Vita non est vivere sed valere vita est

“Life is more than merely staying alive.”

I was raised in a family where helping others and contributing to the society is given utmost importance. My father is a physician while my mother is a volunteer health worker. For them, it is more important to know ourselves, develop our potentials through education and use them in helping others than any fancy academic degrees and hard-earned money from hard work. I was also educated in an institution where we are continually reminded of the great responsibility of contributing to society and giving back to my country who gave me the privilege to be educated in a premier state university.

More than 6 years ago, I decided to resign from my very first corporate job in a company where I stayed for several years. I felt that my job is becoming a burden more than a blessing. I felt that I’ve stopped growing as much as personal development is concerned. I realized that I can still do better things with my life. My immediate supervisors, as well as my colleagues, are wondering why I have to give up my career and waste a lot of opportunities in the company. People are reminding me then about my resignation plans as there is no assurance whether I would get a better job, as “rewarding” as this one. But then, I resigned. What matters to them doesn’t matter to me.

There is more to life than financial stability. A part of me wanted to help, and I will not be able to do that if I stay and spend most of my time in that company. I have to give in to that desire and use my time improving myself and discovering my potentials in helping others and contributing to the society. This desire brought me to the teaching profession. And as they say, the rest is history.

Years ago, I faced another challenge: going back to school to improve my teaching skills. It took me some time before deciding to finally enroll in UPOU. My first term in UPOU was the hardest. Most of the times, I felt demotivated and wanted to give up due to the pressure caused by studying tons of reading materials and the challenging tasks and activities that needs to be accomplished. Not only once I did ask myself why I should stress myself out to learn when I already have more than enough experience to prove that I am an effective teacher. Then, I was reminded about my parents’ advice and the reason why I am doing these. Now, my motivation to learn is more than just getting good grades and impressive performance in completing all the tasks and course requirements. It is now about fulfilling my goal to improve myself and become a better and more effective teacher.

Having a well-defined educational philosophy will guide us to become more effective educators.  It gives us direction to effectively teach and educate our students. Educational philosophy helps us establish where we stand and strengthen the ground that we are standing on. It helps us identify our desired destination and plot the best route toward reaching and achieving that goal. Lastly, it gives us the ability to evaluate other philosophies and modify our own, whenever necessary, to meet the demands of continuously changing world.

“I was given the ability to share knowledge and the capacity to learn and there’s nothing more fulfilling than to utilize them in helping others experience learning, improve themselves and succeed in life.”

(Learning to Teach. Teaching to Learn., 2013)

Educational Philosophy Test

Here’s the result of my Educational Philosophy test arranged from the highest to the lowest scores.

Social Reconstructionism – 25
Progressivism – 24
Existentialism – 20
Essentialism – 16
Perennialism – 14

I was not fully aware about my educational philosophy before this test; although I can say that my learning and teaching strategies are a bit different from the traditional ones. I know that education has to have standards on what is acceptable at every level. In the same way, I also believe that each student has his/her own learning abilities and strengths, which should be the basis of every learning and teaching method/s for every individual learner. While I value knowledge and ideas from the “Great Books”, I strongly agree that experience is the best way to learn as it validates knowledge and makes it permanent.

I agree with the results of my test. It shows that while I am more of a Social Reconstructionist and Progressivist type, I also value other philosophies as there are items in them that I agree with. This somehow shows my idea that each philosophy is essential in shaping every learner.

I think what influenced my educational philosophy are my parents and my upbringing. I grew up in a family of Christians and we are always reminded that it is important to know ourselves and develop our potentials through education and use them in helping other people in our society. Moreover, my education in UP influenced me most towards social reconstructionism and progressivism. During my stay in UP, I was reminded of the great responsibility to contribute to society and give back to my country who gave me the privilege to be educated in UP.

Now, I am currently working as an academic tutor, usually to individual student or a small group of students. I also work as a trainer and adviser to other tutors. I provide individualized instructions based on every student or tutor’s unique abilities. I devise teaching techniques and strategies that would help students learn and understand certain topics in different perspectives compared to the ones we usually experience in a regular school setup. Through this, I discover and am always amazed of the great potentials of each learner and teachers and how they can be maximized beyond what we ordinarily perceive.

I am not saying that this will be the only philosophy and values I will stand for for the rest of my learning and teaching journey. I cannot even say that this will still be the same philosophy I will be standing for after finishing this course. Being able to identify and understand these educational philosophy throughout this course will help me evaluate my current philosophies and change towards what is good and beneficial not only to me as an educator but also to my students and other people around me.

Know Thyself

“The first thing you have to know is yourself. A man who knows himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer.”

— Adam Smith, The Money Game

Knowing myself and what I want helps a lot in learning. I will not perform a task just because I am required to do so. I will not accomplish an activity just because everyone is doing it. Being able to identify my strengths and weaknesses helps me strategically plan my learning and use them to my advantage.

As a student, I am usually an observer and consumer of information during discussions, not much of a contributor. I love reading and listening to ideas of other people and process them to help me with my own learning. I am the type of learner who is most comfortable when given specific instructions or procedures to follow and is allowed to work on them independently. I often take more time and work deliberately, showing all steps on homework or taking detailed notes in class or during group work.

Planning and thinking takes most of my time while studying. This might also be the reason why I procrastinate. At times, I am consciously putting off an activity because I need more time to understand and process it deeply, or because I am currently in the process of thinking and deeply processing other ideas. This doesn’t mean that I am avoiding them but rather, I am prioritizing and taking time to successfully complete and fully understand them. I do not subscribe to the idea of multitasking. I let the ideas sink in my brain one at a time. I am in control of my learning and taking appropriate time to understand and process concepts and ideas in my brain helps me improve my organizing skills. It keeps me focused, patient and disciplined. I may or may not finish on time, but I will not feel like I completed an activity just because I was required to do it.

I consider reading novels and writing essays my weakest abilities. I am definitely not a wide reader. While most readers say that novels are more accurate and are always better than their movie adaptations, I would rather watch them in cinemas. Most of my friends say I can write. However, I would rather answer hundreds of Math exercises rather than write a one-page essay.

At times, especially during my first term here in UPOU, I feel demotivated and want to give up because of the pressure caused by studying tons of reading materials and challenging tasks and activities that need to be accomplished. Not only once did I ask myself why I should stress myself out to learn these materials when I already have more than enough experience to prove that I am an effective teacher. Now, my motivation to learn is more than just getting good grades and impressive performance in completing all the tasks and course requirements. It is now about fulfilling my goal to improve myself and become an effective teacher.

Juggling school, work and personal life all at the same time is a very challenging task. Too challenging that my time management skills, which I strongly believe and am very confident that I am very good at, was put to the test. At work, I was tasked to lead a team that requires me to give more time for work than school. Because of this, I was not able to catch up with our readings and barely accomplish all our course requirements on time. I feel like a juggler in unicycle while in a roller coaster ride!

To start this term, I took these self-assessment tests to help me learn more about myself and know where I’m at now, specifically in terms of my strengths, weaknesses, study skills, self-regulatory capability and time management skills.

Here are the results of the tests:

1. SWOT Analysis

Strengths: Time management and planning skills; Good note-taking skills; Fast learner

Weaknesses: Procrastinating, spends too much time on tasks; Loses focus and gets distracted easily; Short-lived motivations, short attention span and lacks discipline; Accepting too many responsibilities and tasks

Opportunities: Flexible time at work (at least as of this moment)

Threats: Increasing and unpredictable demands at work

2. Study Skills Inventory Results

3. Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ)

SRQ Test Score: 233 [Intermediate (moderate) self-regulation capacity]

4. Time Management Skills Test

TMS Test Score: 50 [Good Time Manager]

While I am not surprised by the results of these tests, especially in terms of my strengths in time management, note-taking and study skills, I am instantly tempted to make excuses for my weaknesses and justify them. But I realized that these tests are for me to assess and know who I really am to become a better learner.

I need to do something and work on my weaknesses if I want to become better learner to become an effective teacher. Specifically, I need to focus and stop procrastinating. In terms of accepting tasks at work, I have to learn how to say no when necessary. Moreover, I need to improve on my reading and note-taking skills. I have to be an active reader and note taker.

I have learned a lot of lessons from my experience last term. Learning should be fun and not a cause of any stress and exhaustion. That’s why this term, I only took two subjects. I have to take my time in “savoring” all the new knowledge and skills I can learn this term.

These experiences, together with these self-assessment tests, allow me to discover more things about myself. I am now more aware of my strengths and weaknesses and hoping that these help me improve myself as a learner to become a better and more effective teacher, on my own pace, one step at a time.