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Tom Williamson

Professor Stockton

EDI 310

October 8th, 2018

Philosophy of Education

Education is of paramount importance in our society and is the only way that we can

reach every citizen of the United States at some point in time. All students need to learn specific

soft and curricular skills across a myriad of content areas to become critical thinkers, beings of

empathy, problem solvers, and effective citizens. Therefore, the role of a teacher in the

classroom as a facilitator of learning is to be taken seriously. In my own classroom, learning

these skills through content defines success for each student. For each educator, their belief

system resides in classroom culture, expectations, discipline, curriculum, and management

strategies and must reflect the ways that all students can be successful.

A) Culture:

The culture inside of a classroom should be a signal to students of how they can belong and

exist as part of a whole embarking on the larger classroom mission. The classroom is a

collaborative learning community where one student must rely on others (besides just the

educator) for their learning. As a class, shared understandings are reached by students working

together to discover concepts and problem solve. Additionally, not only should there be multiple

opportunities for students to share their work and ideas with peers relating to content, but
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chances to share how one feels about a topic and to engage in metacognitive reflection among

classmates.

This objective is not only attained by simply giving students time to discuss in class but

relating their own experiences to content as well. As a result, students working without engaging

with at least one of their peers for a whole class period is highly unlikely. Also, this classroom

community is set up in the very beginning of the year as an expectation and continuously

developed as the school year goes on. Through various strategies, opportunities for collaboration

will increase and diversify as students become more familiar with the classroom environment,

the content, and each other. Students will believe that they are valued inside of a classroom

learning community.

B) Expectations:

For students to succeed in any class, they need to know what is expected of them. This comes

in the form of things like routines, norms for collaboration, homework assignments, restroom

policies, metacognitive strategies, and written rules and a social contract posted on the wall that

can be referred to always. While the ‘learning community’ is the arch that students will learn

under in the classroom, routines are the structures that allow the classroom to function with

order, efficiency, and clarity.

The best way to teach students the expectations of their learning community is to model if

appropriate for that article. In addition, students should be expected to adhere to these

expectations as they are logical processes for the classroom. For example, students may leave to

use the restroom as they wish, however if this privilege is abused, it can be easily mitigated.

Further, in expectations like social contracts, norms for collaboration and metacognition (i.e.
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reflection) there should be a decent amount of student input, however facilitated with the

educator as they are the knowledgeable professional.

C) Classroom Discipline:

Classroom discipline is the logical consequences that students face once they fail to meet an

expectation. In an ideal world, classroom expectations are always adhered to. For the educator,

having to use classroom discipline techniques should be to the highest annoyance as it interrupts

other students’ ability to learn as they are either distracted or required to wait for their peers to

engage with the classroom with correct behavior. However, everyone makes mistakes, and the

teacher should be understanding and never judge a student on one experience. Students should

become self-disciplined as expectations should be clearly communicated to them. Lastly, it is

vital that educators understand that the purpose of a student’s misbehavior usually does not carry

the sole purpose of disrupting the learning process (although it usually does). Often, there are a

myriad of factors to consider.

D) Curriculum:

No matter the content area, students need to be learning soft skills beyond just what the

standards dictate. For example, as students experience Social Studies through a literacy mindset,

students will become fluent in the human condition, decision making and other notions. They

will learn how to analyze nuanced primary sources utilizing the lenses of bias and perspective.

Arguably most importantly, students should engage one another in academic (and occasionally,

non-academic) discussion inside the learning community to become better speakers, performers

and listeners. Throughout the learning experience, students should have multiple opportunities to

reflect on their classroom experiences. Empathy, good listening skills, self-reflection and
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accountability among the highest order skills that students need to learn aside from several types

of thinking. These come in the form of making connections, reasoning with evidence, and

forming conclusions.

E) Strategy:

Although it may seem mundane, having a strategy for interactions with the students in the

classroom is one that must be considered before the first day of school. There are many ways to

go about this facet of teaching. Being that educators are facilitators of student learning, each

teacher needs to plan their strategy and stick to it. Another way to look at this kind of strategy is

that it could be coined “strategy for learning community implementation”. This process should

begin by observing that the teacher has no power to ‘make’ students behave a certain way.

Instead, each member of the learning community, including the educator, has decisions to make.

If a student actively chooses to not be a part of the learning community at any time, logical

consequences should follow as it is a choice that is made by the student.

While it is important for students to be informed of what paths their choices lead them down,

the goal is for them to learn. This is where teachers need to remember that the classroom is a

pluralistic community and that each student should be treated as an individual. To do so, it is

critical that teachers treat students as such in a humanistic manner. Outside of academic

gobbledygook, plainly, teachers need to get to know their students and be empathetic themselves.

Otherwise, it is hugely difficult to foster an effective learning community inside the classroom.

As an ending note, technology and a passion for the environment is vital to include in any

content area. The infusion of technology into lessons can make them more interactive and

collaborative for students. Additionally, getting students excited about the environment

encourages them to explore their surrounding world and can lead to a myriad of other interests.