Progressivism, Existentialism, and Individuality To be a teacher it is imperative to have philosophies on teaching; why you want to teach, how you want to teach, and what you want to teach. There are six main philosophies of education; essentialism, behaviorism, progressivism, existentialism, perennialism, and reconstructionism. My two strongest philosophies are progressivism and existentialism. Progressivism in short is the philosophy where the student utilizes their ability to access knowledge for themselves with a method they have discovered on their own instead of simply being told answers. This creates deeper thinking. Existentialism is the philosophy that the student decides how and what they will learn, they also decide what they think to be true and false. This creates …show more content…
I think it is extremely important that students maintain their individuality all throughout childhood and carry it through them into adulthood. Both of these philosophies promote individuality. Progressivism promotes individuality because it encourages the student to come up with conclusions on their own, in ways that makes most sense to them so they can grasp the content in the best way possible. This provokes deeper, more meaningful ways of thinking. Existentialism is important for students because it encourages them to be unique in thought and action, to embrace who they are deep down inside and to not let their individuality fade as they grow older. I believe that these two philosophies are the most important ones when it comes to the student’s individual uniqueness, which can bring such great things into this world. Not every child thinks the same, so not every child learns the same. Consequently, if we allow children to learn as they wish, as long as they put towards an effort, their minds will grow to a greater degree than if we teach one specific way to teach each
Although I know I want to teach there is more to the teaching profession than that. First, I have to learn the curriculum and then how to bring that material across to the students. The actual learning process comes naturally for me, but I had to stop and think about how I would bring it across once I become a teacher. This involves many aspects of my life and what I feel is important. I feel ones teaching philosophy pulls from every portion of an individuals belief system. These can include your moral and ethical beliefs, your personality, and also what you, as a teacher, feel is important for the students to learn. To me this seems to be a very big responsibility, so when I started considering my teaching philosophy, I did not take the task lightly. It seems to me that there is a very thin line between fulfilling your own expectations as a teacher, and giving the children what they need and even what they want.
My Educational philosophy is defined in becoming a teacher as a set of ideas and beliefs about education that guide the professional behavior of educators. Also included in educational philosophy are one’s beliefs about teaching and learning, students, knowledge and what is worth knowing. My five general purposes for philosophy of education are: to set goals of plan, to teach useful and relevant information, be aware of students learning styles, modeling positive cooperative behavior, to look for solutions and to make sure those solutions are working.
When I am teaching in a high school someday, what philosophies will be evident in my classroom? What methods will I use to reach my students? In my present education, I am beginning to think carefully and deeply about these issues. From what I have read and learned and from comparing various philosophies with each other, I have come to realize that I am a strong essentialist, and I also see many strong points in progressivism and behaviorism.
All six of the major educational philosophies Perennialism, Progressivism, Essentialism, Existentialism, Social Reconstruction, and Behaviorism are in my opinion feasible in the classroom. However, I have chosen Essentialism as the primary philosophy I would like to employ in my classroom for several reasons. Although I think all six would result in learning, which is the primary purpose of education, I think that Essentialism is superior to the other five for my classroom. I feel this way because it embraces the purpose or original goal of public education, it allows lessons to be gauged to all different learning styles, and finally because essentialism employs methods of teaching and discipline that I believe work exceptionally well with my content specialization.
My philosophy of education is eclecticism, meaning the components of each philosophy are consistent with one another and can be integrated. For example, I mainly agree with the knowledge of nature absolutism but I can also see the side of relativism as well. The three main philosophies of education I plan on using are essentialism, progressivism, and behaviorism because I feel they all are different but at the same time work well together. Philosophies of education are very important when teaching an elementary classroom.
Every teacher has a different method of teaching. The teachers that I have had in my school career have been no exception. In this way, each teacher has set an example for me, as a future teacher, to follow or not to follow as I see fit. With the examples from my teachers and in continuing my education, I am developing my own method of teaching. I plan to use a combination of teaching methods in my own classroom. My method will be an eclectic approach because I will be using components of more than one philosophy. I will be using essentialism, behaviorism, progressivism, and existentialism.
Of all the philosophies that I have been taught and researched in my Education classes, I feel that I will probably use Essentialism, the most dominant and widely accepted philosophy currently in classrooms today. For example, I think that after a lesson is taught each student should have to take a test to evaluate how well they have understood the information, and hopefully, be able to demonstrate to me how well I have taught the information. Mastery of the material should be practiced in the classroom. The student may not go any further in a lesson until the proposed idea has been taught and mastered.
Upon being faced with the task of writing my philosophy of teaching, I made many attempts to narrow the basis for my philosophy down to one or two simple ideas. However, I quickly came to the realization that my personal teaching philosophy stems from many other ideas, philosophies, and personal experiences. I then concentrated my efforts on finding the strongest points of my personal beliefs about teaching and what I have learned this semester, and came up with the following.
I can not narrow down my educational philosophy to one area. I have studied the teacher-centered philosophies and I would consider myself somewhat eclectic, having a mixture of progressivism and essentialism.
A teaching philosophy is critical in my role as a future successful teacher. It will guide me in the way I conduct myself, how I develop curriculum, and how I establish order in my classroom. As a teacher it is important for me to be consistent with how I manage my classes. With a central philosophy as a backbone it will be easy to follow my own simple guidelines.
“Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not preparation for life but is life itself.” John Dewey describes and supports progressivism, an education philosophy that I professionally identify with. Progressivism is a student centered philosophy that focuses on experiences, opportunities, and values that enhance a student 's learning and life. The role of the teacher is to act primarily as a facilitator of learning, they encourage and guide students to explore and promote individual development. As a future educator I believe it is important to involve students and allow them to take responsibility for their own learning and achieving their goals. The role of the student is to discover, engage, and express themselves.
In all, there are a myriad of teaching philosophies that educators have. Personally, I consider setting clear expectations for students and creating a respectful environment, acting as a facilitator in the classroom, creating relationships with students and their caregivers, and using positive reinforcement to be the most essential in order to create a positive, effective, and safe learning environment for students. Without using these philosophies when interacting with students in the classroom, I do not know how I would begin to attempt to teach them. In my future classroom, I plan to use different strategies to implement these philosophies in my class every day as well as continue to learn about new ideas about how to promote learning in a supportive, encouraging way.
My personal philosophy is founded on many different ideas from very well-known theorist as well as my own personal beliefs. My philosophy of education represents a very simple frame of mind. My biblical worldview influences my philosophy because if you put Christ first everything you do then you reap the fruits of the spirit.Students are taught values, respect, responsibility, self-control, honesty, integrity, kindness, thankfulness, patience, and commitment. These qualities then lead to children having their spiritual gifts uplifted and used to promote academic achievement and healthy relationships with the teacher and peers. Skinner, Maslow, and Vygotsky and their research influences this philosophy as well as analyzing each students’ learning style and understanding that each child comes with its own blueprint. As far as teaching, the main goal of this philosophy is to consider differentiation and applying different concepts to promote a
My philosophy of education is a combination of essentialism and progressivism . I feel that knowledge can be learned from a textbook, but I also want my students to use other means of knowledge. I fell in certain times, I should be the center of the classroom and other times, the students should be the center. Education is about the students and I am there to guide them through their journey. I think it's important to let children learn by exploring. By doing this, they choose what information is important and should be retained. When it comes to learning, students should always be in the center. The teachers are only there to mentor and improve upon a child's skills. In my mind progressivism with a mix of essentialism is the best philosophy for me to follow.
The two philosophies that I have chosen to write about for my Education Philosophy Paper includes progressivism and existentialism. Progressivism focuses on the child rather than the subject matter. Due to society always changing, new ideas are important to make the future better than the past for students learning. This educational philosophy stresses that students should test ideas by active experimentation. Learning is rooted in the questions of learners that arise through experiencing the world. Progressivists believe that individuality, progress, and change are fundamental to one 's education. Existentialism is a highly subjective philosophy that stresses the importance of the individual and emotional commitment to living authentically. It emphasizes individual choice over