One of the crucial elements in a given teaching portfolio is teaching philosophy. From what I reviewed in the past, I found many teacher candidates simply search online and find other people’s ideas and incorporate bits and pieces of information or quotes into their own philosophical statements. That is bad practice.
In reality, teaching philosophy should be based on individual teacher’s experiences, ideas, personalities, personal moral values, and beliefs. Not all teachers would conduct teaching exactly the same way. The teaching philosophy will mold the kind of teacher and impact students accordingly.
To shape up one’s ideas for the teaching philosophy, there are a few exercises that would help: 1) ask yourself why choosing the teaching career; 2) identify the values about teaching profession; 3) think of a metaphor for teachers; and 4) develop the teaching philosophy statement.
Best teachers are driven by passion. Teachers’ salaries are usually not very high to begin with, while the responsibilities are enormous. Many devoted teachers would take home plenty of work after hours, over weekends, and during the semester breaks. Some teachers would even go out of their way to help their students. Such teachers are dedicated to the teaching profession, and they feel their career is the most rewarding of all.
To identify the values about teaching profession, let’s take a look at the following big words or phrases for teaching: Accommodating needs, Caring and compassionate, Competent, Communicating , Cooperative , Credentials, Consistent, firm and fair, Credible , Creative and Critical thinking, Connect to students’ life exp., Challenging students , Flexible , Knowledgeable, current , Careful and understanding, Ethical , Responsible, accountable, Inspiring, encouraging, Nurturing, Positive and optimistic, Professional , Reflective , Well-organized, Well-prepared. Feel free to add a few more to the list. Then, you are to choose ten words out of the list to best represent your value and try to come up with a short passage about these words. To precisely depict your ideas of teaching, try to narrow down your list to three words or fewer, and try to write a concise statement based on these words. Hopefully, this will be your unique teaching philosophy.
The next exercise will be to examine your beliefs and come up with a metaphor for teacher. You may symbolize the role of teachers as sunlight, fertilizer, a light bulb, a light house, a tour guide, a magician, an actor, a gardener, a chorus conductor, a commander-in-chief, a big ship, a candle, a doctor, a wizard, etc. Try to explain why you think so.
Once you have developed a good sense of your own teaching philosophy, write a statement and convert your statement into bullet points. It should make a lot of sense about what kind of teacher you are and how you are going to influence your students.
