STATEMENT OF TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

 

Creativity is just connecting things. Steve Jobs talks about connecting experiences and synthesizing them into something new. It somehow approaches the constructivist vision of the theory of learning, which believes that we build new knowledge from past experiences, on the other hand, he talks about transforming reality, one of the most often discarded educational goals. From a humanist point of view, that I personally share and apply in my classes, education should promote the idea of improving the world using the knowledge, skills and experience that we acquire, because I believe that this is what most enriches our community and contribute to personal and social welfare.

 

Regarding this idea of encouraging students to be participants of real life problems vs solutions proposed by them, I think that this can only succeed if we understand that we are just one piece of a learning ecosystem formed by educational leaders, teachers, parents, learners and relevant people from the community. All of us should benefit from this ecosystem but also contribute to its growth. That’s why I usually enjoy exchanging ideas with other teachers, co-teaching, and I also usually facilitate that my students do peer learning and cooperative learning (in teams with assigned roles and a mediator).

 

One of the projects I have done recently that follows this philosophy has been with a group of 12 students from year 4 (9-10 years old), who had to create a project in an educational online platform called Thinkquest, by Oracle, that solved a real life problem in their community. We addressed the lack of educational and leisure resources of a close elderly residence, so we worked for 3 months to create workshops that my students could do with the elders and they had to teach it eventually to them. They all researched their topics, documented with texts and images their projects, shared ideas with students from around the world about the possible ways to do it, and finally they went to the residence and did all the workshops. This learning experience clearly left a deep trace in them, who really enjoyed feeling useful and the elders were incredibly grateful. We dealt with many cross-curricular areas, like social sciences, English language, Art and also worked with their emotional and social skills. Currently, I am doing an action research in the field of Technology Enhanced Language Learning (TELL), focusing on the pedagogy of foreign language learning using OER and social networks.

 

Connected to the concept of creativity and problem solving, motivation it is a key part of my teaching philosophy and it is entwined with the former concepts. Motivation promotes creative performance and the notion of self-directed learning and it is essential to the development of the independent thinker. According to Groborz & Neçka “a person who thinks creatively and generates a large number of solutions, also tends to have the capacity to evaluate and dissect these ideas. A creative person can generate solutions, as well as judge which of those solutions merit further investigation.” It is crucial to scan learners’ needs and interests when they begin the course. I manifest many times the utility of what they learn, so they find it meaningful and useful for them specifically, not abstractly.

               

Related to this, being empathic and warm is also one of the main events of my teaching philosophy agenda. As my University professor Jane Arnold says, affect can lead to more effective language learning. As teachers we have to deal with negative emotions and try to overcome them, and create/facilitate positive ones. I always work hard to reflect a positive

attitude and show them that I really care, not only because it is nicer for all of us, but because “we can accelerate and enrich our learning, by engaging the senses, emotions, imagination.” (Gross, 1992).    

 

Some of my favorite teaching techniques are role-plays, listening and reading of thought-provoking real materials (realia), mainly using OER and social networks, which leads to the production of real knowledge objects, such as videos, blog or forum entries, online magazines, podcasts and so on. The materials I use are mainly cross-curricular, which feels quite natural when it comes to learning a language, the main vehicle for social and knowledge interaction. Thus, I let my students explore music, art, literature, social issues, history and geography, to name a few, while they also learn a foreign language.

 

Accordingly, I expose them to traditional and non-traditional ideas, for example: flamenco music vs. Spanish electronic music, or Velazquez vs. street art. For this matter I like to combine task-based and project-based methodologies, trying to set authentic goals related to real life situations or creating meaningful products, like for example recording a video singing a song in Spanish and upload it in Youtube or designing a travel brochure of your city for Spanish tourists and publish it in Calameo or Scribd. Technology is also a good ally for peer teaching, with tools like Google docs, wikis, Edmodo or Quizlet ( a vocabulary tool where cooperation in a class is facilitated).  To have a better idea of how some of these learning activities may look like you can check out my E-Portfolio: http://carocastro2000.wix.com/carolinacastro              

  

If I had to define my teaching philosophy, I wouldn’t be able to label it into any mainstream trend. As many other teachers nowadays, I drink of many sources, though my current approach is mainly project and content based. I believe that a working in projects relates to real life/work reality and happens to motivate students a lot. As I have worked for some years at an English language inmersion school I have also experience with the content-based approach, which as an umbrella term can be and usually is combined with project-based learning activities.

To sum up, I think that it is my role to teach my students how to learn, how to use and improve their abilities and foster their learning in a holistic experience that may transcend the borders of a mere language code teaching. It is also my duty not to forget what they have taught me and use it to enhance my performance every single day.