Importance Of Epistemology In Teaching Practice

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1. INTRODUCTION
Philosophy is very important when it comes to the teaching practice. It helps teachers to understand everything that is happening in the school settings as well as helping them to understand the way in which all the school citizens act and how they think. It also helps them to think more clearly. It gives them wisdom and helps them to learn more about what is happening in the world which they live in. It helps them to learn about each other. This assignment will focus on explaining the importance of philosophy for the teaching practice by highlighting how epistemology has influence on how I teach, the importance of ethics in the teaching practice as well as identifying one philosophy of teaching amongst, pragmatism, existentialism or liberalism.

2. HOW EPISTEMOLOGY HAVE INFLUENCE ON HOW I TEACH
Epistemology as a theory of knowledge has influenced the way I teach as I have realized that there are certain things that we adapt on the external environment and these things have a major influence on the internal environment within which I actively construct knowledge. Being aware of these influences has helped me to understand that knowledge is not only constructed from the school settings, but also from the world outside the school. As a result I am able to act on those external influences and create knowledge rather than passively react to the environment.
In addition to the aforementioned information Neufeld (2009:82) states that we construct knowledge on top of what we already know. As new information come to us from the environment we perceive it as arrangement of figures that can be incorporated into our picture-frame that references the world to us. If that new information cannot be incorporated into our existi...

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...e philosophies is pragmatism. Putting this philosophy into practice has improved the way of teaching in many schools. It has made learning more interesting and easy to understand. It is therefore of utmost importance for all educators to find ways in which they can use this philosophy in their teaching profession.

BIBLIOGRPHY
Killen, R. 2010. Teaching Strategies for Quality Teaching and Learning. South Africa. Claremont. Juta & Company Ltd.
Mayer, R.E. 2008. Learning and Instruction (2nd Ed). USA. Columbus, Ohio. Pearson Prentice Hall.
Mitchel, C. and Sackney, L. 2011. Profound Improvement: Building Learning-Community Capacity on Living-System Principles (2nd Ed).USA. London & New York. Routledge.
Neufeld, J. 2009. Redefining Teacher Development. USA. London & New York. Routledge.
Sharma, P. 2009. Problems of Education. New Delhi. A P H Publishing Corporation.

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