My Educational Philosophy

The hiring season has begun: schools in New Jersey have started posting open positions for high school math teachers for the 2012-2013 school year. In preparation, I dusted off a draft of "My Educational Philosophy" that I wrote for Larry at Traders-to-Teachers and cleaned it up for use on applications. I still consider it a working document, but it does express what I think are key points:

• Learning is neurologically based: education must be based on a sound theory of cognition. This is the old cognitive scientist coming out in me.
• There is an inherent tension between the needs of society and the needs of an individual, and a good teacher in the classroom does not avoid this tension.
• I teach for understanding, and my definition of "understanding" owes a lot to Howard Gardner. 

OK, here it is:


My Educational Philosophy

Learning is at heart a process of change that takes place inside a person. Classes don't learn; schools don't learn: individuals learn. Learning is a lifelong activity, but the process that leads to learning itself changes as an individual develops from a child to an adult. How learning takes place also varies depending on the subject being learned, as recent brain research indicates. Just as there are differences in physical traits between individuals, there are differences in brain-based cognitive abilities, and every individual has a different cognitive profile.

Education - that is, the structuring of learning - must therefore be based on a cognitive theory of learning that focuses on the individual and takes into account a wide range of individual differences.

We are all social beings. Our activities have evolved in social settings and are facilitated by social factors. Learning is one such activity: although it takes place in an individual, it occurs most readily in a social setting. To foster social activities that benefit it, society has created institutions such as schools. These institutions exist primarily to serve the needs of society, so they are inherently conservative. However, an enlightened society knows that it - society - is not static, that it must re-create itself and evolve. To do this effectively means developing the potential of every individual.

There is thus an inherent tension in schools between education for the needs of the society and education for the needs of the individual. (This statement must be qualified: there are obviously areas where they come together.) However, an enlightened society recognizes the tension and, rather than try to resolve it, puts into place teachers who are charged with balancing it every day, in small encounters in the classroom. This, I believe, defines the fundamental role of a teacher

As a mathematics teacher, I teach concepts involving number, form, and pattern, and how to think and reason about these concepts. Mathematical knowledge has accumulated over thousands of years and possesses both a beauty of its own and a wide range of applications. My teaching of mathematics is thus informed by history, utility, and aesthetics. I teach for understanding, defined as the ability to apply knowledge, concepts, or skills acquired in a classroom to a novel situation in which that knowledge is relevant.