Role structuring is a key concept that highlights differentiated responsibilities of a classroom teacher other than just pure teaching portrayed through different personalities, moods, and characteristics. This philosophy is equivalent on providing differentiated instructions on tasks and assessments, however, the differences are found on what specific role must be portrayed on a specific time, specific event and specific need.

In this course, ED 218 - Teaching Internship in Secondary Schools, I have crafted a teaching philosophy which is an improved version of role structuring. This teaching philosophy is influenced by the thoughts on feedbacks from the observations made by my mentors and colleagues as well as the reflections on the total experience during the internship period. This philosophy has three distinct characteristics: (1) relatability of the role to the context of learner, (2) specification of roles to different parts of the lesson, and (3) preparation.

In providing quality education for the learners, I strongly believe that it is not the curriculum or the system alone that has the power to give it to the learners, but the capacity of the teachers to change their being from one persona to another. This explains relatability of the role to the context of learner. Based on how I observed my learners from the series of classes we had, I noticed that the mood of learners really are dependent onto the mood of the teacher. Thus, the response they provide is actually a reflection of how they relate on you as a teacher. The more that the teacher exerts energy in discussion, the more that the learners enjoy the class and become more active in participating.

This implies that teachers are obliged to know the personalities and attribute of their learners to have the idea on what approach suits them best.

For specification of roles to the different parts of the lesson, this is highly reflective to the flow of the class with consideration to how things are being divided. Since the school offers blended learning, learners answer their learning activity sheets and at the same time attend their online class. Upon reading the modules, I have observed different moods being set for different parts by analyzing the level of complexity for each tasks which some takes longer time to answer and some takes shorter time. For example, a module for Araling Panlipunan is divided into parts such as: Pre-Activity, Motivation, Abstraction, Application, Assessment and Reflection. The mood being set for each part is identifiable based on what specific part the learners have decided to provide answers. So I applied this observation and analysis when I handled my virtual encounters and limited face to face class. The thing I did was to provide tasks for every part accompanied by the different mood I give in reading instructions. As different moods are identified to be of different personality, learners reaction are also differentiated. Then the response to the activities comes out with a difference on how they comprehend the instructions, the quality of their work, and the scores.

This means that teachers should practice the eventual changing of personality that makes each part of the lesson to be more comfortable for learners. The role structure here is being defined as the ability to shift from one mood to another, with consistency to the amount of knowledge being delivered to the learners.

This too points out that quality education is best realized with a specification of roles that relates to the context of learners.

However, the practice is not happening in a glimpse of the eye. The best outcomes are yield when it is accompanied with a good preparation. A teacher's work as anchored in this philosophy is similar to the usual preparation just like lesson planning, instructional material designing, assessment making and evaluating, the only thing being added is the after review made once all the necessary things to be used are prepared. The teacher reads the lesson plan and thinks of the approach that best suit the delivery. The teacher analyzes and revises the way the class will be handled.

In short, the preparation is the realization on how the plans will be executed in different personalities considering different images and roles.

Moreover, this teaching philosophy works with any of the methods and strategies to be employed by the teacher. The thing is, it focuses not on the actual practice, but on the manner of how things are felt which we as teachers found be inevitable and unconsciously taking place. Logic wise, it makes us think of these manners and the awareness becomes a factor for a more effective execution of the pedagogy.

As a conclusion, I believe that the teaching and learning process becomes more effective as learners does not only experience actual learning but realizes and feels the personal connection they got with their teacher in various aspects of themselves. Thus, this teaching philosophy is being pushed thinking that for effective learning to happen, teachers should not solely rely on what the curriculum requires, on what is available, on what is convenient, but should think of something that is bigger and better because no teaching methods are best executed without the teacher thinking of what personality best suits the act and no better impact is to happen with a single role being portrayed.