Philosophy of Education Reflection

My experiences in my undergraduate and graduate work, in addition to my current

teaching position, have helped me to come to the beliefs that are outline in my philosophy of
education.
In my philosophy, I stated that I believe for true learning to occur, a classroom
environment should be one in which students feel comfortable. In my class last year, I had a
student who was very shy. It takes her time to warm up to her teachers and to become
comfortable in the class. Last year, when she first started in our class, she was not familiar with
me or the other teacher. Once we were able to break her out of her shell and get to know her, her
performance in the class increased dramatically. Thus, I believe it is important for students to
feel comfortable.
I also included in my philosophy that students should feel welcome and like an important
member to the classroom. Further, the classroom should feel like a joint community of learners.
This is another aspect of the classroom that I feel is vital to student learning. I included this in
my philosophy because I have seen how successful classrooms with this type of feel are. In this
type of classrooms, students feel comfortable in sharing their ideas and making mistakes. Both of
these are crucial to student learning. Additionally, in this type of classroom, students have
positive, educational interactions with one another. Thus this type of environment is conducive
to the type of student interactions that will allow learning to occur. During my student teaching, I
observed in a classroom where the students all felt comfortable sharing their ideas. Each student
had a voice in the classroom and the students learned from one another. It was a very positive
atmosphere that lent itself to learning.

My philosophy also stresses the importance of engaging, challenging, and studentcentered instruction. I have observed lessons where the students were highly engaged and were
given the opportunity to interact with their classmates in order to complete a task. I have also
observed lessons where the teacher lectured and gave direct instruction and then had the students
work independently on follow-up work. From my experiences, I have learned that students learn
better when they are given the opportunity to manipulate and interact with the material in their
own way. Further, they benefit from discussing and working with their classmates. Thus, my
classroom employs student-centered and engaging instruction.
The last part of my philosophy statement focuses on teachers being lifelong learners.
When I graduated from undergrad, I felt confident and prepared to enter a classroom and start
teaching immediately. Throughout my graduate work, I learned new strategies, approaches, and
techniques to apply to my teaching. These new strategies and approaches continually improved
my instruction and in turn my students achievement. Further, I am always conversing with my
colleagues, sharing and receiving new ideas. I also learn from the lessons I teach. I learn which
ones work with my students and which dont, I learn how integrate my students interests in my
lessons, and I learn what strategies work best with my students. All of this learning improves my
instruction, which in turn benefits my students. Thus, being a lifelong learner and seeking
learning opportunities is crucial to my students success.