After reading and investigating the various
philosophies, I have learned how each can be carried out to provide an effective,
interesting and intriguing classroom environment. In my own classroom, my philosophy will be a
combination of a teacher-centered approaches and student-centered approaches. Teacher-centered approaches will enable my
students to have disciplined minds thus becoming respectful citizens. Students who listen thoughtfully and
participate respectfully in classroom discussions learn various critical life
lessons. One being, they learn the worth
and wisdom of Western culture. Students will
also learn how to appreciate and honor those who brought them this heritage,
the guardians of their freedom and culture better known as their
educators. Student-centered approaches
will enable my students to embody human dignity as it is learned through my
democratic classroom. Democracy in
essence is learned like most things through experience, not necessarily books
or curriculum. All students flourish and
thrive in the classroom when they are respected and treated as an equal. That is a premise I believe all educators
should focus on and never lose sight of.
When we motivate, support and believe in our students there is truly no
limit as to what they can accomplish or do.
When we disregard or treat our students as beneath us, they are stifled
and not motivated when they are told what to do and how to think. As an educator, why would one ever want to do
that? Isn’t the purpose of teaching to
inspire and change the lives of all of our students? As students in my classroom learn to manage
their own learning, they will also master the most important lesson any school
or classroom can teach and that is the importance of the individual’s
ideas. When students learn the
importance of their individual ideas, they will become confident and competent
learners and decision makers in all aspects of their lives not just their
education. All educators can blend their
own notions of the five philosophies. No
philosophy is better than the other and each is influenced and shaped by the
philosophy of the school as well as the school district. This notion is important for future educators
who are deciding what school they should begin their careers. It is very important that one agrees,
supports and believes in the school’s philosophy and moral because one will be
spending the majority of their time and efforts there. In my own classroom, I will use all three of
the student-centered philosophies; progressivism, social reconstructioism, and
existentialism. In progressivism, my
role as the educator will be to guide and integrate learning activities so that
students can find meaning in their experiences as well as learn to problem
solve and become socially aware citizens.
In social reconstructionism, my role as the educator will be to provide
authentic learning activities so that my students will become passionate
learners. I will also instruct students in all of their academic subjects and
aim to improve society while promoting service, meaningful actions and
intelligence. In existentialism, my role
as the educator will be to seek out and relate to each and every single one of
my students regardless of their academic ability level honestly and
genuinely. I will also be very skilled
at creating a free, open and stimulating environment that ignites personal
responsibility and accountability in my students as well as the ability to
understand and appreciate their own unique individuality. In my own classroom, I will also dabble in
both of the teacher-centered philosophies, essentialism and perennialism. In essentialism, my role as the educator will
be to model academic and moral virtue by being the center of the classroom
during some lessons and activities. I
believe we must learn both to listen and learn in order to be truly successful
in whatever career path we choose later in life. My students will become culturally literate
individuals and educated model citizens who are not only prepared but leaders
in our competitive world and job market.
In perennialism, my role as the educator will correspond with essentialism
by serving as a scholarly role model who is philosophically oriented and aids
all of my students in seeking out the truth for themselves thus enabling them
to increase their own intellectual abilities as well as learn to appreciate
learning for themselves. I am so
thrilled, excited, passionate and motivated to teach in my own classroom. I cannot wait to be a confidant and role
model to each and every one of my students.
I also cannot wait to inspire and motivate them to become the best
individual they can be in and outside the classroom as well as aid them in
pursuing their own dreams. As the
education innovator John Dewey once said, “education is not a preparation for
life; education is life itself”.
Now it is YOUR time!! What do you think your education philosophy is? Why do you think philosophies are important to our educational system?
Philosophies of Education
Thursday, May 3, 2012
The Student-Centered Philosophies
Student-centered philosophies are less authoritarian, less
concerned with the past and “training the mind”, and more focus put on
individual needs, contemporary relevance and preparing students for a changing
future. Progressivism, social
reconstructionism and existentialism all place the individual learner at the
center of the education process.
Students and educators work together on determining what should be
learned and how it is best to learn it.
School is not seen as an institution that controls and directs youth, or
works to preserve and transmit the core culture, but as an institution that
works with the youth to improve society or help students realize their
individuality.
Progressivism organizes schools around the concerns,
curiosity and real-world experience of students. The progressive educator facilitates learning
by helping students formulate meaningful questions and devise strategies to
answer those questions. Answers are not
drawn from lists or even Great Books but rather discovered through real-world
experience. Progressivism is the
educational application of a philosophy called pragmatism. According to pragmatism, the way to determine
if an idea has merit is by testing it.
If the idea works in the real world, then it has merit. When one walks into a progressivist classroom,
you will not find an educator standing at the front of the room talking to rows
of seated students. Rather, you will
likely see children working in small groups, moving about and talking
freely. Interest centers are filled
throughout the room, filled with books, materials, software and projects
designed to ignite student interest on a wide array of topics. Finally, you notice the educator, walking
around the room, bending over to talk with individual students and small
groups, asking questions and making suggestions. Progressivists build the curriculum around
the experiences, interests and abilities of students and encourage those
students to work together cooperatively.
Educators feel no compulsion to focus their students’ attention on one
discrete discipline at a time, and students integrate several subjects in their
studies.
Social reconstructionism encourages schools, educators and
students to focus their studies and energies on alleviating pervasive social
inequities and reconstruct society into a new and more just social order. Although, social reconstructionism agree with
progressivists that schools should concentrate on the needs of students, they
split from progressivism in the 1920s after growing impatient with the slow
pace of change in schools and society.
Social challenges and problems provide a natural and moral direction for
curricular and instructional activities.
Racism, sexism, global warming and environmental pollution,
homelessness, poverty, substance abuse, homophobia, AIDS and violence are
rooted in misinformation and thrive in ignorance. Therefore, social reconstructionists believe
that school is the ideal place to begin ameliorating social problems. The educator’s role is to explore social
problems, suggest alternative perspectives, and facilitate student analysis of
these problems. A social reconstructionist
educator must model democratic principles.
Both students and educators are expected to live and learn in a
democratic culture where the students themselves must select educational
objectives and social priorities.
Existentialism is the final student-centered philosophy and
places highest priority on students directing their own learning. Existentialism asserts that the purpose of
education is to help children find the meaning and direction in their lives and
it rejects the notion that adults should or could direct meaningful learning
for children. Existentialists do not
believe that “truth” is objective and applicable to all. Instead, each of us must look within
ourselves to discover our own truth, our own purpose in life. Teaching students what adults believe they
should learn is neither efficient nor effective; in fact, most of this
“learning” will be forgotten. Instead
existentialists believe each student should decide what he or she needs to
learn, and when to learn it. This philosophy
is considered the most challenging of the philosophies and schools built on
this premise might very well seem alien.
However, we are a culture connected to the outside world, and far less
connected to our inner voice or as an existentialist might say our
essence. Existentialists believe that
schools should focus on thinking about why we are here and finding our purpose
in life. Existentialism in the classroom
is a powerful rejection of traditional and particularly essentialist
thinking. In the existentialist
classroom, subject matter takes second place to helping the students understand
and appreciate themselves as unique individuals. The educator’s role is to help students
define their own essence by exposing them to various paths they may take in
life and by creating an environment in which they can freely choose their
way. Existentialism, more than any other
educational philosophy, affords students great latitude in their choice of
subject matter and activity. The
existentialist curriculum often emphasizes the humanities as a means of
providing students with vicarious experiences that will help them unleash their
creativity and self-expression.
Existentialist learning is self-paced and self-directed, and includes a
great deal of individual contact with the teacher. Honest interpersonal relationships are
emphasized whereas roles and “official” status are de-emphasized. Although there are elements of existentialism
that occasionally appear in public schools, this philosophy has not been widely
disseminated. In the age of high-stakes
standardized testing and standards, only a few schools, mostly private,
implement existentialist ideals and practices.
After reading both the teacher-centered philosophies and the student-centered philosophies, which one do you feel you will encompass as an educator? Do you feel as though your philosophy is student-centered or teacher-centered?
The Major Teacher-Centered Philosophies
The major teacher-centered philosophies of education are
essentialism and perennialism.
Essentialism strives to teach students the accumulated knowledge of our
civilization through core courses in the traditional academic disciplines. Educators who are essentialists aim to
instill students with the “essentials” of academic knowledge, patriotism, and
character development. The
back-to-basics or traditional approach is meant to train the mind, promote
reasoning, and ensure a common culture among all Americans. The essentialist classroom urges that
traditional disciplines such as math, science, history, foreign language and
literature form the foundation of the curriculum also known as the core
curriculum. Essentialists frown upon
electives that “water down” academic content.
Only by the mastery of the material are students promoted to the next
grade level. Essentialists maintain that
classrooms should be oriented toward the teacher, who should serve as an
intellectual and moral role model for their students. The teachers specifically the administrators
decide what is most important for the students to learn and place little
emphasis on student interests, particularly when such interests divert time and
attention from the academic curriculum.
Essentialist educators rely on achievement test scores to evaluate
progress. They also expect that students
will leave school possessing not only basic skills and an extensive body of
knowledge but also disciplined, practical minds, capable of applying the
curriculum lessons and teachings in the real world.
Perennialism is stated as being a
cousin to essentialism because they both advocate teacher-centered classrooms,
both tolerate little flexibility in the curriculum, both implement rigorous
standards and both aim to sharpen students’ intellectual powers as well as
enhance their moral qualities.
Perennialists organize their schools around books, ideas, and concepts. They criticize essentialists for the vast
amount of factual information they require students to absorb in their push for
“cultural literacy”. Perennial meaning
“everlasting” and a perennialist education focuses on enduring themes and
questions that span across the ages.
Perennialists recommend that students learn directly from the Great
Books also known as the works by history’s finest thinkers and writers that are
as meaningful today as they were when they were first written. Perennialists also believe that the goal of
education should be to develop rational thought and to discipline minds to
think rigorously. Their classroom
focuses on the mastery of the three “Rs”, reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic. They
see education as a sorting mechanism, a way to identify and prepare the intellectually
gifted for leadership, while providing vocational training for the rest of
society. Those in society that may have
received a religious education like myself, may recognize the perennialist
philosophy. Many parochial schools
reflect the perennialist tradition with a curriculum focused on analyzing great
religious books such as the Bible, the Talmud or the Koran, discerning moral
truths and honoring those moral values.
Introduction To My Personal Philosophy and The Five Known Educational Philosophies
Since I was in middle school, my dream and chosen career
path has been to be an educator and ultimately an administrator in our current
educational system. I strive to make
changes in our current educational system to better the effectiveness and
quality of the curriculum as well as make it applicable to real life for my
future students and staff. I believe
that every educator should have a philosophy of education. Educators should constantly ponder their own
philosophy so they can ensure that they shape their classroom and school life
of their students in a way that is practical and relevant. The root for the word philosophy is made up
of two Greek words: philo, meaning “love”, and sophos, meaning “wisdom”. Educators must take a similar stance to those
of the ancient philosophers and question themselves and the educational system
so that they can determine what and how their students should be taught. Every educator differs in the way in which
they think, act and believe but we can all share one commonality and that is
embodying our own teaching philosophy.
There are five philosophies of education; essentialism,
perennialism, progressivism, social reconstructionism and existentialism. These five schools of thought do not exhaust
the list of possible educational philosophies however they do present strong
frameworks for one to constantly redefine their own educational
philosophy. The teacher-centered philosophies
emphasize the importance of transferring knowledge, information, and skills
from the older and presumably wiser generation to the younger generation. The educator’s role in these philosophies is
to instill respect for authority, perseverance, duty, consideration and
practicality. When students demonstrate
through tests and writings that they are competent in academic subjects and
traditional skills, and through their actions that they have disciplined minds
and adhere to traditional morals and behavior, then both the school and the educator
have been successful.
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