Thursday, October 2, 2008

Chapter 8 - The Philosophy Of Education


Philosophy of Education is unique to every teacher.  All of us have our own philosophy on how to teach, how to manage behavior, and how to develop our curriculum.  There are two teacher centered philosophies:  ESSENTIALISM : Strives to teach students the accumulated knowledge of our civilization though core courses in the traditional academic disciplines.  Teachers who follow this teaching philosophy focus on the 'Back to Basics' style.  Curriculum is referred to as 'core curriculum', and is developed to focus on reasoning, and to help ensure a common culture amongst Americans.  These teachers usually strive to keep as many electives out of the classroom as possible.  PERENNIALISM : This teaching style is very similar to the essentialist teaching style, but perennialists strive to teach students everlasting information.  They believe that the goal of education should be to develop rational thought and to discipline minds rigorously.  Perennialists try to separate their classroom by classifying the 'gifted' students who have shown academic excellence, and the rest of the class who have shown normal comprehension.  The 'normal' students are taught more vocational skills, while the 'gifted' are shown more leadership training information.
There are also three student centered teaching philosophies:
PROGRESSIVISM : A 'progressive' school focuses on the concerns of their students.  A teacher who follows a progressive teaching style encourages students to formulate questions, and to do the research to discover the answer.  Small groups are norm in the progressive classroom as well. Students are encouraged to work together to find answers.  
SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTIONISM :  This teaching style encourages teachers to focus on the wants and demands of modern society.  Students focus on social issues and formulate answers and plans to implement social change.  Teachers who follow this style create lessons to inform and stir students about issues in their society.  Long term social projects (food drives, adopting poor families) are usually focused on for the better part of the year.
EXISTENTIALISM : This teaching style asserts that the purpose of education is to help children find the meaning and direction in their lives.  Exsistentialists believe that adults should not direct meaningful learning for children.  Teachers focus more on students understanding and appreciating themselves.  These teachers also believe that teaching cannot occur until after a student feels confident enough in themselves to learn.
Out of all the teaching styles discussed in this chapter, I would consider taking the
social reconstruction view. Even though I believe that core curriculum is still very important,
especially in the primary grades, students in our modern world should be better prepared to solve the social problems
that are very real in our world. What better way to change the future than to start in the classroom
by educating students HOW to change things.

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