Sahar Jacqueline Azami discusses her personal learning philosophy, which is rooted in her experience as a Montessori student and her belief in the interconnectedness of nature and nurture. She believes children have an intrinsic nature that will unfold with the right nurturing environment. Her goal is to provide such an environment by observing children and guiding them to discover and learn through meaningful, self-paced experiences using multi-sensory materials. She aims to foster independence, responsibility, and lifelong learning in children.

1. Sahar Jacqueline Azami
My Personal Learning and Education Philosophy
My stand on the nature verses nurture controversy, and my personal learning
philosophy has been sculpted by my years as a Montessori student through my
elementary and middle school years. I believe in the interconnectedness of the two
elements of nature and nurture in children’s development. I stand along side Montessori
in her belief, “ . . .That children are born with a personality (an intrinsic nature) that [will]
gradually unfold. However the key in helping a child’s personality and intellect reach its
full potential [is] through provision of an enriched nurturing environment” ("The
Montessori philosophy," n.d., p. 1). My personal leaning philosophy is rooted in my
stand on the nature verses nurture debate, Montessori principles, and my faith in
education and learning as a lifelong organic process.
Thus, I strive to be a living example of an early childhood professional. I feel
compelled to understand the values, character, attributes and dispositions of an excellent
teacher, acquire behavior patterns emanating from such dispositions through experience,
and express dedication and advocacy for children, their families, and the educational field
by participating in workshops, conferences, and other educational opportunities as a
lifelong learner; holding high realistic expectations, promoting social justice and equity,
conveying compassion and empathy.
I consider my role as a professional early childhood educator in the teaching and
learning of children is best illustrated as the principle of following the child at all times.
To live this definition of my role as an early childhood educator, I aim to, “. . . play the
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2. role of unobtrusive director in the classroom as children individually or in small groups
engage in self-directed activity. Based on detailed, systematic observation of the children,
[I] seek to provide an atmosphere of productive calm as children smoothly move along in
their learning, alternating between long periods of intense concentration interspersed with
brief moments of recovery/reorganization” (Edwards, 2002, p. 1). Intrinsically I also seek
to illuminate and utilize knowledge of a child’s personal interests, learning styles, and
learning dispositions.
Urie Bronfenbrenner’s, “. . . most basic belief states in scientific terms how
trusting bonds with children are the most powerful force in positive youth development . .
. [and] . . . in order to develop—intellectually, emotionally, socially, and morally—a
child requires participation in progressively more complex reciprocal activity, on a
regular basis over an extended period in the child's life, with one or more persons with
whom the child develops a strong, mutual, irrational, emotional attachment and who is
committed to the child's well-being and development. . . [Bronfenbrenner] translated this
principle into simple, powerful terms: ‘Every child needs at least one adult who is
irrationally crazy about him or her’” (Brendtro, 2006, p. 163). Accordingly, standing up
for children and being their voice amongst the silence is how I envision the role of
educators as advocates for children. From my perspective, the scope of child advocacy
includes the issues of abuse, neglect, poverty, and children’s rights to play, recess, and
special services when needed. An educator’s aim might be to pass on knowledge, but my
priority is always the wellbeing of children as a whole. A child, who is loved, possesses
confidence, high self-esteem, self-worth and has hope for a visionary future. As an
educator if hope is something that I can indicate and facilitate through advocacy, then the
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3. other elements of being an educator will fall into place.
As such, my interpretation on the statement, “all children can learn”, stands to
validate my faith that all children innately hold the key to achieving their true potential
and achievements, which are uniquely theirs. From this stems my trust that the meaning
of teaching, the learning for birth to grade three children, is organic and parallel to laying
the foundation of a house; a foundation that emphasizes the element of learning as
organic in nature by capitalizing on children’s inborn desire to make sense of the world.
Like a metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly, children naturally exhibit
inquisitiveness to the point of exploration and discovery, and the need to seek and gather
information through many forms of resources. Such a foundation would ideally
emphasize exposure and development in reading, writing, and arithmetic branching out to
all cultural and science subjects through life experiences; utilizing children’s senses and
manipulatives.
From my interpretation on the statement, “all children can learn” stems my vision
of key assessment practices, which is highly influenced by my Montessori education.
Growing up I never participated in standardized testing, or became pressured to get good
grades. I sought out knowledge because it interested me, not because some test said I had
to know a certain set of information. If I had been tested, categorized, and labeled by
such assessments and standardized tests, I feel that I would become as the name implies,
‘standardized.’ I believe in the positive impact of assessment by means of portfolios,
observation, and record keeping. Portfolios, observation, and record keeping, are
assessments whose data can be used by teachers and parents to validate where students
were, currently are, and what skills still need further guidance to develop. These types of
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4. assessments do not tell parents or children that they are not where they could or should
be. These types of assessments tell parents how children are doing in regard to their
personal best without comparing them to anyone else. No two children are the same.
They do not develop the same, thus, I do not believe children should be expected to
standardize their learning. I hope and aim to inspire a day when all children are seen for
who they truly are and child not categorized due to assessment or test scores. A day
where children’s behavior, their happiness, maturity, kindness, curiosity, eagerness, and
love of learning, concentration, and work be a living, measurable assessment, of their
literacy development, mathematical, and all other forms of academic knowledge.
I hold in high regard the importance of developing and maintaining positive
parent-teacher relationship; for, bridges are continually being built between school and
home, though effective communication that respects all parties’ values, and beliefs. Thus,
in newsletters I aim include a section on educational applications that parents may be
interested in incorporating into their children’s devices or educational games/websites
they may want to visit with their children. On the same note, technology, is not an
element that is taken or given in moderation. In today’s world technology is everywhere;
and it consumes us. Technology is needed for communicating, completing career tasks,
and utilized for entertainment. Many children at young ages spend copious hours on
various types of entertainment screens. Considering this vast presence of technology
plays on our culture and lives, and my perspective that that children receive enough
exposure to screens and technological devices at home; I believe in keeping the
technology in my classroom to the bare minimum. Incorporating technology, other than a
listening center, into the classroom goes against what I believe is best for the
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5. development of children, especially during early childhood. Teaching should develop
attention spans, creative thinking, focus on physical activity, movement, and be a be in
interactive human-to-human experience that allows children the liberty to be children; to
get dirty and play in the mud; to be creative and imaginative.
As such, I believe that the in for a prepared environment to aide children’s
personality and intellect reach their full potential, the prepared environment must ideally
foster community, be multi-aged, highly individualized, self-paced, and involve multi-
sensorial materials. Within this type of an environment, every student works at his or her
own pace, without competition. I believe in providing children the right of free choice
and freedom within limits; to provide choices in how they learn concepts. Consequently,
character and integrity are built through freedom of choice when a student works in an
environment with respect for others as a principle. Thus, the freedom given provides a
child to take responsibility for what they do; how their day will unfold, and to be
independent, learn, explore, and to develop an “I can do it myself!” attitude. This attitude
has the ability to become life long, for, former Montessori students have mentioned
personality and behavioral aspects that they see as Montessori-like and credit their
Montessori education for them. They include: “. . . learning for the sake of learning,
independence, finding the importance in things, patience, calmness, thinking before
speaking, open mindedness, self confidence, self stability, tolerance, social awareness,
concern for others and one’s community, and awareness for one’s environment” (Gleen,
2003, p.18).
In conclusion, the foundation of my learning philosophy stems from my
childhood years as a Montessori student, and my firm belief that learning is a lifelong
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6. organic process. My aim is not to teach or pass on facts, but to prepare an environment
that ignites children’s internal motivation and curiosity to discover and learn. I strive to
achieve my aim by observing, guiding and facilitating meaningful experiences through an
education that ideally fosters community, is highly individualized, self-paced, and
involve multi-sensorial materials.
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7. References
Albany Montessori school: the Montessori legacy. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://albany-
montessori.co.uk/the-montessori-legacy.php
Brendtro, L. K. (2006). The Vision of Urie BronfenbrennerAduits Who Are Crazy About
Kids [Article]. Reclaiming Children and Youth: The Journal of Strength-based
Interventions, 15(3), 162-166. Retrieved from
http://web.ebscohost.com.library.gcu.edu:2048/ehost/detail?
vid=12&hid=126&sid=149518c7-510c-4426-bf4a-
be9ec6d92341%40sessionmgr111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29w
ZT1zaXRl#db=eric&AN=EJ745917.
Edwards, C. P. (2002). Three Approaches from Europe: Waldorf, Montessori, and
Reggio Emilia Early Childhood Research & Practice , Vol. 4, issue 1. Retrieved
from http://www.ecrp.uiuc.edu/v4n1/edwards.html
Glen (2003). The Longitudinal Assessment Study (LAS: Eighteen Year Follow-up. Final
Report. Portland, OR: Franciscan Montessori Earth School. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED478792)
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