Andrew Soelter

Edu 132
2/11/15

Educational Philosophy
I believe that every child should receive the best education possible. I feel that educating a
child to their full potential is the main goal of the education system. I believe that to be educated
means that a child goes through the stages of development and reaches a stage in which they can
start learning new information or building on the information they already have to better their
understanding of the world around themselves. Knowledge is best acquired by students who have
a teacher who is effective in their instruction. This teacher should also have the student show selfefficacy towards learning. Knowledge is also acquired by the students learning from other
students. I believe, that students, working together to figure out knowledge, leads to a knowledge
gain for more than one student rather than just a single student working on their own.
I believe that the role of the teacher in the learning process is to be the guide in a students
learning. The teacher is going to set the direction of instruction to reach the end goal of a
particular subject area. But, as Duckworth said, we must allow the students to explore and come
up with their own ideas to grow their knowledge. This follows along with another one of my
beliefs from Vygotskys zone of proximal development. I believe that as teachers we are helping
students by taking their current knowledge level is at and raising them to the next level of
understanding. I believe that the role of the student is very important and this must be
communicated to the students so that they know that as a teacher you are just their guide and that
the students must put in the effort and motivation to learn the subject area. With that in mind, it is
also the job of the teacher to help the students become interested in the subject or make it engaging
for the students so that the students will want to dig deeper and learn the material. Another role the
students have is bringing prior knowledge. Students prior knowledge will help connect students
with certain topics. As a teacher, I dont know what prior knowledge they may have but I can learn
from their responses. This will help the teacher guide the students into the new information using
the prior knowledge base to scaffold onto. I believe that it is the role of both the teacher and the
student to understand that both parties are involved in the process of learning and their learning
will suffer if either party is not putting in the effort.
I believe that every student learns differently and as a teacher I need to be aware of my
students and how I can shape my lessons towards them in the best possible manner. The theory I
follow the most is the multiple intelligences theory by Gardner. I believe that every student has a
different type of intelligence and this helps explain why some students learn better from certain
teaching methods than others. To help my students and try and cover most of the intelligences in
my subject, I believe that differentiated instruction is the easiest way to reach all of my students
needs. I must be an effective instructor. I define being an effective instructor as having students
discover knowledge from collaboration, leading the students through thought provoking activities
which are relevant and challenge the students to apply themselves. And finally monitoring
students and their progress towards the goal while adjusting plans to help students fill any gaps so
they may meet the goal.
I believe that in order to have each student get the best education possible, I as a teacher need
to create a positive learning environment which encourages the students to work individually and
collaboratively to build their knowledge from their current level of understanding to the goal of
understanding I have set and beyond. It is my job to guide the students through their different
learning styles and plan effective teaching styles to meet their diverse needs. Lastly, I believe that
all students can succeed with the proper cooperation with other learns and myself.