My philosophy of education is based on the belief that children learn naturally and in different settings. The role of a school is to provide supportive learnscapes. The role of a teacher is to be a learnscape designer.
Learning to Learn I think it is the role of a facilitator to create conditions where learning can take place. Children will interact, create, try new approaches, look, copy, change, share, discuss, make connections to develop their understanding. It is through active participation that patterns of understanding begin to develop. The facilitator may encourage children to see the connections in the different modes of understanding. When children can articulate the how and why of an activity they are progressing along the first steps of making learning visible. To be able to understand a concept, practice the strategy to illustrate the concept, apply the strategy to work out a new problem and later play around and change in it a new context is my philosophy of learning.
I would like to address my philosophy by answering two questions. How do children learn? How can we best create a supportive and engaging learning environment in a classroom?
How do children learn? This summer I had the leisure to see children at play and could observe and reflect on how children learn. What I observed was that children learn in their natural environment. They learn by looking, copying and doing. They learn by playing parts in make believe role plays. Their roles of playing and learning are interchangeable. They listen to and repeat words and phrases. They use newly acquired vocabulary in different situations and do so repeatedly. They can listen to and follow two languages. They are eager to socialize and can respond and communicate using both speech and gestures. They are demanding and can attract their parent’s or caretaker’s attention. They like to follow the natural order of sleep and wake times. They can make their frustrations known. The above observations are not special or unique in any way as they have been articulated in most young learners pedagogy . Especially interesting were the ways in which children interacted, negotiated and communicated with each other. The use of language, listening, processing and understanding, thinking then responding - gave me real life insights and had me thinking about our current curriculum. My observations made me feel that I had been able to replicate some meaningful and authentic activities and these reinforced many of the language learning strategies I had been using in my classes. They also raised many questions which need further thought and discussion for clarity. How do we best create a supportive and engaging learning environment in the classroom? Two years ago I came upon a book which articulated clearly an approach for a positive and supportive learning environment. It uses the research on Neuro-Linguistic Programming, memory and motivation to organize learning in the classroom. In my lessons I try to * create a supportive learning environment * connect the learning * the BIG picture * describe the outcomes * include VAK * activity M.I * demonstrate learning * review for recall and retention I almost always use these essential components in my lessons. The stages of the lessons and sequence of the activities are by no means linear and I vary the activities depending on the group of students (who come to class), the time of the day and their level of interest and motivation. The loop that I use for motivation is recognition, affirmation followed by praise.
I try to encourage children to ask questions, differ in their opinions and engage in dialogue. This I believe is essential for creativity.