Teaching Philosophy
My teaching philosophy addresses the major concepts and guiding principles that shape my personal views on what it means to be a successful teacher.
Students in my classroom are future innovators, leaders, and community members. It is my responsibility as an educator to empower my students to believe in themselves and their abilities, think critically and approach problems with creativity, and embrace collaboration. Additionally, as a science educator, it is also essential to equip students with the skills and science literacy to understand and respond to the world around them.
Investing in Every Individual
Each student is an individual: shaped by their own experiences, interests, and challenges. Their individual needs must be met with engagement, differentiation, and the overwhelming sense that they can learn and the teachers are there to support them through it all. My goal is to make students feel safe, allow them to feel heard, and instill in them a sense of confidence to combat the challenges that may come their way. I plan to foster these values through creating a welcoming classroom environment, making the effort to engage students with innovative lessons, and integrate social emotional learning into the science classroom. Students are not just names on a roster or bodies in the classroom, so the classroom culture and curriculum must cater to give each student a voice and sense of agency.
An effective way to give students a voice and agency in their learning is to incorporate elements of Making alongside the study and practice of content. Making is an iterative process that integrates principles of STEM fabrication and traditional arts and crafts knowledge into the classroom in an effort to engage students in authentic, personally meaningful learning. A classroom that embraces Making can look very different from class-to-class because it is all about teaching students how to use their interests and creativity to create products to develop or elaborate on their understanding of curricular knowledge. Students in my classroom know that when they make, they are engaging in a practice where they can express themselves and their learning, engaging them in a deeper understanding of the content in which they are studying.
Critical Thinking and Creativity
Students have unprecedented access to information in a world progressed by technology and media. While this information can be convenient for learners, it can become a crutch or obstacle to authentic learning and application of concepts. Since so much information is at students' fingertips, it is essential to teach them critical thinking skills to first find reliable information, and then to apply said information to problems and contexts outside the scope of a web search. By teaching science with authentic investigations and project-based instruction, students have to apply information to situations that require creativity and a rigorous level of problem solving. As the world around the students evolves, it will be important for them to know how to creatively approach problems to find sustainable solutions, not just regurgitate information that they once memorized or read quickly online.
Another way to embrace the changing landscape of our natural world is to teach students how to use and apply knowledge about technology in the scientific sphere. I am an active supporter of an increased integration of technology into the science classroom. From teaching the basics of programming to using breadboards, micro:bits, and other micro controllers in projects and investigations, I have seen how an increase in these methods has expanded student interest and knowledge about using technology for productive and innovative means.
Collaboration in the Classroom
The scientific community is not one of isolation. Many theories and laws that we know to govern our natural world were developed over time by scientists who built off of each other's work and collaborated to make sense of their observations. The science classroom should similarly embrace collaboration and instill in students the value of working together in a respectful environment. When working in groups, students can also mediate their peers' learning by restructuring explanations of concepts and instructions, as well as clarify misconceptions. In this capacity, group work embraces Vygotsky’s idea that knowledge is co-constructed, with different people adding to the scaffolding process. Additionally, in properly designed group work, such as giving group roles or ensuring equitable participation, students can further develop deeper social and emotional skills that will prepare them to be better community members.
The educator's role in such a classroom is to not only assure the dynamics of the collaboration is in proper order, but also to formatively assess student understanding by actively listening to conversations, asking probing questions, and eliciting misconceptions. This formative assessment allows the teacher to acquire an active idea of how the class understands the content so that they can redirect or expand ideas as appropriate.
Science Literacy and Skills
Our world is constantly changing and students need to be prepared to make informed decisions based on the scientific evidence available to them at any given time. Science at its core is a process of discovery, analysis, and application-- not to be memorized once to be stored away. In the grade school classrooms, educators can foster a basic understanding of the natural world, but it needs to build into instilling in students a greater scientific skillset. By teaching students skills such as laboratory design, data analysis, and scientific research, educators can equip students with the tools for them to become lifelong learners. Students can then use those skills to make informed decisions for themselves, their careers, and their communities based on the scientific evidence available to them in that time.