Throughout history, educators and philosophers have argued till their mouths ran dry and tired tongues could talk no more about the correct methods of teachings, each claiming that their way and aim were right. In ancient times, Socrates preached the virtues of storytelling, analogies, and dialectics to find truest forms of Logos. Meanwhile, his far Eastern contemporary Confucius argued in his writings, the Xueji, that education is a forced transformative process that shapes people into their best forms as leaders. In the 12th century, while living in Cairo, Maimonides stressed on positive reinforcement, and rabbinic tradition highlighting the need for quizzical based learning, which always challenged the teachers and elders to test their assertions. In 1423, Vittorino da Feltre developed the first known humanist school believing that an educated citizenry would elevate a society to utopian-like levels. By the late 1800’s, the philosophies of humanities and education came into direct political and violent conflict against the philosophies of war in the Franco-Prussian War. At the same time, communist teaching philosophies of equality and equity started to seep in the mind of educators all across the globe, leading to yet more cultural and political revolutions. Today, challenging theorists argue over the rightness and wrongness of scientists and theorists such as Vygotsky, Piaget, and Bronfenbrenner.
It’s because of this fantastic and wild history that I find it hard to conclude a solid and singular philosophy of education for my career. I find truth in many of these schools of thoughts, yet discover that each philosophy is lacking in its ability to cause lasting transformative cognitive changes across all learners. As no two learner is the same, so too are no two teachers the same. What may work for me may not work for you, and what may work for you may not work for me. Thus, every teacher-student relationship must rely on different methods of teaching.
This is not to say that there is no bad teaching. There are clear examples of ineffective teaching, such as: yes/no questions; lack of concept checking questions; lack of monitoring; sole reliance on rote memorization; and lack of any assessments. These methods have time and time again been proven to be lacking in producing effective and engaged learners.
Since I believe the methods of learning are dependent on the individual relationships between students and teachers, I find these six points to be my guiding principles of education:
Gaining knowledge is incidental to learning.
Learning should be engaging both mentally and physically.
The truest aim of teaching is to produce active lifelong learners.
Learning happens everywhere, and from everyone.
Listen to your students.
Always do you best.
These principles of teaching have allowed me to become both a better learner and educator as I travel and hone my skills. Hopefully, as I visit new countries and meet new educators and philosophies, these principles will grow in number making me a better teacher.