Educational Philosophy

By learning you will teach, by teaching you will learn.”- Latin Proverb

When asking a child what they learned in school that day, they will often respond with ‘nothing’.

The curriculum today is filled with so much content, but how useful is it within our daily lives? Would you recall how to work out long division 10 years after leaving school? Or the names of all the Australian Prime Ministers? How about the laws of physics? Chances are, if you do not pursue study within a certain area then the information is not used, and is in turn forgotten.

There is a theory of teaching, where the children are viewed as empty vessels (tabula rasa) that need to be filled with knowledge. Is there a point in filling them with knowledge which is forgotten soon after assessment? Children are capable of much more than rote learning and memorisation, and teachers can be the ones to maximise a child’s skills and prepare them for lifelong learning.

All children are intelligent in different ways. A range of teaching, learning and assessment strategies need to be in place to cater for all students. One example of taking this approach is using Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, which I have seen to be affective within schools and will be encouraging within my classroom practices. The use of contracts and choice in a variety of classroom situations allows children to take responsibility for their learning, and pursue the knowledge within their own way.

Through cooperative learning, students are not only responsible for their own learning, but also the learning of others. They take on different roles and responsibilities, and work together to form a common goal. When students sit in rows (as you often see in a traditional upper primary classroom setting), there is little opportunity for interaction between the children. How are they becoming prepared for a lifetime of working with others, by sitting on their own doing individual work all the time? In using cooperative learning within the classroom, students work together to discover questions and answers, and build upon skills such as communication, leadership, decision making, trust-building and conflict resolution.

In my classroom, I aim to bring an open mind, a positive attitude, and high expectations for all the students every day. I believe that I owe it to my class, as well as the community, to bring consistency, diligence, and warmth to my job in the hope that I can ultimately inspire and encourage such traits in the children as well. I hope children will leave my classroom to tell their parents ‘Today I learned something new’.