Philosophy of Teaching and Learning

Wares Salehzai

My philosophy of teaching and learning puts an emphasis on the individual, rebrands

mistakes as a cornerstone of learning, and cultivates an environment where linguistic
development can thrive. As an educator, I believe that we should teach individuals, not
classrooms. A classroom is given its character by the individuals who occupy it, and when the
individuals thrive, so does the class as a whole. To this end, I would make an effort to learn more
about their interests, hobbies, favorite animals, musical tastes, fears, and aspirations. Although
my door will always be open to those who need academic help, I will take it as a sign that I am
doing something right if more students come by just to chat with me about life rather than Latin.

Teaching individuals does not just mean getting to know them, however. It also means
encouraging their growth, responding to their contributions in class, and providing them with
plenty of affirmation. If a day goes by when a student is not able to contribute in class, I think
that it is likely due to a fault of planning or a fault of the activities on my side rather than the
student’s fault. Even weaker students are able to contribute in class if given suitable
opportunities – they will not be able to answer every question, but a skilled teacher can find ways
to incorporate them anyhow. I believe that letting weaker students go through class without
participating simply because they have a lower skill level is tantamount to giving up on them.

This ties into my next point, which is that failure is not the end of the road, but just a
stepping stone on the road to learning. Part of the reason why low-level students do not
participate is because they perceive that their risk of making a mistake is very high, and so they
choose altogether to not take that risk in front of their peers. However, I think that students learn
best when they test the limits of their knowledge and are not afraid of making mistakes.
Oftentimes when a student makes a mistake, it is a teaching point not just for the student who
made the mistake, but for everyone in the classroom. The difficult part of this is that students are
only willing to make mistakes when they trust their instructor and peers enough to not be afraid
of losing face, which is why I emphasized earlier that the instructor has to actively cultivate a
positive learning environment and build both teacher-student relationships and student-student
relationships.
 Lastly, I think that students should be encouraged to approach the class with a lens of
inquiry – for our Latin class, this means comparing and contrasting their modern view of the
world with what we discuss in antiquity. Because we are Latin students and because we
appreciate Roman culture, I think we often fall into the trap of glorifying everything that Rome
did. Or at the very least, glossing over Rome’s bad side. There are certainly things that are better
in the modern world than in ancient Rome, but sometimes it is not so clear. I would encourage
students to make these comparisons themselves. What did the Romans do better than us, and
how can we apply what we learn from them in our other pursuits? Why are we reading what we
read? What can we learn from these stories? I hope to foster these kinds of thoughts in my
classroom.