Category Archives: My educational philosophy

Moving on from traditional teaching…

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I remember first watching this animation in my fourth year of high school and not appreciating what it was Sir Ken Robinson was trying to put across.

Four years on, with all the new experiences and knowledge that I have gained within that time, I understand now what it is that the talk represents and I also now appreciate it to a very high level.

We live in a society that is forever changing. We have to adapt to new things on a daily basis regardless of what age or ethnicity we are. So therefore, why do we not do this in schools? We need to change the way the children are expected to think and as Sir Ken Robinson says; we have to encourage divergent thinking and encourage children to learn and think for themselves in this is ever changing society.

However, this cannot be done if we, as teachers, stick to the normality and traditional methods of teaching that we have been accustomed to since the education system came to light. Sir Ken Robinson states; “they are trying to meet the future by doing what they did in the past”, this quote reiterates the fact that our education system has mainly remained unchanged since schooling became freely and readily available however, we as a society have changed drastically and our education system has not kept up with the change.

Due to this, I feel that this is the reason that Sir Ken Robinson divides children going through the education system into two separate categories; ‘academic’ and ‘non-academic’. I feel that if we were to turn away from our traditional approaches to teaching then we may just be able to abolish these categories and allow all of the children in the education system to get the best they can out of it and have less children deemed, failed by the system.

Gender Roles…

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From the very beginning of my educational memories; the girls ran towards the doll’s house to take care of little Alice who needed her bottle and the boys ran to see who could make their red Lamborghini do the most flips off of the sink… it was the norm.

At the time, I seen no segregation between sexes through education, and honestly, until now I have never actually sat down and thought about it. Looking back; I don’t particularly think that being a female hindered my education in any way or form. This is probably because I never experienced any negative issues whilst at school surrounding my gender. However, I do think that males and females will have very different accounts of what they gained from education by what sex they are.

I have no account whilst being at school of any of my peers, either male or female, being treated any differently. All the teachers within my school treated everyone fairly and encouraged everyone to gain the most they could out of their education in every aspect.

I do not feel that the gender of a child should have an impact on how that child is perceived. As I was treated with respect and as an equal throughout my years at school, I endeavour to do the same for the children that I will one day teach. I plan to make each individual child feel respected and treated fairly throughout their years at school and encourage that child to do the best they can based on their abilities and not their gender.

Why teaching?

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Since I can remember, I have always loved and took pride in helping others with things they did not understand or needed that little bit of extra support with. I have always took a role in life where I would go out my way to help anyone who needed it, without any qualms. I feel from having this attitude and adapting it to everyday life it has led me down the road to the profession I want to pursue today, teaching.

Leaving high school, I knew that I wanted to work in a classroom teaching children however, I wanted the experience before throwing myself into university to make sure the passion I felt was real. I applied myself to college and gained an educational support assistants qualification and also a HNC in Early Education and Childcare. From these courses and the extensive placements I was on I knew that I was on the right path and that teaching is most definitely the career choice for me. These courses not only showed me how passionate I am about working with and supporting children through their younger years but it also opened my eyes to just how much the children I worked with supported and taught me.

Through my time at school, both from the learning side and the teaching side, I have met teachers whom I have loved and teachers whom I have not quite seen eye to eye with. Every teacher has a different teaching method, I completely understand that. Some teachers are completely brilliant and are able to adapt different teaching methods for different children within the class. However; some teachers that I have come across don’t have the compassion and the patience when working with children, whether it be primary or high school children, and I feel that this is not fair on the children in the class.

Due to personal experience working with teachers that have these attitudes I have always sworn to myself that I will be the best teacher that I can. I will be adaptable when it comes to learning techniques. I will be compassionate when it is required. I will be trustworthy and approachable so the children feel like they can have trust within me. I want to be the teacher that children love coming into school to see, not the one they dread. I want to be able to get the best out of the children I teach and watch them blossom into their own individual characters throughout their years at school.