My Philosophy of Teaching by Alison Ruth

I’m putting a prezi together to try to edge out the competition for a job in teaching and learning.  I figure the prezi should be different to your standard CV, and include all the things that get left out of a traditional job app.  One thing that I never seem to include in the usually 10+ page applications is my philosophy of teaching/learning.  So now I’m trying to write one and every time I sit down, all the wonderful words I had in my head as I paced around the room disappear.  It’s a tragedemy!

…

See, I got nothin’.

…

One of the key findings from my doctoral studies is that student engagement often depends upon how well we frame a learning activity, be it online, face-to-face or as an on-your-own reflective activity. A classic error made by many is that we must mandate (and grade) participation.  But, students often do not engage with ‘busy work’, seeing it as not contributing much to their learning.  And while it may seem to overcome the problem of attendance, it does not really encourage engagement.

For us to capture the hearts and minds of our students we must be clear about the value of the activity to their learning.  We must be sure of the purpose and the outcome of exercise.  To do this, we must connect with them on multiple levels.

It helps that I am a multi- and inter-disciplinary scholar with a love of learning.  My philosophy of teaching speaks to this love. I teach from a systems perspective. I use multiple connections between ideas to engage students.  I engage them with the purpose of the activity and try to be clear of the outcome for them.  This provides a solid basis for their engagement.

I believe that learning stems from the heart and the mind, not just the body, although it, too, plays a significant role in learning. We judge students by their actions, by the way they engage in the classroom, but this is only the body.  Their hearts and minds may well be elsewhere, but with joy and encouragement, we can bring them all together.

I believe that education is an interaction, between what is past and what is to come, what is known and unknown – meeting roundly in the middle.  This is a challenge for some, wanting only to know what is, to give back what they get, to pass the assessment.

It was Socrates (apparently) who first stated: Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.  This is the purpose of learning, of connecting, of dreaming.

Too much?

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 11:19 am and is filed under thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.