Karina Diaz

EDUC 230 Field Experience

Professor Schirner

Personal Philosophy of Teaching and Learning Assignment

EDUC 230 Education Field Experience

My personal education philosophy of teaching and learning is to see that the children are

achieving their goals and becoming empowered into a learning environment. As a future

educator entering the education field my goal is recognize all students as individuals and

recognizing that every child learns in their own unique way. I feel that every child is special,

with unique mixture of abilities and needs that affect learning. Every child deserves a chance to

express themselves, have opportunities to learn in ways that make their strengths known, and

help each child overcome any weaknesses. I like to emphasize diversity because each child

brings a diverse world view into the classroom. I will use multiple methods of teaching and

consider different learning styles and disabilities, so no child feels excluded. It is important to be

patient, compassionate, and a supportive role-model to help students reach their maximum

potential.

After doing observation in a preschool and a second-grade classroom and getting to know

the teachers and the students, I have arrived at a realization in how their methods will help shape

my decisions as a future teacher and for my future students. Learning about inclusion

classrooms and seeing firsthand how unique each child can be because they each develop

differently. I learned that in the Early Childhood environment children have a vast imagination

and are looking for a place where they can learn and be able to express themselves freely at the

same time. Connecting with students is essential to helping students learn. For my future

students I know I would make it priority to getting to know them by seeing what their interests
are, to what they like and what they dislike, and about their family will all benefit me as a

teacher. Having children see that I as a teacher understand them will bring positive atmosphere

into the classroom and have them open to learning. This attitude will help students succeed.

For me as a future teacher I am profoundly influenced by the works of the American

philosopher John Dewey. His works has correlated between my thoughts of being a progressive

educator and believing that the student is the center focus when comes to their academics

learning. Progressivism fits best with my beliefs because it is suitable for all age groups. I

believe that children should be taught to the highest success where students are motivated by

their own interests for them to want to learn. I want to be able to see progress in learning for

each child so I can assess and then evaluate to take them to the next level. Dewey’s belief that

children are socially active human beings and are eager to explore the environment, shines

purpose to my philosophy in my classroom because students in my classroom should be free to

explore their environment to help them get a sense of comfortableness with hands-on learning

opportunities. Piaget’s learning theory of children is another that I would embrace into my

classroom. It is important as an educator to understand that every child at different ages develop

and grow differently. At each new stage as Piaget addresses children develop new mental

abilities that enables them reconstruct the concept they learned at an earlier stage, but this time

the they will be able to grasp the knowledge in a more complex way (Ornstein, Levine, Gutek, &

Vocke, 2017).

As a teacher, my role is to create a warm environment in the classroom. I want children

to feel as welcoming and comfortable, relaxed as possible with intention for children learn

content. Classroom will be structured with routines and have consistency because when routines

are given to children at young age, they able to become more independent. Fostering an
environment where every child’s physical, social, emotional, and intellectual needs are being met

is a top priority for the classroom. Children will be engaged, enjoying subject matter, interested,

and wanting to challenge themselves. Students will be listening and responding to other students

in an appropriate manner. Students will be making appropriate choices in the classroom. As a

teacher I would be actively listening to children opinions and thoughts. I would ask questions

about their thoughts and support their thinking. Students in the classroom will be encouraged to

voice their thoughts because for me I feel like children should be heard and express themselves.

They are an important part of life and with the right teacher that is knowledge, confident, and

approachable they can be driven to success to be shaped into anything they want to be.

Reference:

Ornstein, A. C., Levine, D. U., Gutek, G., & Vocke, D. E. (2016). Foundations of

education (13th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.