1Running head: MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

My Teaching Philosophy

EDUC 6513: Teaching Adult Learners

Mohamed Faizalla

Yorkville University

February 12, 2017

MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY 2

As I reflect on my teaching experience with the various views and concepts that I have

developed in the past twenty years, I have come to conclude that my understanding of good

teaching is that it is a process that must be carried out skillfully and powerfully. My

understanding of skillful and powerful teaching has been formed through my practical teaching

experience, and further developed as a master of education student who has the advantage to

learn and discuss the most recent literature about education and methodology. I found that I

completely agree with, Brookfield’s explanation and understanding of skillful teaching.

Throughout his book, Brookfield,(2015) informs teachers of four assumptions under which to

operate: that skillful teaching boils down to whatever helps students learn, that the best teachers

adopt a critically reflective stance towards their practice, that the most important knowledge we

need to do good work is an awareness of how students are experiencing their own learning and

our teaching, and that we should always aim to treat students as adults. As per powerful teaching

and how it should be applied productively, I also found Brookfield, S. (2013)’s interpretation

very reasonable as he stated "I assume power is omnipresent in all adult learning intersect"(p.3).

This means that wherever learning happens, power will exist. Power in teaching itself has three

different connotations as described by Brookfield, S. (2013) where it is regarded as the teacher's

ability to inspire the learners, coerce or empower them. When it comes to adult teaching and its

connection to power, Brookfield, S. (2013) explains that powerful teaching includes

understanding how power operates and how dominant ideology shapes what is considered

"natural" and how the teacher can help the learners learn how to exercise power on their behalf

while developing agency through self-directed actions. Hence , my teaching style is more like a

blended one where I adopt the role of a facilitator , a demonstrator, and sometimes a delegator

MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY 3

according to the learning context and the nature of the class. These roles can assist the learners

step by step to take control of what they learn and develop their critical thinking skills.

Good teaching takes place in the presence of a good teacher. By this I mean the

knowledgeable educator who plays the role of an ally and an authority simultaneously. Authority

is derived from the teacher’s knowledge and the fact that he has something useful and important

to offer his students. On the other hand, as an ally, students should feel that their teacher is

genuinely concerned with their learning and is dealing honestly with them in an adult way. They

consider their teacher credible when he demonstrates expertise, experience and rationale. In

addition, students appreciate their teacher’s authenticity when he keeps his words and action

congruent, and demonstrate responsiveness to their needs.

In my classroom, I utilize different approaches according to the nature and goals of the

course, in addition to the academic level and background of my students. I completely agree with

Brookfield (2015)’s statement “when we use any teaching approach, we need to be clear exactly

what it is intended to achieve. This clarity should be apparent not to just us but also to the

students” (p.71). Hence, thinking of the factors that influence my choice of the approaches to be

utilized in a certain class, I would start most courses by assessing my students’ academic level

when applicable. This process can provide me with a good idea about the learners’ previous

educational experiences, the approaches that were implemented in their previous classes, and the

quality of those approaches and instruction methods. I would then find out more about their

preferences and when they thought they learned best versus when they felt they were wasting

their time. Other factors that may affect my choice of approaches are the course goals and

content, and the availability of resources.

My teaching goals, methods, techniques and assessment strategies have changed and

MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY 4

reformed during my years of experience since I started teaching in 1995 in Egypt .During this

time, the communicative approach was dominant; therefore, all the methods and assessment tools

were directed and focused on communication skills in English as a foreign language. In 1998, I

started teaching in Kuwait where the communicative approach was also in effect, then a new

approach was introduced in 2001 and that was the integrated approach which was a mix of many

concepts and required different teaching techniques and assessment methods. In 2011, I began to

teach in Canada where the UDL and DI approaches were recently introduced and included

utilizing different methods of teaching and acknowledging individual differences among the

learners. In 2016, I started my master of adult education program which is an online self-directed

educational experience. This experience had influenced my teaching and assessment methods

greatly as I began to focus on activities and techniques that foster my students’ critical thinking

skills and support their efforts towards successful self-directed learning. In addition, since I have

practiced critical thinking and self-directed learning myself, I can utilize methods like modeling,

and open discussion. I can also facilitate my students’ first self-directed project attempts with

confidence.

MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY 5

References

Brookfield, S. (2013). Powerful techniques for teaching adults. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Brookfield, S. (2015). The skillful teacher: On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the

classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.