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My Personal Philosophy of Education
Jasmin Johnson
College of Southern Nevada
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For the longest time, I was unsure of what career I wanted to enter. I changed my major
from Psychology to Accounting after realizing that, though I enjoy learning about how people
think and what affects human behavior, I like working with numbers more. However, as I was
speaking to my stepfather about how much I disliked accounting, he pointed out that I may
prefer teaching. As a history teacher for over twenty years, he told me that much of his job,
outside of teaching of course, is understanding the way students, parents, and other teachers
think, and the way they all interact in a learning environment, and using that to help his students
learn, comprehend, and retain the information he gives them. Hearing this from him, coupled
with my history as a tutor for my peers in middle and high school, as well as my younger
siblings, I started to consider a career in education. The deciding factor for me, however, was the
impact that my stepfather has had on many of his students. To this day, he receives emails from
students he had years ago telling him that something they learned from him in a class he taught
has helped them many years down the line. He is my biggest role model and inspiration, to
become a teacher who has impacted a student so much and has taught them a lesson that they
have been able to use throughout life.
When completing my field observation, I observed two different teaching styles. The
teacher that I observed in person walked the students through a few example problems, then gave
them a worksheet to complete. She stayed at her desk and students could come up to her if they
had any trouble. However, in the videos, the teachers gave each student a worksheet that they
worked on with other students in their group. The teachers walked around the class assisting
them when needed. When I was observing in person, the lights were dimmed because the teacher
used a smart board, but the teachers in the video wrote on the white board and had the lights on.
Although these teachers differed in the way they interacted with their classes, what they had in
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common was that the students seemed to be comfortable with their environment and had no
trouble interacting with the teacher. This is something that I believe is very important in a
learning environment. If the students aren’t comfortable with their environment and with the
person teaching them, that will become a distraction and make it difficult for the student to learn
and for the teacher to instruct.
Social reconstructionism and constructivism are the educational philosophy and
psychological orientation that dictate my current beliefs about education. There are barriers
based on race, gender, and socioeconomic status that eliminate equal choices for all students,
regardless of how smart they are, or how well they do in school. By incorporating real life
problems, and teaching students about the inequalities that exist between people, we can make
the next generation more aware of these problems and enable them to change the world for the
better. My knowledge of historical events, such as the implementation of “separate but equal”
and the reversal of that ruling in 1954, and the response to Hispanic immigrants now, have
shown me that people base their social beliefs on what they learn from those in positions of
major influence, such as parents and teachers. Growing up, children spend much of their time in
school. By introducing a curriculum that opens students up to the realities of life, students can
develop their problem-solving skills using real life problems, while also learning ways to
recreate societal norms and eliminating those barriers that exist for others. In order to understand,
and eventually encourage students to reconsider and preconceived notions, I need to also learn
about more diverse groups of people and understand the struggles inequalities they have faced.
In order to move forward in this career, I need to gain more insight into the minds of
younger people, from the perspective of an adult, as well as the ability to change a method of
instruction to fit different students. I plan to transfer to UNLV once my program here at CSN is
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complete to earn a bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education. I would like to volunteer at
community programs to tutor students, or during the summer at any bridge programs that may
exist here in Las Vegas. Once I complete my program at UNLV, I would like to gain
employment at CCSD, and eventually go on to earn a master’s degree in Curriculum and
Instruction.
