Personal Teaching Philosophy
I believe that children are: creative, capable and collaborators. These words are the main means to influencing my practices, pedagogy and personal teaching philosophy.
The two main theorists that inform and inspire me are Vygotsky and Reggio Emilia.
Children are creative learners, this can be prominently observed in the young years, children learn, investigate and explore through play using their imagination.
The view that children are creative can be seen in today’s literature.
Teachers are to respect each child’s individuality so they feel ‘confident to express their own ideas or variations’ (Nixon & Gould, 2005). For teachers it is important to encourage and nurture the creativity in children and respect their ideas as it has been seen there is ‘a drop in creative confidence during the school years’ (Nixon & Gould, 2005). Therefore for my teaching practices and pedagogies, I will encourage children to use their imagination while exploring, problem solving and investigating new activities and ideas. I will provide activities that challenge their thinking. Also providing a range of art activities and resources so they can express themselves and use their imaginations to create artwork, music, dance or drama.
I believe that children are capable, and as this is my belief I would provide opportunities for my students to solve their problems and complete challenging tasks. However, for students to be capable teachers need to set them up for success, giving them the skills and knowledge required.
Humans are social beings, we learn from each other. Vygotsky believes that through interaction, conversation and experimentation children increase their skills and accomplished their goals together (Mooney, 2000, p.94). This shows that children work collaboratively when they interact with others and they work as a team to reach the goal. An example may be filling a bucket full of sand. Both children desire to reach this goal and they collaboratively take turns putting spade fulls of sand into the bucket.
Rogoff believes in ‘guided participation’, which can be interpreted as when the adult assists children to reach a goal they couldn’t achieve on their own (Arthur, 2007, p.95). This is collaboration with educators, where both the child and educator work together to achieve a common goal.
This means that my teaching practices and pedagogies would incorporate strategies that use social learning and interaction, such as cooperative learning. I would also work collaboratively with the children to design lessons and activities which align to their interests.
Seeing children grow in their knowledge, explore the world, excitement in discovering new information and accomplishing tasks is what motivates me as a teacher.
References
Arthur, L. (2007). Programming & Planning in Early Childhood settings fourth edition. Cengage Learning Australia.
Mooney, C. G. (2000). An introduction to: Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget & Vygotsky. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.
Nixon, D. & Gould, K. (2005). Emerging: Children development in the first 3 years.
The two main theorists that inform and inspire me are Vygotsky and Reggio Emilia.
Children are creative learners, this can be prominently observed in the young years, children learn, investigate and explore through play using their imagination.
The view that children are creative can be seen in today’s literature.
Teachers are to respect each child’s individuality so they feel ‘confident to express their own ideas or variations’ (Nixon & Gould, 2005). For teachers it is important to encourage and nurture the creativity in children and respect their ideas as it has been seen there is ‘a drop in creative confidence during the school years’ (Nixon & Gould, 2005). Therefore for my teaching practices and pedagogies, I will encourage children to use their imagination while exploring, problem solving and investigating new activities and ideas. I will provide activities that challenge their thinking. Also providing a range of art activities and resources so they can express themselves and use their imaginations to create artwork, music, dance or drama.
I believe that children are capable, and as this is my belief I would provide opportunities for my students to solve their problems and complete challenging tasks. However, for students to be capable teachers need to set them up for success, giving them the skills and knowledge required.
Humans are social beings, we learn from each other. Vygotsky believes that through interaction, conversation and experimentation children increase their skills and accomplished their goals together (Mooney, 2000, p.94). This shows that children work collaboratively when they interact with others and they work as a team to reach the goal. An example may be filling a bucket full of sand. Both children desire to reach this goal and they collaboratively take turns putting spade fulls of sand into the bucket.
Rogoff believes in ‘guided participation’, which can be interpreted as when the adult assists children to reach a goal they couldn’t achieve on their own (Arthur, 2007, p.95). This is collaboration with educators, where both the child and educator work together to achieve a common goal.
This means that my teaching practices and pedagogies would incorporate strategies that use social learning and interaction, such as cooperative learning. I would also work collaboratively with the children to design lessons and activities which align to their interests.
Seeing children grow in their knowledge, explore the world, excitement in discovering new information and accomplishing tasks is what motivates me as a teacher.
References
Arthur, L. (2007). Programming & Planning in Early Childhood settings fourth edition. Cengage Learning Australia.
Mooney, C. G. (2000). An introduction to: Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget & Vygotsky. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.
Nixon, D. & Gould, K. (2005). Emerging: Children development in the first 3 years.