Philosophies of Education

When I was given the assignment to write my educational philosophy I didn't know where to start. A philosophy of education incorporates so many different aspects of teaching that it is hard to know what to talk about first. You need to think about how students learn, what they should learn, learning environments, curriculum. This can be overwhelming when you start to think about it. Instead of writing a typical paper on my philosophy I decided to to a blog and use some different links to philosophy statements.

The first philosophy statement I found talks about the school system and how it shouldn't not be like a machine, where we put students in and expect results. We need to create a community and life long learners.

I think we need to keep in mind that each students is different and may not learn the same way as their peers. Teachers need to create environments that promote exploration and get students involved.

http://thereflectiveteacher.wordpress.com/2006/06/07/statement-of-educational-philosophy/

In a true community, the members of the group strive to work toward a greater goal, whatever that may be—to do together what is necessary for the betterment or sustainability of the community. Members of a community find success when they treat each other as equals; communities succeed because each member plays more than one role within the community, allowing for multiple modes of interaction and the sharing of knowledge and ability when needed. In this view, each member of the community is both a learner and teacher. Each member has an opportunity to share his/her strengths, as well as the opportunity to learn, whereas in the factory, the product, once produced, is likely to be unchangeable without being broken.

I believe that the most salient and rich learning experiences come from cooperative discovery and challenging subject matter. I see students as capable of much, much more than rote memorization and repetition. I see the role of the teacher as guide, not god. I believe that if we treat the school as a community (and follow through on that statement) we will create lifelong learners, cooperative workers, competent teachers, and critical thinkers willing to adapt to a changing world for the betterment of the larger community.

The next philosophy is from a sample educational philosophy page.
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/ed416/sample.html

Sample #1
I like this part of the philosophy, this says what the ideal environment is to promote learning. I believe that we should try to create this (1) the teacher acting as a guide, (2) allowing the child's natural curiosity to direct his/her learning, and (3) promoting respect for all things and all people.

Sample #2
This sample really touches on all parts of education. It talks about the diverse learner and the environment. I like this philosophy and would say that it sounds like my own. The best is the last paragraph that talks about teachers as life long learners and how students have taught the teacher.

Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be... Teaching is a lifelong learning process of learning about new philosophies and new strategies, learning from the parents and community, learning from colleagues, and especially learning from the children. Children have taught me to open my mind and my heart to the joys, the innocence, and the diversity of ideas in the world. Because of this, I will never forget how to smile with the new, cherish the old, and laugh with the children.

I like this last part of sample #2. This states that teachers are life long learners and we may not think of it but it is true. We are always learning from students.

On YouTube I found a video that states the main points of a philosophy statement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGCTPQOxHVg


My philosophy:

I believe that children learn best when they are in a learning environment that promotes exploration and they are free to explore. Some of the ways are through seeing the objects or materials, hearing sounds, and touching objects or materials that are given to them. I also believe children should be taught using the senses: seeing, hearing and touching. This will give them a better understanding of the objects or materials and what they do.

Children should socialize with other children and adults. I believe this is very important in long lasting communication skills that they will develop through time. They can use each others ideas in dramatic play to emphasis or dramatize what is being acted out with words..

I believe that the role of the teacher is to guide the children to do what is correct and help them learn from their mistakes. I want to teach them positive communication skills so they can interact with adults and children. I also believe that we should do a variety of activities with the children that will address the children’s different learning abilities. I believe that all of these opportunities are provided by the teacher through support and guidance.

Student centered philosophy:
With a student centered philosophy the students take learning into their own hands. The teacher gives the students information and allows them to explore. I think this is an important part of teaching. With this type of approach the students are in a sense teaching themselves. They are learning how to learn. They are exploring new material and how it works or what it does or means. They are using different types of strategies to retain information. They may be reading, writing, exploring materials through hands on activities or maybe teaching each other. This leads to students taking in information in a way that fits them best. The teacher is always there to help and guide students if needed.

Readings:
Harry Brighouse On Education
Chapter 3: "...the central purpose of education is to promote human flourishing."
I believe an education can help you lead a flourishing life but it is not the sole purpose. A flourishing life can mean something different to everyone. To me a flourishing life is doing what you love and being happy with where you are in life. As a future educator I think we need to teach students how to teach themselves. They will always be learners. This learning can help them to do what they want with their life. They are teaching and leading themselves down the path they want and the flourishing life they desire to have. I believe teaching students to be life long learners will help them in their journey for a flourishing life.

Paideia Reader
Education and Its Purpose
"I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn." ~Albert Einstein
This quote is like my philosophy of education. I believe we can only teach students so much before they eventually tune out. We need to provide students with conditions that encourage them to take learning into their own hands. Students are live long learners so it is important for them to have the skills to teach themselves.

Chocolate Milk: better than no milk?

Last week in class we talked about chocolate milk and the sugar content. Is all of this sugar really needed? We discussed what would happen if only white milk was served. Many thought that students would not drink it since it was plain.

I don't think that we should take away chocolate milk but it should me limited. In the article Chocolate Milk: better than no milk they said they would only serve the flavored milk on Fridays. I think this is a good idea. The students are only getting the sugar once a week at school instead of everyday. The students will get plain milk the rest of the week. They are getting a good source of calcium everyday. The plain milk should be encouraged more than the chocolate milk.

I really think that we need to be more educated on the amount of sugar in the milk. I was not aware it had about the same amount of sugar as a can of pop. I think that schools should be informed of the amount of sugar and try to encourage white milk more.

Citizenship

This week we talked about citizenship and what it means to be a good citizen. According to Brighouse a model citizen has three criteria. They will follow the law, political participation (voting), and political participation (dialogue). We got into groups to discuss if we agree with this criteria. We thought that there should be another one added. We thought that respect was another criteria to being a good citizen.

I feel that there are many things that make a good citizen. Brighouse does state some of them, and I agree with the one we added in class. A good citizen does not have to be someone who is high in power, they can be anyone.

Today in class we took part of the citizenship test. This was eye opening for me. People that want to be considered citizen of the U.S. need to know this information to pass the test. In reality there are not many current U.S. citizen that could probably pass this test. I thought that this was really interesting.

International Students

Today we had two international students come in and talk about their school experiences where they live and their experiences at Luther.

WOW, their schools sound way more strict than the school I went to. I went to a small town school and the most discipline we had was to leave the room and sit in the office. One student was from Ghana and he talked about how strict school was. They would be beaten if they were disruptive and not listening. It shocked me to hear him say that. As a teacher you would never do that to a student here.

Both students talked about how much they had to study when they were back home. They were studying six to seven hours a day outside of school. I never had that much studying when I was in high school. They both agreed that they do not have to do as much studying here at Luther. I am doing way more studying here at Luther than I have ever done before.

It was really interesting how their school experiences compared to my experiences. We have had way different experiences but we all ended up at Luther. I think this is interesting how they were way more disciplined than I was but were are at the same place. Is all the discipline really necessary? I agree that every school needs to have discipline or it would be chaos but not to the extent of physical punishment. I just find it interesting that our different school structures have lead us to the same place.

No Child Left Behind

Today in lecture we talked about No Child Left Behind. We addressed some of the background information. I feel that this is a touchy subject to talk about. Not everyone has the same views.

The general goal of NCLB, for everyone to be proficient, is good. The way that they are going about this goal is not the best. I feel that there is too much testing taking place. I have heard teachers say that because of NCLB they are teaching to the test. They need to get the good scores or the school will be hurt. There is a lot of pressure on the teachers as well as the students. The teacher have to help students so that they do good on these tests. The students have pressure on them to perform well on the tests.

For a lot of students the pressure of taking a test makes things worse. At lot of times when a students has to take a test they know is timed they may get worked up. It is hard to concentrate when you are worried about time and finishing.

I think that we need to find another way to measure proficiency besides testing. Testing should not be the only factor in NCLB. There should be another way for students to show proficiency since not all students are great test takers.

Learning to Change-Changing to Learn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tahTKdEUAPk

Case study 5

On Monday we worked on new case studies. My group decided to work on case study five. This was about a boy who has long hair and is on the baseball team. The coach is telling the student to cut his hair but not giving him a good reason as to why he has to do it. We are to come up with a solution to the problem.

We decided that we would explain to the student that we want everyone on the team to look the same. We want everyone to have their hair short so you look more uniform. When one team member is different it can be distracting to the whole team.

We also decided that after telling this to the students we would look at the code of conduct. We may put something in there.

Our main decision was the that the student should cut their hair. They are part of a team and they should look like a team.

We will be doing a skit on Friday of this case study. We will first present the skit as if we had not had Paideia and then present is again. The second time we will present using our new knowledge from Paideia II.

Case Study 4

My group discussed case study four. It was hard to come to a decision on what to do. We went through many different options. Each time we thought we had our decision something else came up.

We decided that we would not let the students try out for All-State. The reason for our decision is that she signed a code of conduct and new what would happen if it was not followed. If you let that student off then you would have to let the other four off as well and that will not teach them anything.

We also said that if the parents were to go and get a lawyer than we would drop the case and let her try out. After doing that we would change the policy for the code of conduct. We would make it so the parents would have to sign one as well so they know what will happen if it is not followed.

We also talked about how it looks bad on the parents part. The students knew what would happen but did this action anyway. Now the parents are trying to get her out of it. The parents are saying we will get you out of this you can do what you want. They are not teaching the child to deal with the consequences to their actions.

There were other case studies discussed in class and they are all possibilities that you may have to face. It is hard to make a decision because there are many different ways you could approach the case.

Paideia II "The Flourishing Life"

"The flourishing life" was an interesting read. I do not agree with everything that Brighouse said in the chapter it was interesting to hear his point of view.

One thing that I do not agree with is, the purpose of education is to promote human flourishing. First of all human flourishing is not the same to everyone. We have all come from different experiences. My view of a flourishing life may be very different from others views. How are we suppose to promote how to have a flourishing life? I feel that in order to have a flourishing life you need to have an idea of what you want. You can have a flourishing life depending on what you make of it.

The one thing that I do agree with is when he said that flourishing and happiness are two different things. You may see some one who has a great job and accomplished a lot in their life but they are not happy. Some one may be happy but not have a lot to show for themselves. There are different ways to look at happiness and flourishing. We all have our own views about happiness and what a flourishing life for us looks like.

In the chapter he did make some good points about current education. I think in the end we all need to make the decision for ourselves as to what makes for a flourishing life.