MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

ADAM GULLEN

UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA SOUTHEAST

NOVEMBER 5th, 2019

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Introduction

All teachers bring with them a different mix of personal strengths, and a reason or two
that brought them in to the profession. For me, being a teacher was never something I had
envisioned. My Mom was a teacher, and growing up I didn’t have an interest in the field. It
wasn’t until I moved to Alaska at age 30 and was looking for year-long work that being an
educator crossed my mind. After a quick job search, I began working at an elementary school as
a special education paraprofessional.
Although I loved my job, I still had no interest in being an actual teacher. I found
fulfillment in working with small groups of kids, and knowing that I had a unique chance to
affect their thinking and influence their life for the better. I also enjoyed participating in games
and activities with the students. So when the opportunity presented itself to become my school’s
P.E. teacher, I jumped on it! I appreciate that gym class affords students a way to learn concepts
that they can’t find in other school settings. Many of these concepts are important throughout life
and sometimes are in areas that are neglected in other areas of a student’s school life. Learning
from the challenging situations that can occur in P.E. are invaluable to individuals throughout the
rest of their lives. Things such as cooperating with people you might not like, pushing yourself
past your believed limit, accomplishing something you thought you couldn’t, and learning how
to deal with losing are just a few important skills for a happy life. Best of all, students can learn
in a fun environment, and not even be aware that they’re being taught life lessons and skills. All
these things agree strongly with my personal education philosophy- that learning should be
engaging, fun, full of varied tasks, and involve multiple individuals and skills.

Development & Learning Theory

Kids of all ages can be taught in an engaging, fun way, however, what that looks like for
one age group will be different from that of another. Children progress through different skill
levels in a typical pattern, although there is a lot of variety from kid to kid and from age to age.
Jean Piaget was one of the most influential thinkers on child development, and he believed that
development preceded learning.1 This would mean that for a child to learn something new, first
they’d need to be able to grow to a level where they can access the material. Although this is
partially correct, I think that this rigid model of thinking has been shown to be false in various
ways.1
Kids are great at learning from other children, a practice known as modeling.
Psychologist Albert Bandura feels that most of human learning is more effectively done by
observing a model.2 So by watching students who are at a higher-level work on a task, kids can
learn in subjects that would normally be outside their developmental level. Russian psychologist
Semionovich Vygotsky therefor held that cognitive development was strongly tied to inputs from
other people.3 He believed that students learn most effectively when they operate within their
zone of proximal development; meaning that they try tasks they wouldn’t be able to achieve on
their own but can successfully accomplish with the help of others.4 Combined with his notions of
mediation (problem solving developed with higher performing peers & adults), scaffolding (high
support initially, less as development occurs), & cooperative learning (children work together to
learn)4, gym class is naturally set-up to achieve great results.
Think of how a P.E. class is put together. A typical lesson would start by getting
everyone’s heart-moving with some body-mind activities (like moving in varied & unique ways,

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stopping & starting with music, being spatially aware of peers etc.), then be followed by a game
in which students are able to observe and interact with their classmates. By being surrounded by
their peers working on the same skills, they can use mediation & cooperative learning to get
better at tasks. As the teacher I aim to allow scaffolded learning by giving complete instructions
to begin with, then allow students to practice on their own with comments from myself as
necessary. It’s recommended in P.E. instruction to assume that 80% of the students understand an
instruction or can look around and learn from their peers it from their peers.5 I’d be actively
moving around the group helping to get the other 20% up to speed. The class would then be
pulled back together for a discussion in which positives and negatives of the activity can be
discussed, giving shape to future efforts.
How this affects a child’s learning will vary with what level students are at. Kids at the
beginning of elementary school will be in what Piaget called the preoperational stage of
development. This means their thinking will be egocentric and self-centered.6 By the time they
enter the early grades (1st & 2nd), most students will transition into Piaget’s concrete operational
stage where they begin to think logically & less egocentrically.6 By the end of elementary school,
the students will hopefully be in Piaget’s formal operational stage. This stage is where we first
start to see abstract thinking.6 A 5-year-old student would therefore not be expected to learn as
completely from observing peers as a 10-year-old student would be; however, here is where I
think my personal philosophy of teaching works well across age ranges. While the younger
students might not fully utilize their peers for learning, by working heavily with those around
them, they will continually be confronted by the plethora of issues that arise with social
interaction and competition. Working on these topics will give them the foundation they’ll need
to develop the social skills necessary to later interact with their peers in a cooperative way. If as
educators we wait to have students work with one another until they are already at an age where
they can adequately learn from their peers, then we’ve lost out on a lot of opportunities for
personal growth. By structuring my gym classes to continually have children interacting in fun,
varied ways, I’m setting the stage that they will use to drive their own growth.
I see some of the problems students are grappling with arise often in the gym. Most of
them come from a child’s developing moral views and how that affects their experience. As
young people, kids are very rigid in their thinking of cause and effect. If a student is accidently
knocked down, or viewed as playing unfairly, it’s easy for classmates to become very upset. The
youngest school aged children would be in what Kohlberg would label a preconventional level.
This is where rules are passed down from adults, and where the outcome often influences what
the kid feels the intention was.8 When an issue arises with kids at this level, it’s good to speak to
both kids; I like to have the “victim” tell the other child what they didn’t like, then offer an
alternative to the other student. An example would be, “I didn’t like it when you pushed me, it
made me feel sad.”. I would then add, “Next time you want to get by him, say ‘excuse me’”. This
way the victim feels vindicated, and the “perpetrator” isn’t made to look bad.
Kohlberg’s next level of moral reasoning is the conventional level. Here the student sees
others as fundamentally good or bad, and can sometimes put others needs above their own.8 This
is where I’d place many of my older elementary students. Student’s in this age are able to
understand that just because someone bumped into them and they fell down, the other student
didn’t necessarily mean them any harm. Kids at this level are still helped by the framework I
spoke about above, but it doesn’t have to be stated so rigidly. A goal of mine working with
students at this age is sportsmanship with one another, which is something I touch on in my P.E.
class.

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Foundations & Standards

For better or worse, standardized testing is here to stay in modern American schools. As a
teacher, I won’t place any more emphasis on standardized testing than is required. I don’t think
that “teaching to a test” is an effective strategy to foster learning and growth. I do, however, like
more targeted tests to show students current knowledge as it relates to materials being covered in
class.
The school that I’m working at currently tests all special education students weekly, and
has frequent progress monitoring tests for regular education students as well. These tests aren’t
scored, and become a normal part of the weekly routine for students. They’re used as a way to
judge student growth. If special education students no longer test below grade level in a
particular area, they are no longer tested on it weekly. The tests simply allow us to tailor their
instruction to better target specific math & English concepts. This is the big difference to me
between these progress monitoring tests and standardized tests- the frequent progress checkups
inform our knowledge as educators and help us better serve our student’s needs.
My education philosophy meshes well with teaching physical education. If I was a
classroom teacher, I think my ideals would most closely align with that of a Montessori school. I
can achieve similar goals in both settings. I like that a Montessori school teaches using three
progressing levels- “The early years are spent building the foundation of the person, the middle
years are a time of abstracting, while the later years are a time of expression.”7 This to me seems
like a fittingly appropriate way to help young people achieve their most. Most classroom
material skips over incredibly important personal and social skills, only touching on them if big
issues arise. These character-building skills are easy to work on over the years of an elementary
student’s gym career, and could likewise be focused on better in a Montessori setting than a
typical school.
I also like that Montessori schools treat the elementary years as one in which students are
exposed to many different areas, with the belief that this overexposure to choice will help foster
interest in as many areas as possible. I take a similar approach in gym- we not only play games
intended to address specific motor or social skills, but my aim is to expose the kids to many
different activities that they can take with them outside the school. We’ll play games that
students can play the rest of their lives, like soccer & basketball, and work on skills that can be
used across athletics like running and coordination. Even playing gym specific games, I think it’s
important to always purposefully include aspects of learning that carry over outside of gym-
sportsmanship, adversity, & drive are all heavily focused on.
I do think that state standards are helpful, at least the P.E. one’s that I’m familiar with.
They basically state that kids should engage in frequent exercise, find enjoyment from it in many
ways, and be physically and socially competent in a number of ways. My school districts
standards are further broken down by grade level, and explain what is expected of students in
many number of areas as they progress through the grades. Things like “[b]y the end of Grade 3,
students will:[…] demonstrate[s] competency in motor and movement skills […] such as
balancing, bending, twisting, swaying”. 8 The list goes on and on, grade by grade, and is very
detailed. While I don’t typically plan a lesson around targeting a specific goal, it is my aim to
include as many of them as possible spread throughout my lessons. When we are working on
something like soccer, it would be ideal to look at what the curriculum says a student at that
grade level should be able to achieve, and working towards that.

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Diversity in the classroom & Discussion

In this day and age being aware of cultural diversity in of itself isn’t enough. I think we
need to actively cultivate an awareness and appreciation for other people’s beliefs and customs.
Having as much exposure as possible to other people and cultures will help kids grow into open
minded individuals. It’ll also help create understanding where before there was none. I think to
aid in this area, it’s vital to invite a large cross-section of the community into the school who are
willing to share their culture with the school. I also think it’s pivotal to speak about more than
just cultural diversity. We must speak about the diversity of ideas and ways of thinking, as well
as the diversity of different individuals outside a cultural context (like those with disabilities). I
think we have to help students celebrate differences instead of tearing down differences.
Looking back on my own education, I never learned something well when it was forced
upon me. I often didn’t like books we were made to read, or games we were forced to play. I was
always a good student, but I liked things that felt less like an obligation and more like an
opportunity for fun or growth. I liked learning from teachers that had passion, and were real
human beings. I keep these things in mind as an adult working with kids now. I think it’s served
me well. There’s been countless times that I’ve asked a student to do something I knew they
didn’t want to do, but because of the relationship we’ve built they will sometimes agree. I tailor
what I emphasis with a class to the age; kindergarteners aren’t going to learn from their peers
like 6th graders would, and 6th graders don’t typically need to work on basic motor skills. I try to
make sure that I push students in areas that their developmental level will allow them growth in.
Even in my P.E. classes things aren’t forced on students; if a student doesn’t want to
participate in the warm-up that’s ok. They aren’t invited to play the game until their warm-up is
complete, but it’s still their choice. I try to remember that everyone responds to incentives, and
nobody likes to be coerced. Everyone likes being with their friends, and that goes for their
teacher as well- treating students with kindness and respect goes a long way, and will always be
something I work to fulfill.

Closing

If I had to briefly summarize my personal theory on education it is this; that students like
to learn when their friends are involved, and that a student who is having fun is more engaged in
the lesson. That students who don’t feel coerced into working are going to be more eager to learn
and take away skills from a lesson. That students enjoy learning from someone they feel is a real
person9, that is passionate about the subject they’re teaching. That students can only achieve their
best when they feel safe, respected, and cared about. All these things should be something every
teacher strives to achieve every day, and they will be something I’m always working towards
achieving.

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References

1 Slavin, R. (2008). Educational Psychology. New York, NY: Pearson. Page 31

2 Slavin, R. (2008). Educational Psychology. New York, NY: Pearson. Page 112
3 Slavin, R. (2008). Educational Psychology. New York, NY: Pearson. Page 33
4 Slavin, R. (2008). Educational Psychology. New York, NY: Pearson. Page 34
5 Spark Physical Education curriculum program materials
6 Slavin, R. (2008). Educational Psychology. New York, NY: Pearson. Page 50
7 Trostel, C. Montessori: A Few Fundamental Ideas. Accessed online through UAS
Blackboard
8 Hamilton, K., Hammer, B., Lundamo, M., Truitt, E. (2012-2013). Elementary
Physical Education. Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District Curriculum, Page 6
9 Perrone, V. (1991). A Letter to Teachers. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Page 31