Reference no: EM133767238

Ideas to Create a Teaching Philosophy for Child Development Instructorsor Professional Development Speakers

1. Define your role as a college instructor or professional development speakerClearly explain your ideas about your role. Include your beliefs about educational psychology perspectives and the important concepts related to how students learn. Consider also including a statement describing your sincere hopes and expectations for the students/adults you teach.
2. Address students' challenges to learning and those needing accommodations in the classroomDiscuss specifically how you will handle learning challenges, and students needing accommodations, as you teach a wide variety of abilities in your classes. Include a statement about how all students will be welcomed in your classroom. When composing your philosophy of teaching, be sure you clearly define how you will meet a variety of needs.
3. Discuss your views on addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion in your classesEmbracing diversity is pivotal to creating a warm and welcoming learning environment in today's classroom. How will you implement DEI into your curriculum, teaching, and learning practices? How will you promote a sense of belonging for all students in your classes?
4. Define your curricular orientationMap out your curricular orientation, including your beliefs about the purpose of education and strategies such as active learning, organization, pedagogy, teaching methods, learning goals and objectives, and instructional assessment.
5. Describe your ideas on ways to increase student engagementInclude ideas for how you will increase engagement in your classes: classroom activities, collaborative learning, a diverse range of engagement opportunities, providing assignment choices to address student differences, optimizing relevance and authenticity for students, and promoting expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation.
6. Address how you use reflection to improve your teachingReflective teaching involves examining one's underlying beliefs about teaching and learning and one's alignment with actual classroom practice before, during, and after a course is taught. Peer reviews, student evaluations, reflective journaling, and classroom observations are examples of data points that may improve your teaching.
The ideas above will give you a starting place for developing your teaching philosophy targeting a position as a college instructor or a professional development speaker for an adult population. Teaching Philosophies are highly personal reflections of your values as an educator. It took a lot of time, effort, and reflection in my career to hone my teaching philosophy so that it reflects both who I am as a teacher, and what I value in the field of education (and life!). Choose your words carefully to truly communicate what is most important to you.
Try to keep your document to 1 page, single-spaced, as potential employers want a quick overview of your teaching philosophy. Think of it as a snapshot, with an opportunity to develop the whole picture in an interview. Use your own words (don't copy and paste other's ideas), and you won't need to cite any references (again, employers want to see your ideas!). This is a TPA assignment.