To teach is to touch Eternity.
When students ask me about my own personal educational and learning philosophies, explaining that I am a mix of behaviorist and cognitivist, means absolutely nothing to them! If I tell them that certain learning experiences require my students to be conditioned to a specific task (as in safe phlebotomy practices), or that other experiences require that they logically think through problems, draw from knowledge, and make a decision (as in making a choice to transfuse blood into a patient)...well, frankly, that would not tell them anything about my beliefs either!  Summing up one's philosophy on education is difficult, because effective educators constantly revise their perspectives as they learn alongside their students. 

However, core beliefs and foundations never change. 

Please explore my four core beliefs that define my existence as a teacher.

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If you are not making mistakes, you are doing it all wrong!

Learning sticks, often times very well, with multiple task iterations. Rinse and repeat. Learning should be a trial and error process, and it should be personal. Each student needs to understand that making mistakes is part of the learning process. Sadly, most people view mistakes as negative experiences, when they are simply learning opportunities and chances for improvement.


​Quality over quantity!

 I believe that superior instruction can be delivered without overburdening the student with mindless assignments, quizzes, and projects. Although beneficial in their own contexts, they often times hinder learning, elicit extreme stress, and create stumbling blocks for students. Quality instruction comes with thoughtful and thorough instructional design that maintains the student as a centralized focus. Some of my greatest classroom learning experiences came from courses that lacked projects and assessments. Quality interaction between the teacher and student and the students with each other will result in learning.


​Numbers can lie!

About 10 years ago, I discovered Howard Gardner and his theory of Multiple Intelligence. When this happened, my perspective of intelligence completely changed from assessment through standardized testing to an objective and rational appreciation of individual cognition. There are so many problems with testing, assessment, and student perception of the practice. I don't believe that a number can accurately assess a student's performance; there are just too many factors that can adversely affect the delivered number. I prefer to probe my student's minds in a more practical manner, seeking to learn what they have learned from my instruction. Their failures on tests could simple be an assessment of my teaching and not their learning and understanding. Numbers can lie, distorting the true learning that may have taken root within our students' minds.


Can't never could, and won't never will!

Everyone learns differently, and we all have different and preferred ways in which we learn. It is the instructor's task to reach as many of those learning styles as possible. Students can learn anything they desire....the key word being desire. If an individual is passionate about something, that student will learn it in his/her own way and at his/her own pace. I have encountered students who desperately want to learn a topic but think that they won't be able to because of previous difficulties in education and in life. I believe that if a student has the ambition and passion for a topic/career/job, that student can accomplish anything related to it, and it is my job to help them achieve that goal. There is no room for negatively - only optimism and achievement. Our reach should always be farther than our grasp.

So, how would one sum this up and deliver an educational philosophy and explanation of what one believes? I don't think that it is as easy as wrapping something up in a pretty box. Tossing behaviorism, constructivism, and cognitivism out of the window, personally, my philosophy on education is simply this: my motivator is intrinsic, it comes to fruition extrinsically, and it is validated in watching my students learn and use that learning in their worlds. I believe that I have a huge responsibility in shaping my students, but I do them a great disservice if I fail to help them learn how to think in a critical manner.  I, like everyone else in life, am the sum of my experiences, and that holds true for my outlook on education. My educational philosophy is the sum of my experiences, both good and bad, as I teach and as I learn as a teacher, and I think that any good educator is created in that manner.

Being open, objective, and reflective are critical personal characteristics of an effective educator, and I would hope that as I grow, these qualities are continually refined within me.

One of the greatest honors in life is to help others learn.