Topic 9 - Teaching Philosophy

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Activity 19

My teaching philosophy is centred on the belief that learning should be purposeful, accessible and connected to what learners need to be able to do. In my role as a learning designer and educator, much of my teaching happens outside a traditional classroom. It might be through designing an online learning activity, working with an academic in Moodle, or showing someone how to complete a process they have not used before. What I enjoy most is seeing someone move from being unsure about a task to being able to complete it confidently on their own. That has shaped the way I think about teaching. I want people to leave a learning experience feeling more capable than when they started.

My approach aligns strongly with progressive education, particularly its emphasis on practical problem solving and applying learning to real situations (Zinn, 1983). I also draw on constructivist ideas, where learners develop understanding through experience and interaction, and cognitivist principles when structuring and sequencing information so that complex concepts are easier to process (Schunk, 2020). In practice, this means I tend to favour examples, guided practice, realistic scenarios and content that is broken into manageable sections rather than presenting large amounts of information at once.

I believe adult learners bring valuable knowledge and experience with them. Knowles’ principles of andragogy have reinforced the importance of relevance, self-direction and practical application in adult learning (Knowles, 1984). However, I do not think adult learning means removing structure. I have seen people become frustrated when they are given freedom without enough information to know what they are actually supposed to do. A first-year university student, for example, may need more guidance than someone who has already spent several years navigating university systems and expectations. I see my role as providing enough structure to help someone get started, then gradually stepping back as their confidence develops.

Accessibility is also an important part of how I approach learning design. When I first began working in the field, I became much more aware of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and how decisions about colour contrast, alternative text, headings, meaningful links and content structure can affect a learner’s ability to participate (World Wide Web Consortium [W3C], 2024). Before this, I probably thought about good design mainly in terms of whether something looked clear and professional. I now think much more carefully about who may be excluded by a design decision. Accessibility is something I consider from the beginning of a project rather than treating it as a final check.

My practice has also been influenced by Biggs’ focus on what the learner does (Biggs, 1999). I learned this quite directly through supporting staff with Moodle. I could share my screen, work through a marking process step by step and feel that I had explained it clearly, only to have someone return later with the same questions when they attempted it themselves. That made me realise that watching me complete a task was not the same as learning how to complete it. I now try to hand control back to the person I am supporting and have them work through the process while I guide them. I also provide a Moodle Help for Staff page or recording that they can return to later. My aim is that they eventually no longer need to ask me for help with that process.

That also connects to the student experience. When academics feel more confident using Moodle, assessment tools and online learning activities, they are better placed to create a clearer experience for their students. For me, learning design often has this indirect impact. I may be supporting one academic, but the decisions we make can affect an entire cohort of students.

Biggs’ concept of constructive alignment is equally important in my learning design work (Biggs, 1999). I want learning outcomes, activities and assessment to support each other so that learners are actually practising the knowledge and skills they are expected to demonstrate. I prefer authentic activities that have an obvious connection to practice rather than activities that exist mainly to test recall.

Reflection and continuous improvement are important to me because I know that good intentions do not automatically result in good learning. Student feedback, learning data, conversations with staff and my own experiences can show me where something is working and where it is creating unnecessary difficulty. I want to remain willing to change a design when the evidence suggests it is not working as intended.

Looking forward, I want to continue developing my practice around authentic assessment and generative AI. I am particularly interested in how assessment can make purposeful use of AI while still giving educators confidence that students have developed the required knowledge and skills. My aim is to keep using technology where it genuinely improves learning, while staying critical about whether it is adding value. Ultimately, I want my work to make learning clearer, more accessible and more useful, and to help learners become confident enough that they increasingly need less support from me.

Teaching Philosophy Self-Assessment Rubric 

References

Biggs, J. (1999). What the student does: Teaching for enhanced learning. Higher Education Research & Development, 18(1), 57–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/0729436990180105

EDUCAUSE. (2023, December 6). 7 things you should know about generative AI. EDUCAUSE Review. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2023/12/7-things-you-should-know-about-generative-ai

Knowles, M. S. (1984). Andragogy in action: Applying modern principles of adult learning. Jossey-Bass.

Schunk, D. H. (2020). Learning theories: An educational perspective (8th ed.). Pearson.

World Wide Web Consortium. (2024). Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/