Philosophy

My teaching desire began at the age of nine. My year 4 teacher inspired me to one day
follow in her shoes. She was an exceptional teacher, who took the time to realise all of her
students potential, and was always willing to help them to succeed. This was my first
encounter in seeing an exceptional teacher in action.
My desire to teach has grown as I have. With readings and research, my knowledge
of what it takes to be an exceptional teacher has deepened. My philosophy for teaching is to
provide my students with every opportunity of success, and the way I can provide this is by
teaching with Vygotskys Social Constructivism. Social Constructivism provides students with
an open learning environment, where their successes are dependent on group interaction
(Woolfolks & Margetts, 2013). Vygotsky believed the best teachers, are the students
themselves because they are on the same level, and they can help and guide each other to
accomplish their learning goals through social interactions (Woolfolks & Margetts, 2013). In
addition, I, as the teacher still have an important role, but not as the engineer of knowledge
transfer, instead I would think of myself as a midwife who will facilitate the birth of
understanding (Derry, 1996). Furthermore, it is imperative to cater for all students needs, by
providing differentiated activities, to ensure an inclusive environment, because all children
have the right to a quality education.
After the completion of practicum two, my philosophy of teaching is still current, but
my idea of teaching and how to get there has deepened. I now understand how vital it is to
ensure students are actively engaged with high cognitive, high affective, and high operative
levels. It is not a matter of getting students on-task but in-task. The MeE framework is a
great strategy to ensure my students are motivated, engaged, and develop a love for
learning (Engaging) to become life-long learners, school is for everyone (FGP, 2016). In
addition, the implementation of REAL strategies to question and assess students
engagement levels became an important part of everyday teaching.
On my second practicum, I incorporated dialogue pedagogies. Authentic dialogue
became an important pedagogy to increase engagement and it coincides with the MeE
framework through teacher inclusive conversations and a student community of reflection,
to create an insider classroom (Vass, 2017). Moreover, focusing on dialogue provided me
with data that enabled me to monitor my students group discussions, and I used social and
peer tutoring strategies to encourage my students to work in harmony. Secondly, I
enhanced my behaviour management strategies, and discovered the importance of
behaviour management. Without behaviour management, engagement levels and
community learning are affected. Thirdly, I became confident to use paddle pop sticks to
keep students actively engaged in group discussions, and found this strategy highly
affective. I will definitely employ these tactics in my future classroom.
Moreover, I am aware of action research now. I believe action research is a great
way to create a positive change in the classroom. Unless we investigate, and find strategies
that will help build effective engaging classrooms, we will not have the opportunity of e E
ngaging all students.
Lastly, by providing clear expectations of my students, as well as a student-centred,
inclusive, creative, nurturing, and positive environment, to ensure all my students are
nourishing in their growth (Jordan, Glen, & Mcghie-Richmond, 2010). I believe I can
accomplish this through continuously reflecting on my successes, as well as any unsuccessful
lessons, so I to as a teacher can grow, to ensure I am always providing a fruitful
environment.

References
Derry, S. J. (1996). Cognitive schema theory in the constructivist debate. Educational
Psychologist, 31, 163-174.
Jordan, A., Glenn, C., & McGhie-Richmond, D. (2010). The supportive effective teaching
(SET) project: The relationship of inclusive teaching practices to teachers beliefs
 about disability and ability, and their roles as teachers. Teaching and Teacher
Education, 26, 259-266.
Vass, E. (2017) Building dialogic spaces through inclusive conversations. In Attard, C. et al.
Engaging Schooling. Taylor & Francis.
Woolfolk, A., & Margetts, K. (2013). Educational psychology (3rd ed.). Frenchs Forest,
Australia: Pearson.