Running head: PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING
Philosophy of Teaching
Divanny Rodriguez
Virginia Commonwealth University
Home-School and Collaboration
Professor Williams
May 5th, 2015
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PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING
Philosophy of Teaching: Working with Families
Educating children is both the job of teachers and families. Mutual collaboration and
respect is essential for a child’s well-being and education. Children come to teachers with many
experiences from their home, funds of knowledge that should be taken into account in the
classroom. Children are individuals and their environment and families shape who they are. In
this paper, I would like to talk about the theorists Bronfenbrenner’s Bio-ecological System theory
and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and how they will shape my teaching habits.
As we know, children are unique individuals and they all have different needs. Whether
they have a disability or not they have needs that must be met before they can learn. Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs shows that there are different needs that need to be met before the child can
proceed to learn. The first need is the child’s physiological needs, then safety, love/belonging,
esteem, and lastly self-actualization.
Children will not be motivated to do anything if their basic needs are not met first. For
example, if children come to school hungry they won’t be able to concentrate and learn so we
must feed them so they are not distracted by their hunger. Children who need attention and are
not receiving it at home would be most likely to cause distractions and misbehave because they
need the attention they are not receiving at home. It is important for me to realize that a
misbehaving child needs attention, and instead of punishing him I will give him the attention he
needs by giving him a task to help me or to do something else that will help him feel like he is
being considered. Reprimanding him will reinforce his misbehavior because I am giving him the
wrong type of attention.
PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING
All children need to be cared for. Children need to feel like they belong and they are
cared for in the classroom. As their teacher, I will need to get to know my students and show
them that I care in every possible way. For example, I need to celebrate who they are and what
they can contribute to the classroom. I will also need to listen to them and be welcoming so they
want to be in my classroom. It is important to create a safe learning environment where children
feel free to learn and to make mistakes. One way to do this is by giving them tasks that are
challenging but not too challenging so that they can be successful and feel encouraged.
Students come from different backgrounds and different cultures, so I need to always find
out their prior course knowledge before a lesson and try to integrate it as much as I can. I will
also have to celebrate their cultures and their differences. I will show the children how to respect
each other regardless of who they are and their physical appearance because we are all human
and we are all in the classroom to learn. We will be a community, and in today’s world that is a
key element needed for children to learn so we can live in a peaceful society.
Bronfenbrenner’s Bio-ecological System says that it is not just nature that affects children
but also interactions that affect them. Children learn from parents but also from the types of
things, objects and people they interact with. A parent’s job affects them. For example, if a parent
has a job that requires them to move, this will affect the child. If children are raised in a
technology-heavy society that will positively and negatively influence them. It is important for
teachers to consider the entire environment that children live in so they can better help the
children and understand who they are.
Children are not fixed and they come to us with different experiences. We need to know
them and build upon what they know. It is important to involve their families in the classroom
because that is a big part of who they are. Families are the children’s first educators and they
PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING
influence their education and behavior in the classroom. It is important to keep families informed,
and motivate them to be a part of the classroom by volunteering or taking roles in their children’s
education. Children whose families are involved tend to work harder and behave well in the
classroom. If children know their teachers and parents communicate well they know their parents
will find out about their good and bad behaviors which will motivate them to be better.
In conclusion, as a future educator I know that children are unique and they are all
different. I know that they will come to me with different experiences, and their home and
environment will influence who they are. It will be important for me to meet their basic needs so
that they can learn. Families need to be involved and considered as an essential part of a child’s
education. I will need to get to know my students and show them that I care so that I can
construct a learning community that is safe to learn, and so that children will help and respect
each other despite of their differences.
PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING