Philosophy

My Teaching Philosophy

Professional Knowledge

I am a firm believer in creating strong positive relationships with all students that enter my classroom. This stems from Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. He argues very strongly that it is with interaction with others that we learn how to think (Duchesne et al., 2013). Building relationships between parents, students and work colleagues is an important process in providing a positive learning environment and ensuring that students have the best opportunity to be successful in their schooling. I believe that to achieve successful learning outcomes, developing and maintaining appropriate positive relationships with students is imperative. I am passionate about inclusive education having empathy and experience working with students with disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, students from different socioeconomic backgrounds and different religious values and beliefs. Therefore, I believe differentiation to be extremely important. Moore states that ‘differentiated instruction is a teaching theory that is based on the premise that instructional approaches should vary and be adapted in relation to individual and diverse students in the classroom’ (Moore, 2012, pg.49).

Professional Practice

Creating a healthy classroom consists of appreciating students as individuals, continuing to develop expertise for students and myself, linking students learning with ideas – helping them become inquiry-based learners, setting challenging but achievable expectations, create student independence and resilience and lastly exercise positive classroom management. ‘Engagement happens when a lesson captures students’ imaginations, snares their curiosity, ignites their opinions, or taps into their souls. Engagement is the magnet that attracts learners’ meandering attention and holds it so that enduring learning can occur. Understanding is not just simply recalling facts or information’ (Tomlinson, 2014). In developing my knowledge through professional experience and university studies, I have become familiar with and confident in teaching a range of learning areas using a range of quality pedagogical practices. I am familiar with Australian Curriculum, SACE, The Disability Discrimination Act and The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme. I also have a good understanding of TfEL, Robert Marzano; The Art and Science of Teaching Framework, Child Protection Curriculum and the SHine SA curriculum.

Professional Engagement

As an educator, I believe it is important to participate in professional learning within the local community and beyond and engage with networks valuable to developing my professional knowledge. I believe reflective practice is an important tool for continuous learning. ‘The purpose of reflective practice is to increase learning at the individual and organizational levels so that educational practice continuously improves and student learning is enhanced’ (York-Barr, 2006). I reflect on being a learner and seek clarification from my students, peers, leadership team and community networks. As an active community member, I seek out and utilise community strengths to benefit and develop further engagement within the classroom and school. I make sure that there is an open communication line between parents/carers, other teaching staff and leadership, making sure the focus is on the students learning and educational goals. Working in different community activities within the school helps me to develop and foster positive relationships with students and their families.

 

Duchesne, S., McMaugh, A., Bochner, S. and Krause, K. (2013). Educational Psychology for Learners and Teaching. 4th ed. Melbourne, Australia: Cengage Learning, pp.54-106.

Moore, K. D. (2012) Effective instructional strategies 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage

South Australia Department of Education and Children’s Services (2010). South Australian teaching for effective learning framework guide: a resource for developing quality teaching and learning in South Australia. Government of South Australia

Tomlinson, Carol Ann. Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners, ASCD, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, Created from flinders on 2017-10-21 17:28:27.

York-Barr, Jennifer 2006, ‘Fundamentals for reflective practice’, in York-Barr, Jennifer, Reflective practice to improve schools: an action guide for educators, 2nd edn, Corwin, Thousand Oaks, Calif., pp. 31-64.