Teaching and Learning through Reflection We are who we are as individuals because of what has been experienced and learned from our past. It is through these meaningful experiences and lessons learned that help shape our characters, develop our determination, and lead to successful futures if we apply what we have learned in functional application. This action inevitably leads to personal growth and development. Reflecting on the writer's life, there are clearly a significant amount of experiences that have shaped both his character and his philosophy towards education, specifically within the practice of pedagogy and holistic learning, which is understanding and in functional application. Within this assignment his focused objective is to reflect on the writer's awareness of his pedagogical and learning practices, using as a comparison two particular cases in which he served as both a student and an instructor sharing the reflective experiences of both. The Student Experience There is one particular experience which, although it was lived in the past remained captured in the recesses of this writer's mind and left a lasting impression which influenced his philosophical approach to education. While a middle school student, the writer's first grade teacher, while providing a review to the student/instructor, gave the writer what he believes to be the most destructive statement to deposit in any student's life stating that he would not never became university material. This type of statement communicated by an educator to a student is detrimental to a student's future educational endeavors. The effects on oneself and a distorted perception of education due to the study...... middle of the paper ......up : Results and implications. Elementary School Journal, 85(1), 4-20.Crocker, J., Luhtanen, R., Cooper, M., & Bouvrette, A. (2003). Self-esteem contingencies in college students: Theory and measurement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(5), 894-908.Schansberg, E. (2011). The Socratic method: to do or not to do: that is the question. Presentation presented at the University of Kentucky Economics Teaching Seminar, Lexington, KentuckyThomas, D., & Jacob, B. (2011). The impact of no child left behind on student achievement. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 30(3), 418-446. doi:10.1002/pam.20586 United States Department of Education. (January 8, 2002). Public Law 107-110-Gen. 8, 2002 [No Child Left Behind Act]. Available July 4, 2013 on the U.S. Department of Education website: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/107-110.pdf