The Main Aspects Of My Teaching Philosophy

“Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I’ll understand. ” – Old Native Americans proverb

Learning is a constant process that is happening in our lives. Hence, my teaching philosophy is a statement of views developed through my experience as a preceptor for nursing students and new graduates on the ward. My philosophy is to create an environment that allows for supervised exploration, by including active learning, respecting the learner and continuous improvements of ones teaching process. I believe that this leads to a better understanding for the learner, gains engagement and confidence from the learner and encourages the learner to connect with experience.

Active learning

I believe that it is important to provide learners with a relevant setting, which is realistic so that the skills and knowledge gained is relevant to future similar clinical situations. I believe that learners, when placed in a setting that is realistic and meaningful, are able to connect their clinical experience to their theory knowledge. To help the learner connect the two during a realistic setting, I allow for a healthy level of anxiety by asking the learner questions and determining their knowledge of the situation. However, providing a safe setting for the learner is essential to allow the learner to feel empowered to push out of their comfort zones when developing their skills.

Respecting the learner

Engaging the learner is critical. I believe that in an educator-learner relationship, each role has the influence for a successful educational encounter. I believe that respect is an important aspect between the educator and learner, and is vital to the learning process. As an educator I would approach each learner by first assessing the needs of the learner, adjusting my approach/deliver to each learner and providing a safe and nurturing learning environment. As an educator I will need to quickly correct and accept my mistakes as they occur. I also believe that providing the learner with honesty about expectations, achievements and mistakes, is the key to respect, which will provide an ideal learning outcome.

Continuous improvement of ones teaching process

Part of my philosophy of teaching comes from the need to meet the requirements of the learner. Each student nurse and graduate nurse I have facilitated has allowed me to experiment with blending different learning needs and teaching approaches. Each encounter has shown me room for improvement, the essentials needed to learn and ways to preventing the error from reoccurring. Therefore, I believe that it is vital to continuously assess, accept feedback and reflect on ones teaching methods. By doing so I believe I will be able to meet the needs of the learner.

I believe that these three approaches will help to create a supervised exploration environment for learners that I feel most comfortable with. I believe asking the learner questions, determining what they know and why they chose a specific course of action. I believe that resisting the need to provide them with answer, but instead helping work towards an answer. Developing on what they know and helping them determine their own capability to solve problems. I believe with this approach it will empower the learner to take the necessary in the learning process.