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My philosophy of teaching has been shaped by different aspects during my teaching practices. These aspects are based on my teaching beliefs and experiences. It began first and foremost with a concern for the student’s goals and expectations in learning English. My teaching should be structured to meet those ends. I believe that the ESL teacher’s role is to analyze learner’s needs and develop their linguistic and communicative competence, to meet both their present and future needs. My teaching philosophy will be summarized and discussed in five areas which are related to our teaching competencies such as collaborative learning, involving in voluntary activities, workshops and conferences, students’ motivation, managing students behaviors and receiving and giving feedback.

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Based on my belief, I ensure my professional growth by involving in voluntary activities in the community and attending educational workshops, seminars and conferences because it is one of my goals in my professional development plan (see PDP, professionalism competency).The idea of attending educational workshops, seminars and conferences was efficacious to me because it developed different aspects of my teaching skills and expand my knowledge on educational topics. I learned many useful skills that would benefit my personality such as decision making,critical thinking, self awareness and effective communication. Because I know the advantages of voluntary activities in serving the community, I chose it to be one of my goals in my professional development plan. I believe getting involved in voluntary activities develop personal and professional skills. For instance, volunteering as an exam invigilator in the school, develops leadership and communication skills that are useful in many careers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I strongly believe that efficient learning happens when students are learning through interacting with each other and learning from each other in the classroom environment. From my teaching experiences, I found out how advantageous  planning for collaborative learning is in terms of increasing students’ performances and helpful for students who have difficulty with social skills. This belief was inspired by the theorist Piaget who emphasized that collaborative learning increases learners’ performance and creates a stronger social support system (Donnell, Hmelo-Silver & Erkens, 2012). I believe that learning in a collaborative environment improves students’ academic achievement especially when high achiever students help low achiever students as they work together. Planning for collaborative learning was efficient because it encouraged oral communication skills and developed students' social interaction skills (see PDP, planning for learning competency).

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As a future teacher, I believe that motivating students is crucial in increasing students’ enthusiasm towards learning and affecting behaviors, so I chose it to be one my goals in my professional development plan (see PDP, managing learning competency). As a result, I have been motivating students through using motivation charts, group performance chart and students’ motivation cards. During my teaching practice, I found out when students are rewarded on their achievement, they get enthusiastic and participate more. Tileston believes that motivation increases the amount of effort and energy that learners expend in activities directly related to their needs and goals (Tileston, 2010). It is crucial to help students succeed academically through encouraging and rewarding them. I think every teacher is supposed to motive and reward her students to maintain an effective and supportive classroom.

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Another aspect that affected my teaching philosophy is strategies for managing students’ behavior. In the first year of B.ED program, I found a difficulty in managing students’ behavior. I struggled in keeping hyper active students attentive while giving a lesson. This experience made me think how important is managing students’ behaviors in the classroom. According to Hue & Li, classroom management has the largest impact on students’ achievements (Hue & Li, 2008). I realized that using strategies to manage students’ behavior is important in making them attentive and understand the lesson which increases their academic achievement. I have used many effective strategies to manage students’ behaviors such as eye contact, turning the lights off, stones and diamonds, bell and putting black dots next to their names (see PDP, implementing learning competency).

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I believe that teachers’ consideration of monitoring and assessment skills is crucial in order to diagnose students learning needs and support the continuous development of the students. I found out that implementing summative and formative assessments was efficacious in improving students’ progress and learning achievements. I was implementing summative assessments to evaluate students learning at the end of an instructional unit such as projects and exams ( see PDP, assessment comptency). Applying summative assessment was helpful because it measured students’ proficiency on obtained skills or concepts which helped me to know how much students have understood the concepts and skills at the end of each unit. Additionally, I was applying formative assessment by providing ongoing feedback when giving them homework, asking them to create posters and presentations in order to improve their learning accomplishments and expand their understanding of the learning concepts (see PDP, assessment comptency). When I applied this kind of assessments, I realized how much it is supportive in terms of improving students’ performance especially low achievers students. When they were given on going feedback, I observed clear improvement in their performance and learning achievements.

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The final aspect that really influenced my teaching skills positively is receiving and giving constructive feedback. I figured out how important receiving feedback in improving my teaching skills is. When I was given feedback from both my MST and MCT’s, it helped me to improve my teaching strategies especially students centered strategy (see PDP, reflection competency). I have gained lots of skills and I have paid attention to some areas of teaching I have never thought of. I found their suggestions were very helpful and supportive. According to Bee & Bee, effective constructive feedback has a great impact on achievements and improves performance (Bee & Bee, 2011). I believe giving feedback is an essential part of effective learning. When I was giving students feedback, I realized that it helped students understand the subject being studied and gave them clear guidance on how to improve their learning. Anderson believes feedback is more strongly and consistently related to achievement than any other teaching behaviors (Anderson, 2009).

 

Conclusion

It is an honorable and yet a difficult task to be the one who teaches. I think teaching is the ability to share the knowledge with learners. As a teacher I show the way and equip with necessary tools and skills while learners take their share of responsibility for studying and applying what they have been taught. I would highly recommend teachers to be interested in related scientific research and technological innovations to search for new ways to facilitate the learning process, as well as combine the best from both traditional methods and modern approaches.