My Philosophy of Education

Education equals life

The American philosopher John Dewey once said that “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself” and I truly believe that life and education can not be simply detached or separated from one another as it is only through education one can create a tremendous influence on the outside world. Without effective and meaningful education, societies collapse and life loses its value!

Aims of education

I do believe that valuable education systems have the power of building a greater society with good citizens who really know their values, rights, and responsibilities. These are the systems which are not only meant for improving students’ knowledge but also their skills, personality, and attitude. Thus helping in the foundation of a generation of free thinkers, independent, creative, disciplined individuals who can effectively contribute to the progress and prosperity of their societies. 

Methods 

Children are curious by nature. They tend to ask lots of questions and almost want to try and discover new things. Therefore, learning by doing, experiential and discovery learning, and inquiry-based learning can help students in constructing new information that will be retained in their long-term memory. They will be capable of making connections with their previous experiences and background knowledge to build on them and figure out the overall idea or concept. In addition, involving students in practices plays an essential role in mastering the required skills and remembering the gained information for a longer period of time. So, in general, it is the student-centred approach and not the teacher-centred one that renders the learning process effective and fun at once. Here, I can recall the quote said by Benjamin Franklin: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I understand”. 

Curriculum 

I think that a good curriculum would be the one which enhances the learning experience of students through having:

• Measurable objectives that can be tested and that fall under the six cognitive levels of bloom’s taxonomy. 

• Interrelated subjects and contents as which students will be able to make connections between topics of the same subject and even between subjects themselves hence constructing meaningful ideas. 

• Differentiated strategies that respect the classroom diversity and hence meet the diverse needs, cognitive abilities, and interests of learners within the same class.

• Evaluation and assessments that are directly linked to the measurable learning outcomes as one cannot simply explain based on a thing and test over another. Evaluation may fall under various methods including simple questions, extra exercises, indoor as well as outdoor hands-on activities.

• Extra-curricular activities that deal with the development of student’s soft skills like leadership, public speaking, presentation, strategic planning, negotiation, time management, and many others that fall under professional development or motivates learners to invest in their hobbies and interests. 

This could be the one meant to develop students’ academic and personal/behavioural skills as well who will definitely lead their countries to a better future. 

Students’ and Teacher’s Role: Example 

I believe that students are responsible for building their own learning and thus I tend to play the role of a facilitator or guide and provide support when needed. The learners should always be the active members in the learning process instead of being passive or receptive; just like a sponge absorbing information given by the teacher and having to recite it at the end of that boring ever-lasting class. 

In teaching Biology, I use visuals or introduce a question to bring the students’ prior knowledge and experiences into action. So, based on the materials presented, they start making connections, come up with ideas, discuss them in groups, and share their findings with the class. I would be leading these discussions to reach a final conclusion about the topic presented. 

When dealing with experiments, a big problem/question will be introduced and I will ask students to formulate a hypothesis. A procedure is designed and the experiment can be either presented or done based on materials’ availability. The results will be presented and also discussed to come up with a conclusion validating the hypothesis tested. 

While solving exercises individually or in groups, I let them work on their own and would welcome any question or inquiry whenever they need support or guidance. 

In the end, learning is a continuous process and a necessity for self-improvement. As a teacher, I do welcome comments and I am always open to new suggestions or methods to improve my teaching skills and make learning biology fun and interesting for students who always wait for my classes.