Education Philosophy and Rationale

Education Philosophy and Rationale

Teaching has been a tradition in our family. As a kid, I grew up with my aunt being an elementary education and my grandma as a teacher in preschool. It started with my grandmother in her late 30’s, teaching kindergarten in Taiwan. My mom use to tell me how great of a teacher she was. She would always find ways to make every student to be involved in her classroom. Other teachers in campus would always ask my grandmother for advices and strategy. Her philosophy was simple; to keep the classroom entertained for her students to learn. My grandma believed children have very short patient. In order to catch all her student’s attention, sometimes she would try to be funny or joke around with her students. Her jokes and entertainments was another strategy to make student learn. She would relate topic in classroom in her jokes to make learning easy and fun. My grandma believed being different is the only way to bring out the best of a child. To me, I see my grandma as a legend. There was nothing special about her philosophy but only to be herself. Learning from her and my aunt, I understand the value of learning, and helped me build a passion to educate, and learn from students who my life will be a part of and theirs. For this reason and a few others, I have decided to become a teacher. Educator needs a starting point to understand why we think and act the way we do in our classrooms. Educator’s needs to be able to understand how are teachers made and why some teacher has different views in educating than the others. Teachers have their own philosophy to educate students. It makes learning easier; if teachers apply their own values and beliefs in the classroom. Before we discover our beliefs, we would have to know what type of philosophy best fit a future educator. Education has a purpose. Teacher is responsible to teach every kid who are enrolling in school. Teacher’s goals should be; to teach the basic knowledge a student needs to know so they can move on to the next level of education. Education should not be something that should be forced into anyone, but as future teacher, I would suggest education to everyone. However, I do not believe education is for everyone. Some people feel that having the basic knowledge is good enough to survive, other believe learning has no ending to it. I believe learning don’t have an ending. We learn something new each day. My teaching philosophy is to open the minds of every one of my students so they can have deeper thoughts into my question. It gives student the opportunity to find the answer themselves rather than guiding them through the question. This can cause argument or debate with students but in reality, student are arguing for the best answer to be right, which it’s a good practice for student to think and learn from other people’s idea and use that to improve their own answer. I want to build confident in my student to succeed in class. I do not believe every child is in the same learning speed, but I do feel that each one of my student are able to find their own way of understanding their own strategy to improve their learning knowledge. This type of philosophy in teaching makes me Metaphysics and an Axiology as my ways of teaching. My philosophy do not include much of Epistemology and Logic. Not because I don’t believe in it, but I see myself more as Metaphysics and an Axiology. Epistemology are often use in classes because teacher are suppose to teach student the ways to succeed in life. Student starts learning from the teacher body language then the actual teaching. We as teacher have to make sure what we say or do have to be appropriate for others to hear or see. As much I don’t include Epistemology as my philosophy in teaching, I believe I am using epistemology as a philosophy in teaching without me realizing it. Logic works the same way, it’s the essential in all areas of life, I teach student to think more logically to find the best answers. Logic can be proven in many ways. In class, student’s mission is to find the best logic for each answer I given, Outside of class, student uses logic to make the best decision. I disagree teacher only uses one philosophy to teach their student. I believe every teacher uses a little of each philosophy to put together their own ways of teaching. My education philosophy in the classroom is simply. I am aware that classroom has students that use one of more ways of learning, and I plan to integrate these various ways throughout my teaching. I want my students to learn in a way they are comfortable with, not to compete with other people but themselves. With my ambition to reveal other ways of learning, I feel I can open more options for students to become successful. I will also bring out the traditional academics in my classroom. I believe student needs to know the basic, common facts for rational and even emotional development. Finally, I will create a fun, be- yourself type of atmosphere in the classroom to give student a chance to be who they are. The atmosphere has to be enjoyable for the mind to only focus on learning. I plan on having activities that involve group games and creative projects. Although, I want my student to have as much freedom in class, there will be rules and conduct to follow for disciplinary actions and behaviors. I want my students to feel free to explore their creative sides, but also have student to participate creative lessons such as art and writing. I will base my program of study on truthful facts because I feel that such traditional teachings will supply elementary student’s stability and durability. Teaching should be a fun and enjoyable for the teacher and students. My theory is just to have fun and learn as much as you can from the school and the teachers. As an elementary educator I will conduct myself with a positive attitude as a motivated leader in my classroom. I will understand each one of my students and guide them to explore deeply in education. My goal is to see my student to become successful throughout my philosophy in teaching and pursue a higher education as they aged. Overall, I am passionate to become an elementary teacher. I am eager to work for the school system. I want to be become an inspiration to students as much as my aunt and grandmother did. I want my students to know they can be anything they want, as long as they put in the effort. I want to keep this tradition alive in my family and hopefully pass down to the next generation. I believe everyone has a mission in life. I can’t thank enough to my family and teachers that help me find that mission. Hopefully after college, I will soon find a school that I can give dedication too, and become one of a million teachers that touches each childs life with education and motivation.

Reference * Gutek, General Lee (2009) new perspectives on philosophy and education. Upper Saddle
River, New Jersey; Pearson Education Inc. * LeoNora M Cohen & Gelbrich Judy (1999) School of education, OSU http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/ed416/sample.html * Ornstein, A. C., & Levine, D. U. (2006). Foundations of education (9th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.