The milestone of my philosophy of teaching is an active and interactive classroom context. Active participation of students is a major component of effective learning and where students are not treated as subjects but rather as people. I believe that teaching should cover not only the intellect, but the whole personality of a learner i.e. the cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of the human being.My pedagogy is based upon creating a stimulating learning environment for all students from a variety of backgrounds. Their engagement in a safe, well supported and welcoming classroom environment will enable them to become resilient learners in an additional language as new arrivals. I always hold high expectations for my students and firmly believe students can be motivated to meet them. Teaching Social Emotional Skills forms a foundation for academic growth of my students and ensuring a wholesome learning environment for them.
I believe in modifying the curriculum according to students’ interest as it nurtures the intrinsic motivation and stimulates the passion to learn in them. I would provide my students with the opportunity for input so that new ideas can be generated in the classroom and set students can set up their own goals that demand for innovative activities. When students have a partnership in curriculum, they get motivated to work much harder and gain mastery in the skills which are necessary to achieve their goals.
I would also make my teaching as responsive as possible to the day to day learning needs of the students through continual formative evaluation of the students learning. I believe in introducing interactive activities for in-class evaluation which provides students with immediate opportunities to test their learning, reinforce it, confirm or modify their understanding as they apply their learning to various in-class tasks.
I would describe my philosophy of teaching and learning as strongly social constructivist. I believe that learning should be student centered, and that the teacher’s role should be that of a resource person who facilitates learning, rather than one who imposes his/her knowledge upon the learners. Recognizing that a class constitutes a mixture of abilities and intelligence, I have divided the class into mixed ability groups so that learning can be optimized. Formation of such mixed ability groups foster the development of interpersonal skills which are very crucial in the acceptance of difference. Students with higher competency will provide a lead in the process of problem solving and group formation will result in formulating an environment where there will be appreciation and acceptance for all students.