Teacher, student and methodology as seen by classical traditional, liberal progressive and critical philosophies of education

Different Teaching Philosophies Introduction There are many different styles of teaching philosophies that regard themselves as the teaching foundation of how classrooms function when it comes to learning. This paper focuses on the two distinct teaching philosophies that circle around the way teachers teach and students learn. The two categorical philosophies are teacher-centered and student-centered, which are self-explanatory on what it pertains to. According to Sadker & Zittleman (2010), the table they provide include specific philosophies of student-centered and teacher-centered philosophies (p. 291). The following table consists of brief descriptions of: Progressivism, Social Reconstructionism, Extentialism, Essentialism, and Perennialism.

The Effect of Teacher/Student Relationship on Learning There are many controversies when it comes to the relationship between teachers and students. However, one idea remains, the teacher's primary job is to educate while the student's primary job is to learn. The techniques are what differ among teachers and in turn that shapes the relationship between the two parties. As many of the writers discussed in class, have pointed out, the education experience, from curriculum to academic and extra-curricular programs directs a person's path in life. Is this relationship among teacher and student that important to discuss and analyze?

The study was guided by the belief that educators may not possess a clear understanding of what differentiation is, that the key components for implementation, and the myths that surround the practice of differentiated instruction. In the article, Logan emphasized the contact between the teacher and learner and pointed out that, in the event of training, both the learner and trainer learn. He advocated for differentiated instruction in today’s learning environments, as students are found to be so diverse. In the process of implementing the differentiated instruction, the teacher must create learning profiles by analyzing the profile of every student. However, Logan pointed out that there are various clichés and barriers regarding differentiated instruction.

There are many resources one can come across to be informed on the history of education and many different methods that will help teachers with their planning and their strategies during their teaching time. School and Society: Historical Contemporary Perspectives gives us information from different scholars who focused on methods, and wanted to change things within the school systems. Experience & Education also brings information about parts and history, and events about school and the program. Teachers as Cultural Worker: Letters to Those Who Dare Teach gives more into this, here Freire puts in writing everything he believes a teacher needs in attitude, methods, strategies, perspectives, etc. to be a great teacher.

My education philosophy: Each of the major philosophical approaches to education has merit. However, to strictly employ only one philosophy is limiting and hampers all possibility for improvement. Essentialism, progressivism, perennialism, and existentialism all contribute valid ideas to the teaching profession. I will choose to use aspects of each in varying degrees as is appropriate to different students and situations. Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences must be considered when planning lessons for students with different aptitudes.

Teachers use theories, models of learning, and professional standards to shape their teaching practices. There are several learning theories that have evolved the educational field. Theories guide instruction and the beliefs of the teachers. Teachers use these theories, standards, and personal beliefs to develop goals in order to improve teaching effectiveness. Through exploring multiple learning theories and reflecting on my own teaching beliefs, I have developed my own theory of learning.

There are many methods for teaching. Many of these tie into the basic philosophies of education. My personal beliefs incorporate all the different philosophies. My main belief is essentialism. I believe that all schools need to get back to the basics.

Encarta (2009) defines learning as the acquisition of knowledge or skills. It is involves in acquiring new competences. In order to achieve good teaching and learning developmental process, both teachers and students play vital role throughout the lesson. One of the major concerns in ensuring successful classroom is the suitable approach or appropriate methodologies used in class by teachers. As we all know, learners have their own learning style.

Essentialism is an educational philosophy that pushes for the traditional or the back-to-basics approach to teaching. This philosophy which was popularized by William Bagley (1874-1946) presses on that the mastery of the most essential and basic academic skills such as Mathematics, Natural Science, History and Foreign Language, making sure that all these, together with very essential traditional and moral values of the culture is transmitted to students for them to become good model citizens (Sadker and Sadker, 2008) who will safeguard and preserve the ideal qualities of a strong nation. In an Essentialist classroom, the teacher, who is seen the intellectual and moral role-model, is the center of the instruction while the students who are taught to be culturally literate, are required to master the subject matter and/or the simple techniques taught from a simple to complex orientation with little or no regard to the student’s interest or choice (Link,

Although a person can set goals without having a philosophy implemented, not having the foundation of a set philosophy (core set of beliefs) achieving the goals can be a very difficult challenge. Educators need a starting point to understand why we think and act the way we do in our classrooms. Having a philosophy allows an educator to reflect on how to make classroom actions consistent with our beliefs related to learning. However, before we list our “beliefs” we need to delve deeper into what makes up our philosophy. There are four major components to philosophy – Metaphysics, Epistemology, Axiology, and Logic (Gutek, 2009).