Matt McKay

Initial Philosophy of Education Statement

This pre-service teacher is working toward obtaining certification to teach Grades 7-12 in public
schools in Connecticut, and will be student teaching 7th Grade “World Cultures” as a subject area
in the fall. The long-term goal is to teach high school social studies. From that perspective,
working toward instructional design will entail a careful examination of how this educator can
employ differentiated instruction and understanding by design concepts into the classroom.
Differentiated instruction is a concept coined by the discipline of education, and would entail
varied pedagogy toward students to impart knowledge to every individual as best as possible.
Meanwhile, understanding by design is another educational theory to employ into the classroom.
The goal is to craft lesson plans and their corresponding units to entail an approach that considers
what students ultimately learn and the accompanying transferable skills they acquire in the
process. Units will be designed to increase learning both within and outside of social studies.

The specific goals include imparting content-specific facts, ideas, themes, trends, and
possibilities with respect to material being taught, whether it includes United States or world
history, political science, geography, economics, or the behavioral sciences of anthropology,
sociology, and psychology. Regardless of whether the aforementioned social science disciplines
will be presented as individual courses or as components of a broad history/social studies
curriculum, it is critical is to facilitate the learning environment as best as possible. This will
entail providing a safe and nurturing classroom for students at the outset, which will assist with
enabling them to focus their attention on the topics presented to and discussed with them. This
future teacher will encourage students to contribute to class discussions by asking questions,
answering instructor-led inquiries, and by participating in various group activities (including
those activities that require creative thinking, reflection on possibly controversial social topics,
etc.). While the goal is partially based on the ability of students to truly understand the subject
matter, the overarching objective is to assist them in honing their analytical and critical thinking
skills, in order to contribute toward their becoming transformed learners. Moreover, it is
imperative that future students be able to transfer the knowledge they acquire in social studies
classes toward other disciplines in an integrated and multidisciplinary approach. Furthermore, it
is crucial for students to become civic-minded, objective, and knowledge-seeking citizens as it
pertains to the political process at the local, state, and national levels. It is additionally important
for students to come away from the learning process in secondary education with an ability to
examine social phenomena with a critical perspective, in order to minimize (and ideally
eliminate) falling victim to distortions presented in public discourse and in the media. They
should also complete the secondary educational process having attained patience, empathy, and
understanding of peoples and ideas that vary from their own. Their dispositions should entail
nuance toward rationally appreciating and interacting with others over a multitude of ideas and
concepts with inquisitiveness regarding furthering their learning.

This future in-service teacher values the aforementioned approach toward learning. While it is
important for students to acquire knowledge about the topical areas within the realm of
history/social studies, it is more important that they be able to critically assess social science
information that they learn about in informal and formal environments upon completing
secondary education. By possessing adequate skills instilled in them as social studies students in
the secondary classroom, they will hopefully be better equipped to ascertain social phenomena
thereafter with a perspective that considers “facts” as necessitating interpretation or analysis
before one can deem them legitimate.