Carlos Danielle C.

Nicio The Teaching

Profession
BSED – RE 2 October 2020

1. Do you know why you want to be a teacher?

 I want to be a teacher because I want to teach my knowledge about the
Catholic Church. It is also through teaching that I can inspire people to
appreciate the wonders of their faith. I also want people to respect the
sense of the sacred and that is only possible if I am able to educate them.
2. What do you think the REWARDS of teaching would be? List at least 5 rewards
of teaching.
 Students learning from what you taught them
 Parents appreciating your efforts in educating their child
 Receiving your pay from working as a teacher
 Students giving their best because you motivated them
 Students being successful because of how you formed them

3. What do you think makes teaching difficult? List at least 5 things that make
teaching difficult.
 Lack of teaching resources
 Personal problems of teachers
 Behavior of students
 High expectations from supervisors
 Other activities aside from teaching

4. Qualities of Teachers
GOOD QUALITIES: POOR QUALITIES:
 Approachable  Terror
 Shows empathy  Inconsiderate
 Understanding  Does not teach
 Teaches clearly  Humiliates students
 Sense of humor  Overloads students with paper works
5. What do YOU THINK teachers do?
 Teaches students
 Computes grades
 Prepares learning materials
 Talks to students’ parents
 Checks test papers/assignments/seatworks/projects

6. Where do teachers work?

 School – teaching students
 Community – outreach programs
 Church – catechizes people
 Business establishments – conducts trainings

ACTIVITY:
(1) Put the following 5 animals in the order of your preference:
Cow, Tiger, Sheep, Horse, Pig
 Pig, Cow, Tiger, Sheep, Horse
 Money, career, pride, love, family

(2) Write one word that describes each one of the following:
Dog, Cat, Rat, Coffee, Sea
 Dog – cute
 Cat – wild
 Rat – dirty
 Coffee – strong
 Sea – salty
(3) Think of someone, who also knows you and is important to you, which you can
relate them to the following colors. Do not repeat your answer twice. Name just one
person for each color: Yellow, Orange, Red, White, Green.
 Yellow – Sham
 Orange – Con
 Red – Jen
 White – Meriel
 Green – Lea

(4) Finally, write down your favorite number, and your favorite day of the week.

 Favorite number – 7
  Favorite day – Friday

THINKING AS A TEACHER
On a sheet of paper or in your teaching journal, draw a picture of yourself
working as a teacher. What metaphor does the picture suggest for your teaching?
Here are some sample metaphors. Ask yourself where do you fit and why? If you
don’t fit anywhere, come up with your own metaphor and explain it briefly. Then
consider why your metaphor does not fit with those listed. What do you believe or
value instead? This should help emphasize what is important to you as a teacher
and reveal why you do what you do.

 As a future teacher, I see myself metaphorically as a LAMPLIGHTER

because teaching Christian Formation should enlighten students of their
faith and its essence in their life. Teaching Christ to students is a challenge
for me because I know some will reject what I am teaching them. As a
teacher, I respect their choice of ignoring me, but they must be aware of the
consequences they will be encountering. As a lamplighter, I hope that I will
be able to enlighten at least some of my students regarding the importance
of their Christian faith.

SELF-REFLECTIVE INTERVIEW
Imagine that a reporter from a teaching journal asks to interview you for a special
section on the qualities of effective teachers. How would you respond to the
following questions?
1. What is a “personal best” achievement for you as a teacher?
 Seeing your students practicing their faith wholeheartedly, knowing
that this happened not because of me, but because of God who used
me as His instrument towards the students’ enlightenment of their
faith.

2. Who is the best teacher you have ever known? What personal qualities
made this person a great teacher?
  The best teacher for me is Mr. Julius Vier because of his teaching
approach. He will first give a seatwork, then discuss the lesson, then
give a quiz. His teaching approach made him the best teacher for
me. I will be using the same method when I teach Christian
Formation in the future.

3. How do the qualities of the best teacher you knew appear in your
instruction?
 Mr. Vier’s teaching approach will be very useful for me as a future
educator because I find it effective for students. The lessons he
taught us did not faded easily, but remained for a long time, perhaps
because of the way he taught us these lessons.

4. If you could give others a gift-wrapped box that contained the best qualities
of your teaching style, what items would that box contain?
 It would be plenty of books about teaching and about faith.

5. If you could put the worst qualities you have as a teacher in the trash, what
would you throw away?
 I would throw away ignorance, inconsideration, and close-
mindedness.

6. What is one action you need to take to give up one or more of the latter
qualities?
 I would give up being close-minded because I need to consider the
fact that not everyone believes in the Christian faith.

7. If you wrote a book about teaching, what would the title be? What are three
points about instruction you would make?
 The title of my book would be Teaching the Faith to the Youth.
 I’d like to emphasize on this book that: first, teaching faith is not easy;
second, understanding the youth is not easy; and third, doing both is
a challenge that educators of faith must face if they want the youth to
really learn about faith.

PERSONAL DEFINITION OF TEACHING

In articulating your definition of teaching, it is often helpful to carefully analyze
your definition to ensure that it is comprehensive and clear to readers other than
ourselves. To do this, we need to unpack the terminology we use. Respond to the
following prompts to help clarify your personal definition of teaching.
1. What is your personal definition of teaching?
 Teaching is a complicated process of passing on a specific idea from
an instructor to a learner. It requires the participation of both parties.

2. What key phrases or words in your definition are absolutely critical for
someone else to understand your approach to teaching?
 complicated, process, specific, instructor, learner, participation

3. What does each key word or phrase mean to you?

 complicated – not easy, must not be done in a rush
 process – follows an order or a sequence
 specific – a part of a whole
 instructor – not limited to teachers
 learner – not only the students but also the teachers
 participation – active involvement

4. In reviewing your expanded definition, what would you drop, modify, or add?
Give a reason for your response.
 I would not change anything with my personal definition.

REFLECTION CUES FOR WRITING A TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

1. Why am I a teacher?
 I am a teacher because God called me in this path. He wants me to
teach students about their faith and its essence in their lives.

2. What motivated me to select a career path that includes teaching?

 Seeing the students’ need to appreciate their faith and that is only
possible if I teach them about it.

3. What is my personal definition of a great teacher and what experience

formed that definition?
 A great teacher is someone who teaches not just the concepts, but
also the values contained in it.
 I formed this definition of a great teacher because I had teachers who
simply teach without checking first if we really learned something
from it.
 4. What do I believe about teaching and learning?
 I believe that teaching is only effective if teachers do it
wholeheartedly.
 I believe that learning is a never-ending process because every day
we learn something from others or from our experiences, thus, we
continue to discover new things each day.

5. What do I want my students to gain from my classroom?

 I want my students to appreciate their faith and demonstrate it by
how live their lives. It must be aligned with what our faith teaches us.
They must be good towards others. They must never be a source of
any wrongdoing.

REALITY CHECK FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DESK

1. What were my most positive learning experiences as a student?
 As a student, the most positive learning experience I had was when I
was able to learn the lessons by myself because my teacher is not
teaching. Also, when I was able to pass a difficult subject. Finally,
when I was able to report in front of many people without
nervousness and without stuttering.

2. What made them so positive? List as many things as possible and be

specific.
 I did it despite some words of discouragement by others.
 I did it without that much support from my teacher.
 I did it knowing that I worked hard on it.
 I did it without cheating.
 I did it by letting go of my doubts about myself.

3. Contrarily, what were my most negative learning experiences as a student?

What
made them so negative? List as many things as possible and be specific.
 As a student, the most negative learning experience I had was when
I failed a quiz, when I reported bad, and when I got a low grade.
 I failed to study hard.
 I did not prepare well.
 I was not able to detect my weakness on a particular subject.
WHAT IS YOUR PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION?
Each of us has a philosophy of education, or a set of fundamental beliefs
regarding how we think schools should be run. What is your philosophy of
education? To find out, read each of the following statements about the nature
of education. Decide whether you agree or disagree with each statement. Use
the following numbers to express your response:
  5 - Agree strongly
  4 - Agree
  3 - Neutral
  2 - Disagree
  1 - Disagree Strongly

4 1. The curriculum of the schools should be subject centered. In

particular, student learning should be centered around basic subjects
such as reading, writing, history, math, and science.
3 2. The curriculum of the schools should focus on the great thinkers
of the past.
2 3. Many students learn best by engaging in real-world activities
rather than reading.
1 4. The students should be permitted to determine their own
curriculum.
5 5. Material is taught effectively when it is broken down into small
parts.
4 6. The curriculum of a school should be determined by information
that is essential for all students to know.
5 7. Schools, above all, should develop student’s abilities to think
deeply, analytically, and creatively; this is more important than
developing their social skills or providing them with a useful body of
knowledge about our ever-changing world.
5 8. Schools should prepare students for analyzing and solving the
types of problems they will face outside the classroom.
3 9. Reality is determined by each individual’s perceptions. There is
no objective and universal reality.
4 10. People are shaped much more by their environment than by
their genetic dispositions or the exercise of their free will.
 3 11. Students should not be promoted from one grade to the next
until they have read and mastered certain key material.
3 12. An effective education is not aimed at the immediate needs of
the students or society.
3 13. The curriculum of a school should be built around the personal
experiences and need of the students.
1 14. Students who do not want to study much should not be
required to do so.
3 15. Programmed learning is an effective method of teaching information.
3 16. Academic rigor is an essential component of education.      
1 17. All students, regardless of ability, should study more or less
the same curriculum.
2 18. Art classes should focus primarily on individual expression and
creativity. Effective learning is unstructured and informal.
3 20. Students learn best through reinforcement.
4 21. Effective schools assign a substantial amount of homework.
3 22. Education should focus on the discussion of tuneless
questions such as “What is beauty?” or “What is truth?”
3 23. Since students learn effectively through social interaction,
schools should plan for substantial social interaction in their curricula.
5 24. The purpose of school is to help students understand and find
the meaning of their existence.
3 25. Frequent objective testing is the best way to determine what
students know.
2 26. America must become more competitive economically with
countries such as Japan, and schools have an affirmative obligation to
bolster their academic requirements in order to facilitate such
competition.
2 27. Students must be taught to appreciate learning primarily for its
own sake, rather than because it will help them in their careers.
2 28. Schools must place more emphasis on teaching about the
concerns of minorities and women.
3 29. Each person has free will to develop as he or she sees fit.
 2 30. Reward students well for learning and they will remember and
be able to apply what they learned, even if they were not led to
understand why the information is worth knowing.
3 31. American schools should attempt to instill traditional American
values in students.
3 32. Teacher-guided discovery of profound truths is a key method
of teaching students.
4 33. Students should be active participants in the learning process.
4 34. There are no external standards of beauty. Beauty is what an
individual decides it to be.
5 35. We can place a lot of faith in our schools and teachers to
determine which student behaviors are acceptable and which are not.
3 36. Schools must provide students with a firm grasp of basic facts
regarding the books, people, and events that have shaped the American
heritage.
2 37. Philosophy is ultimately at least as practical a subject to study
as is
computer science.
5 38. Teachers must stress for students the relevance of what they
are learning to their lives outside, as well as inside, the classroom.
5 39. It is more important for a student to develop a positive self-
concept than to learn specific subject matter.
5 40. Learning is more effective when students are given frequent
tests to determine what they have learned.

PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES IN EDUCATION

1. Which of these educational philosophies would you describe as

authoritarian? Which as non-authoritarian? Why?
 The educational philosophies that are authoritarian are both
perrenialism and essentialism because it teaches students
the traditional moral values and virtues. Teachers who use
these philosophies tries to instill in all students the most basic
knowledge, skills, and character development. These
philosophies are authoritarian also because the teacher is
 above the students and that they are considered the expert of a
particular knowledge.
 The education philosophies that are non-authoritarian are both
progressivism and reconstructionism because it lets the
students learn not in a traditional manner but more on an
experiential manner. Teachers using these philosophies let the
students learn by using their sense of inquiry. It focuses more
on real-world problems and finds a solution for these problems
through the ideas of students derived from their experiences.

2. Which educational philosophy is most compatible with your beliefs? Why?

 The educational philosophies that is most compatible with my
beliefs would be essentialism. As a religious education major, I
cannot change my teaching philosophy because what I am
teaching came from the Church. With me as a teacher of
religion, I will try my best to discuss the concepts to my students
without changing it for the sake of my students. It is a challenge
for me to let my students see the essence of religious subjects
in their lives. While I believe that nothing must be changed when
it comes to the subject content, the approach in teaching such
subject may be modified so that the learning process may be
done easier.

RELATED THEORIES OF LEARNING (PSYCHOLOGICAL

ORIENTATIONS)

1. Which psychological orientations are most compatible with which

educational philosophies? Explain.
 The psychological orientations information processing and
behaviorism are most compatible with the education
philosophies perrenialism and essentialism. It is because
both orientations transmit information to learners and this is only
possible if teachers are above the students. They are more
superior than the students and that the learning concepts comes
from them alone and these concepts are passed on to students
which they absorb and it causes a change in their behavior.
 On the other hand, the psychological orientations cognitivism
and humanism are most compatible with the education
philosophies progressivism and reconstructionism because
 the learner has to make meaning from the experiences they
undergo. Teachers are not considered the experts of
knowledge, but rather, they are just checking if the learning of
the students are appropriate to what they have experienced.

2. Explain the differences in focus of the educational philosophies and

psychological orientations. Are there also similarities?
 The educational philosophies focus more on how the teaching is
done by the teachers. It focuses on what style or approach they
use for the learning of the students. The psychological
orientations, on the other hand, focuses on how the students
learn from the approach/philosophy used by their teachers. It
focuses on what outcome will the student be able to produce
based on the teacher’s method.
 While they have their differences, they also have their
similarities. Both are all about how to gain knowledge. Also,
these psychological orientations are influenced with education
philosophies in terms of how to educate a student and what
things must be considered.