I believe that learning involves constructing individual meanings about the world, as we interpret our experiences in particular situations. As learners, we act toward things on the basis of what meanings we place upon them, and such meanings are derived and interpreted through our interactions (direct and indirect) with others and our environment. As an educational psychology and research methods teacher, such a learning philosophy places considerable emphasis upon being able to creatively and flexibly interact with learners to understand their individual and collective learning needs and to facilitate critical thinking for meaningful knowledge building. My primary task as an instructor is to facilitate connections between abstract conceptual learning and practical, authentic, and meaningful experience. When students complete a course, they should be able to understand what they learned and, more importantly, understand how it applies to their lives and the larger world.
Learning happens best when it involves a continuous and interactive cycle of planning, application, feedback, and reflection, and when it occurs among those who have built strong relationships through mutual respect and trust. Thus, classroom should be applied within a learning context that values the strengths that learners bring to the classroom. Meaningful project-based and applied experiences must be facilitated through cooperative and diverse learning strategies, including lecture, whole group and small group interaction, literature, audio and visual technology. In addition, I encourage an open exchange of feedback between myself and my students, as this communicates that I am learning along with them. I do this through class work that provides opportunity for students to give formative feedback to me and their colleagues, as well as activities that prompt personal reflection and renewal.
Teaching is an opportunity to learn and develop along with my students as a teacher educator and research methodologist. In my classes, I strive to provide an example for what it means to utilize “best practices” and facilitate an optimal learning environment for students. I do this by providing specific learning outcomes with a structured framework that enables student choice in determining how they will achieve these outcomes. In my human development and education course, my philosophy of learning informed the activities that I used to facilitate students’ mastery of day-to-day and long range course objectives. For instance, a practical component to this course enabled students to work primarily with educational and health-services professionals and students in a K-12 school environment. Activities included assisting, observing, and interviewing teachers, school counselors, or speech therapists and tutoring or counseling students throughout the semester. Regular student reflection occurred through individual journal writing, whole and small group discussions of readings, and student-led multimedia presentations of relevant material. Classroom activities were designed to encourage students to engage in and reflect on classroom readings, discussions, and presentations and make connections between the theoretical concepts and practical application of teaching and learning. Such engagement and reflection enabled students to discover and question diverse beliefs about how children learn and develop. In addition, the mix of theory and practice in the classroom encouraged students’ to explore how their own beliefs, and the practices which inform them, may influence children’s/students’ self- conceptions as learners, as well as what it means to be a successful student. It is in this way that I believe future educators come to understand the extraordinary responsibility they assume as K-12 teachers and appreciate the impact they have on the future of our society.
My beliefs inform an instructional framework
which values the strengths that all individuals bring to the classroom; promotes
an open and non-threatening classroom environment; encourages the respectful
exchange of ideas; acknowledges diverse ways of thinking; utilizes a diversity
of activities; recognizes the importance of context, dialogue, and meaning
in the learning process. These are the ideals for which I strive to reach
as a teacher of future educators and teacher-researchers, so that my students
may find and use their strengths to contribute to our society in meaningful
ways.