TEACHING PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT
TEACHING
PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT
Giselda dos Santos
Costa
E-mail: giseldacostas@hotmail.com
Home page: https://urlzs.com/8ypkW
I started working as a teacher when I was 18
years old. I have always worked in public schools in poor communities in the
State of Piaui-Brazil. I started with basic level students (9 and 10 year
olds), and after my graduation in a language (English as a foreign language) I
went to work in a secondary school (15 to 17 year olds). When I finished my
PhD, I developed projects with underprivileged public school students and
teachers. But working in a language class has always left me quite free, as
this subject accepts a variety of subjects presented, especially current such
as technology, family, drugs, prejudice, terrorism, sex, environment,
pollution, among others. This open space in the language classroom is
considered to be ideal for multiple and varied activities. In the case of my
current research, I always explore interesting topics, on global issues that
also approach local knowledge of students' realities, to teach language skills.
We believe that global education in general increases self-confidence, conveys
a sense of being well-informed, and enables the student to understand and
participate in discussions about local issues.
With my experience as an educator and
researcher, I believe that teaching is communication, in the sense that its
success requires social relationships and learning is seen as a dynamic,
situated, social process, facilitated and developed through interactions
between people and technologies in different types of learning spaces, that is,
formal, non-formal and informal. I agree with Vygotsky when he says that
learning processes occur as a result of our participation in cultural,
linguistic, historical contexts and in interactions within families, groups of
friends, educational institutions, workplaces, sports activities, among others.
And after more than 20 years of teaching my teaching philosophy are founded on
four concepts: (1) Student Agency (2) Critical Awareness Development, (3)
Technological Literacy and (4) Team Activity.
STUDENT AGENCY
Student agency is the
ability of students to create, change, transform, move and shape the world
around them. The agency is what sustains the skills necessary for the student's
success. It is the most important phenomenon in the teaching and learning
process. Today's students need the skills to be lifelong learners (Awareness-
Determination - Strategic ability - Critical thinking - Re-creation). I must
say, there is no broad consensus on the definition of student agency. But here I
am going to say that agency is present when students take charge of who, what,
where, why and when they learn. This includes choice, self-awareness,
self-management, social relationships, responsible decisions, time management,
courage, power, trust, autonomy, freedom, intentionality, organization and
self-regulation for long-term personalized goals. Agency is the essence of
empowerment.
DEVELOPMENT OF
CRITICAL AWARENESS
The development of critical awareness is,
without a doubt, the most significant personal experience in the process of
empowering students. We agree with Freire's words when he says that it is the
process through which people gain an increasing understanding of the cultural,
social conditions that shape their lives, and the extent of their ability to
change those conditions. The person lives not only in the present, but in what
is in history, and is not only able to read words, but to interpret them,
therefore, a critical conscience is essential and basic to all human learning. The
development of linguistic awareness must include not only a focus on the formal
aspects of language, but also the development of a critical awareness of
language that encompasses and explores the relationships between language and
power. We believe that literacy studies must address the effects of power on
texts, as texts encode social relations between authors and audience and,
according to Freire's studies, generating new knowledge, creating literature
and acting in social realities are important components of critical literacy .
TECHNOLOGICAL
LITERACY
Technological literacy
is another very important skill in this century. New technologies are changing
the way we build meanings. Meaning is constructed through interactive,
multimodal forms, which today demand different literacies from students, such
as: digital literacy, technological literacy, visual literacy, information
literacy, in addition to traditional print literacy. The possibilities of
actions of new technologies such as: flexibility, mobility and individuality
create excellent opportunities for the teacher and students to use these
different technologies and different places to learn, which was impossible to
happen in previous learning contexts. It doesn't matter if learning takes place
in a mall or in a classroom. What's important now is that each student finds
their own comfortable space to learn, allowing for experiences that are truly
personalized.
While we are promoting
student-centered learning, the teacher's role is also creative. A teacher who
is unaware of what technology can offer may not be able to effectively prepare
students to learn. Making proper use of technological resources is important,
but it is not the only success factor. It is not the technology itself that
creates better learning, but how technology is used in a learning context to
create a better or richer environment with human relationships, which promote
inter-understanding, as a basis for building knowledge. In other words, what matters is how the
devices are used.
TEAM ACTIVITIES
In my classroom
practices I always try to encourage team activities. We observe that each
student brings to the team different literacy practices or creative
collaboration (knowledge of software in different programs, curricular
knowledge, writing skills, among others) that they have and transmit to other
teammates in face-to-face or digital form. However, we know that simply putting
students into groups and giving them a task is not enough for content learning.
We believe that learning needs situations where students are motivated to
produce and engage in the negotiation of meanings. And in such situations, all
participants must have substantial and equitable opportunities to participate and
must strive to achieve a goal that has meaning to them.
Students learn more when they are actively
collaborating and cooperating with peers, their teachers, and other experts.
It's good to emphasize that collaboration is different from cooperation. Cooperation
is a participation that is interactively contracted towards a common project.
Team members work together to make an idea. Collaboration is stronger as
individuals share a common goal but bring different knowledge, experiences and
perspectives to the task. Students learn more when they co-construct meanings
with their peers. This co-construction of knowledge by students can be
increased through interaction and participation facilitated through
technological tools.
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