Philosophy of Teaching as an ESOL Teacher (A study on curriculum development in adult education)

Abstract

Philosophies and theories of teaching are not mutually exclusive, but each educator can select what philosophy or theory of teaching suits him or her depending on the learning atmosphere, small or large group of learners, the subject and material of teaching. All theories are just different ways to look at how personality develops and mostly they come from different perspectives of psychology such as the humanistic philosophy states: individuals especially adults have free-will and that we can actively develop themselves to the highest potential whilst the Behaviorist articulates: if something is not noticed then it will be learned. This paper, will try to identify a philosophical perspective on adult education as English for speakers of other Languages (ESOL) teacher and present a stance as for an experienced adult educator having five years of teaching experience in this field. Furthermore, will state a set of guiding principles for teachings that to believe in, such as management, trust, and respect, empowering, engaging, nurturing and teaching not lecturing the learners in the teaching process. Moreover, will illustrate views of different scholars who write on humanistic philosophy and behaviorist theory of teaching, such as Maslow, Chomsky, Bandura and others. In addition, will discuss other themes that show the practice of teaching such as audiolingual, learning environment in classes, the dynamic in small and large classes. Material and design of classes, the learners’ autonomy and the relationship with learners, activities, assessment and feedback plans will be discussed in different paragraphs. Finally, will state an opinion about the values, ethics, and professionalism in teaching followed by a conclusion of a philosophy of teaching and a descriptive figure of figured philosophy (Figure 1, p. 13).