My Reflection Of Philosophy: My Philosophy Of Education

The banking concept controls and prevents personal choices from being made. Freire speaks of ‘education as the practice of freedom – as opposed to education as the practice of domination.’ (Paulo Freire, extract 1 – education thinkers) It is my opinion, that, informal education gives freedom to the student. In my role, I am aware that the people, who I am delivering to or working with, have the freedom to leave at any time.

An educational philosophy is a personal statement of a teacher’s goals or belief. A teacher comes to the classroom with a distinctive set of principles and ideals that affect how a student learns and expand the child’s potential in his or her venture into knowledge. I believe that education should be active, and focus on the whole child, rather than just the content or the teacher. The three (3) principles I believe that work harmoniously with my educational philosophy are the teacher acting as a facilitator to foster critical thinking, allowing the child’s natural curiosity to steer his or her learning for personal development, and

To be an effective educator, I believe one must have a foundation of moral and ethical principles. An educator should support the learning environment, while being flexible and teachable. He or she must also lay a foundation of beliefs on how individuals learn, seeking to enable individuals to reach their optimal potential. My personal educational philosophy begins with believing all children are unique individuals, with different emotions and different styles of learning. An educator has the incredible challenge of attempting to meet those needs. As an educator, I believe all children deserve the opportunity and resources that would better enable them to reach their maximum potential.

“The goal of education is not to increase the amount of knowledge but to create the possibilities for a child to invent and discover, to create men who are capable of doing new things” (Jean Piaget).

Freire describes that “The banking concept of education, which serves the interests of oppression, is also necrophilic. Based on a mechanistic, static, naturalistic, spatialized view of consciousness, it transforms students into receiving objects. It attempts to control thinking and action, leads women and men to adjust to the world, and inhibits their creative power” (261). According to Freire, the banking concept causes oppression. Under it, students are nothing more than objects that receive knowledge. Therefore, it is necrophilic, treating the students as if they were dead and could not think. I think that the banking concept of education restricts students and what they are capable of. Rather than actively involving the students, the students are fed information from the teachers. The goal of education is for the students to actually learn, and the only way that can be accomplished is through

The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world. The more completely they accept the passive role imposed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them. (Freire 217)

According to Paulo Freire in The “Banking” Concept of Education, the “narrative” nature of the teacher-student correspondence is toxic and counterproductive in any form (Freire 259). To capture this idea, Freire makes education synonymous with a teacher making deposits into the mind of a student, but “the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits” (Freire 260). Therefore, interpretation and creativity are commodities that do not reach the surface of a student’s work or thoughts. A personal example of such a loss in experience comes directly from my freshman high school English class, and said experience strongly represents a “banking” atmosphere. In contrast, a “problem-posing” classroom would inspire original thought and energetic conversation. All in all, the teacher-student relationship is a critical focal point in terms of whether or not a classroom is successful.

For the next several weeks, I adhered to Dr. Francis’s ‘Banking Style of Education’, and it worked. I received an A on every exam and test I took because I memorized and accepted the information Dr. Francis gave me without second thought. Freire feels that my total submission to the instructor was the reason for my success because he suggests that “The more meekly the receptacles permit themselves to be filled, the better students they are”(Freire 72). Freire’s explanation worries me because to know is not to know. Just because I could recognize different functional groups, which in the banking concept would make me a better student, did not mean that I could apply my understanding of organic chemistry to a real life situation because I hadn’t been taught to apply the information to

Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is such a nature as to demand thinking or the intentional noting of connections; learning results naturally. (Dewey, 1916, p. 160)

When it comes down to learning and a grade, most students care about the grade more than actually comprehending information,which gives students a false interpretation of how things work.“After all, there are no Cliff Notes in the business world.”

Aristotle once said, “The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.” Teaching enables students to gain the intelligence needed to excel in life. I believe that a teacher’s philosophy of education is a crucial role in his or her approach to leading students on their educated path. A philosophy of education is the set of beliefs that every school and every teacher stand behind. The certain philosophy that one chooses provides the answers to many vital questions, such as the purpose of schooling, a teacher’s role, and what should be taught in the classroom.

According to this theory, critical awareness requires recognition that the social status of an individual, including educational and economic prospects and opportunities, is largely result from its race, gender, and class so the critical theorists want to raise the consciousness of these people dealing with education, knowledge, the school, and teaching and learning. Furthermore, they see the curriculum into 2 parts: the official curriculum which requires teaching subjects and specific skills, and the Hidden curriculum which imposes approved behaviors and attitudes on students through the school environment. They believe that teachers should empower themselves, because they can transform schools into democratic public spheres.

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.

When understanding education there are many different ways which the purpose of education may be applied and defined. My personal philosophy of education is, 'educators must nurture/guide students within the academic field, to that the aims, goals and results during this task of educating or being educated are achieved '. This philosophy is used to understand that both teachers and students play an integral role in education. Academic performance, classroom methods/practices and also meeting the requirements of both the senior secondary Australian Curriculum Framework and the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers Framework are examples of these roles. This essay will discuss in detail how my personal philosophy of education, reflects on the role of teachers and learners, the aim of education and the methods and practices used in the classroom. Jean Jacques Rousseau, Paulo Freire, Locke, and Plato/Socrates are the four theorists that shall be used within this essay, to support claims and justify statements regarding this philosophy. John Dewey and A.S Neil are two non-supporting theorists that shall be used in contrast to justify this philosophy.

Since taking my first few educational courses in education, I have realized that my philosophy on education changes as I learning more about the profession I have entered. Every time I think I have come to a final belief statement, I learn something new about teaching and sometimes the things I learn causes me to alter my philosophy. Therefore, I will share with you what I believe about teaching and what I’ve learned at this point.