The development of educational philosophy is extremely important for each teacher
since it defines his/her basic principles, behavior and attitudes in the education
process. At the same time, educational philosophy is as unique as the personality
of teacher. Naturally, each teacher should have certain principles he/she should
constantly follow in his/her educational career.
Speaking about my educational philosophy, I should say that primarily I take
into consideration the recent changes in education and attempt to match the
basic demands of the modern epoch and needs of students. Probably, the most
important part of my educational philosophy is relationship with students. Basically,
I think that teachers should be very attentive to students needs, but, at the
same time, pay a lot of attention to their skills, abilities, and knowledge.
It is obvious that it is impossible to have some universal approach to each
student since each student is an independent individuality with his/her own
needs, interests, and potential. This is why my major task as a teacher is to
fully reveal the potential of each student and encourage them to study and develop
their skills and abilities on the basis of new knowledge they acquire in the
learning process.
Consequently, I should work out an individual approach to each student that
is one of the major elements of my professionalism as a teacher, which is, unquestionably
extremely important since only highly-qualified professionals should work in
education. Otherwise, they threaten to the future of students they work with
as well as to the future of the whole society because, to a significant extent,
it is teachers who shape students personality and often they are the only professionals
who can redirect students to the right way in their life.
In this respect, I should say that it is not only teachers’ professional
knowledge and skills that influence their students but also their behavior,
thoughts, and philosophy at large that affect dramatically students. This is
why it is extremely important to avoid any kind of authoritarian or laissez-faire
teaching but, instead, be a really democratic teacher in order to make students
really feel independent, socially significant, respected, and, on the other
hand, remain respectful and be conscious of the rights of other people. Practically,
it means that a teacher should develop a democratic attitude to his/her students
on the basis of principles of equality and mutual respect that means that students
should be active participants of the educational process but by no means they
cannot be thoughtless subjects subordinated to the will of a teacher. At the
same time, the teacher should be able to indicate students at the right way
if he/she realizes that they are wrong in their judgments and views but it is
necessary to do in discussions so that student could arrive to the understanding
of their mistakes themselves while the role of teacher should be rather that
of assistance.
However, teachers should possess certain degree of authority but it does not
mean that they should impose their views to students and be authoritarian but
it means that teachers should be respectful and remain respected by students
at the same time. To meet this goal, it is necessary to perfectly know your
students. What is really important here is the necessity to know not only students
learning skills and abilities but also their cultural and social background
that are extremely important and without which it is practically impossible
to understand the personality of each student and individual approach to each
of them. It is not a secret that socio-cultural background plays an extremely
important role in the life of students and, to a significant extent, shapes
their identity. This is why teacher needs to be integrated in students community
in order to perfectly understand his/her students, their behavior and its motives
on order to properly interpret it and adequately react.
Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is possible to conclude that,
in my opinion, I, as a teacher, should follow the main principles of my educational
philosophy in order to achieve possibly better results in my work. To put it
more precisely, I should be highly professional in my subject, possess profound
knowledge, develop individual approach to each students not only on the basis
of the knowledge about their learning skills and abilities but also on the basis
of their socio-cultural background. My relationships with students should be
democratic since it will provide the opportunity to fully reveal students potential
and positively influence the formation of their personality and cultural identity
that is probably the major task of each teacher.
