What Kind of Teacher Are You?

Good Evening!

During the beginning of the week the class was told to complete an Educational Philosophies Self Assessment. The assessment consisted of 40 different statements about education, student learning, behavior, theories, and other ideas related to education. After reading the statement, you are to choose a number from one to five, one being strongly disagree and five being strongly agree, based on how you feel about the statement. Based on the numbers that you have chosen for the question, you will be able to find out your educational philosophy and philosophical orientation (according to the assessment). I am sure many people have disagreed with their outcomes.

After finishing the assessment, it had considered my answers to correlate with the cognitivism/constructivism approach to education. According to the assessment, this means that I believe "The learner actively constructs his or her own understandings of reality through acting upon and reflecting on experiences in the world. When a new object, event, or experience does not fit the learner's present knowing structures, a conflict is provoked that requires an active quest to restore a balance. Teachers facilitate environmental conditions and mediate experiences to support student learning." I must say, I do agree with this statement. I cannot say that it is the only thing that I believe in because I do feel that many other aspects of other approaches are beneficial to learning, but I do feel this theory fits my personal philosophy well.

 

Personally, I feel that experience is the most beneficial aspect of education. The more hands on experiences a student has, the more the student will understand. Think of it this way. Someone can consistently explain to you how to tie your shoes, but until you experience it, until you personally attempt to tie your shoes, you will never fully learn how to tie shoes. Once you have experienced it, and you have completed the task successfully, the task becomes learned and remembered.

Having experiences also allows students to build a connection between the knowledge and the activity that coincides with it. This in turn, will give the students opportunities for easier recall of information. Rather than try to remember the page the information was read off of, or what the teacher said, the student will refer back to the memory of the activity that had been instilled in his or her mind.

Even though my primary focus of education is experiences and activities, I do feel as if it is extremely important for students to be taught traditionally as well. There are so many methods of teaching that an educator can use to help students learn. It all depends on the students that are placed in your class, and how you interpret their learning techniques.