What Is this Lesson About?

As the instructional leader in your school, you play an important role in

directing it toward achieving its educational goals. You are, therefore,
expected to constantly provide guidance to your teachers to help them
deliver quality education to their students. But how is quality education
achieved? Quality education is achieved primarily through the effective
facilitation of the teaching-learning process. The teaching-learning
process is the heart and soul of schools. It forms the core of the “business
of education.” Therefore, this important activity must be done well if
schools are to be described as successful in achieving their goals. Students
go to school not simply to absorb information. They also have to be
trained on what to do with such information and how to apply what they
learn to real-life situations.

However, before teachers can be expected to facilitate the teaching-

learning process well, you first need to help them reflect on their beliefs
and attitudes about teaching and facilitation of learning. Why did they
become teachers in the first place? What kind of teachers are they striving
to become? What beliefs about students and learning do they hold as
important pillars in providing instruction? Knowing their basic attitudes,
beliefs, and practices will give you a good opportunity to examine why
they encounter certain problems in the facilitation process. This is just like
going back to their teaching foundations or philosophies. Are you familiar
with your teachers’ teaching philosophies? Whether you are familiar with
the development of a teaching philosophy or you simply need to refresh
your memory, this lesson is a good place for you to start.
Through this lesson, you will learn how to prepare a statement of teaching
philosophy. You will also be able to determine the characteristics of a
facilitative teaching-learning process, know about the different teaching
styles, and how these can affect the teaching-learning process. Are you
now ready to know more about these important factors that can affect
your teachers’ performance as instructional providers? If you are, then
read on.

What Will You Learn?

After studying this lesson, you should be able to:

• Write your own teaching philosophy.

• Guide your teachers in writing their own teaching philosophies.

• Discuss the characteristics of a facilitative teaching-learning process.

• Differentiate the four teaching styles.

• Evaluate your teachers’ teaching styles.

Let’s Read
Read the two scenarios below carefully.

Teacher A
Mr. Kamulwat is a third-grade teacher in a primary school. He has
been teaching for five years. He loves teaching and considers it his
vocation. He believes that students have their own unique abilities that
he can help develop by giving them opportunities to learn and practice
their skills. He feels that his students have as much to teach him as he
them so he encourages his students to ask questions and plan activities
that will enable them to apply new lessons to practical situations. He
gives his students opportunities to work in groups and come up with
projects that further explore their new skills.

As Mr. Kamulwat encourages his students to discover their potentials,

he also makes sure that he rediscovers himself by enrolling in
professional development courses available for teachers.
 Teacher B
Mrs. Prinsakorn is a teacher in a primary school. She believes that
students are like empty vessels that need to be filled with knowledge.
Indeed, it is her role as a teacher to provide them with as much
knowledge as possible. Her preferred teaching method is lecturing. She
gives long assignments to her students to encourage them to think
more. She believes in the authority of the educator. Hence, she has the
tendency to be very strict in class. She frowns upon noise and
unnecessary class activities. Mrs. Prinsakorn follows a carefully
prepared lesson plan every time. She expects her students to listen to
her attentively when she gives lectures. She asks them questions to
make sure they learned the concepts she presented. She views students
as passive receivers of information. She looks at her role in education
much like a driver does his/her passengers. And, of course, in that
situation, the driver is given total control.

Just as Mrs. Prinsakorn meticulously plans her lessons and sticks

to the plan, she has carefully laid out her own career path targeting
promotions in the school.

In whose class would you rather belong — Mr. Kamulwat’s or

Mrs. Prinsakorn’s? Why? Who provides students more opportunities to
really think and process rather than just absorb information? How are
their teaching approaches different?
Let’s Try This (Activity 1.1)
Let us compare the two teachers. Go back to the stories and fill out the
columns of the table below.

Teaching Beliefs Components Mr. Kamulwat Mrs. Prinsakorn

Beliefs about good teaching

Preferred class activities

Beliefs about students

Learning goals for students

Goals for self-improvement

Feedback
Compare your answers with those in the Key to Correction on page 112. If
your answers are similar to mine, that’s great! If you have other answers,
share and discuss them with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.

Facilitate the Teaching-Learning Process 13

Let’s Try This (Activity 1.2)
Answer the questions below about Mr. Kamulwat and Mrs. Prinsakorn
before proceeding to the next part of the lesson.

1. Who would you prefer to be a teacher in your school? Why?

2. Why are the two teachers’ teaching beliefs and attitudes different?

3. Why is it important to examine a teacher’s beliefs and attitudes?

Feedback
The previous activity shows you that teachers teach differently using
different techniques and approaches because they have different teaching
philosophies. A teaching philosophy describes teachers’ beliefs about
how learning occurs, how they can intervene in this process, what chief
goals they have for students, and what actions they should take to
implement their intentions for students.

Teachers’ beliefs and attitudes are different from one another’s because
they are unique individuals who have different experiences. These
experiences, whether acquired from their training as teachers or when
they were still students, form the foundation of their teaching attitudes
and activities. For a school head like you, helping teachers examine and
reflect on their beliefs and attitudes about teaching-learning is an
important step toward making them more effective providers of
instruction.

Let’s Think About This

Do you know the functions or purposes of a teaching philosophy? Write
your ideas on the lines below.

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Read on to check your answer.

Let’s Read
What Is a Teaching Philosophy?

The activity shows you that teachers teach differently using different
techniques and approaches because they have different teaching
philosophies. A teaching philosophy is a set of beliefs that a teacher
values as well as uses as a guide in instructional activities. It encompasses
the teacher’s beliefs about students, learning, teaching, and his/her role as
an educator.

Purposes

A teacher’s statement of teaching philosophy does several things. It can:

- Clarify what the teacher believes good teaching to be.

- Explain what the teacher hopes to achieve in teaching.

- Contextualize his/her teaching strategies and other evidence of

teaching effectiveness.
- Promote and provide an opportunity for reflection and
professional development in teaching.
- Provide a means for others to learn from the teacher’s experiences.

Components

A statement of teaching philosophy is composed of the following

components:

- The teacher’s definition of good teaching, with an explanation of

this particular definition.
- A discussion of teaching methods: how does the teacher implement
his/her definition of good teaching?
- A discussion of evaluation and assessment methods used and a
description of how they support the teacher’s definition of good
teaching.
- The teacher’s description of his/her students, and their most
important learning goals and challenges.
 - The teacher’s description of his/her teaching goals: with what
content, skills, or values should students leave his/her classroom?
- What are the teacher’s goals for improving his/her teaching?

Before you can help your teachers determine their teaching philosophy, it
would be best if you yourself could undergo the experience of defining
your own teaching philosophy and writing your own philosophy
statement. Are you ready to do that now? Then, proceed to the next
activity.

Let’s Try This (Activity 1.3)

How to Write a Statement of Teaching Philosophy

Write your own statement of teaching philosophy by following the format

below and the 10 steps to completion suggested by Pratt & Collins (2001).

Format

- Your statement of teaching philosophy should be as concise as

possible: 1-2 pages single spaced (the document may be slightly
longer if it includes information on specific teaching strategies).

- Include generous white spaces between paragraphs to allow for

ease of reading and to provide space for comments.

- Write in a personal, relatively informal tone, usually in the first

person. Sometimes, mentioning the names of scholars who have
been particularly influential to your teaching can be valuable.

10 Steps to Completion

1. Identify one or two of your most effective teaching methods. Why

are these methods effective?

2. Jot down what you know about your students and how they
learn.
 3. Review some of your teaching materials (lesson plans,
assignments). What are their strengths? How would you improve
them?

4. Consider some of the issues that shape your teaching: What do

you hope will be the result of your teaching?

What school factors affect the way you teach? What were some
critical moments or experiences for you as a teacher? How do you
know that a teaching activity or a course has been successful?
Consider how these issues are connected.

5. Do your teaching materials reflect your understanding of your

students and their needs? Do you derive your teaching goals
from a positive or negative experience with particular teaching
activities?

6. Using these notes and reflections, write a draft of your

philosophy statement in narrative form.

7. What evidence do you have of your teaching effectiveness

(teaching materials, feedback from students and colleagues)?
Does this evidence reflect what you have identified as your
strengths and priorities as a teacher?

8. Re-write the philosophy statement, taking into account your

evidence of teaching effectiveness.

9. Have someone else read the statement.

10. Re-write the philosophy statement a second time, incorporating

feedback from others.

Use these ten (10) steps to help guide you in preparing your own teaching
philosophy statement. Write your teaching philosophy statement on a
separate piece of paper or in your learning journal. Share your teaching
philosophy statement with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor
for feedback.