Running head: FIRST IMPRESSIONS

First Impressions

Samantha Mattfield

Regent University
 My goal as a teacher is to help children grow in their character and education. In order to

do that, I need to stand firmly in my own teaching philosophy. That is first grounded in the word

of God as all truth comes from Him and Him alone. I believe that I am supposed to be a teacher

so that I can build connections with students and help them achieve whatever goals that may be.

This may not be easy, but by staying true to myself, I can accomplish anything with God by my

side. He is my rock and while trials and tribulations will come, I will persevere for I know He

holds me in the palm of His hand.

I think the best way to work on my strengths and weaknesses as a teacher is to figure out

what I believe I need to do in this profession and what my personal philosophy on education is.

Webb and Metha (2017) wrote a book called Foundations of American Education where they

write, “It is not uncommon to be asked to articulate your philosophy of education on job

applications or in job interviews. School districts may require that you express your

philosophical ideas and compare them to the philosophy or mission of the school district.”

(Webb & Metha, 2017, pg. 93) Even though I am still working on my philosophy on education

as I believe it is constantly being developed, I am beginning to realize what my responsibility as

a teacher is to those around me. Throughout the different classes’ activities and lectures, I have

realized that it is my job to train children to become critical thinkers who can best serve the

community they will be entering someday. By developing students who are critical thinkers and

have learned to look at a problem from many different viewpoints, my class can be an example

to the educational community on the best way to train a body of students. This will better allow

me to train students to be effective and thoughtful citizens who can best serve their community

and offer something useful to the country.

 There are three things that have really stuck out to me regarding what I have learned

throughout my student teaching experience: 1. My educational philosophy is important to know

so that I can see what kind of teacher I want to be. 2. Inquiry is a great way to develop critical

thinkers. 3. Our educational philosophy will determine how we can best educate our future

classroom. Throughout student teaching, I realized that it is a challenge to develop critical

thinkers. I have done activities where the professor had us practice this skill by having us

participate in an activity where we would read an article and ask our fellow classmates questions

that would get them thinking about the deeper meaning of the article. This experience was eye-

opening as I began to learn how difficult it is to encourage students to look at questions and

thoughts more deeply and fully so that they may better see what the ideal answer is. These

difficulties show up when some students are not listening or when I realize that I have done a

poor job facilitating discussion. In order to get better, I need to study more about what good

questions look like and how to encourage students to look at questions more deeply. One thing I

need to learn more about in regard to the issues in foundations of education are the different

forms of education that teachers have used in America. There have been so many different

methods that teachers have used to educate students that it becomes confusing for college

students who are training to become teachers. In the same book mentioned earlier, the writer

state, “The major theories of education examined in this chapter are perennialism, progressivism,

behaviorism, essentialism, social reconstructionism, and postmodernism. Each theory was

developed as a protest against the prevailing social and educational climate of the time.” (Webb

& Metha, 2017, pg. 71-72) I need to understand these different concepts better so that I can

decide how best to educate my future students. I might end up using a combination of these

theories as I am led to believe that they all had valid points when they were used in their time
period. As the quote mentioned about how these theories were used as a counter movement to

the previous theory, it makes one realize that all of these theories probably developed off of each

other. This realization makes me determined to understand all of these theories to better be able

to form my own decisions on how I will educate my future classroom.

Overall, I learned the importance of one’s personal philosophy and one’s philosophy of

education when training to become a teacher. By understanding these philosophies better, I will

know what I need to do as a teacher and I will better be able to understand the philosophies of

my students. Both of these philosophies are extremely important when trying to obtain a

functioning and successful classroom. Webb and Metha (2017) explain, “Whereas our personal

philosophy of life enables us to recognize the meaning of our personal existence, our philosophy

of education enables us to recognize certain educational principles that define our views about

the learner, the teacher, and the school.” (Webb & Metha, 2017, pg. 49) Because of student

teaching and all that the professors have taught me, I am going to continue to better understand

what my educational philosophy is and what my personal philosophy is. Though the two serve

different purposes, they are connected as they both help me realize what kind of person I want to

be. Also, by understanding myself better, I can learn to understand my students better so that I

can more efficiently reach them. By continually working on my own personal teaching

philosophy, I can then help students figure out theirs. I will be able to accomplish that goal by

training my students to become critical thinkers who are not quick to jump to conclusions and are

ready to listen to different viewpoints. I can do that through discussion and encourage my

students to answer inquiry-based questions. I want to better understand what I believe and what

others believe so that I can help students form their own opinions and views through critical

thinking. In order to best help my future students get to that place, I need to understand my own
philosophy so that I can be confident in myself which will allow me to exhibit that confidence to

students so that they can become self-assured in themselves.

 Reference

Webb, L. D., & Metha, A. (2017). Foundations of american education (8th ed.). Upper Saddle

River, N.J: Merrill/Prentice Hall.