Judi Moreillon's Educational
Philosophy:
Just as your beliefs will guide your teaching,
my beliefs about learning and teaching through school libraries will provide
a framework for our learning experiences in this course.
- Learning occurs in a multicultural world with many
ways of knowing.
We will read, view, listen, and respond to the content of our course
studies. Our responses will reflect our unique and diverse backgrounds
and our personal interactions with the ideas presented. We will express
our understandings through our many intelligences and using a variety
of sign systems. Students and teachers in our course will be respectful
of diversity in all of its manifestations.
- Learning is social.
Students learn best when engaged in dialogue and collaboration with
peers, experts in the field, and the course facilitator. Collaboration
will occur in online dialogues, via email exchnages, and in class projects
through the use of wikis and other 21st-century tools.
- Learning is constructed by the learner.
By actively engaging in the learning experiences offered in this course,
the learner will construct his/her own knowledge. Active participation
is essential to learning; students must take ownership of their learning
process. Hands-on experiences and on-going reflection are essential
components in learning. In an experiential course such as this, participation
is critical.
- Learning implies risk-taking and change.
Revising and adding to personal constructs involves risk-taking and
change. Personal, professional, educational, and societal change are
addressed in this course. Beliefs about change can facilitate or hinder
the learning process.
- Teaching is best when it can be described as facilitation.
The role of the teacher is to provide a framework that facilitates the
student's self-directed learning.
- Teaching personalizes knowledge and brings it to
life.
To be meaningful, learning experiences must be relevant and relate to
the learner's real-world life experience. Instruction must be individualized
and include choices for the learner.
- Teaching is a continuous learning experience.
The teacher is a partner in the learning process. Together, the students
and teacher(s) form a learning community in which respect and caring
create the context for learning together: exploring information, constructing
knowledge, and creating the potential for wisdom. Classroom-library
collaboration between and among educators provides the most effective
learning opportunities for students and the most valuable professional
development opportunities for educators. Collaboration ensures that
educators will develop best practices that meet students' needs.
- Teacher-librarians and the library program are
central to creating a dynamic learning community.
The library program, facilitated by a professional and effective teacher-librarian,
is positioned to be at the heart of the learning community. Assess to
ideas and information at the point of need and during classroom-library
collaborations provides students and teachers with oppportunities to
learn and to practice 21st-century skills in a 21st-century environment
in which the collection resources and the instruction are seamlessly
integrated into the classroom curricula. In this library, knowledgeable
professional educators facilitate both physical and intellectual access
to ideas and information in all formats.
- Learning and teaching are about empowering individuals
to use literacy as a tool for social justice.
Literacy learning and teaching are vital to actualizing a just and humane
world. Particularly in a democratic society, it is necessary for the
citizenry to acquire a high level of critical literacy that can inform
their decision-making and help them guide the country's leaders. Information
literacy is a core skill for success in the global society of the 21st-century.
Works Consulted
American Association of School Librarians and the Association for Educational
Communications and Technology. Information Power: Building Partnerships
for Learning. Chicago: American Library Association, 1998.
Banks, James A., ed. Multicultural Education, Transformative Knowledge,
and Action: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. New York: Teachers
College Press, 1996.
Dewey, John. Democracy in Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy
of Education. New York: Macmillan, 1916.
Freire, Paulo. The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation.
Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey, 1985.
Fullan, Michael. Change Forces: Probing the Depths of Educational
Reform. New York: Falmer, 1993.
Harris, Judi. Virtual Architecture: Designing and Directing Curriculum-based
Telecomputing. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in
Education, 1998.
Hartzell, Gary. Building Influence for the School Librarian. Worthington,
OH: Linworth, 1994.
Library Research Services. Impact Studies. 14 August 2006. www.lrs.org/impact.php
Nieto, Sonia. Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural
Education. 2nd ed. New York: Longman, 1995.
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Statement of Principles: 21st
Century Skills and the Reauthorization of NCLB/ESEA. 14 August 2006.
www.21stcenturyskills.org/documents/NCLBMemoandPrinciples0630.pdf
Vygotsky, Lev S. Mind in Sociey: The Development of Higher Psychological
Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978.
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