Philosophy of Teaching and Learning

Aaron Shaw
In education today, there are many different styles of teaching that are present, and many are
based on theories presented by theorists like Vygotsky, Piaget and Bruner. Through readings and
classes in educational psychology, I have been able to formulate my own philosophy of teaching
that incorporates these theories, as well as other studies that specialize in teaching science and
math. Primarily, all students should have a chance to enjoy science, or any subject, which may
mean differentiated learning for different students or genders. Motivation is also important in
students learning, and students must be motivated in order to achieve success in school.
Problem-solving skills and cooperative elements are big parts of the learning process, especially
in science, and should be remembered while teaching. These ideas are expressed throughout my
philosophy and are backed up by prominent theorists and researchers.
One of the large problems that teachers, especially science teachers, face today is the
difference between genders in the classroom. There is a rising discrepancy in the difference
between the two genders joining physical sciences after high school, which is something that we,
as educators, need to address. There are several ways to make conscious efforts that will not only
benefit the females in a science class, but all of the students. Firstly, Lorenzo et al (Lorenzo,
Crouch, & Mazur, 2006) showed that females, and all students, learn better by using peer
instruction in the classroom. This involves allowing discussions, small group work, and peer
teaching. Secondly, it was shown that girls respond better to science when they are informed that
women are under-represented in the physical sciences (Hazari, Sadler, & Shanahan, 2010). Many
of the ways to have girls be more interested in science are the same ways as having any student

become interested in science. Chambers and Andre (Chambers & Andre, 1997) found that girls
and boys respond well to conceptual change being used to teach. That is, allowing students to
have their opinions, and then having them broken by the scientific proof, which is an idea based
on Piagets construct of disequilibrium. For example, the article talks about misconceptions
students have about direct current and that when students are able to read and see that their
theories are wrong, they are more likely to retain the correct information. This agrees with what I
was taught in physics education classes in my undergrad, where breaking misconceptions is
considered one of the best ways that a student can learn. In my classroom, I would attempt to use
all of these strategies to allow my female and male students to achieve success in the sciences.
Motivation is another big factor in teaching and learning in schools. Students need to be
motivated in order to want to learn something, and, as we have all seen by now, students are less
likely to misbehave if they want to learn. Meece and Jones (Meece & Jones, 1996) discuss the
three kinds of motivation of students: mastery, performance, and work-avoidance. Mastery leads
to the best kind of learning, while performance and work-avoidance both lead to students using
memorization to obtain the best mark. My aim as a teacher is to augment the problem solving
and critical thinking skills of students, which needs higher-order learning to happen. In order to
have higher-order learning, students need to be mastery-oriented their main goal needs to be to
learn the material and be able to apply it, not just get the best mark possible. Mastery-orientation
is not a natural state of students, so they need to be challenged and interested in the subject. This
is where the teacher can come in, making the subject interesting by giving real-world
connections and showing the relevance of the topic in everyday life. In essence, it comes down to
ensuring that students have the self-efficacy to believe that they can learn and have success in the
subject area (Banduara, 1997).

As a teacher, I would be a mix between a dialectical and an endogenous constructivist.

Parts of my teaching would involve allowing students to construct their own mental models of
physical phenomena and would involve a discovery-based approach. This would not only help
the students to learn the given topic, but would allow for deeper, more critical thinking.
However, studies clearly show, as stated before, that peer interaction is beneficial in students
learning. In this way, teaching students how to interact with others to learn is crucial (Applefield,
Huber, & Moallem, 2000). Interactively, knowledge can be mutually built and reinforced
through discussion and remediation, where students can not only teach each other, but point out
flaws in arguments (respectfully, of course). Much of my teaching style would involve allowing
students to work with each other and debate answers after already having worked on the problem
alone. Students are able to attempt to apply their knowledge this way, then either teach or get
help from other students, which is profitable for all parties involved.
Students should be the main focus of a teacher, which is why it is important to understand
the teaching philosophy of educators. As for me, my philosophy involves making sure I can
engage as many students as possible to become as interested in math and science as I am,
whether male or female. This can also be done by bolstering the motivations and self-efficacy of
students in any subject area, since those are two aspects that are critical in students interest
factors. Furthermore, conceptual change, problem-solving skills, and in-class cooperation help
students learn and understand better than traditional teaching methods, and they are practices that
I would employ in my classroom.

Works Cited
Applefield, J. M., Huber, R., & Moallem, M. (2000). Constructivism in Theory and Practice: Toward a
Better Understanding. The High School Journal, 84(2), 35-53.
Banduara, A. (1997). Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: Stanford University.
Chambers, S., & Andre, T. (1997). Gender, prior knowledge, interest, and experience in electricity and
conceptual change text manipulations in learning about direct current. Journal of Research in
Science Teaching, 34(2), 107-123.
Hazari, Z., Sadler, P., & Shanahan, M. (2010). Connecting high school physics experiences, outcome
expectations, physics identity, and physics career choice: A gender study. Journal of Research in
Science Teaching, 47(8), 978-1003.
Lorenzo, M., Crouch, C. H., & Mazur, E. (2006). Reducing the gender gap in the physics classroom.
American Journal of Physics, 118, 118-122.
Meece, J., & Jones, M. (1996). Gender differences in motivation and strategy use in science: are grisl
rote learners? Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 33(4), 393-406.