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The importance of teaching philosophy
The importance of teaching philosophy
Underlying philosophical principles in education
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Personal Statement of Teaching Philosophy
I. Teaching Philosophy and Goals
I have one goal for my teaching: helping students to think and learn for themselves. This goal is as simple as it is illusive. The more experience I have as a teacher, the more I understand that there is no one-way of achieving my aim. Clearly, the proper focus of education is learning, not teaching; but I know that it is within a teacher's power-and thus it is the teacher's responsibility-to create the conditions necessary to allow students to learn. How best to create these conditions is the question. Although doing so involves performance, it is not a performing art. Although it requires the rigor and systematic methodology of scientific inquiry, it is not a science. There is no algorithm for good teaching.
I believe that students look to their philosophy teachers to challenge and inspire them. I think that learning philosophy is a process that involves wonder and awe, a process that evokes an emotional response as well as an intellectual one, and one that invites laughter as well as awakening a serious commitment to reasonable and responsible behavior in the world. I think that I serve my students by welcoming challenges and honestly pondering and engaging difficult questions in the classroom, rather than dodging confrontation and evading the tangle of discussion. Teaching, clearly, is not about demonstrating one's own knowledge or simply disseminating information. Good teaching stimulates self-reflection, enhances intellectual curiosity and empowers students to actively participate in and shape their own education. I aim to make my teaching nurture an...
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... distance learning. My current web site contains pages that display students' work in the classroom, a page that provides research tools and links to other relevant Internet sites for students to pursue further interests, and finally my e-mail and a group bulletin board, which allow students to ask questions whenever they arise.
The above teaching methods and strategies flow out of an educational approach that appreciates and celebrates student diversity. I believe that reaching a student via the mode he or she most fruitfully engages with the world is a prerequisite for effective teaching. Finally, I recognize that I still have much to learn about teaching, but I am hopeful that my passion for learning and for remaining critical and rational is contagious-that it serves as an example and challenges students to challenge themselves.
...imed at a common goal. In Aristotle’s view, he presents a system of laws that also changes when you change the polis. Citizens are entitled to participate in the management and administration of the city, its functions are politics and combat arms when necessary. Most of the people of an modern society might think that the city of Aristotle can be more ideal, since we can compare it to the American dream, where everyone can become what ever they one if they get the right education and work hard. This said, Socrates could say that it is unrealistic since not everyone can rule in any city not even now days. It is very important to mention that the issues that both philosophers present are very present in today’s society, even if the amount of inequality proposed in both cities can be shocking for us, it is hard to accept that it does exist in todays modern politics.
Aristotle studied and worked with a Plato at the Academy of Plato for 20 years. Plato was anti-democratic and believed in the utopian ideal states (Hitz). Although Aristotle shared some of the same views as Plato, he differed on key points. One of these key points is the abolition of private property. In Plato’s “Republic”, Plato proposes communizing as many things as possible. This includes women, children, and land in order to unify the city. Aristotle rebukes this idea by saying that this will only cause the citizens of the community to be unable to feel certain emotions such as love and the basic family relationships would be unknown to individuals.1 Communizing children would destroy the social class system2. As for the sharing of land, Aristotle believes that communizing destroys the virtues of temperance and liberality3. He also says that when there is community property, more arguments and fights ensue compared to when private property is owned4.
Affirmative action “means programs taking the race or sex of employees, job candidates, [or students] into account as part of an effort to correct imbalances in employment [or education] that exist as a result of past discrimination, either in the company, [or university] itself or in the larger society” (Shaw and Barry 560). In the United States of America affirmative action programs has had a long history of aiding minorities in being hired, accepted, and/or promoted to positions they would have not found themselves in before affirmative action. Due to its previous successes many favor affirmative action and argue that without affirmative action our society would not be able to give compensatory justice for the mistreatment of minorities
The Republic is an examination of the "Good Life"; the harmony reached by applying pure reason and justice. The ideas and arguments of Plato center on the social settings of an ideal republic - those that lead each person to the most perfect possible life for him. Socrates was Plato's early mentor in real life. As a tribute to his teacher, Plato uses Socrates in several of his works and dialogues. Socrates moderates the discussion throughout, as Plato's mouthpiece. Through Socrates' powerful and brilliant questions and explanations on a series of topics, the reader comes to understand what Plato's model society would look like. The basic plan of the Republic is to draw an analogy between the operation of society as a whole and the life of any individual human being. In this paper I will present Plato’s argument that the soul is divides into three parts. I will examine what these parts are, and I will also explain his arguments behind this conclusion. Finally, I will describe how Plato relates the three parts of the soul to a city the different social classes within that city.
... educated to become the best in the state. Aristotle’s ideal state only consists of free men, who choose a government to suit the personalized state, however, Plato structures the ideal state down to the last detail.
Education is a very important aspect of our lives. It is our education that makes us who we are and determines what we become. Therefore, education is not something to be taken lightly. As a teacher, my goal will be to provide the best possible education for my students. Every student is unique. I must see students for who they are individually and respect their ideas and opinions. Each student has a different learning style. I must take this into consideration because I want to provide a constructive learning opportunity for every student. I believe that every student has the potential to learn.
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.
Aristotle believes the only way to reach a state of happiness is through virtue. The virtue that is to be practiced is meant to guide our behaviors in society and to learn the meaning of moderation. Aristotle deems human happiness as more then attaining the pleasures of life but satisfying the human potentialities. Reaching such abilities could be seen by making logical choices and being able to choose the needs in life rather then the wants. At this point it shows that Aristotle contends that a society that includes citizens that he believes are of human excellence will reflect the same values upon it’s state.
I could go on at length, discussing all aspects of my praxis as an educator, however, that would lead to a paper of excruciating length. These aspects of my teaching pedagogy that are delivered in this praxis statement are those that I feel strongest about upholding. It is important for educators to value their students and the perspectives and cultures they bring to the classroom. Student-centered education is what I find to be the key to great teaching, and overall, is the greatest way to allow students to value and grow through their own self-exploratory and self-directed education. Valuing and appreciating each of your students is what makes teaching such an enlightening, uplifting profession.
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.
As an education major at State College, I’ve decided to become a teacher for several reasons. As I progressed through elementary, middle, and high school, many of my teachers were great role models for me. This has inspired me to become a role model for someone in the near future. My love for science and math has also influenced my desire to teach and make a difference in a child’s life. I want to teach students the subjects that I love so much. I want the feeling that I helped a child accomplish or learn something they couldn’t understand. One of the main reasons I want to become an educator is because I feel education has really lost teachers who truly love teaching and those who truly love teaching and those who have the desire to make a difference. I feel I can really help make a difference in the education world and bring back the love to teach.
In many cases, it has become very complex to keep students interested in their education. So the teacher must be creative and find ways to keep pushing the student onward as well as upward. In order to devise the ultimate plan for educating students, a teacher must acknowledge that the “students” are what teaching is all about. The most important factor in the equation is unequivocally the STUDENT! All humans are different in some sort or fashion. But the fact still exists that we all have only this place to function in. So help by putting forth an effort to make it a better place for us all.
Over the course of observations, I learned that there is no one way to do anything in teaching. After a few weeks of observing, I was relieved because I thought that I could stop worrying so much about doing the “right” thing with the students. I saw a successful teacher doing, or neglecting to do things that went against what I had been taught. I incorrectly assumed that the choices the teacher made about how to organize the day, approach a lesson, or manage the classroom were mostly a matter of personal preference and that several approaches would produce equally desirable results.
My personal philosophy on teaching is to inspire my students to think and to be objective thinkers. Like life, classrooms are filled with incidents on a daily basis. It 's interesting, as an active participant, to actually experience these moments shared between teachers and students as relationships are built mostly based on personality. As professionals, it 's expected that emotions take the back seat in decision making, but humans think with their heart a lot. A teacher in my estimation is one of the most human
In this course I experienced an important change in my beliefs about teaching; I came to understand that there are many different theories and methods that can be tailored to suit the teacher and the needs of the student. The readings, especially those from Lyons, G., Ford, M., & Arthur-Kelly, M. (2011), Groundwater-Smith, S., Ewing, R., & Le Cornu, R. (2007), and Whitton, D., Barker, K., Nosworthy, M., Sinclair, C., Nanlohy, P. (2010), have helped me to understand this in particular. In composing my essay about teaching methods and other themes, my learning was solidified, my knowledge deepened by my research and my writing skills honed.