Teaching Philosophy Statement

Introduction

In my opinion, education is a lifelong process that covers all the experiences,

knowledge, and skills that the individual acquires at different stages in their life. I believe
that education develops the individuals thinking through acquires skills such as decision
making, creativity, innovation, communication, collaboration and problem-solving. These
skills are implemented within the UAE context as 21st-century skills.

The Ministry of Education has started to create a new curriculum that includes the
21st-century skills as a part of country development (Zaman & Sabry, 2014). As a
teacher, I involve these skills in my lesson plans as provided in the UAE Curriculum.
From my practicum teaching experiences in the UAE public and private schools from
2013 2107, I believe that the new focus on 21st-century skills is totally changing the
students learning, and providing more efficient teachers who have the capacity to teach in
different effective ways. For example, the students can analyze and evaluate different
issues that relate to their learning target and others; they also practice communication and
collaboration effectively and create new unique ideas as a part of creativity and
innovation.

Student-Centered Activities

I believe that teacher planning for different student centered activities is an

effective strategy to develop student learning skills like reading, writing, speaking, and
listening. Teacher can include students in planning, implementation, and assessments
through demonstrate learning depends on the different ways that students processes
understanding. Students need to understand the value of the content and skills before they
are willing to invest effort. I consistently apply a students centered method to increase
social skills like self- esteem. This method is relating to constructivism theory means the
students learn through connecting their prior knowledge and experiences to what they
learn in class (Simpson & Froyd, 2008). The teachers role is guiding the students and
facilitates their learning but, the students are responsible for their learning. During my
semester seven experience with grade two students, I applied learning center activities
and the students were highly engaged because they had hands on work with varying
materials which is the students preferred way for learning. I noticed how their learning
improved especially in writing and they were able to write the new words the same day
they learn them after getting into the learning centers.

Reflective Learning

I believe that reflective learning is a significant factor that develops students

critical thinking. This means it is one way of making students reflect on their
performance and recognize their strengths and weaknesses in target areas in their
learning. This could be through asking themselves 5W\H questions (what, when, why,
where, and how). It is like Kolbs learning cycle which guides the learner thinks about
what happen, reflect about it by asking why it happens like that. Then what they can learn
from their learning\experience, and how they plan to improve it (McClure, 2005).
Teachers use many strategies to guide students through a period of reflection such as
discussions and questioning. For example, conduct discussions about students' problem-
solving processes, invite students to share their metacognition, detail their strategies for
solving a problem, describe their mental maps for monitoring their problem-solving
process, and reflect on the strategy that constructs the habits of mind related to flexibility,
and persistence. Additionally, provide social-learning environments such as peer-group
works and small group activities to allow students to see other points of view.

Oral and Written Feedback

I believe that providing oral and written feedback for students helps to improve
their performance. I learned to do this in semester six because it was one of the
weaknesses in semester five, I was not able to give constructive feedback and I asked my
school mentor to give me effective strategies that she used in her teaching experience.
This means, as a teacher I have to give immediate feedback for students to understand it
and know where they are in the certain topic or lesson goal. For example, give an
immediate oral feedback for the students questions and written feedback for the test next
day instead of delaying it provides a good feedback. This means, as a teacher I have to
focus on specific main points that relate to the learning targets instead of writing too
much feedback about something that students do not know about or they do not need it at
their learning level.

Conclusion

I am looking forward to being a teacher who supports creative, and unique

generations in the UAE, I will do my best to develop education in the UAE.
References

Froyd, J. & Simpson, N. (2008, August). Student-centered learning addressing faculty

questions about student-centered learning. In Course, Curriculum, Labor, and
Improvement Conference, Washington DC, 30 (11).

McClure, P. (2005). Reflection on Practice, making Practice-based Learning

work. School of Health Sciences, University of Ulster.

Zaman, S & Sabry, S.( December 6, 2014 ). Education today focuses on creativity and
21st century skills. Gulf News. Retrieved from
http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/education/education-today-focuses-on-creativity-
and-21st-century-skills-1.1417629