Download The Importance of Lifelong Learning and Effective Teaching in Education and more Study notes History of Education in PDF only on Docsity! Quinn Taylor EDTC 100, Section B November 5, 2007 Philosophy on Education To me, life-long learning is very important. I do not believe that one has to be a student to be a life-long learner. Learning can come from anywhere and everywhere. Knowledge comes from our environments and our experiences, both inside the classroom and out. I believe that life-long learning is essential to becoming a confident, successful individual. I also strongly believe a successful teacher should be an avid life-long learner, and I feel that it is important to stress being a life-long learner to the students. Showing them that learning continues after school and that it can be fun, I believe, would inspire them to become life-long learners themselves. I believe that teachers should make a commitment to their students to acknowledge and respect their feelings and concerns. Often, students look up to their teachers as role models. Thinking back to my own school experiences, I know that it can be much easier to talk about issues with someone other than one’s parents or other family members. I know that at some point in my teaching career, I will probably be approached by a student who wants to talk about an issue involving his or her personal life. As a future teacher, I want my students to feel that they can come to me with their issues, not only as their teacher, but as a role model, friend, and mentor as well. I want my students to know that I will be available for them to speak with and to feel comfortable doing so. I feel that by having a close relationship with students, they will respect me more as their teacher and strive to be the best student they can be. I also believe that this relationship can follow them into their future and help them to become life-long learners through inspiration. Through my own experiences, I have seen that knowledge improves an individual’s self-confidence. It also motivates one to continue to achieve knowledge, thus further increasing that individual’s confidence in his or herself. In order to achieve this, a teacher should address this to the class upon their first meeting. It should be made known that the teacher is available for the students to talk to about issues and concerns they may have. It should also be made known that the teacher has a responsibility to report any potentially harmful or illegal confessions made by the student to protect not only the teacher and the confessing student, but others that might be involved as well. I feel that by having this close relationship, a student who may have something of this caliber to report would feel more comfortable and compelled to talk to the teacher. A teacher, who is a reflective practitioner, is one who looks at events that have occurred and makes a decision about what to do next inside the classroom. It is important for a teacher to reflect upon their teaching styles and content to determine whether or not is has been effective. The teacher should look over graded items and analyze the areas that the students may have done poorly. I believe a successful teacher should then revisit that area with the students and approach that content in a different way to better teach the students. Then, after this, I believe the teacher should give the students the opportunity to redo that initial item in hopes of improving the student’s grade. I do not believe that material should be visited only one time in the classroom. I believe that what is important is that the students leave the class with the knowledge that the teacher tried to bestow upon them, whether everyone retains it in the first lesson or if the teacher has to go over it three or more times. The goal is to teach the students, not simply give the information.
