Philosophy of Teaching
“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.”- Decouvertes
This quote embodies not only my view on a teacher’s role, but also on a student’s role in and out of the classroom. Addressing the role of the teacher first, asking and not answering the right questions is the most important role of a teacher. Of course, a teacher provides a student materials and information in some form or another. Education does not stop here. To do so would allow a child to be a passive observer in the classroom. The most meaningful knowledge is that which the student has grasped through their own efforts. Herein lays another of my fervently held beliefs. A teacher’s job is not merely to impart knowledge, but to teach students to think for themselves. Each child must be provoked to think, not just to listen.
To think for oneself is a gift in itself. Asking a question is a beginning of a journey. It is the start of a search to satisfy one’s mind. Humorously, this search has been the musing of many educated people to realize that the more you learn, the more there is to learn. Questions lead to new questions. It is the role of the teacher to be a guide, leading the way, encouraging a student’s search, monitoring and measuring what the search has yielded.
Not every child is such a precocious learner. The teacher must engage a child and incite interest within them. Often, I imagine that this is the most daunting task for a teacher. Every child enters your classroom with their own struggles and weaknesses. The teacher first, not the student, must adapt to these struggles and weaknesses to bridge the gap between apathy and curiosity. Doing so, the teacher will be a model for students, which is a very valuable action for effective teachers.
I do not mean to suggest that the student investigate blindly and randomly using only their own curiosity to guide them. I believe that the most important questions that a teacher can answer are the What?'s. The manner in which the teacher presents this basic information may in itself be the spark for a child to desire to know the How?’s and Why?’s. These questions lend themselves to higher level thinking skills. They imply personal reflection in many cases, and a personal investment in the search for the answer by the learner.
Answering the higher level questions also help to answer a student’s ever-present question of “Why should I care?” In my opinion, this is because, going beyond the simple facts and asking more difficult questions allows a student the opportunity to think more abstractly, making generalizations and connections which they weren’t able to before. More importantly, making these connections helps a student see how this information may affect them or apply to their own life in some way. It makes learning personal.
Therefore, from Decouvertes’s quote I have drawn my own conclusions. Simply stated, the right questions inspire learning, and demand a personal investment in finding out the answer. Each question leads to another, without end. With the guidance of teachers who recognize this, these questions will sustain a lifelong pursuit of knowledge, and a lifelong education. I believe that, as a teacher, you can ask nothing greater or more rewarding of your students.