My Teaching Philosophy
I strongly believe that a fear of failure is one of the biggest barriers to learning. My teaching philosophy is all about embracing mistakes because I believe that mistakes provide some of the most valuable learning opportunities. My goal as a teacher is to create a classroom environment whereby the primary focus is about learning, effort and growth, rather than being correct. This is largely influenced by the theory of growth mindsets, the idea that ability or intelligence is not pre-determined; they can be developed and improved with effort and determination (Seaton, 2018; Woolfolk & Margetts, 2019).
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This philosophy was only strengthened by my experiences during Professional Experience 1. Something I noticed about my class from the first few days of my practicum was that many of the students in 1/2 Candy struggled with low resilience and were reluctant to do work independently. A conversation with my mentor teacher revealed that for many students, this stemmed from a goal of being perfect, coupled with a fear of failure. However, studies show that being wrong can have more positive effects than being correct does. Johnston-Wilder et al. (2015) claim that the experience of failure can be motivating and develop student resilience.
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It is important to keep in mind, however, that when it comes to embracing mistakes, the onus is not solely on the students. Seaton (2018) stresses that a student’s resilience and response to shortcomings in the classroom are largely impacted by the attitudes and values of their teachers. I am a big believer in modelling the behaviour you expect from your students; if I wanted my students to embrace mistakes, so did I. Therefore, I made sure to make mistakes in front of my students. This could be something as simple as intentionally spelling a word wrong or forgetting a full stop in a sentence. This showed my students that I am human, teachers are human, and that the world does not collapse when you make a mistake. Both Sieberer-Nagler (2015) and Munns (2013) advocate for a shame-free learning environment, thus, if my students could see their teacher unbothered by making a mistake, they will feel less fearful of failure and realise that making mistakes is not a bad thing; they are needed to learn, grow and thrive.
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References
Johnston-Wilder, S., Lee, C., Brindley, J., & Garton, E. (2015). Developing mathematical resilience in school-students who have experienced repeated failure. In 8th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI2015), Seville, Spain.
Munns, G. (2013). Learning and behaviour. In Munns, G., Sawyer, W., & Cole, B. (Eds.), Exemplary Teachers of Students in Poverty (pp. 47-51). Routledge.
Seaton, F. (2018). Empowering teachers to implement a growth mindset. Educational Psychology in Practice, 34(1), 41-57. https://doi.org/10.1080/02667363.2017.1382333
Sieberer-Nagler, K. (2015). Effective Classroom-Management & Positive Teaching. English Language Teaching (Toronto), 9(1), 163. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v9n1p163
Woolfolk, A., & Margetts, K. (2019). Educational psychology (5th ed.). Pearson Australia.
Johnston-Wilder, S., Lee, C., Brindley, J., & Garton, E. (2015). Developing mathematical resilience in school-students who have experienced repeated failure. In 8th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI2015), Seville, Spain.
Munns, G. (2013). Learning and behaviour. In Munns, G., Sawyer, W., & Cole, B. (Eds.), Exemplary Teachers of Students in Poverty (pp. 47-51). Routledge.
Seaton, F. (2018). Empowering teachers to implement a growth mindset. Educational Psychology in Practice, 34(1), 41-57. https://doi.org/10.1080/02667363.2017.1382333
Sieberer-Nagler, K. (2015). Effective Classroom-Management & Positive Teaching. English Language Teaching (Toronto), 9(1), 163. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v9n1p163
Woolfolk, A., & Margetts, K. (2019). Educational psychology (5th ed.). Pearson Australia.