PLE 1. Designing and Delivering Online Instruction: Education Philosophy

Teaching Philosophy Teach the whole child corrected paper.docx

Teaching Philosophy: Teach the “Whole Child”

EDU 633: Designing and Delivering Online Instruction

Dr. Sue Shaw

February 12, 2024

Teaching Philosophy: Teach the “Whole Child”

My teaching philosophy is rooted in my goal to teach the whole child effectively. For learning to be successful, examining each student’s needs is beneficial. For example, many components can affect a child’s ability to learn effectively. Physical and emotional well-being contributes to a child’s learning process. The “ Whole Child” approach to education recognizes the importance of students’ well-being, including physical and emotional health, to their learning.  

What I Want My Learner to Know 

Within the classroom, teachers will encounter a diverse group of learners. Each child is unique in their own way. I want my learners to feel confident they can approach me in any situation. I want to be the teacher who asks why a particular student cannot focus during class and seems to have little interest in classwork. My driving force centers on my determination to ensure that no child I instruct faces the difficulty I endure in school. I was that fifth-grade student with difficulty focusing and little interest in classwork. It is beneficial for educators to know that other underlying factors can contribute to a child’s learning ability. It is crucial to ask why the child is exhibiting these behaviors. 

  Research on the whole-child approach

Research in neuroscience, developmental and learning science, and education (2019, April) confirms that a “whole child” approach is desirable and necessary to ensure children learn well. According to two comprehensive reviews of the science on children’s development suggest:

• Consistent, supportive relationships and responsive communications shape brain developments and modeling of productive behaviors: The brain’s capacity develops most fully when children and youth feel emotionally and physically safe and feel connected, engaged, and challenged.
• Learning is social, emotional, and academic: Positive relationships, including trust in the teacher, and positive emotions, such as interest and excitement, open the mind to learning. Negative emotions, such as fear of failure, anxiety, and self-doubt, reduce the capacity of the brain to process information and learn.  
• Adversity: poverty, housing, food insecurity, abuse, or neglect produce toxic stress that affects learning and behavior. Positive, stable relationships when adults have the awareness, empathy, and cultural competence to understand and listen to children can buffer the efforts of even serious adversity. 

      How I implement the whole child approach with my online learners. 

      I will build a positive relationship with my online learners by getting to know them individually. My teaching style will be Student-focus based on the needs of each child. I will implement this process by keeping individual folders with essential information on each student. The folders will include quick access to a student’s personality characteristics, such as if a student is shy, talkative, or withdrawn. The folder would give information on academies’ weaknesses and students’ learning styles. I will provide a place for online learners to do daily journaling. This would allow my learners to write feelings down at the start of their day. This activity would foster clarity of mind and possibly eliminate negative factors affecting learning. I will use this information to refer to when there is a noted change in a learner’s grade and work habits. Daily journaling will bridge the gap in communication for online learners when face-to-face interaction with the instructor is unavailable. I will implement these standards using learning management systems programs such as Canvas and Google Classroom. Using Google Classroom would provide face-to-face learning time through Google Class meetings. Through Canvas, my online learners can access small peer groups and one-on-one meetings with the instructor. With daily changing technological innovation, I hope to develop a program that will provide web-based teaching help for LMS programs. This program will provide continual support to learners when face-to-face meetings are unavailable or instructor hours are over. In addition, I will offer an ask-a-peer area within my learning platform that will allow learners to reach out to their peers for help. Implementing the whole-child approach can be challenging. It requires educators to focus on each learner within their academic, physical, and emotional needs. One issue that could arise is the ability to concentrate fully on each student in the time frame given. As an educator, I know that learning never stops. I will continuously examine my teaching methods and seek new information that is beneficial to my growth and the success of my learners.