EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY

I believe that the purpose of schools is to educate students in an engaging and community-oriented setting. Engagement and community are so important to schools because it can encourage students to be more involved and achieve higher rates of success. Making classrooms more engaging can allow for more students to become self-regulated learners and in turn more motivated. Slavin explains that when students are taught “specific self-regulation strategies in which they learn to think strategically and evaluate their own efforts and outcomes,” (252) there is an enhancement of learning. This additional elevation is so important because every student has a different family life and scope of social and cultural capital as well as socioeconomic status. By cultivating classrooms where students are excited to learn, it levels the playing field a bit to make education a more equitable institution. While it cannot bridge the entirety of the education gap, making classrooms safe, inclusive, and fun environments can work as a step to someday get to that point.

As far as cognition and motivation in the classroom, I believe that the best way to achieve the greatest success is through student centered, constructivist teaching. By building off of Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s focus on the social nature of learning, constructivism creates dynamic classrooms. Specifically, I believe that social learning, zone of proximal development and cognitive apprenticeship are most important to increase enthusiasm and work ethic in the classroom. First, Vygotsky believed that successful problem solvers talk themselves through difficult problems, which students do through social learning. This allows children to hear their own thoughts out loud and learn how other students think through their approaches. Not only does social learning help students engage with course content in a more intriguing way, but it helps grow interpersonal communication and teamwork. By considering the zone of proximal development when teaching, it ensures that students are working within their abilities but can strive beyond limitation of their own development through help of a teacher or peers. While teaching I will keep in mind that if a student can complete a task with guidance, that concept is in their zone of proximal development and with enough practice they will soon be able to complete it on their own. This raises students’ confidence in their abilities and encourages to continue to work at problems they might now get right away. Similarly, by working through cognitive apprenticeship, not only do students learn from their peers, but those who are helping other students will understanding the material even more. Each of these come together to allow ample discovery learning. Discovery learning encourages students to learn through their own active involvement with ideas and to work through these concepts with independently conducted experiences or experiments which I believe is the most efficient and exciting way for students to learn.

In regard to social aspects and issues of identities in school, I believe that is just as important to consider how to incorporate culturally responsive teacher to represent a wider range of diversity in the classroom to make students feel more comfortable. If students feel isolated from their peers due to their race, ethnicity, gender expression or sexuality, they will not succeed to their potential or be as active of a participant in discussions. Erikson’s stages of personal and social development break down how identity influences performance in school. In stage four, students ages 6 to 12 experience industry versus inferiority which explores success and failure. If students succeed, they have greater sense of industry and confidence. The opposite goes for failure – if students build this low self-esteem it will likely continue as they grow older and will have to work on fixing these issues later in life. These shifts are even stronger depending on a student’s confidence in their identity. I believe that it is important to help lift students up to reach their best effort if they need the extra support in regard to embracing their identity and cultural background. These issues of diversity in students become even greater in stage five, ages twelve to eighteen when teenagers experience identity versus role confusion. If students are being fed messages from white, Eurocentric cis/heteronormative perspectives whether it be direct or subliminally students will not feel valid if they identify outside of these labels. This can vary from sex education only focusing on heterosexual intercourse or only reading books in English class by white authors. By incorporating multicultural and diverse material into lessons and having students discuss their own experiences and connect class topics to their own life, it can help students feel comfortable in their identity and find their own place in their school. This also fosters a sense of community between students and teachers.

Above all, when I am an educator, I will put engagement, community and comfort of the students at the forefront of my goals. A classroom where students feel marginalized or underrepresented does an injustice to all students. By incorporating lesson plans that allow for discovery learning let students have a creative independence that can make them more confident in their learning abilities. Keeping conversations about culture, race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality open and a safe space for students, rather than being taboo, can help them grow to be more confident in their own identity. While I have a great deal to learn about approaches to teaching and how to build meaningful relationships with students, helping students become confident in themselves and their abilities is the most important to me, and what I believe to be the most important to their success.