Jenna Fishoff: Philosophy of Education !

My Philosophy of Education
Jenna Fishoff
University of California, Los Angeles












Jenna Fishoff: Philosophy of Education #
After taking many stimulating courses over the past year at the University of
California, Los Angeles, coupled with countless experiences in the classroom, I have
developed a socially ethical foundation for my teaching philosophy and have adopted
the belief that the true goal of education is the realization of human potential. To me,
social justice is approaching every student as a whole child, holding them to high
standards, and utilizing community wealth in order to incorporate their cultural and
familial assets in our learning environment. I find it imperative to provide my students
with access to cognitively demanding content that is culturally relevant in order to
promote cognitive rigor through both independent and collaborative learning in a safe
and structured environment. My students will be encouraged to take challenging risks,
learn new skills, and ultimately, think critically for themselves as they navigate through
life. An extremely important aspect of my pedagogy is not only to teach my students
new material, but also to teach them how to learn, and encourage these practices for a
lifetime of learning.
Another essential component of my philosophy of education is that my students
are exposed to a global, or multicultural education, so I can cultivate the value of
respecting others inside the classroom as well as outside of the classroom. Due to the
many different values, morals, cultures, social standings, and ideas that permeate our
society today, I find it extremely important that my students are made aware of these
dynamics in our world. Aspects from cultures around the world should be incorporated
into the classroom content along with my students own cultural assets. According to
Yosso (2005) every community has assets and students bring community cultural
wealth with them into the classroom. It is my goal to utilize such assets as a tool to
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orient my students to the content and to one another. This can be done in countless
ways, but one approach I believe in, is to not only allow, but also incorporate my
students native languages in the classroom, which is significant because I want my
students to see the importance and value of being multilingual. Utilizing my students
native languages in the classroom is also supported by Luis Molls work in respect to
funds of knowledge, a term he coined to describe the bodies of knowledge that cause
the behaviors and activities in households (Moll, 1998). He supports the idea of
culturally relevant curriculum when he promotes incorporating students funds of
knowledge into our lessons. Not only do I want to integrate my students languages into
my classroom and the lessons I teach, but I also want to include their experiences,
cultures, and interests, as these can be a rich resource when utilized in the classroom.
For example, in mathematics, the students and I can co-construct word problems so
that their interests are incorporated, but also to gain ownership of their work and begin
to understand how such problems can relate to real-life scenarios, where the numbers
are no longer abstract and isolated thoughts they are forced to memorize. Moll and
many others maintain that if students can utilize their funds of knowledge and
experiences in the classroom, their learning becomes meaningful. This is important to
me because I want all my students to feel they possess valuable knowledge and skills
that make them each a significant member of our classroom community.
That being said, in regard to keeping the curriculum culturally relevant, I think it is
essential to encourage parent involvement in the classroom as well as in the home. In
my own experiences as a student, and then as a student teacher, I have noticed that
students feel more ownership of their learning and their classroom environment when
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their parents become a part of the process. Olsen and Fuller (2010) maintain that
children from diverse cultural backgrounds tend to do better when parents and teachers
work together, as it bridges the gap between the culture at home and the culture in
school. Having my students parents, or even someone that is a significant part of their
lives, such as grandparents, other family members, or guardians, involved in the
classroom either by volunteering to help with centers or with group projects, for
example, will allow me to identify such cultural practices that I can then integrate into
the classroom, which is beneficial to everyone, especially for the students, as it creates
a supportive and motivated learning environment.
Because I want all students to value where they come from, I see my classroom
as being a safe place where students can feel comfortable to be themselves and where
working together and collaborating is an essential component of the classroom
community. Mercer (2007) agues for the importance of teacher-led activities to raise
childrens awareness of how they talk together and how language can be used in joint
activity for reasoning and problem-solving (p. 149). These back and forth interactions
among students falls under sociocultural theory, as learning is collaborative and the
teacher and the students are both involved in the learning process. Students
participation in social interactions promotes learning and deeper understanding of the
concepts and skills being taught. It is also an opportunity to encourage students to
practice their language skills and generate ideas through conversing with their peers. In
fact, Vygotsky (1978) believed that interaction with peers is an effective way of
developing skills and strategies. He argued for educators to utilize cooperative learning
exercises in which less competent children develop with help from more skillful peers -
Jenna Fishoff: Philosophy of Education &
within the zone of proximal development, or ZPD, which describes the gap between
what learners can do alone and what they can do with help from someone more skilled.
Over the past year, I spent a lot of time studying theories related to adapting
instruction for different types of learners, but it wasnt until I had first-hand experience in
the classroom, that I began to truly understand the importance of differentiation, both for
ability and for learning styles. It is not always easy, but each lesson should be
differentiated enough so that all students are able to learn in the environment that is the
most suited for them to excel in their ZPD. My goal is to make learning advantageous
for all students by not only providing a caring classroom where all learning trepidations
can be dealt with comfortably, but also by providing a space where students are
provided with cognitively stimulating content so that they are challenged and thrive in
their ZPD. Its extremely important to approach each student as a whole person, and to
understand that they have many different levels of background knowledge to build upon,
which makes up their own unique personal identities as well as their academic
identities. In a classroom where all beliefs, abilities, and learning styles are recognized
and respected, students will feel a personal investment in their community, and in turn,
will be able to experience greater success in school.
In regards to incorporating my students native languages into the classroom
curriculum, I do foresee receiving a bit of backlash from either my administrators and/or
from parents as the English Only attitude still exists in countless classrooms today.
However, many students struggle as this destructive attitude deteriorates students
cognitive abilities. Students should never be denied the opportunity to use their native
language in any type of learning, especially younger elementary students who have not
Jenna Fishoff: Philosophy of Education '
even fully acquired their native language yet. That is why I have decided to make it a
point to allow all aspects of my students native languages in my classroom and not
force my students to always use standard English as the only form of English. I find
this imperative because as I mentioned above, I want my students to see the
importance and value of being multilingual.
My promise to utilize aspects of my students native languages to help advance
their comprehension of English, is derived from Cummins writing about language
development. He argues that, conceptual knowledge developed in one language helps
to make input in the other language comprehensible (Cummins, 2000). In Gibbons
discussion of Cummins, she contends that teachers should never reject using
languages from students family and community lives. She continues to explain that
integrating the students mother tongue supports the academic and intellectual
development of EL learners by providing contexts in which learners can better
participate in curriculum activities using the full range of their academic resources
(2009, p. 135). It is important to me that my students are not detached from their native
language. I want them to have as many linguistic resources as possible to help them
reach higher cognitive levels. This may be a difficult feat at first, but I plan to explain to
the parents that I facilitate and am also part of a classroom that has a multicultural
atmosphere and that it is only right and fair to include each and every tradition, culture,
belief, value and perspective in our classroom. I find it extremely valuable for my
students cultural backgrounds and funds of knowledge to be incorporated into the
classroom so that they can recognize that their knowledge and experiences are
important and relevant, which in turn, will help them develop a deeper connection with
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the curriculum. Students must be able to use their own social and cultural thinking
processes to make sense of any new knowledge, especially new cultural information.
Schools must not accept as a given that some students existing cultural tools for
learning or solving problems are inferior to those of the dominant (or school) culture.
According to Oakes and Lipton (2000),If we do not encourage students to develop and
use all the cultural background they possess, we deny them, according to sociocultural
theories, a substantial part of their available intelligence (p. 100). Additionally, exposing
my students to multiple cultures and perspectives throughout the school year will
encourage my students to be more global citizens in the classroom and also in the
outside world. I am excited for the chance to let my students share their individual
backgrounds and family traditions with the class, so they not only learn to appreciate
other cultures different than theirs, but also value their own.











Jenna Fishoff: Philosophy of Education )
References
Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power, and pedagogy: Bilingual children in the
crossfire. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.
Gibbons, P. (2002). Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: teaching second
language learners in the mainstream classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Gibbons, P. (2009). English learners academic literacy and thinking: Learning in the
challenge zone. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Oakes, J. & Lipton, M. (2000). Teaching to Change the World, Contemporary Learning
Theories. 67-94. San Francisco, CA: McGraw Hill.
Olsen, G. & Fuller, M.L. (2010). The Benefits of Parent Involvement: What Research
Has to Say. Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall
Mercer, N. (2007). Words and minds: How we use language to think together. London,
England: Routledge.
Moll, L.C. (1998). Proceedings from twenty-first annual statewide conference for teacher
of linguistically and culturally diverse students: Funds of knowledge: A new
approach to culture in education. Illinois State: Board of Education.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: the development of higher psychological
processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of
community cultural wealth. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 8(1), 69-91.