20/05/2016

Personal philosophy of teaching

Teachers provide the canvas on which the students paint their knowledge
Roy Michaud, 2016
When asked to determine in what consists my philosophy of teaching, I started to ask myself what was my
personal definition of teaching.
At first glance, teaching may only seem to be the transfer of knowledge to someone by someone else. Although
this is a completely viable point of view, I personally think that it is an overly simplistic idea and that is barely
scratches the surface of the complex and interesting phenomenon that is teaching.
The more I learn about teaching, the more puzzled I find myself when asked to describe it. There is no black or
white zone in the teaching phenomenon and where I once saw a big chunk I now see many tiny pieces that
come together to form the complex mechanism of teaching.
This first definition implies that anyone can teach anything to anyone. I am actually completely in agreement
with this statement. As an adult may teach a child, an elder may be taught something by a toddler. A teacher not
only gives knowledge but also receives some from his students. And so teaching, rather than being only onesided, becomes an Exchange, a transaction, a contract.
The contractual form of teaching gives way to Implication in order to further develop this stub of a definition.
Yes, implication. A teacher that only throws theoretical concepts to the face of those sitting before him without
implicating himself and Them is not a teacher but merely a DVD player as far as I am concerned. This links
directly to the concept of adaptation presented later in this text. I think that we have to act, to move and to
explain in such a way that the students will have no choice but to feel implicated. Asking more of our students,
pushing them and helping them achieve higher goals than what they thought possible (scaffolding) is the proof
of an implicated teacher.
Teaching is an adaptive strategy. Implicating oneself and others turns out to be a constant compromise.

Adaptability will guarantee survival(Carroll, 2009). Again, an adaptive teacher implicates everyone in the
classroom by trying to reach his students and learn from them. I have seen the true colours of adaptation when
in my internships. No matter how we plan to explain something, some students will need further explanation,
another angle of presentation, gesture, mimics. All these strategies used in class to help the students understand
the concepts are a sign of adaptation from the teacher to his public. We are performers, comedians.
My philosophy of teaching is influenced in a good measure by preexisting theories. I found myself adhering to a
certain type of beliefs that are present in Existentialism and Progessivism. This did not surprise me much. I was,
however startled by the presence of a good portion of my beliefs in some older and more classic theories such as
Perrenialism and Essentialism. Upon further reading and thinking, I understood that it is not a sin to consider
certain aspects of a particular theory as important although the whole of it makes you cringe (Naested, 2004)
since they are almost always working together towards the same goal: promote learning.
The main reason for these overlaps between theories that may not always relate to each other to be present at the
same time in my beliefs comes from my personal experiences that have shown me the true value of Effort. This
is one of the key notions of my personal impressions. A student may have bad grades and show signs of great
difficulty but his learning will still take place when effort is deployed by both the teacher and the said student.
This student will then deserve more than his share of Appreciation.
As time goes by, I see more and more the true value of appreciation. A teacher must always motivate his/her
troops in order to have the students relate to the subject, but a true appreciative teacher will know how to make
the students feel safe. There can be no learning when a student has not met his most basic needs, namely
physical and security. Maslows pyramid, for example, illustrates this phenomenon better than I may explain it
with words.(Mcleod, 2007)
I guess a way to concretely show my philosophy of teaching is to condense it in a single sentence.
Teaching for me is a phenomenon in which takes place an Exchange of knowledge, providing that with Effort

and Implication of both protagonists, one may Teach and Learn at the same time in an Adaptive fashion that
promotes an Appreciative environment.
My new and improved philosophy will now be this:
Teaching for me is a phenomenon in which takes place an Exchange of knowledge, providing that with Effort
and Implication of both protagonists, one may Teach and Learn at the same time in an Adaptive fashion within
a safe environment.

Teaching is also definable by its ever changing nature. It evolves and sometimes switches from an extreme to
another in a very short period of time. My work in this particular area will never be done because the reality in
which I shall teach always changes, and will shape my beliefs accordingly.
Rfrences
Carrol, S. (2009) The making of the fittest. Retrieved 04/10/2014 on:http://carroll.molbio.wisc.edu/Fittest.html
Mc Leod, S. (2007) Maslows hierarchy of needs. Retrieved on 15/05/2016 on:
https://scannedretina.com/2014/07/24/maslows-hierarchy-2/
Naested, Irene et al (2004) Philosophical Orientations to Teaching in Understanding the Landscape of
Teaching.