Philosophies in Life and Education
My Philosophies in Life
In terms of worldviews, I see the things around me in a Biblical manner or in a Christian worldview. This implies that I believe in God and my reason of living my life is to serve Him and to follow his commandments, as well as to share to other people the true purpose of living, the importance of saving humanity and that He is the only one who can help us find our purpose. As what Jeremiah 29:11 stated, "for I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future", I know that seeing the world in this way will give me the assurance to myself that I have my God who will guide me until the end and I shouldn't fear anything because I was created in His' image and with his love, grace, and righteousness, I will be saved. Moreover, this, for me, is somehow reflected in Confucius' Golden Rule - ethic of reciprocity, especially the ten commandments. For me, if we learn how to be responsible of our actions and be accountable to its consequences, then we will also learn how to value other people based on the actions we are making that could benefit or harm them.
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For political views, I'm always in the democratic side of the government, because it lets the people have their freedom and liberty. Because of this, people are having the chance to let the government and other people hear their voices, as well as to participate in the betterment of the society. However, I am once asked by my teacher in high school, what is the perfect and ideal type of political government we should have in the present. I answered, "Sir, I think there is no perfect system of government as long as the people of the state do not follow its implemented rules. We have a democratic one which, probably the best compared to other ideologies. But sir, even we have this kind of system, the people are abusing its cause. We have this system to have freedom, yet the people tend to tolerate themselves in having irresponsible actions. They have the freedom of speech, yet it is used in wrong way. We have freedom of press, which not all provides accurate information to the public. Maybe because of having a democratic government, why people are having the sense of courage to kill their fellowmen and even the officials themselves have the courage to corrupt money. If the people of the state will only learn what really is the purpose of having certain kind of government and follow its rules, surely the democratic government will not only be the best, but will be a perfect one."
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Moral values, for me, is being a good person and a good citizen that is based on how we govern ourselves, not in an evil manner, but in the best way possible. I believe that these are highly affected by the society where we live, but it is still in ourselves if we will let the society dictates our morality or not. The moral values, for me, are the most important is having courage, respect, determination, integrity, honesty and giving justice to everything, to myself and to other people. High moral values are also reflected in how we follow rules implemented by the law enforcers, as well as how it is affected by our belief and religion.
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Overall, I learned how people are different from one another. That from our philosophies, beliefs, views and how we perceive everything, we are diverse and different and we should respect these differences because we are living in one roof, and we need to embrace these whether we like it or not, because if not, we will live in a world full of chaos and conflicts.
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My Philosophy in Education
If I were to formulate my own philosophy in teaching science, it would be “Science is not only for intelligent students.” The notion of many is too compartmentalized in the idea that only intelligent students are capable learning science. That you’re a student that is average or below average, you cannot learn science because science is only for those intelligent ones. As a science teacher, I want to help my students shift their thinking about this into “I can also learn science because everyone is worthy of learning it.” I want my students to leave the class wherein they were all able to ask questions, formulate hypotheses, broaden their understandings, and infer to make conclusions (William and Mary, 2003). To make this possible, I will use teaching strategies that will make all of my students feel that they are included in every science discussion that we are having as what I observed in the study of Tanner (2013) wherein she emphasized the word “all” in every teaching strategy that she mentioned in her paper, for instance in saying that the most powerful strategy to build an inclusive and equitable classroom is to have triad of access, fairness and equity among all students. I will consider the fact that I have diverse students and one of the key concepts of the word student diversity is that learners have different proficiency level and this shouldn’t interfere in promoting science education. In the very first place, the goal of science education is to produce functional science literate students that could use science ideas in addressing and giving solutions to the problems that occurs in the society. It is not in the goal of science education to only produce students who are intelligent in science that’s why as a science teacher, I should use teaching strategies that will fit the needs of my diverse students from the most proficient until the least without making themselves feel that one is better than the other and one is not. I want to make my students feel that they are secured in the learning environment that they are in and that is their science class. The word secured here means that they can express themselves freely, all can have the chance to participate, everyone can share their scientific ideas, and that I am there to facilitate their learning and help them ignite the science ideas that they have within.
