Ever since I became a teacher in 1989, I have Confucius’ and Socrates’ philosophies of teaching in my mind. And for almost 18 years of teaching, I still hold on to the same guiding principles.
Confucius once said that “education is like the four corners of a square”. Furthermore, he believed that the teacher uncovers one corner, and the students ascertain the other three. With this in mind, my teaching of Science has become a journey of inquiry both for me and my students. In teaching scientific concepts, I as the teacher, need to know “all corners” of the concept, yet leave the “other three corners” for the students to discover. In achieving this tenet, I prepare activities and learning experiences that involve facilitated inquiries, guided discoveries, inductive laboratories, and of course, over-night field trips to the caves, waterfalls, mountains and watersheds.
Socrates on the other hand, started the practice of questioning as a means of discussion and deliberation. I have learned through my teaching experiences that the students’ learning and formation of scientific concepts are largely accelerated by the essential questions that are posed to them, as opposed to mere receiving the concepts from the authority of the textbook. I always make sure I have a lot of essential questions that challenge my students to what I refer to as “thinking and sharing” or “pondering and diverging”. My students definitely can not pass my Research class without an oral defense to hurdle.
I also believe in teaching the concepts bit by bit, and building these concepts upon one another to form a myriad of relationships which the textbooks do not offer to the students.
Despite the scientific and naturalistic approach to my teaching, I still reserve a part of my heart to qualify the students’ incapacity or despondency to learning. I believe that everyone can learn and I take that belief as a rewarding responsibility upon my shoulders, for it may be too heavy for my hands alone.
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