“My Philosophy of Education”

My education and teaching philosophy is based on the belief that every child should be
given the rights and opportunity to learn through education. The purpose of education and
teaching is not solely to convey knowledge but education should produce educated and
practicing people with the knowledge gained. Education should provide a meaningful learning
process in which the learning outcomes can be applied by students to build and develop their
lives dynamically in the future. Not only that, the purpose of the education is to meet our own
basic needs in order to succeed in life too. I do think that the direction of our current school
system should be on the basis of providing a knowledge based, experience based and character
building so that they will be able to contribute to the family, community and the country in
general. As a teacher, I want to help my students to be successful in their life by providing them
with a solid foundation of knowledge, strong learning experiences and excellent characters
development. Learning should be student-centered. Thus, the main goals of my teaching are to
instill critical thinking skills among students, to encourage and assist in the acquisition of
lifelong learning skills, to emphasize the importance of problem solving skills and to cultivate
active learning.

How can I help my students to get a proper education that they deserve to? As a teacher,
my first philosophy is that I need and must master the topic or subjects that I am going to deliver
in order for my students to gain significant knowledge related to the topic or subjects I teach. It is
impossible for me to help my students in gaining a basic knowledge if I do not have a solid
foundation. Hence, I believe in order to become an educator that truly master in one field or a
subjects, he or she need to have passion and interest in that particular topic or subject. I think all
teachers need to be experts in a particular subject as for teachers who master the well-taught
subject will be able to help their students to achieve excellently in academic. From the time I was
a student in school long ago until now, I found that most teachers are being instruct by school
management to teach more than one subject and frequently change according to the needs and
requirements of a school. And I noticed that school teachers are burdened with extra chores apart
from teaching. I believe this will affect the teacher’s performance in the school since the
implication involving teaching and learning does not well develop. And of course, the victims of
this type of circumstances are the students, who should be given the knowledge and the best
teaching from the teachers. All this experiences was noticed and gained when my two boys enter
primary school at our local community area. My boys often expressed their dissatisfaction about
teachers are not around during the lesson due to some events or school tasks that were given by
the management of the school and normally the school will replace with another teacher which is
teaching different subject. Hence, I strongly hold to my principle in mastering a particular
subject in order to deliver an excellent knowledge to my students without any interruption from
extra tasks or chores is important.

My second philosophy in education is providing an equipped facilities and infrastructure

which include a conducive and adequate classroom for my students to encourage the interest in
learning among them. I called this as prepared environment or child-centered classroom where
learning activities takes place and presented individually to students and students progressing at
their own pace. This philosophy is based on my own experienced while working with Montessori
based pre-school where the facilities and infrastructure are well organized and prepared for my
students. I believe, a complete facilities and infrastructures of a classroom are able to attract
student’s interest to come to school. By equipping a complete facilities and infrastructure to
students, they are given chances to practice, review and moved further according to their interest
and capabilities. As a result, I think the relevant parties need to provide adequate facilities and
infrastructure to make the school environment more conducive. Apart from that, a safe and
secure environment, with practicing well disciplinary among the students, I strongly believe this
will helps to enhance the student’s interest in learning. Logically thinking, if students were given
the option to choose the type classes they were like to have, definitely the students would choose
a conducive class equipped with proper materials that will help them to learn and also an air
conditioning in order to have a comfortable learning environment. In regards of providing air
conditioning in the classroom, somehow I understand it is impossible to provide an air
conditioned classroom due to limited budget but I strongly believe that the comfort factor such as
having a proper air ventilation in a classroom is able to promote a conducive and more
competitive teaching and learning environment. My boys often find themselves uncomfortable
during the lesson in the middle of the day, in hot weather although the ceiling fans were fully
blast. This will actually affect the teacher’s teaching process and also the student’s learning
process, it won’t run smoothly as planned. The discomfort feeling in the classroom can result in
students being less motivated to stay longer in school. Therefore, by providing a prepared
environment which is comfortable and conducive learning space is essential to me as a teacher in
order to promote a good and smooth learning process.

My third educational philosophy is related to classroom management techniques,

approach and also the usage of various tools in the classroom to promote and encourage effective
learning process. My teaching techniques and approach were influenced by the famous Dr. Maria
Montessori, Italian educator and originator for the educational system that carries her name –
Montessori system. I discovered Montessori’s theory during my service in one of a pre-school in
Selangor. I was really fascinated by the strategies used in Montessori environment on captivating
the young learners and how the strategies able to stimulate their minds. From there, I knew that I
would want to incorporate and apply her principles as much as possible in my teaching career. I
even took part-time program in mastering Montessori teaching method from local college and
managed to complete the whole course. After completing the program, I deliver and incorporated
the method confidently into my daily teaching routine. However, based on my experienced
working in different learning environment, Malaysian’s parents are still skeptical with
Montessori education system as it rises some questions among them such as whether will their
child be able to transition to normal traditional school later on? Or does Montessori prepare their
child for the real world? Or how can parents track their child progress if there are no grades? So,
I decided to integrate Montessori’s teaching approach and theory into my daily practice along
with other few teaching approach to suit the current school system trend.

My fourth philosophy is that practicing positive mindset and attitude as a teacher is

crucial as these two elements are able to shape student characters. Teachers that behaving
negatively, such as late for teaching, using excessive criticism and words that does not bring any
encouragement and always unnecessarily offending students feeling should be avoided by
teacher. A teacher needs to be a person that students respect and appreciate their presence. These
roles needed me to be committed to my students by setting an example and it needs to be done
consistently. I believed the actions and dispositions of the teacher to some extent able to
influence student’s behavior. As a teacher, I should always show good behavior to my students
by instilling a sense of openness and belonging in which I am able to accept differences in each
other. Students should be treated appropriately and equally. Students with disciplinary problems
should be given opportunities to improve themselves, to be given advice and guidance. However,
disciplinary action should also be taken as a last resort if all approaches are not capable of
changing the student's behavior. I believe everyone deserves a second chance. Thus, I strongly
stand with my philosophy by having and practicing positive mindset and attitude are the most
important and crucial elements for teachers in creating future knowledgeable and virtuous
generations.

My final philosophy of education is that students should always be challenged to do their

best in whatever task they are given. Students will become uncompetitive if there is no push
factor or challenge in executing their task. I believe students need to be exposed and taught with
lessons that are higher than their level of ability in order for them to work harder but in the same
time it has to be according to their pace so that they will understand and absorb the given
knowledge. In order to ensure the students are taking up the challenges well, they need to come
along with encouragement and support by friends, teachers, parents and the society. With the
strong support of all parties, students will have better and more achievement and skills. In other
word, there is always an improvement in them. Students should always be motivated and
encouraged them to practice the habit of curiosity to learn until it becomes a culture in
themselves. However, as a dedicated teacher, I need to use different approaches towards my
students in order for them to love learning. I never and do not believe in using forcing method
will able to help them to learn, instead this will lead to unnecessary pressure. Based on my
experienced, I will normally provide guidance and step by step process to encourage them to
learn and understand the lesson so that they will be able to apply the knowledge they gained in
the future. Although it might takes longer time, but I still practice this among my students and
based on my experienced, the results are tremendously good.

In conclusion, students should get the best education as possible, which can help them to
excel in school and outside the school. To achieve this, teachers are playing the important role in
mastering and delivering the knowledge proficiently to students. Teachers need to be
knowledgeable and able to provide relevant information so that educational transformation can
be realized by educators. I need to be a role model for my students where I can be approached
and can be brought in to discuss their problems especially involving personalities. Providing an
adequate school infrastructure and comfortable classroom conditions can encourage and motivate
students to learn and love to come to school. Finally, teachers need to constantly challenge their
students to perform their work diligently, systematically and at their best. Students today are the
future of our nation. Hence, I as a teacher have the great responsibility of preparing my students
for a very competitive world today.
“Eastern philosopher (Confucius) versus Western philosopher (John Dewey) in education”

I have chosen two famous and influential philosopher from different eras, one from the
East and the other one from the West. The famous and influential philosopher from eastern that
I’ve chose will be Confucius, a Chinese philosopher, educator and politician during the first half
of the Eastern Zhou period and he was the founder of Confucianism, a system that stressing the
importance of correct behavior, loyalty and obedience to an organization or society. The famous
and influential western philosopher that I am referring to will be John Dewey, an American
philosopher and educator who was a founder of the educational philosophy called Pragmatism
which claiming education should be about life and growth.

Both of them shared the same understanding towards the importance of moral education
for self-development and the importance of social relations for moral education. Anyhow,
Confucius ultimate goal of education was to reform or change the ruling government though
education and his focus on education is to change the ruling government by producing individual
with honorable and high morality man. He believed that through education, he will be able to
produce men who were capable to serve the government in influential roles. He strives to
produce “Chun Tzu”, which in other English, we called “gentleman”. Confucius believe that
education is for all people, without any prejudice towards race, religion, etc. His students came
from the lowest to the highest. The opening of education opportunities to more people has
contributed to political reform and cultural dissemination. Confucius against favoritism and the
transferring of a position from one generation to another generation among the aristocratic
groups. He proposes that to appoint any position to an individual, it has to be based on merit and
ability. He believed that education will produce capable and high quality individuals and such,
the individual will able to hold a position in public service and able to carry out their duties with
integrity.

Meanwhile, John Dewey’s goal of education is to develop a child’s powers and abilities.
Dewey emphasizes that education is not about preparing for life but education is life itself. His
aim is to create an environment in which the child gets an opportunity to be active and able to
contribute to the social awaking of the human race. From the pragmatic point of view, education
aim to Dewey’s is to create social ability and skill in the child. Hence, to him, a school play
important part as a social institution which it should be organized in a way that all the activities
of the outside world are reflected. Dewey criticized the traditional schools system. From his
observation, traditional schools focus is not on the children, but more on focusing towards the
teachers and learning subjects. For Dewey’s, this a failure to see children develop accordingly in
their experiences and to control their experiences within their environment. As a result, the child
becomes inactive, becomes formal and static. The school is just a place to listen, to follow
instruction and to be separated from the real life. For Dewey, the life of a democratic society can
be realized through education. According to Dewey, education should combine theory and
practical activities, he stressing the equally importance between action and thought. Dewey’s too
believed that people learn the best through experience.

Confucius was a humanist and one of the greatest teachers in Chinese history. Confucius
strongly influenced the education system in China. According to Confucius, there are three basic
principles of education that needed to be taught in school, which are the development of moral
values, knowledge and skills. The moral values that Confucius emphasized are closely linked to
the interrelationship between humanity and consists of the following:

 Filial piety (Xiao)

 Respect the elderly (Ti)
 Loyalty (Zhong)
 Kindness and forgiveness (Shu)
 Respect (Gong)
 Kind and gentle (Wen)
 Perseverance (Min)
 Honesty (Hui)
 Do good (Liang)
 Frugal (Jian)
 Toleration (Rang)
 Wisdom (Zhi)
 Courage/ bravery (Yong)
 Devotion (Di)
 The concept of moral education proposed by Confucius is based on the concept of "Ren"
or humanity which also means loving the surround neighbors. By understanding the “Ren”, one
can discipline oneself to obey to social norms and customs that are considered to be right and
noble by society. The concept of Confucius moral education was aimed to end the political chaos
and moral issues in China. What is needed is a high moral character who can help the aristocrats
govern the country with integrity. This happened during the period of “Spring and Autumn”
where the nations of China fought with each other and conquering as much land as possible. The
lower level people are living in miserable and insecurity while the elite enjoy a luxurious life.
The governments can be overthrown at any time by governments from another countries or even
from their own leaders. Confucius criticized the era as chaotic and immorality. He strongly think
that the solution to the problem was to educate the people according to the principles and
teachings of pastors from the past. Therefore, he emphasized and practice the teachings of past
pastors in his class. He has also came up with many wise sayings and theories on law, life and
government. He helped the government and the emperor on how to rule the state successfully
using his lessons. His lesson emphasized and prioritized on family obedience, honoring towards
ancestors, honoring to parents by their children, honoring to husbands by their wives and family
as the foundation of an ideal government. He always taught people to be more perfect. If the
people around can follow and practice Confucius teachings, then the world will be more
peaceful, harmonious and full of love. His philosophy and teaching proven to benefit the pupils.

John Dewey was best known for his role in developing the progressive education.
Progressive education is basically an educational view that focusing the need to learn by doing.
Dewey believed than human learn through hands-on approach. The interesting part was, this
progressive education arise from pragmatism thinking. Progressive education supports the people
experiences are the basic way to gain knowledge. Dewey, just like everyone else enjoy watching
children learn what they want to learn especially about things related to their home life. This can
be seen through a comparison made when the children were asked to do an activity that they
normally do at home with the school lessons, obviously they are bored with the given lesson.
Therefore, Dewey saw there is a need to introduce a new activity and approach to capture the
student’s interest and feeling happy during study. Progressive education generally emphasized
the current world or current society, this is seen to help human to adapt themselves with the
environment and restructure the environment to improve human’s life.
 Hence, to ensure that the benefits of the learning occur, there are three principles which
has been widely accepted by progressive educationists and consist of following:

a. Children should be the center of focus for the use of learning tools.
b. The ideal school is the expansion of a perfect home and any lack of educational
activities that are not practice at home, the school is responsible to provide to the
children.
c. Children must be given sufficient opportunities for them to explore their own
personal activity in order to expand the knowledge that they get from books and
this activity needs to be guided and observed in order for them to understand and
captured the learning process and skills.

Although all these efforts are making progress from time to time, Dewey admitted that it
was easy to introduce something new to a school system but it is not easy to implement it. The
main problem that Dewey’s encountered is to implement the progressive education which
requires teachers who have high quality of teaching and the student-teacher ratio must be low.
Teachers in the educational perspective of pragmatism are not teachers who are only using the
normal teaching method but teachers who are required to be creative. Teachers must learn to
maintain that students enjoy learning by seeing the world from the point of view of children and
the point of view of adults. To further explain about the function and role of the teacher in
progressive education, Dewey believes that teacher’s role is to become mentor and advisor to
help the students to recognize the problems that they faced in different changing environment.
Teachers that practices method by exposing students to social experiences, carrying out project-
based activities, social studies and problem solving experiments which when it is implemented
by using scientific method, it is believe that knowledge and information gained are useful in all
fields studied. Meanwhile, books are used only as a tool in learning process and not as the source
of knowledge. According to Dewey, children learn more and faster when teachers encourage
their natural curiosity, rather than making them rigid and disciplined subjects by traditionally
giving punishment as in 19th century education in general. Therefore, he uses the game and its
various forms as a learning tool. From there, he formed the methodology of modern education in
the 20th century.
 Confucius has manifested his mind by spreading his teachings through adventure and
education. His philosophy is practical and pragmatic. His teaching absolutely not related to
religion but it is a philosophical and moralism concept. Confucianism forms a moral system
based on moral values, human nature and affection. Confucius philosophy focusing on customs,
respect and honor the elderly and the dead( filial piety), the importance of husband and wife
relationship, siblings relationship and the whole human being relationship. From my view, all
these are useful to be implement and practice in our current social situation in Malaysia. I
believed our people should be practicing Confucius philosophy and educate them on the values,
norms, rules and culture of the community to create an essential society that brings stability,
prosperity and harmony to life.

I agree with the views from the pragmatism of John Dewey who believe that reality must
be experienced. I strongly believe that our children nowadays need to interact with their
environment in order to adapt and learn. It is important that our children to practice learning by
doing and development of practical skills in their education. Hence, if we were to implement
pragmatism in Malaysia education system, it should be designed to suit the socio condition of
Malaysian community. In order to achieve an idealized education, we need to make
improvements in all areas. Not just about the existing curriculum but educators are also one of
the main factor to achieve the success of the existing educational purposes. Schools are built as
an educational institution, not only to conduct the normal routine lesson in the classroom.
Anyhow, the schools should be more emphasis on how the students were able to solve problem
among the community. Especially when education cannot lead learners to the goal that he or she
wants to achieve. Educational concept based on pragmatism philosophy will become the measure
tool of success whether or not it can be used for the benefit of life.

Philosophers like Confucius and John Dewey are needed regardless which eras are we in.
Although not everyone agrees with their thoughts, they still strives to spread their teachings that
they feels are important. As we can see, Confucius bravery is his argument and his advice to the
governors is greatly admired. This is because not everyone dares to risk his life only to advise the
emperor. His fiery spirit, unassuming temperament and the courage to raise up his opinion were
admirable. Both of them are patient educators and strives to pass on all their knowledge to the
students in order to be a useful and virtuous person. We must emulate their good qualities in
order to be successful in the future.