For your final paper, you are expected to write a personal teaching philosophy statement and an action plan for incorporating that philosophy into your teaching practice. Most employers in the education sector will ask you to explain your teaching philosophy, so think of this as one way to help yourself prepare for when you will have to articulate this in an interview setting. For those of you not pursuing a career in teaching or education, this is still a valuable exercise in thinking through how you might handle any leadership role you find yourself in. Even if you are, for instance, a social worker, or a health care professional working with patients or even students in
a teaching hospital… in all of these cases you should be thinking ahead about how you would want to
approach your work in a way that aligns with your values (rather than not thinking about it and just “winging it”).
This paper should be approximately 2-4 double spaced pages, and should include references to course
readings that have influenced your thinking on this (I'm not talking about APA references, I'm talking about naming different readings/videos from the class and describing how they impacted you). Questions that you can use to guide your thinking include the following (you do not have to answer each one separately like a short answer assignment, just take inspiration from these questions and write it in a way that feels natural to you):
What do you believe is the purpose of education?
What do you believe is the role of the teacher in the classroom?
What are the most important ethical considerations educators should make when approaching their work in schools and with students?
What are some practical strategies you can use to incorporate your personal philosophy of teaching into your work (whatever that may be)?
Sample Solution