Heading:      Artifact for Domain II:  The SSU teacher candidate understands the nature of human development and learning in working with diverse learners.

Artifact:      2.2

 

Name of Artifact:      Educational Philosophies and Concepts

 

Date:     11-16-04 (Fall Quarter)

Course: Educ-115

Rationale Statement:  This article was added to my portfolio because it demonstrates my knowledge of the philosophical concepts and the educational philosophies.  I understand the teacher and student’s role in perennialism, essentialism, progressivism, and social reconstructivism.  My knowledge of these areas will go a long way in shaping my own educational philosophy as I become a teacher.

 

Gregory Brandon Pate

Dr. Patric Leedom

EDUC-115

September 30, 2004

Philosophies of Education and Teaching

Part One

  1. Culture is very important to teaching in many ways.  Depending on the area in which you live there can be a lot of different cultures, or not so many.  It is very important however, for a teacher to be very aware of the varying cultures and beliefs that their students may have.  A teacher is a very powerful person as far as influence on students is concerned.  They are around children that are in the times of their life that they are at their most vulnerable.  The students are also much like a sponge at this time which is why teachers must recognize each individual student’s own cultural beliefs and not try to impose their own on the students.  In a classroom of 30 students, a teacher must be aware of each student’s cultural beliefs as not to corrupt the child at such a delicate state in their lives.
  2. Religion has become a very taboo topic as far as education is concerned.  I am not an extremely religious man but I do have certain beliefs about god and what we are here to do.  The majority of students in a classroom will also have religious beliefs.  I think that at a young age the child probably does not really grasp what they say they believe.  For example, a child saying they love Jesus only because their mother says for them too does not completely understand what they are saying.  The older students are more likely to have developed their own beliefs whether they are the same as their parents or they are separate.  Either way as a teacher I have no right to discuss any of these things in a preaching type of way.  I think that the students should learn about the many different religions and what they believe but in no way should they be receiving a Sunday school lesson from a school teacher, unless they are in a religious school.
  3. Family values and beliefs are much like religion and culture in that it is important for a teacher to respect each individual student as much as possible.  Every family is entitled to raise their child with the belief system they see fit.  Family values and beliefs may not seem as untouchable to some teachers as religion or culture, but I believe it is just as important.  As a teacher I have no right to infringe on a parent’s right to instill their vales and beliefs in their child.  I do believe however, that the students should not be ignorant to the ways that others think.  They should be able to learn the opposing views on certain subject material and that not everyone thinks the same way that their parents do.  A fine line is walked in teaching other views because you are not trying to sell the view to the child, just present the child with the other side of the story to compare with theirs.
  4. Education is not a big concern in the area in which we live.  I have mixed views on education at times.  There are days when I think that what I just learned to do in a class is useless and I will never use it and there are other days when I think what I just learned should be taught to everyone.  I think almost all people can agree that a child must at least have a quality high school education.  The majority of people will say the politically correct thing to say and say everyone should go to college as well.  Whether or not a person succeeds depends on the type of person.  Many people have totally different skill sets and college may not be for them.  College does tend to give people a leg up on jobs and makes them more skilled thinkers but people that do not go to college are not lesser people.  I am a big proponent of to each his own and I think that everyone has the ability to be happy with or with out a college education.
  5. Political preferences were not really ever a big part of my school life until this year in college.  My friends and I were not very educated as far as politics in high school.  They were never really discussed until the tragic events of 9/11 either.  Politics should be taught to students.  Every student should know how officials are elected and what their job is.  However, school is not a place to sell a certain candidate or referendum.  College is a different story though.  I think that college educated students should be able to hear all sides of the story at their campuses.  I am experiencing this at this moment with all the presidential visits happening.  A college student can make an educated decision on whom or what they want to vote on and then actually vote.  A high school student cannot vote.  That is why preferences should be kept out of high school but the students should still learn the facts.
  6. A personal experience can be a very vague term.  I have had many experiences in my life.  Some are okay to talk about to students and some are not.  For example, starting out in college I knew I wanted to teach.  My parents wanted me to go into the medical field though.  So I decided to do what they said because I have always done what they expected me to.  Two years later I finally decided that I could not cut it out in the medical field.  The jobs were just not suited to my strengths.  Now I find myself going back into education and enjoying myself a lot so far.  This would be a great experience to discuss with a group of high school kids.  I would not tell them to blatantly disregard their parents’ advice, but to follow their own dreams and try to convince their parents along the way.  There are obviously some personal experiences that have no business being talked about at school but I think a teacher can teach students life lessons as well as book lessons.

Part Two

  1. Metaphysics is defined as the field of philosophy concerned with the nature of reality.  The most obvious example of metaphysics is a small child that constantly asks their mom and dad “where did I come from” and “why is the sky blue.”  One may find it quite humorous that some people grow up to keep on asking these same questions.  Metaphysics becomes important to teachers because they should not let the way they feel about these questions affect their answers.  A teacher should never say that we come from god.  They could say, however that some people believe that a god put us here and some people do not believe that at all, it is up to you to decide what you believe.  Metaphysics is broken down into two categories which are cosmology and ontology.
    1. Cosmology is the part of philosophy that deals with the nature and origin of the universe.  People can create entire careers out of cosmology.  The field of cosmetology is the most glaring field with this philosophical trait.  Cosmetologists’ job is to ask questions about how the universe originated and how earth and the other planets move around.  They want to know about how the universe is expanding and where exactly we are going.  They really just want to know what is exactly out there which is what cosmology focuses on mainly.
    2. Ontology is an area of philosophy that is concerned with questions of being and existence.  People studying this will concentrate about the origins of life and the possibility of life after death.  People who protest a prison at an execution are examples of ontology.  Most people have these thoughts everyday so ontology is a very common philosophical area of concentration.
    3. Metaphysics will affect the way I teach everyday I do teach.  I will have opinions on certain metaphysical questions that I should most definitely keep to myself.  As a teacher I should guide the students into making their own opinions on these questions and not force mine upon them.
  2. Epistemology is the field of philosophy concerned with the nature of knowledge.  People who are focusing on this area ask questions like “how do I learn” and “why do I remember things.”  The most common question is echoed throughout schools across the globe “why do we have to learn this.”  These questions are all very common and all are a part of Epistemology.  The ways that people can learn about all of these things is broken down into several categories:  experience, authority, reason, intuition, and active construction.  I will focus on reason and active construction.
    1. Knowing through reason is a very common way to learn.  Knowing through reason is broken down into two categories.  The first of which is deductive reasoning which is drawing a logical conclusion from a premise.  The opposite and second way is inductive reasoning which is drawing a logical conclusion from instances of case.
    2. Knowing through active construction can be explained like this:  the human brain is a brick wall and every time we learn something another brick is added to the wall.  Every life experience or lesson in school is another brick in the wall and when you become an adult your wall is a building.  As an adult it is up to you to make your building one story or two stories and so on and so forth. 
  3. Axiology is a branch of philosophy that deals with human conduct and beauty.  These concepts are usually learned without the person even knowing that they have learned them.  A person does not know why they think someone is pretty they just are.  Conduct is usually learned at such a young age that it is just embedded into our everyday knowledge that we will act a certain way.  This concept is important because teachers need to not step over the parents boundaries of raising there children.  The parents should teach the children the difference between what is right and wrong, the teacher should be there to reinforce it.

Part Three

  1. Perennialism is an educational philosophy that emphasizes constancy and unchanging truth.  People of this mindset believe that whatever is true will last forever and should always be taught.  They think it is most important to teach the things that have been true forever and will always be true instead of something new and faddish.  The goal of the perennialist is that schools will produce students grounded by the long lasting truths.  They believe in a standard and never changing curriculum.  They want to prepare students for life and not merely the here and now.

Perennialism grew from idealism, which is the belief that ideas are the only true reality.  Mortimer Adler sums up the position of the perennialist quite well when he states that “The one track system of public schooling that the Paideia Proposal advocates has the same objective for all without question.”  They believe heavily in teaching the masterpieces of literary works such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Melville’s Moby Dick,  and Darwin’s The Origin of Species.

      Teacher’s Role:  The teacher’s role in perennialism is to stick to topics like truth, values, and critical knowledge.  They should also use Socratic questioning to promote thinking and reasoning.  They should help students become good problem solvers and thinkers and set high goals for students and encourage them to achieve goals.  Perennialists also believe that teachers should know the subject matter and be able to teach it to all students.

      Students’ Role:  The students’ role in perennialism is to study hard, learn how to reason about human affairs, and to learn the value of past masterpieces of literature and art.  They basically believe the student should be a sponge soaking up all the information that the teacher is giving them.

Element I might incorporate:  I think that perennialism would get old and stale after awhile.  I agree that it is important for students to learn the literary works of art but I also think that it is important to keep the material fresh and new.  The students would complain and grow bored without fresh methods of teaching and material to teach. 

  1. Essentialism is the educational philosophy that there is an indispensable, common core of culture that should be taught to everyone.  They also believe that this common core of culture should be a prerequisite for functioning effectively in society.  It was brought about by the decline of intellectual and moral standards in the school system. 

      Essentialists felt the school curriculum was diluted by too much nonessentials and should consist of common facts and a common culture.  They believe in a more practical curriculum which would help students be more useful citizens.  Essentialism is practical and oriented to the ordinary citizen.

Teacher’s role:  The teacher’s role in essentialism is to make children learn whether they like it or not, finding ways to motivate the students to want to learn, and instilling a respect of authority in the students.

Students’ role:  The students’ role in essentialism is acquiring and using Western cultural knowledge, learning and using thinking skills, and expending effort and being devoted to the learning process.

Element I might Incorporate:  There is not much I would want to change with essentialism.  I think that it is less strict and boring than perennialism but yet still strict enough to get the children to focus.  I think that it gives the teacher enough leeway to be creative but still has guidelines for them to stick to.  I do not think I would change much about essentialism.

  1. Progressivism is an educational philosophy maintaining that since life is ever changing, students should acquire problem solving skills.  It also emphasizes child-centered teaching and curriculum planning.  Progressivism looks at the child first instead of the subject matter.  They focus mainly on changing the teacher and lesson centered mindset of the past. 

Progressivism is almost exact opposites with perennialism because they believe knowledge is only tentative and not true forever.  They do not think that yesterday’s values can be used to guide today’s behavior.  They want to produce students who can adapt to change in the everyday environment.  Progressivists believe that students are inclined to exploring to find what suits them best.

Teacher’s role:  The teacher’s role in Progressivism is to take into account the whole child.  They are there more to guide and facilitate than to impose the material on the student.  They are to ask more leading questions to help the students find the information out for themselves instead of just giving them the information.  The teacher is to keep the classroom as a type of democratic place giving the students more choices.  They are also supposed to lean the learning material more towards the students’ interests and not necessarily solely on the subject matter.

Students’ role:  The students’ role in progressivism is to be more independent in the learning and self-motivated.  The students are to work well with others and learn skills to better get along with others.  They are to be responsible and help with the planning of the classroom.  Most of all the students must participate for this method to work.

Element I might Incorporate:  The element I might incorporate is I would probably pull the reigns back a little on everything.  I believe that the children should be independent and I think that this type of class would never be boring but, I think younger students probably would not be able to handle such freedoms.  In the beginning the students need more guidance and I would worry that they may fall through the cracks without being a little stricter. 

  1. Social Reconstructionism is a philosophy that people are responsible for social conditions and can improve the quality of life by changing the social order.  Social Reconstructionism is very closely related to progressivism.  They believe the schools and children can play a key role in making a better democratic living for society.  They believe that since schooling is a social process, sanctioned and supported by society, it is only natural that society should look to the public schools to solve its problems.

Social reconstructivisits are heavily influenced by the Marxist belief that the schools often serve the higher class of citizens.  They believe that social reform should be the main goal of education.  They believe in confronting students with the problems facing society and stress student awareness of the outside world.

Teacher’s role:  The teacher’s role in social reconstructivism is to confront students with societies’ problems.  They are to have students learn about social issues plaguing society and integrate the curriculum to incorporate solving community problems.

Students’ Role:  The students’ role in social reconstructivism is to use personal interests to help solve social problems, learn problem-solving skills as a means of addressing community-based and global problems, and learn to value social reform.

Element I might Incorporate:  I really do not like this method.  The way the definitions are worded it almost sounds like a selfish way to educate the children.  Society cannot be fixed by children.  You fix society by raising the children properly.  Then they will be well mannered adults, which would give you a better society.  Once you are an adult it is much harder to relearn all of the characteristics that make people genuinely good, so the schools should produce better human beings to fix society.

Part Four

      I think my educational philosophy would be a combination of all the ones listed in this paper.  As a teacher it is very important to be versatile with your teaching capabilities.  A good teacher can apply any or all of the philosophies in a given day.  They all have several strengths and a few weaknesses so the logical step would be to combine all of the strengths. 

      From perennialism I would take the in depth care for literature.  I enjoy reading some of the classic books and I think their importance in schools is immeasurable.  Some aspects of this method seemed a little strict but I think the literature part was a key factor from it. 

      From essentialism I would take the ability to teach about the practical parts of life.  Students need to be more than book smart.  They need to know how to survive in the everyday world.  I took a class like this my Senior year of high school and it was very informative and helpful with my day to day life now.

      From progressivism I would take a little of the independence given to the students.  I would be careful to make sure they could handle it first, however.  I think a lot of the ideas with progressivism were a little too extreme though.  I believe a classroom needs order and leadership from the teacher.

      Lastly from social reconstructionism I would take the educating the students about the outside world.  It is very important for students to be aware of what is happening in their day to day lives.  They also will learn from the past leaders mistakes and become better leaders themselves.

      In closing, I think that all of the methods mentioned were good intentioned.  Sometimes people get so caught up in their own beliefs they do not realize that if everyone put aside their differences and worked together a close to perfect educational philosophy could be created.