Teaching Philosophy
As a mathematics teacher, I have to consider education with a wider perspective therefore I should be aware of basics needs. I take into consideration of psychological, pedagogical needs of students and also needs of society. This holistic view is the essential approach in my professional life. I accept my students as unique individuals with their own potential and needs; moreover I accepted them also as a part of society that we need their potential for our society’s future.In terms of psychological needs, motivational tools which are significantly important in education have to be considered. The way that I use in my lessons to motivate students is identifying their learning styles, intelligence types and interests. To clarify it, I offer my students various types of activities that address different intelligence types. I always try to give place to hands-on activities, visuals, musical activities, group works and individual works. In future, I am planning to use this approach in my assignments which will give them flexibility to express their selves with a best way. My aim is to provide them to discover their own learning styles and their potential. This is the essential thing to provide students to gain self-confidence. I believe that first of all, students should trust their own selves to be successful in their life.
Moreover, I prefer to use real life and interdisciplinary connections to motivate students. By this way, they realize the importance of mathematics in their life. I absolutely believe that students should know why they need to learn mathematics and how they use mathematics in their life. When they learn the importance of mathematics in our daily life, they eagerly attend the lessons. These types of connections which make mathematics more concrete attract me and take my attention in my student life. Therefore I want to research about the interdisciplinary connections. Interdisciplinary connections are general title of my thesis and I narrowed my topic as integration of mathematics and science curriculum. I research their advantages, disadvantages and limitations. In the lights of my research, I always try to experience these connections in my lessons and I got positive attitudes and opinions from students. These lessons were catchy and participation was great.
Motivation constitutes the important part but as teachers we have to do more to improve students’ higher level cognitive skills. To provide, I plan my lessons in the lights of these skills with student-centered approach. My prior aim is to provide an environment that helps them to improve their interpretation, analyses, synthesis, evaluation skills. The lessons should be rich in terms of the investigations and discoveries. They will reach the knowledge by themselves. By this way, I able to provide them learn not only the topic but also how they can learn. Again interdisciplinary connections and real life connections are one of the best ways that I use in my lessons to improve higher level cognitive skills. These connections help them improve critical thinking skills, study skills and problem solving skills through cognitive approach. Moreover, connections between topic in mathematics is the other essential approach in my teaching life. I want students to see mathematics as a whole and use and apply what they have learned so far in new topics. Therefore, one of the my favorite activities is to create family tree or concept map. Each student creates their own map and see the similarities and differences between topics by comparisons. By this way, not only I have an idea of their thinking and learning style but also I realize their misconceptions before it is too late if they have.
As I said above, students as a part of our society will shape our future. In this information age, we need to deal with more complex problems. Such kind of problems requires the combination and integration of knowledge. Especially integration of science, mathematics and technology is important source behind the technological development. Therefore, as a teacher, I have to give place such kinds of activities that combine them and I encourage students to use technological tools. Term projects and assignments are very important tools to make students familiar with technologies.
To sum up, being aware of students and societies needs is the essential part of being teacher. With this awareness, I will improve myself in my future professional life. By being creative in my lessons, I encourage my students to try to be creative in their works. As I said above, correct activities such as investigations, discussions and interpretations both enhance students’ cognitive skills and increaeses their motivation.
Moreover, I prefer to use real life and interdisciplinary connections to motivate students. By this way, they realize the importance of mathematics in their life. I absolutely believe that students should know why they need to learn mathematics and how they use mathematics in their life. When they learn the importance of mathematics in our daily life, they eagerly attend the lessons. These types of connections which make mathematics more concrete attract me and take my attention in my student life. Therefore I want to research about the interdisciplinary connections. Interdisciplinary connections are general title of my thesis and I narrowed my topic as integration of mathematics and science curriculum. I research their advantages, disadvantages and limitations. In the lights of my research, I always try to experience these connections in my lessons and I got positive attitudes and opinions from students. These lessons were catchy and participation was great.
Motivation constitutes the important part but as teachers we have to do more to improve students’ higher level cognitive skills. To provide, I plan my lessons in the lights of these skills with student-centered approach. My prior aim is to provide an environment that helps them to improve their interpretation, analyses, synthesis, evaluation skills. The lessons should be rich in terms of the investigations and discoveries. They will reach the knowledge by themselves. By this way, I able to provide them learn not only the topic but also how they can learn. Again interdisciplinary connections and real life connections are one of the best ways that I use in my lessons to improve higher level cognitive skills. These connections help them improve critical thinking skills, study skills and problem solving skills through cognitive approach. Moreover, connections between topic in mathematics is the other essential approach in my teaching life. I want students to see mathematics as a whole and use and apply what they have learned so far in new topics. Therefore, one of the my favorite activities is to create family tree or concept map. Each student creates their own map and see the similarities and differences between topics by comparisons. By this way, not only I have an idea of their thinking and learning style but also I realize their misconceptions before it is too late if they have.
As I said above, students as a part of our society will shape our future. In this information age, we need to deal with more complex problems. Such kind of problems requires the combination and integration of knowledge. Especially integration of science, mathematics and technology is important source behind the technological development. Therefore, as a teacher, I have to give place such kinds of activities that combine them and I encourage students to use technological tools. Term projects and assignments are very important tools to make students familiar with technologies.
To sum up, being aware of students and societies needs is the essential part of being teacher. With this awareness, I will improve myself in my future professional life. By being creative in my lessons, I encourage my students to try to be creative in their works. As I said above, correct activities such as investigations, discussions and interpretations both enhance students’ cognitive skills and increaeses their motivation.