Philosophy of Education & Learning (2018)

What is the difference between an educational philosophy and a learning philosophy? First, have a look at the chart below to recall how most of us delineate between Education and Learning.

EDUCATION

LEARNING
  • imparting knowledge, values, skills, and attitudes
  • acquired by individuals.
  • something that one gets at some point in their life.
  • formal process
  • knowledge gained through teaching.
  • an individual gets from an outside source
  • the process of adopting knowledge, values, and skills.
  • basic instinct possessed by all individuals
  • an ongoing process
  • an informal process
  • knowledge gained through experience
  • something that evolves in the inner self

I live and work at the intersection of the educational process and the learning process. My beliefs about how to teach and what to teach are shaped by where I am teaching, who I am teaching, and when I am teaching. This means that my awareness of my students and of the changes in our society ensure that I am flexible, adaptive, and responsive. This means that I will neither abandon a style of teaching that is effective for my students for the latest trend nor does this mean that I will not try new pedagogical moves or learning theories. This means that I believe that it’s my job to teach explicitly, to facilitate inquiry, and to design learning opportunities creatively.

My beliefs about the ‘why’ of learning are shaped by my profound belief in equity and trust and in my ongoing learning about critical pedagogy.

Here, then, are the tenants that form my current thinking:

      1. Build deep trust with all learners. This is the hard work of relationships. It’s that work that is inconvenient, goes against the grain, needs lots of time, pushes us out of our comfort zone, is transparent, and forces us to keep our promises and tell the truth.
      2. Bring passion and commitment to all your roles. Know that that passion and commitment are fed through the collaboration and co-learning that happens between students and teachers, teachers and teachers, and teachers and instructional facilitators/leaders.
      3. Strive for patience. It takes time to create the culture that encourages the conversation and leadership required to ensure success for all students.
      4. Embrace learning as both intellectual and metacognitive processes.
      5. Invest in yourself. Learning is life. We’ve always learned all the time. That’s not new. What’s new is the realization that we need to let go of our control about what it is others need to learn.