~my teaching philosophy~

As an educator, I have the utmost confidence that every individual is able to strive for success in their academic performance. In order to realise that, I should try my best to promote growth by employing creativity, stressing the importance of education as well as giving my students the freedom to think and discover knowledge. Moreover, I also appreciate that each different individual is unique therefore any ideas, opinions, criticisms and suggestions from them should be taken into consideration. These aspects are essential towards planning and developing more comprehensive lessons that will benefit everyone in the long run. Hence, my student is encouraged to value effort and the determination to succeed.

I should practice professionalism such as showing good leadership skills for my students. My favourite line would be, “Be just, that is closer to faith”. In my opinion, being an authoritarian will only create a distance between a teacher and a student. As a teacher, I should be able to attend to my students’ personal and academic needs whenever needed. In addition, I will try to create a comfortable learning environment based on respect instead of fear. In order to achieve that, I must build strong rapport with my students so that all of us can learn in a conducive and fun environment. Likewise, communication is apparently an important key to an effective teaching and learning process in the academic setting.

My students are my main priority and I am aware that each of them has different level of proficiency in English language. I believe that by creating a student-centred learning, my students will be able to take charge of their own learning with little assistance from the teacher. This will inculcate a sense of responsibility in them in terms of achieving their learning goal. As a teacher, one of my roles would be to coach and facilitate them throughout the learning process by providing information and giving useful guidelines in order for them to achieve their learning target.

By being more resourceful, I will be able to achieve self-satisfaction and success in teaching. As a teacher, I am open to new ideas and suggestions therefore I would like to be more involved in educational activities, attend educational talks and participate in forums or conferences to further expand my knowledge. Moreover, being up-to-date with the latest information, keeping in touch with global issues and getting my hands on the latest technology are some of the ways for me to improve myself. In my view, I could also incorporate them into my classroom practice because as for me, knowledge-wise, teachers should be at least two or three steps ahead of their students. Therefore I have to be well-prepared for every lesson by planning my time and materials efficiently to ensure that a successful lesson takes place. I also feel that it is wise to reflect on every lesson that has been conducted so that I can identify the strengths and rectify the weaknesses.

Last but not least, my students should be encouraged to explore every opportunity to utilise the authentic resources around their environment. In order to achieve this, I would vary my teaching styles while at the same time encouraging critical thinking skills among my students. In my personal point of view, a teacher should dare to be different. I think that learning should not only be limited within the four walls. I will try to make my lessons more relevant and appropriate to my students so that they can relate whatever they learn in the classroom with the ‘real’ environment outside of the academic setting. At the end of the day, my students should be able to have self-confidence, good interpersonal skills and excellent knowledge once they have mastered the crucial skills to survive out there.