“What is your philosophy of education”, this is what I am asked. As a rising teacher, I should have an idea of how the classroom might be managed and what pedagogical techniques and methods may be used for the students to acquire new information and knowledge of a given topic. My goal, as a teacher, is to produce citizens who are life-long learners who easily adjusts to any social environment, and has the basic skills needed for everyday life. Of course, these goals can be met with certain methods to help teach and manage a classroom such as: Essentialism, Progressivism, and Social Reconstructionism. Firstly, the goal for part of the curriculum is to be influenced by essentialism. Before a learner begins on any work of any sort, he/she must build a solid foundation with basic knowledge and skills. As the student progresses to secondary and post-secondary school, he/she must know basic skills in order to function in today’s society. Once the student establishes a solid foundation, they must build upon it. Basic skills in math such as: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division have functionality in the “real world.” One goal I want for my students is to not only strive to achieve the highest level of mathematics, but to also grasp the essentials of math. Moreover, I want my students to acquire basic skills for the “real world”, so they can strive to be marketable applicants for any job or career they wish to apply to. My second goal for the curriculum is to be taught in parallel with progressivism. This philosophy is a must in the classroom. As the student acquires the basic skills needed in order to understand the more complicated topics/assignments, such as algebra, where there is an unknown, he/she must be able to think abstractly in order to understand the given assignment. A goal for my students is to “think outside the box”. Not only is it superlative to lecture students and to have students do assignments from the book, but it is much more optimum to have students to do projects. Not to mention the simple fact that students aren’t always going to comprehend the material taught in class. It’s quite obvious the students understand the material better when they have hands on projects because
For many individuals, choosing a career is one of the hardest decisions to be faced with. The majority of students in college spend their first year stressing about what they are going to do with the rest of their life. I, fortunately, have known since I was in middle school that I wanted to be an elementary school teacher. As a future teacher I feel that essentialism and progressivism are going to be my unique philosophies of education.
Oftentimes, students see math class as a task to be completed to graduate from the 8th grade and move on to high-school, rather than an opportunity to build problem solving and quantitative reasoning skills useful in everyday life. This is true of my students. Many of my students believe that algebra and geometry will not be useful skills in their professional careers. This means that I have not framed my course well enough for students to grasp its importance. The result of this view is low academic engagement in class, where students may comply and feign on-task behavior; however, students are not truly grappling with the material in order to understand it. Consequently, on the first quiz of the year, the average score was a 50%. Due to my students’ underdeveloped view of math, they neither monitor nor evaluate their own academic growth and learning. Instead, they simply rely on me, their teacher, to provide them with an agenda, tasks to keep them busy, and then a final grade. Additionally, as a whole, my students struggle to create, track, and revise goals in order to achieve measures they set. I must provide more coaching and support for students to set their own goals and monitor their progress towards achieving them. Lastly, my students have trouble creating and later seeking answers to their own mathematical questions, which leaves them disengaged from the mental exercise of investigating real-world problems applicable to their everyday lives. I must provide more
The most important aspects when planning the curriculum are to follow the course of study and to adjust the lessons according to different learning styles. A variety of learning experiences are necessary to fulfill the needs of a diverse classroom. Students range in learning styles from visual to auditory to tactical, so it is the teacher’s responsibility to meet all of these needs. Also, teachers must help students to progress to higher levels, but accept that not all students are at the same point. Teachers should help students achieve a better education as far as book knowledge is concerned while concurrently learning how to motivate them to be productive members of society. I believe lessons should target all students by varying activities and the
A personal philosophy of education serves to unify the experience of teaching for the individual. It provides our students with a professional that understands the context of learning from which their classroom stems. It also ensures a personal sense of growth: a lifelong process valued by the profession as a whole. I have combined beliefs from pedagogical, ethical and personally developed ideas I intend to use as a foundation in creating a nurturing classroom environment.
It is customary that on New Year’s Eve, we make New Year resolution. The fact is that we are making a set of guideline that we want to live by. These are motives that we seek to achieve. In a similar way, teachers live by philosophy. This essay focuses on my personal philosophy of education. It unfolds the function of philosophy in a teacher’s life, my view on the purpose of education, the student teacher- relationship and the philosophy which influences my views expressed. All of these beliefs make up my personal philosophy of education.
It is my belief that, through education, an individual will receive the skills and tools that are necessary to build a life that is successful and prosperous. I believe that, as teachers, it is our responsibility to ensure that learning takes place in a safe, open, and supportive environment. This will assist students to learn the important aspects of developing and fostering positive relationships with others. It is my desire, as a educator, to help students meet their fullest potential by providing an environment that is secure, supports risk-taking, and stimulates students to share ideas.
As a teacher I am still creating my philosophy, and I doubt I will ever be able to
I believe that through education a person can get the vital skills and tools that are necessary for the person to build a life that is successful and prosperous. In education, the learners make good use of what they learn in the classroom and help students solve their problems outside of the classroom which relates to progressivism. Progressivism is when students are challenged to discover or construct knowledge about the environment (Powell, S.D, (2009), PG. 276). These are the skills that the children need in to order to solve their daily problems and to also prepare them for their daily lives. We as teachers need to make sure that learning takes place in a clean, safe and supportive environment, and that students learn the aspects that they need to develop positive attitudes and respect. There are three elements that I
According to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2008, pp. 1) “all human societies, past and present, have had a vested interest in education; and some wits have claimed that teaching is the second oldest profession.” No one comes into the world with knowledge, all knowledge is learned. Education can be learned from experience to being taught. This explains why educators are considered a big contribution to many successful people in today's society. Without education, the world would not have access to being literate.
Dictionaries define education as the act of imparting and acquiring knowledge where the powers of reasoning and judgement is developed in preparing oneself intellectually to face life. To most of us, education is commonly perceived in a narrower sense where one has to obtain outstanding academic qualification to gain success. However, I am of the opinion that education also encompases life-long experiences, knowledge and wisdom that an individual acquires at different stages of life.
Within this paper I will show reason and support for the development of my own
Education is undoubtedly the most important aspect of a person’s life. It is education that shapes our prospective and creates independent thinkers. It is the foundation of an individual’s future. It is education that pushes us forward in the direction of self-expression because we are equipped with basic skills and the knowledge of how to think for ourselves. Above all, we are our interests; everything we accomplished is the result of our passion. My goal is to be the driving force that helps my students use their curious minds effectively to evolve the world.
As I continue to progress through my teaching journey, I have had the opportunity to do a lot of self-evaluation and dig deeper into what makes a great teacher. Since then there has always been a quote that has stuck with me, stated by Seymour Simon, an award winning children’s science author. “I'm more interested in arousing enthusiasm in kids than in teaching the facts. The facts may change, but that enthusiasm for exploring the world will remain with them the rest of their lives.” I truly believe that as an educator it is more important to teach them how learning can change your life as compared to drilling facts that can possible change. The student’s love for learning will last a lifetime. With that being said, over the past years I
The learning experience should be that of a collective nature where students are able to indiscriminately relate to the information, re-teach the information and have a balanced incorporation of all the learning centers in society; including the home and the church. The goal of this incorporation is to create a balanced learning environment that facilitates holistic development in the young mind. As professionals entrusted with the shaping of young minds, teachers must facilitate learning and personal, spiritual, ethical and academic development. My philosophy for education is a multi-part philosophy that encapsulates the idea of holistic and inclusive learning. The philosophy caters for the overall shaping and development of the young mind and includes aspects of balanced training, incorporated teachings and it generally focuses on training students to become teachers.
My philosophy of education is that every child should receive high quality education that is inclusive, relevant and meaningful to their life. I am a firm believer of making pedagogy relatable to my students. My vision is driven by my personal experiences with the American school system. I was what is thought of as “A child at risk”. I am an immigrant, black, Muslim student. My life is complex as I am a part of multiple marginalized groups. Most of my teachers looked at me in a pity way. They always felt the need to feel sorry for me and to question my academic excellence when I performed highly on exams. There were numerous times in which a teacher asked if I received outside help with my work or if I needed extra or “alternative”