Teaching Philosophy

My name is Aaron, an enthusiastic and experienced educator.

 

I have been in the field of education for over ten years now. Looking back on my first year as a teacher, I must say it’s been quite an adventure - not always an easy ride but certainly worth every moment in my journey as an individual! It all started with “purpose”.

 

At 21, right after graduating from college, my first “gig” as an English as a Second Language (ESL) tutor turned out to be the beginning of many years as a young teacher. Teaching grammar and communication was not just a part-time job (as I was also taking graduate studies) but also a stress reliever. I enjoy teaching as much as I enjoy learning. Of course, the joy of seeing students “level up” after each lesson or series of lessons in a week is just priceless! This is why I teach - I’m given tremendous opportunities to use my abilities and skills combined with passion, desire, and enthusiasm to both learn and help out students, or young people in general, to be the best that they can be! Since then, I have been involved not just in classroom teaching but also in youth empowerment through my advocacy for youth participation, cooperation and understanding among global youth, community participation, educators' community engagement, and finding solutions to youth challenges. A common denominator of these activities — active participation — underscores the crucial role of developing a holistic learning mindset that complements community-building. Indeed, genuinely proactive education sows the seeds of cross-cultural understanding and collaboration. This is what teaching means to me - sowing and believing that these seeds will grow and yield tremendous outputs for the next generation.

 

Every lesson may seem like a short-term period of learning but such experience is anchored in my desire to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and attitude that can help them become genuinely competent, conscientious, and competitive in the real world context. At the moment, I am engaged in research and curriculum development, crucial areas through institutions can  contribute in shaping policies that are relevant to educational institutions in the long term.

 

My teaching style is anchored in engaged learning and character formation. This is particularly espoused by Affective Humanistic Approach (1970s) which also underscores the important role of respecting the students’ feeling, learning styles, and affective aspects in the learning process. I always utilize positive reinforcement with the hope of lowering their ‘Affective Filter’ through games and encourage them to learn from mistakes - and that they’re completely fine! More than knowledge and skills acquisition, I have learned by experience and now zealously promote that character formation — regardless of the academic subject or educational level — matters more in the broader life-long learning process. If learners have the right character and passion orientation, they will most likely excel in exploring diverse or specialized fields of knowledge and gain a wide range of skills. Interestingly, this process unfolds through engaged and experiential learning. I’m convinced that character supersedes knowledge — this entails open-mindedness, willingness to learn, and resilience. I personally believe that at a crucial stage in young people’s educational journey, they need teachers who put a premium on character formation as they share their respective academic expertise. I desire to empower students, especially children and youth, to achieve their greatest potential.

 

Needless to mention, while character matters significantly, competence in communication must never be discounted from the picture at all! The Communicative Approach (1980) suggests that certain skills are necessary for learners to communicate better and to be able to convey their ideas in a manner that is truly communicative. It’s crucial to emphasize the need for teachers and learners to understand that seamless integration of the four communication skills (Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking) is integral to the overall ESL learning experience. As an ESL teacher who adheres to this approach and teaches high school students, I use authentic learning materials such as book excerpts, videos, or interactive activities that call for collective output, and lively conversations to make English lessons more incremental to their ESL learning experience. It is common among young people to feel bored, sleepy, and uneasy when they don’t understand the lesson or when the strategies used by the teacher are too plain, straightforward, and rather dull (as in the Direct Approach). Thus, optimization of relevant materials serve the purpose of “real-world”, hands-on, and practical communication that the Communicative Approach espouses.

 

When I teach, I use various teaching strategies and techniques to help learners achieve their maximum potential. First of all, I keep in mind that each lesson must be student-centered rather than teacher-manipulated. This ascribes to the Pareto Principle in language learning which means that 20% of the things a person learns contribute 80% of his/her total improvement. In other words, the 20% spent on lectures and teacher-directed lessons can become effective when the learners are provided opportunities to practice them on their own or collectively with other learners who may be in the same page. This is why I usually follow the inductive approach to ESL learning - starting with modeling, followed by inferring ideas from students, and finally elaborating the important points in each lesson.

 

These teacher-directed lessons shall then be followed by guided and independent practices that can encourage students to apply their acquired knowledge or practice them with others. During the conduct of these activities, I initially let my students work individually (and respond to their questions whenever they raise any) before I divide the class into small groups so they collaborate with other learners. Besides these activities, I always observe the practice of positive reaffirmation through warm language that spur interest and encourage students to perform better (because they are motivated). Finally, assessments are either formative or summative. I have to underscore the cruciality of formative assessments through which I am able to assess what my students really need to work on, why they are challenges, and how else I can further support them with.