PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
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Knowledge is Constructed
I believe that knowledge is constructed, and I will strive to provide opportunities for my students to construct their own knowledge and practice the skills modeled for them.
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"I doubt very much if it is possible to teach anyone to understand anything, that is to say, to see how various parts of it relate all the other parts, to have a model of the structure in one's mind. We can give other people names, and lists, but we cannot give them our mental structures; they must build on their own" (Holt, 1964, 145).
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"A child who has really learned something can use it, and does use it. It is connected with reality in his mind, therefore he can make other connections between it and reality when the chance comes. A piece of unreal learning has no hooks on it; it can't attach to anything, it is of no use to the learner " (Holt, 1964, 169).
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Learning is Social
I believe that learning is social and students will be given the opportunity to ask questions of the teacher and peers; they will have opportunities to collaboratively work in small groups on authentic activities.
"As people (adults and children) talk and act together, minds are under constant construction, particularly for the novice and the young (Tharp, 2000, 44).
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Authentic Activities
I believe that the classroom should include authentic, real-world activities and projects for students to practice their skills and continue constructing their knowledge.
"It was the school itself, boring, threatening, cut off from any real experience or serious purpose, that made them [students] dumb" (Holt, 1964, 176).
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6 Standards of Effective Pedagogy
I will strive to include at least 3 of these standards in every lesson I teach.
1. Joint Productive Activity: the teacher and a small group of students collaborating together on a shared product
2. Language and Literacy Development: employing sustained opportunities to speak, read, and write with assistance
3. Contextualization: activating students' knowledge from prior experience, home, and community to learn new content
4. Challenging Activities: challenging students toward cognitive complexity
5. Instructional Conversation: the teacher engaging a small group of students in a sustained, goal-directed, academic conversation
6. Critical Stance: teaching to transform inequities through democracy and civic engagement
(Teemant, 2015)
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Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
I believe that learning can only occur when it is within a student's zone of proximal development, and I will strive to tailor lessons to fit within this zone, so students can move from the known to the unknown.
When activities are challenging, they are within the zone of proximal development, which allows students to build upon their prior knowledge and expand it to include the new knowledge being taught. If activities are not within the zone of proximal development, then they are too easy, which results in boredom, or they are too hard, which results in failure (Wink & Putney, 2002).
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Gradual Release
I believe that students should be scaffolded as they learn new skills; I will strive to incorporate the "I DO, WE DO, YOU DO" gradual release method in my lessons.
Please click here to learn more about gradual release.
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Formative Assessment
I believe that students need feedback in order to learn new skills; I will strive to provide formative assessment and feedback to my students during the learning process.
Formative assessment is "....a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students' achievement of intended instructional outcomes" (Popham, 2008, 5).
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References
Holt, J. (1964). How Children Fail. New York, NY: Merloryd Lawrence.
Popham, W. J. (2008). Transformative Assessment. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Tharp, R.G., Estrada, P., Dalton, S.S, & Yamauchi, L.A. (200). Teaching Transformed: Achieving Excellence, Fairness, Inclusion, and Harmony. Boulder, CO: Worldview Press.
Teemant, A. (2015). Living Critical Sociocultural Theory in Classroom Practice. Retrieved from http://minnetesoljournal.org/fall-2015/living-critical-sociocultural-theory-in-classroom-practice
Wink, J., & Putney, L. (2002). A Vision of Vygotsky. Boston, MA: Pearson.
