Philosophy of Education:I am an experiential learner who believes strongly in problem- and inquiry-based learning. I could explain this in terms of academic theory, complete with jargon, but it would fail to describe why I have been passionate about teaching for most of my teenage and adult life. It also doesn’t reflect how my teaching philosophy developed – in reality I learned from my experiences and found out later that there are names and theories of what I do in textbooks. Therefore, to explain my philosophy of teaching and learning, I find it much more instructive to describe what I’ve learned from my experiences.Parental influence: My mother went back to graduate school when I was 12. I’d always had some fascination with weather, climate, and natural hazards. By watching my mother teach, I realized that I was also fascinated by learning. After my mom secured her first faculty job, I would sit in her classes under tables or in the back of the room, observing how she interacted with students. I even admit that I looked forward to school vacation days so I could go watch her teach. From her, I learned that passion about your discipline must be accompanied by an equal passion for helping others learn about it. She also showed me the value of practical experiences, because they allow students to solve problems in ways that benefit their learning styles. Dance instructor: When I was 14, my clogging team (yes, clogging team) director asked me to start teaching new students. I wasn’t the best or oldest dancer, but he thought I would be the best instructor. I taught pre-schoolers, grandmothers, and all ages in between. As a result, I learned flexibility. Different people have different ways of learning, and some learners are more mature than others. My job was to think on my feet (literally and figuratively) to accommodate the different ways my students learned and the speed at which they progressed. Undergraduate at a liberal arts institution: I had excellent, accessible professors who always found time to help a student understand material. We also had many opportunities to participate in research, allowing us to explore our personal talents. Here, I learned that as an instructor my responsibility does not stop at the classroom door. Advising is also critical to a student’s success. When a student struggles with learning, it is not enough to help her with the material – I must also help her learn how to learn, thereby preparing her for post-graduate life. Personally, I also learned that variety is critical to my happiness as a scholar. The liberal arts environment gave me the broad, interdisciplinary experiences that I need to thrive. I apply this to my teaching with the philosophy that I should never tell a student to avoid a course because it has nothing to do with his major, because life and real-world problems are multi-faceted and interdisciplinary. You never know when something might come in handy later! Master’s Degree at a large research institution: Instruction in most of my masters’ degree classes consisted of teacher-centered theoretical courses with evaluation based on performance on two or three exams. I struggled in an environment where practical experiences were reserved for advanced student research. I realized that I had to teach myself how to learn; for help, I turned to Malcolm Knowles’ philosophies on self-directed learning. In my new spirit of self-direction, I took courses on curricula in higher education and on the methods and issues surrounding science teaching and learning. For my classes I was able to design meteorology curricular reform recommendations and re-structure a syllabus for a sophomore level survey course taught by my meteorology advisor. My department began to take notice, and I was allowed to join the Undergraduate Academic Program committee to work on overhauling the undergraduate degree curricula. One professor even asked me to help give him ideas for making the first exam in one of his graduate level courses more relevant to students. The second time I taught the Laboratory in Atmospheric Physics course, a junior-level practicum, I felt comfortable revising the syllabus to introduce an inquiry-based approach in lieu of the previous “plug-and-chug” labs. My experience reinforced what I had learned as a clogging instructor: different people learn best in different ways, including myself. As a result, I set the goal that as an instructor I will always help undergraduate students used to teacher-centered, dependent learning become mature self-directed learners able to function in a variety of environments despite their different learning styles. PhD. Program in Geography: After learning the value of student-centered teaching, I realized that I wanted to do research that focuses on societal needs. I became interested in human-environment interactions, and decided to pursue my PhD. in the Department of Geography. As an online teaching assistant for the Certificate in GIS program in the John A. Dutton e-Education Institute, my students were adults. However, I still had a role as a facilitator for helping my students learn how to learn, preparing them for the necessary self-direction to explore geographic problems adequately. This experience has convinced me of the potential for online/classroom hybrid courses as tools for addressing content and experience simultaneously in undergraduate education, helping dependent learners become self-directed learners. So far, I have learned to be passionate about teaching, to accommodate students’ differing learning styles, and to advise students to broaden their horizons. I’ve learned that self-directed learning is valuable for life after a bachelor’s degree, and I’m interested in the potential for using online-hybrid courses in human-environment geography to help students become self-directed learners. These are only some of the qualities I know I developed as a teacher and a learner – it is by no means a complete portrait. However, I can promise that it will be interesting to see how my philosophy develops as I continue to add new experiences. |
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Last updated 15
May 2008 - jcw
All material © 2008 Jessica Whitehead unless otherwise noted Penn State logo © 2006 The Pennsylvania State University |
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