Developing a Personal Philosophy of Teaching: A Reflective Essay

This essay presents a student's personal philosophy of teaching, exploring their approach to classroom practices, student engagement, and self-assessment. The student reflects on their teaching performance, analyzing the impact of student feedback and observation by senior colleagues. The essay details the student's methods for improving their teaching, including incorporating two-way communication, adapting to diverse learning styles, and embracing continuous learning. The student also discusses the process of being an observer, highlighting the impact of observation on both teachers and students. The essay emphasizes the importance of creating a supportive learning environment and fostering a strong teacher-student relationship to enhance learning outcomes. The student concludes by acknowledging the value of continuous self-reflection and adaptation in the journey of becoming a more effective educator.

PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY
OF TEACHING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
Analysis of my own performance................................................................................................4
Analysis about being observed....................................................................................................5
Process of being an observer.......................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
In the current time, human race is having a greater interest in the education sector. From
the evaluation is has been stated that teaching is considered as one of the oldest profession which
is been practised by the individual. A child is born with nil knowledge and with the time parents
become there first teachers to make them learn things about the life. Further, when he grow up
the teachers in the school help the children to learn with the basic skills such as to read, write and
to interact with other people. Thus it can be stated that teachers play an important role shaping
the lives of the people and make them an efficient person (Hechter, 2011). Further, the
importance of education is to develop with the individuals about the skills and tools which are
necessary to fulfil there dreams and become an independent person. The teachers are very
important element in the lives of the people as they educate them about the philosophies of the
life and help them to face there problems efficiently. Further, in this essay the reflective study is
made on the skills and knowledge which are required by an individual for becoming a successful
teacher.
Analysis of my own performance
As per my personal philosophy of teaching, I believe that learning is a product of several
influences which mainly involves different experiences, instructions and the learning gathered by
the educators (Spivak, 2011). Further, I think that learners are the ones which come up with the
set of needs and requirements from the classroom and learn from different things. Moreover, in
this context teachers play an important role in facilitating of learnings, creating opportunities of
learning which assist the students to learn many things for becoming successful in the future.
After delivering the session in the college, I can assess my performance level by seeing the
positive reaction of the students (My Personal Philosophy of Teaching and Learning – Education
Essay. 2016). I think they were just waiting for my lecture to complete as they started asking the
questions regarding the topic which was a positive sign for the performance level of mine. I
believe that every teacher must adopt the two way communication in the lecture as it will help to
maintain the student's interest towards the topic. Thus my effort is to interact with every person
so as to make sure that the certain topic is been understood by everyone in the class. I also
believe that the process of learning is highly multifaceted which is unique to every student in the
class. Further, for improving my delivering skills I also ask for the feedbacks so as to learn from
that certain task. Moreover, I also believe that it is very crucial to recognize and embrace with
the diversity which arises by delivering several lectures and learning from each of them
(McEwan, 2011). In addition to this, I learn from different other things such as by the
environment, interaction with the different people and from the questions asked by the students.
This help me brush up my skills and knowledge which enhances with my capability of
performing in future. I think that to earn the respect of the students it is important to value each
one of them and make efforts to understand there need and there dreams so as to help them to
fulfil. My philosophy of learning welcomes to each experiences and value with the learning
gathered from different means which may help me to develop my knowledge. Further, I try to

make an efficient atmosphere in the class so that every person sitting there is comfortable and
enjoying the lecture (Matthews, 2012). I also feel that at time I do not take some things
supportingly which may effect my personality as a teacher because the core motive of the teacher
is to help the students with there problems and listen to there view points being a good listener.
Finally, after giving with lecture I may conclude that I was good enough in understanding the
students about the topic and was successful in gaining the interest by every student present in the
class. This assist me to get motivated and work on my weak points so as to deliver my lecture in
more efficient manner.
Analysis about being observed
I personally believe that students learn more efficiently if they are allowed to learn freely
without any interference. There is a very big difference in observing and being observed. I
mostly use to teach according to size of class and their interest level (Korn, 2012). When any
senior use to observe the teaching method, I feel somewhat nervous. My senior also observed me
teaching to the students as per their interests. I used motivating techniques; practical examples
etc. so that students can learn easily and grasp the concept behind any topic in easier way. My
observers found my teaching method quite flexible and very professional. They have also
pointed out that I should give all students the chance of representing their learned skills. They
also mentioned that sometimes I am not a good listener as I was not listening the view points of
students which was my biggest weakness in the whole teaching method (Westbury, Hopmann,
and Riquarts, 2012). This thing which was pointed by them was very true about me. I also feel
that it is necessary to be a good listener for becoming a good teacher so that a fine relation can be
maintained between teacher and students. This relation between both teacher and students help in
establishing a better understanding where students can freely ask their doubts and learn easily.
This point given by my observers helped me a lot to find out my weakness and work upon it.
After getting this feedback from my observers, I started working on it to bring the
improvement. Praeg, (2011) asserts that the person can make improvements in himself/ herself
only when he/ she realises it. Along with this, it is also necessary that after realising, a person
should make efforts to make changes and bring improvements so that weakness can be turned
into strengths. I believe that the parameter for evaluating a teacher’s success is the extent to
which a student has learned the concept from teacher. Therefore, I started another method of
teaching so that I can also listen them. I started giving case studies to the students and asked
them to solve it by assuming the roles and situations given in case as original. This helped me in
knowing their knowledge level and also viewpoints according to which they were applying
knowledge in solving case problems. Besides this, I also started interacting more with students so
that I can personally know them along with their interests (Daichendt, 2010). By knowing the
interest levels of my students i was able to plan the learning methods and lesson plans in a better
way. Thus, the comments given by the observer helped me in improving my skills of teaching in
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more professional way. Apart from this, I also discussed with my observers so that I can have
more guidance in improving myself. It built my confidence level a well because of which I was
more presentable before students (Soccorsi, 2013). Thus, the feedback of observers helped a lot
in becoming professional. Besides this, the students also learned a better way of learning and
became more open with me in learning process.
Process of being an observer
To be an observer in teaching process is a very different experience. As per Rao, Savsani
and Vakharia, (2012) it needs a lot of knowledge to observe someone as we are assessing their
abilities and strength. This also includes pointing out any weakness and shortfall in them so that
they can be provided with a right feedback which can help them in making improvements.
Therefore observing someone is also a difficult task which should be fulfilled in a proper way.
For becoming an observer, it was necessary to know various points on which focus should be
laid upon so that proper observation can be given (Daichendt, 2010). For this, a pre observation
meeting was arranged. The main agenda of meeting was to give important instructions on
observation process so that every observer may know the important points that should be kept in
consideration while observing. Apart from this, the meeting was well arranged before the
teaching session because of which everyone had enough time to discuss about the whole process.
All observers mutually decided the important points about the process and decided the criteria
for observation (Westbury, Hopmann and Riquarts,2012). Thus, we made a good preparation
before the observation process to have better results.
After the observation process was started, I started noticing both students and the
teachers. I found that students were somewhat more conscious after knowing that they are being
observed. For instance I found that students were sitting more carefully concentrating on their
books which was not like regular. Besides this, they were asking more questions from teacher so
as to show their attentiveness to us. This had a good effect as well because this made them to be
more attentive and dedicated towards learning (Korn, 2012). Being an observer was also a good
experience for me. I learned that students can be made more attentive when they feel that they
are being observed by someone. Moreover, their enthusiasm also gets more when they are
attentive and hence they use to behave positively. Next time also, I would like to become an
observer but in different manner. Next time I will assure that both students and teachers remain
unaware about observation process so that their real reaction can be known. Thus, I think this
time also I should have kept this approach in the pre observation meeting. I also pointed out
some of the weaknesses in teaching methods and suggested them for the solution as well. In this
way, the whole process of observation went.
CONCLUSION
The teaching is a process where both teaching and learning exists at the same time. While
teaching, a person also learns something. The present report on personal philosophy of teaching
reflects the same. The report has discussed that I use to teach students in various ways so that
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they can have the vast knowledge of the concept in a better way. Besides this, it also helped me
in improving my knowledge level also. During this process, I interacted with students as well so
that a better communication can be developed between teacher and student. In the whole
scenario, I played the role of teacher where observer observed my skills and also made some
useful recommendation like to be a good listener. Along with this, I also played the role of
observer where I observed the teaching sessions and noticed that behaviour of students change
when they are aware of being observed. Thus, it is a necessary aspect of teaching that there
should be a close relation between teachers and students so that no knowledge gap can originate
in the way.
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REFERENCES
Journals and Books
Daichendt, G.J., 2010. Artist-teacher: A philosophy for creating and teaching. Intellect Books.
Hechter, R. P., 2011. Changes in preservice elementary teachers’ personal science teaching
efficacy and science teaching outcome expectancies: The influence of context. Journal of
Science Teacher Education. 22(2). pp.187-202.
Hellison, D. R., 2011. Teaching personal and social responsibility through physical activity.
Human Kinetics.
Korn, J.H., 2012. Writing and developing your philosophy of teaching. Effective college and
university teaching: Strategies and tactics for the new professoriate, pp. 71-79.
Matthews, M.R., 2012. Time for science education: How teaching the history and philosophy of
pendulum motion can contribute to science literacy (Vol. 8). Springer Science & Business
Media.
McEwan, H., 2011. Narrative reflection in the philosophy of teaching: Genealogies and
portraits. Journal of Philosophy of Education. 45(1). pp. 125-140.
Praeg, L., 2011. Philosophy, and teaching (as) transformation. South African Journal of
Philosophy .30(3). pp. 343-359.
Rao, R.V., Savsani, V.J. and Vakharia, D.P., 2012. Teaching–learning-based optimization: an
optimization method for continuous non-linear large scale problems. Information Sciences.
183(1). pp. 1-15.
Soccorsi, L., 2013. Instilling a personal teaching philosophy in pre-service teachers: Vitally
important but not always easy to achieve. Journal of Student Engagement: Education
matters. 3(1). pp. 21-28.
Spivak, G. C., 2011. An aesthetic education in the era of globalization.
Westbury, I., Hopmann, S. and Riquarts, K. eds., 2012. Teaching as a reflective practice: The
German Didaktik tradition. Routledge.
Online
My Personal Philosophy of Teaching and Learning – Education Essay. 2016. [Online].
Available through: <http://www.freeonlineresearchpapers.com/personal-philosophy-
teaching-learning>. [Accessed on 16th December 2016].
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