Stephen Leo Mohamad MAED – TGenSci

My Teaching Philosophy

I believe that a skillful educator is guided by the Philosophy in which he/she

believes in. All efficient and effective learning conducted by most of our educators is
anchored to the philosophy of teaching. Our philosophy of education is reflected in our
dealings with students, parents, administrators, colleagues, and all the stakeholders. I
am personally anchored to these two (2) - Progressivism and Constructivism
philosophies of education because I teach Science subjects in high school, and we all
know that K-12 Science education is basically attached to these two philosophies. I
teach Science by teaching them how to learn, and providing the students with some of
the data and experiences that allow them to manipulate objects, investigate,
hypothesize, research, and many more. In addition, I believe that effective Science
education must prepare students for adult life, thus activities must respond to the needs
of the students and relates these to their personal lives and experiences. These
philosophies that I truly believe in this will serve as my window and compass to field
teaching.

A constructivist approach in teaching at all levels of schools (elementary,

secondary, and tertiary) is necessary because most of the pedagogical approaches to
teaching directly emphasize the learning of answers not the exploration of answers
(Singh and Yaduvanshi, 2015). The researchers also made a point that in order to
address the issue, Science teachers must adopt a constructivist approach, and provides
students to observe, work, explore, interact, ask questions, and communicate their
learnings to all; these will contribute to the student’s psychological, intellectual, and
social development. As discussed by the University of Buffallo (2021), constructivism is
simply a theory that focuses on learners to construct knowledge rather than just
passively acquiring information. While, the progressivist approach to teaching focuses
on hands-on learning and is focuses on the development of a whole child, collaboration,
social justice, intrinsic motivation, deep understanding, active learning, and taking
learners seriously which is in contrast with the traditional approach to teaching (Kohn,
2015).
References:
Singh, S., & Yaduvanshi, S. (2015). Constructivism in science classroom: why
and how.
International journal of scientific and research publications, volume 5, issue 3,
march 2015. ISSN 2250-3153.

University of Buffalo (2021). Constructivism. Retrieved from

https://www.buffalo.edu.catt/develop/theory/
constructivism.html#:~:text=Constructivism%20is%20the%20theory%20that,
%2Dexisting%20knowledge%20(schemas).

Kohn, A. (2015). Progressive Education: Why it’s Hard to Beat, But Also Hard to Find.
Bank Street College of Education. Retrieved from
https://educate.bankstreet.edu/progressive/2