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| Educational
Philosophy Statement |
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The role of teacher can be hardly underestimated in the
process of education. It is obvious that teaches play an important
role in the learning process and shaping of students personality
and their cultural identity. In fact, teachers possess certain
authority and it is extremely important that they used this
authority effectively and contributed to the balanced development
of students. To achieve this goal teachers need to develop
their own educational philosophy that would help them not
only to teach but, what is more important, to learn.
First of all, it should be pointed out that teachers’
philosophy may be shaped under the impact of different factors
but it is possible to distinguish two the most important constituent
elements of their philosophy. On the one hand, it is the actions
of teachers, their behavior that can really define their philosophy
since they have certain models of behavior, habits that they
often cannot change but which sometimes they should change
in order to develop a really effective educational philosophy.
In such situations it is very important to take into consideration
another important factor, namely what teachers think about
their actions because it is the reflection on their actions
can change not only teachers’ behavior but their educational
philosophy at large. Obviously, they should be very critical
in the analysis of their actions and attempt to assess them
as objectively as possible in order to choose the right direction
in the development of their educational philosophy. In such
a way, teachers, being able to impact on students by their
behavior and ideas, should develop their educational philosophy
on the basis of these essential elements.
Basically, it is necessary to underline that there are two
possible ways to the development of educational philosophies.
First of all, it is possible to develop the educational philosophy
during the action. It means that a teacher can reflect on
his/her behavior while he/she is performing some action and
analyze it immediately. For instance, a teacher can scan the
situation in the classroom during the lesson by questioning
students in order to find out whether the lesson or the problem
discussed is interesting for them or not. On analyzing the
received information, a teacher can change his/her behavior
or continue the lesson if it runs successfully.
However, this is rather a short-term approach since it provides
an opportunity to learn only the current situation and analyze
the current behavior of teachers and assess whether it is
effective or not, right or wrong. At the same time, it does
not provide the opportunity to analyze the situation in depth
and, consequently, it is practically impossible to fully understand
the reaction of students on teachers’ behavior and often
it is quite difficult to choose the most effective ways of
behavior immediately.
In such situations, another strategy of the development of
educational philosophy may be quite effective. What is meant
here is the development of teachers’ educational philosophy
on the basis of the analysis of their past actions. Unlike
the previous approach, this one implies that teachers do not
analyze the present situation in the classroom, for instance,
but, instead, attempt to objectively evaluate their past actions
and behavior, they take into consideration what they did and
whether it was right or not, or probably their could be better
ways of acting in the given situation. On analyzing their
past behavior, teachers get an excellent opportunity to have
a larger view on their work and behavior and objectively and
more profoundly analyze it. This will naturally open opportunities
for the development of the long-term strategies and the analysis
of the general effectiveness of educational philosophy in
the long run.
Obviously, both approaches could be quite effective in the
development of educational philosophy but the real professional
teacher would rather apply both of them than focus on one
approach only. In fact, such a combination is simply essential
since it is important that the teacher could change and improve
his/her behavior immediately in the concrete situation depending
on the circumstances but he/she also needs to be able to make
a profound strategic analysis of his/her actions in order
to reveal more profound details that can remain unnoticed
on a brief analysis during a lesson, for instance.
Nevertheless, it is possible to conclude that, regardless
the approaches teachers use in the development of their educational
philosophy, it is necessary to remember that they are responsible
for their students and not only at the present moment but
for their further life as well because consciously or not
students learn from teachers and gradually are influenced
by their behavior, actions, thoughts, ideas and philosophy
at large.
Bibliography:
1. “What Shapes Teachers’ Personal Philosophy
in Education?”
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