Goal: to develop a personal teaching philosophy of early childhood education based on research and analysis.
Purpose: If someone asked you to explain your philosophy of teaching young children, what would you say? How would you begin to formulate a statement that captures the essence of your belief about teaching and learning? Teacher candidates are increasingly being asked to articulate their philosophy of teaching. This request is often in conjunction with the submission of a teaching portfolio for seeking teaching positions.
A teaching philosophy is a statement of reflection about what you will do as a teacher. Your beliefs influence your action. It has been recognized by many teachers that the process of identifying a personal teaching philosophy and continuously examining, testifying, and verifying this philosophy can lead to change of teaching behaviors and ultimately enhance professional and personal growth.
Instructions: Toward the end of the semester, you are required to write a 4+ page paper on your personal teaching philosophy (see notes on paper length, below). Use the following questions to help you think about your beliefs regarding teaching young children. It is not necessary to respond to each of these questions in your written philosophy. You may also decide to comment on additional issues as well. Take some time to think about each one in some depth.
How do you view young children? What is the child’s role in their education? What do you believe about how young children learn?
How do you view the role of the teacher? How will your views influence your teaching?
What kind of environment do you hope to create in your future classroom? How does this relate to your basic beliefs about young children and learning?
What do you hope young children will become? What do you want them to achieve, accomplish, learn, feel, etc.?
What kind of feedback will you offer your children as they play and work? What kind of assessment will you use to be sure that children have met objectives or milestones?
Looking back at the history of early childhood education, who or what approaches or theories have the greatest impression on you, and why?
How are you different now from the beginning of the term?
Paper Format Guidelines:
Your paper will be a minimum of 4 pages in length (See notes on paper length below), 12 point font, double spaced, with 1-inch margins. If you need writing support, please utilize Smartthinking Online Tutoring or the TRR with Lytha Roddy.
Use present tense, in most cases. Write the paper in first-person (which is the most common and easiest for your audience to read).
Write in language and concepts that can be broadly appreciated. A general rule is that the statement should be written with the audience in mind. It may help to consider a school administrator (e.g., school principal) as your audience.
Write a paper that will let your audience know where you stand in regard to important educational theories and practices. By including specific examples of teaching theories and approaches, you are able to let your reader take a mental “peek” of your classroom.
Make the paper memorable and unique. Think of this teaching philosophy as part of a job application where your readers are seeing many of these statements. What is going to set you apart from others? What about you are they going to remember? Create a vivid portrait of yourself as someone who is intentional about teaching and committed to their career.
A minimum of 3 references must be cited in your paper.
Be sure to use proper citations. Refer to Citations – A How to Guide for guidance. Citing an assignment is listed down below:
Citing in a Discussion Assignment
Anytime you refer to an author’s ideas or words in your discussion post or peer responses, even if it is not a direct quote, you must cite your source.
To cite our textbook in the body of your discussion or peer response, put the authors’ last names and the page number(s) where you got the information: (Lally & Valentine-French, p. 42).
Using a “Direct Quote” (copied text)
If you are using the author’s exact words, you must let us know by using quotation marks around the copied information. For example: “Language shock results when children suddenly discover that their native language is not understood by others (Lally & Valentine-French, p. 416).”
Another way to cite a direct quote looks like this: According to Trawick-Smith (p. 419), “Language shock results when children suddenly discover that their native language is not understood by others.”
Borrowing Other’s Ideas (in your own words)
If you are rephrasing someone else’s ideas into your own words, you still need to give them proper credit.
For example: When children who do not speak the dominant language enter group care for the first time, they often experience language shock when they realize that their classmates do not understand what they are saying (Lally & Valentine-French, p. 416).
Citing a Website
The same general rules apply. If the original ideas or words are not your own, you want to give credit to the author. If your source is a website and you can’t identify an author, then you can provide us with the link to the page.
For example: “Language shock results when children suddenly discover that their native language is not understood by others (insert the web page address between parenthesis)”
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