Educational Philosophies

Essentialism: Essentialists believe that individuals in a society should have a common core of information, and schools should be focused on teaching this common core.

Perennialism: Perennialism suggests that there are a few long-lasting ideas that always remain true and need to be taught.

Behaviorism: This idea states that behaviors define people and every behavior should be seen as a response to stimuli.

Positivism: Positivism suggests that truth and knowledge should be limited to things that can be observed with senses.

Progressivism: Progressivists think that ideas should be tested using experiments, and that learning is apparent in the questions asked by the students.

Humanism: Humanists believe that all humans are born good and later become enslaved by institutions (similar to Rousseau’s views on government).

Constructivism: Constructivists focus on hands-on learning and allowing students to develop their own frames of thought.

Reconstructionism: Reconstructionism is aimed mainly at setting a curriculum that is meant to make social reforms.

                As much as I hate to admit it, my dominant philosophy is Essentialist.  I would love to spend all day going on tangents to describe my favorite ideas and times in history, but I also realize there are certain things that every student needs to learn.  I know I cringe every time a student doesn’t know something that seems like basic information (how to find slope, Pearl Harbor attack). 

                On the other end, I can say that Behaviorism is as far away from my perspective as possible.  This whole idea that students’ actions can be diagnosed as being caused by a specific stimulus assumes that all students think alike.  At the same time, this idea suggests that there is nothing beyond students’ actions.  That means that every student who isn’t speaking in class aren’t paying attention.  As someone who is usually the student who isn’t speaking, I can say this is not true.

Authentic Curriculm

Overall, I have to say that I like the idea of the authentic curriculum.  Even though I’m not very existentialist, I do enjoy the individualism that is being promoted in this model.  I think that a big part of education is getting students to want to learn, and the best way to go about doing that is to have students choose their own topics to research.  The project based learning that takes place is very important to my teaching philosophy. 

                I’m also a big fan of students having choices in what they can learn about.  Looking back at high school, there are definitely topics I wanted to go more in depth about.  For example, I would’ve really liked for a film studies class to be offered.  This interest in film is one of the reasons I want to find as many ways as possible to incorporate movies into my curriculum.

                Despite my love for the project based learning piece of authentic curriculum, I don’t know if I will completely implement it.  My biggest concern is the fact that I want to be a teacher, not a facilitator.  The concept of the authentic curriculum seems to make teaching obsolete by having students learn everything on their own. 

Empowerment

The entry in this section that I felt was the most empowering was entry 142.  The main reason I felt such a strong connection to this entry is because of how it highlights the importance of coaches.  While I was in high school, I definitely felt the strongest bonds with my teachers who were also my coaches.  Connecting with students with interests outside the classroom make them feel closer.  I hope that I can be involved in the athletics program of the school I end up teaching in. 

                This entry also offers an amazing way for students to learn about other cultures: travel.  If it is possible for me to use traveling to enrich the education of my students, I most definitely will.  There is a huge difference between reading about a group of people in a textbook and actually seeing the way they live.  I know that in my experience, I was able to take a school trip to Italy, which made all of the content come alive.

                The final connection I found in this entry come in the form of the coach’s personality.  I also had a coach who is former military (Korean War vet) who seldom cried.  This made it that much more powerful for myself and my teammates when shed tears at our final track meet of senior year.  Our team had become a tight knit family, since the vast majority of our team started running freshmen year and stuck with it throughout high school.

philosophy

 The first major philosophical school of thought is Idealism.  The basic concept of idealism is that the only true knowledge is spiritual and emotional, rather than what we experience through our senses.  On the other end of the spectrum, Realism is the belief that what we take in through our senses is the dominant truth in the world.  Pragmatism is the idea that change is always occurring.  Existentialism is the belief that there is nothing beyond what we experience in our daily lives.






As far as my philosophical side is concern, I would say that I take a little bit from a few different schools of thought.  My dominant philosophy is definitely Pragmatism, since I firmly believe in the way that the world is constantly evolving.  I can easily relate this to my teaching style because I will be shaping young minds into the thinkers of tomorrow.  I also like the use of reasoning within the pragmatist beliefs.  I want my students to be able to grasp key concepts and understand them, rather than simply memorizing facts.

                I also would add a couple ideas from Idealism and Existentialism into my teaching philosophy.  I connect back to Idealism because of Plato’s idea that it is our goal to acquire knowledge.  This idea is one of the reasons why I wanted to become a teacher.  I am also with the existentialists in the fact that I think some schools don’t place enough emphasis on each student as an individual. 

                I don’t really feel any connection toward Realism because their concepts tend to be in opposition of my beliefs.  After reading various philosophers’ works throughout the past few years, I can honestly say that I believe knowledge is the product of the mind.  Another reason why I’m trying to distance myself from Realism is because of what I have learned in other classes about the philosophy.  Most Realists tend to highlight the fact that humans are self-serving, and are only motivated by greed and power.  As a future teacher, I can honestly say I’m not doing it for the modest salary or the power over children. 

Rejuvenation

                The entry in this section that I felt the biggest connection with is entry 117.  The reason I feel such a strong connection with this section is because of the idea of taking a break from teaching.  I have a ton of interests that I could see myself pursuing if I were to take a break from teaching.  I think it is cool that the writer of this knows that teaching is engrained in him, and that he can never really leave it.

                I’m also captivated by the fact that the writer is simultaneously teaching and running his own business.  This seems like it would require a ridiculous amount of work, since being a teacher alone would be rather difficult.  It just amazes me that this writer is capable of pushing himself so far to do what he loves.  I especially like that he takes ideas away from the business world to connect them with his teaching.  He has taken on new students in the form of local musicians.

                Lastly, I love that he highlights the song lyrics of fellow musicians as educational.  One of the things I want to be able to do as a teacher is teach a class on music history.  A big part of music history is lyrical content, since that shows what the culture was like at the time the piece was written.  For example, teaching the civil rights movement through the words of Bob Dylan, or teaching about Rodney King through NWA’s couplets could be amazing.