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Eldridge
Teaching Philosophy
“Most teachers waste their time by asking questions which are intended to
discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning has
for its purpose to discover what the pupil knows or is capable of knowing.” ~
Albert Einstein
As a physicist myself, I believe that everything Mr. Einstein said contains
aspects of truth. As a science teacher I also feel that too much emphasis is put
on testing what students don’t know, which is followed by filling in the gaps
with instruction. Rather than make each student feel they come up short in
scientific knowledge, killing any confidence they could have had, teachers
should embrace what the student already knows. From there, teachers can
build upon the base knowledge the students have, help them retain their
scientific confidence, and eliminate the rote memorization of scientific ideas.
After all, science is an ever changing field. Something that is true today may
be disproved tomorrow. Just a matter of years ago scientists still believed the
electron, proton, and neutron were the smallest parts of matter. Only to be
disproved with the discovery of quarks. So then, rather than emphasize the
knowledge of the science of today, an understanding of the scientific process
would better equip students to deal with the ever-changing scientific world.
Many scientific findings can be easily duplicated in a high school physics
laboratory, using the same methods as those who made the initial discoveries.
In my classroom I hope to convey better emphasis on “why” something
happens in nature as opposed to the “it just does” justification.
In my classroom, I will provide an environment where students will learn
about the physical concepts, then put them to the test. By participating in
scientific inquiry based activities, students will learn what it means to practice
science. Rather than completing physics “recipe” labs where the students do
little thinking, and more filling in blanks, I will require that students do more
inquiry learning. Whether this inquiry asks the students to design their own
experiment from the ground up, or to investigate a scientific principle, they
will gain a stronger sense of authentic scientific practices. Furthermore, many
students arrive at high school with the common misconception that whenever
a lab goes wrong, human error is always at fault. In my classroom, students
will be required to think more critically about their experimental setup, and
understand the possible sources of error.
In addition to the scientific concepts, in my experience, adolescents often
seem afraid of the idea of taking physics. In order to fend off this often
preconceived notion I will make my classroom an unthreatening place where
students can focus their energy away from worries and into questioning and
observing the world around them. They will be asked to constantly relate
their everyday tasks to the material they are discovering in the hopes that
their curiosity will be sparked.
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Eldridge
Teaching Philosophy
Throughout my teaching experience, I have come to realize the important role
mathematics plays into students’ understanding of physics. While students
come from a variety of math backgrounds and abilities, each of them must
possess a moderate amount of algebra to succeed. Because of this I will
spend time at the beginning of the course and throughout bringing the
students to a level of mathematical understanding that will allow them to
succeed in physics.
If all goes as planned, my students will carry with them an understanding and
curiosity about their everyday experiences. Rather than methodically putting
their batteries into their remote control, they will understand why the
batteries face opposite directions. They will have at least a basic scientific
understanding of how things work the way they do. They may not remember
the equation for centripetal force, but when they go flying around a banked
curve on a roller coaster they will appreciate the fact that the physical
principles they learned in high school physics keep them safe.
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