Corporate Students at Ecco Shoes, Sidoarjo, Indonesia.
“I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn” – Albert Einstein
In providing my educational philosophy of teaching, firstly I would stress the importance of creating and maintaining a positive working relationship with the students and an atmosphere of mutual respect. I believe this lies at the heart of establishing a pleasant and happy learning environment, which in turn is paramount for getting the best from them. Realising that young learners possess boundless energy, but a limited attention span, it is also important to inject fun into the proceedings and engage their interest with the material. In addition to this, believing that enthusiasm is contagious, I feel it is important that a teacher demonstrates not only a good working knowledge of their subject, but also passion and enthusiasm for it. This in turn will be reflected back to them by their students. I believe, it is also the teacher’s responsibility to educate their learners in what is expected of them within the classroom context and what they should be doing, on an active level, to meet their learning outcomes; taking notes, manipulating the material, doing homework when set and revising for tests. In return it would be up to the teacher to take into account the array of different learning styles such as visual, auditory and kinesthetic (external touch/intrinsic feeling) when constructing and presenting a lesson.
Credit where credit is due
The practice of rewarding learners for their efforts with praise when they get something right, or attempt something difficult, should not be underestimated. Positively feeding back on successes in this way can reinforce desired behaviours in the classroom and boost a student’s confidence, providing them with a sense of achievement. Likewise, appropriate feedback and support in correcting mistakes will enable them to modify their future actions. To this end, it is vital that the learners feel that the classroom is a safe environment to try out new things and make mistakes without being ridiculed or made to feel embarrassed in any way.
Cultural sensitivity
An iBT TOEFL preparation class at Bank Mandiri, Jakarta, Indonesia.
In expressing my thoughts on encountering cultural differences in the classroom. Firstly, I would say it would be foolhardy for a teacher not to take into account the cultural traditions, values and beliefs of the country in which he, or she, is teaching. To facilitate this, it might be necessary to initially examine one’s own beliefs and attitudes to ensure that they are appropriately sensitised to the cultural norms of a given teaching context. Likewise, on a more localized level, an awareness of the demographic composition of the learners in a particular classroom would also be an advantage to cultivate. In respect of this, aspects to take into consideration might be a student’s socioeconomic status (are they from a privileged or working class background?), their religion, ethnicity and family composition, as well as their individual skills and abilities. Also of great value would be an understanding of the particular language difficulties and restrictions imposed by their mother tongue, such as a difficulty for some Asian learners to differentiate phonemically between an ‘l’ or ‘r’ sound in some contexts. Further, in multi-lingual, multi-cultural classes, it is important to foster an aim toward integration, ensuring that learners are not marginalized on any level, but rather feel a sense of inclusion in the proceedings. An appropriate consideration of these issues cannot be overemphasised, as it will impact on the level to which a learner feels understood, supported and valued by their teacher and the learning progress made as a result.
To conclude, with awareness and sensitivity on my part, all of the above aspects relating to educational philosophy and cultural differences encountered in the classroom are considered, negotiated and incorporated into the construction of my lesson plans and any related materials. These issues are further acknowledged through my expressive behaviour and attitude during the presentation of a lesson.
