Philosophically Speaking Paper
Philosophically Speaking
Troy University, Dothan
EDU 4471
Abstract
The effects of Progressivism can be seen in classrooms across the country today in the forms of constructivism, non-graded schools, authentic assessments, block scheduling, and a host of others. The key to the Progressive philosophy focuses on the student’s interests and needs and is based on intrinsic motivation. As John Dewey and Jean Piaget noted, teaching is creating a classroom into an atmosphere where children can feel like a community. No two students are alike; each student is comprised of a lifetime of experiences and characteristics that affects him or her as a learner and as a person. Teaching is a delicate balance: I must convey a set spectrum of knowledge to my students while nurturing their skills within the learning process based on their personal needs and interests. It is my goal to shape my classroom around the endless diversities of my students so as to inspire the born leaders within them and encourage the seeds of growth that will anchor them into a confident future.
Philosophically Speaking …show more content…
A teacher’s educational philosophy “constitutes a moral and social compass, behavioral, attitudinal, and value guide-posts, essential personal and professional prescriptions, and a consistent but alterable assessment means for professional evaluation” (Ryan, 2008, p.
258). As an educator, it is my job to make learning a part of life for my students. There are five teaching philosophies that teachers use to enable students to achieve their best in the classroom and in society. The teaching philosophy that best fits my style of teaching is Progressivism because I believe that a classroom should be a society in and of itself and my students should be able to work together with each other in making the rules and
procedures.
Progressivism was founded by John Dewey in the 1920’s as a very important part of the early twentieth-century reform of the reconstruction of American democracy. The goal of the Progressive reform was to equip students with the skills they needed to play an active role in an American democratic society (Loss, 2011). Dewey believed that school did not prepare students for life, but instead education was life.
Progressive educators believe that learning should be child-centered and begin with the student rather than the content area. They believe that progress and change are fundamental to their learning (Kohn, 2008). Learning should focus on the needs and interests of the students instead of drill and practice and rote memorization. When the classroom is focused on the students’ interests and needs, the students are clearly able to grow and bloom (Loss, 2011).
Progressivism is for all social classes and diverse populations that are in schools today. This is my teaching philosophy because I am not a visual or auditory learner. I learn by active participation and experimenting. Progressives believe in an inquiry based learning style where the scientific method is used. “Unlike Perennialism and Fundamentalism, it rejects unchanging and universal absolute facts and sees change as the center of education” (Yilmaz, 2011, p. 344).
Extreme formalism and traditional education is opposed in Progressivism. Interdisciplinary teaching is performed and the assessments rarely focus on rote memorization. The goal is to get students to critically think about ideas that are important to them from the inside out (Kohn, 2008).
The term "progressive" was coined to distinguish today’s education from the traditional curriculum of the 19th century, which was rooted in classical preparation for the university and strongly differentiated by socioeconomic status. In contrast, Progressive education is rooted in present experience. I agree with most of the Progressive philosophy; I believe that teaching vocations as electives in high school is very helpful to some students. For example, if a student does not choose to go to college, they can fall back on the welding, sewing, or medical assisting class they took in high school. Not all students are cut out for a college career.
Progressives believe that the classroom is a mini society, and in society, when someone does something legally wrong they are punished for the wrong-doing. I believe in discipline and holding students accountable for their actions. In my classroom, I will have rules posted and I will communicate my expectations daily. My students will know exactly what is expected of them in the first days of school and thereafter as needed. If students break a rule or act out in class, they will tell me what they did wrong and why it was wrong. If the behavior continues, behavior contracts will be drawn up between the students and me, and the students will follow that contract. If the contract does not help with the behavior, a parent meeting may be warranted. Beyond that, I may let my students decide how to discipline. Being flexible and giving the students some control of their classroom is the key with the Progressive philosophy.
The first few days of school in my classroom the walls may look a little bare. I feel like the teacher should collaborate with the students in making the classroom rules and procedures in order to give the students some ownership of their new classroom. I will have one bulletin board decorated with a calendar and another bulletin board will be blank for the students to decide how to decorate. I will not have assigned seating; I will let my students sit in a different desk every day in order to give them some freedom to choose where to sit. If a behavior problem arises, I may have to assign seats, but I will handle behaviors when as they happen. I believe that having a classroom that my students have ownership of will allow them to feel less intimidated and proud to call it a community of learners.
Over time teachers have developed teacher-centered Progressivism. This is a blended version of traditional and progressive pedagogy. Teachers normally spend more five hours a day in the same classroom with students who rarely have the same interests, motivation, or prior background knowledge. Society expects teachers to manage classroom behavior, teach the course of study, maintain student interest in content areas and skills, differentiate the instruction, and provide evidence that they have performed satisfactorily. All the while, these classroom sizes continue to grow larger due to budget cuts, proration, and a lack of professionals entering the teaching field. Cuban’s (2009) study found that because of these issues:
Teachers have created teacher-centered Progressivism to match the inherent grammar of age-graded schools and fulfill unceasing societal demands for mass education. Most teachers hug the middle of the pedagogical continuum, a fact that policy elites too often neglect to consider. Most experienced teachers have learned through trial and error that no particular teaching approach, no matter how successful its champions say it is, yields desired outcomes with all students, all the time (p. 30).
In conclusion, progressive education is a child-centered education that focuses on individuality and diversity. I believe that if I give my students a voice and let them choose how their classroom operates it will be more enjoyable for the student and the teacher. I believe that Progressivism is important because it teaches children how to become not only good learners but also good people. In a progressive environment, students play a vital role in helping outline the curriculum, form the questions, discover the answers, problem solve to consider the possibilities, and evaluate to see how successful they have been.
References
Cuban, L. (2009). Hugging the middle. Education Week, 38(30), 30.
Kohn, A. (2008, Spring). Progressive education. Independent School, 1-10.
Loss, C. (2011). Progressive education. Retrieved January 29, 2013, from http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2336/Progressive-Education.html
Ryan, T. (2008). Philosophical orientation in pre-service. The Journal of Educational Thought, 42(3), 247-260.
Yilmaz, K. (2011). Developing the educational belief scale: The validity and reliability study. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 11(1), 343-350.
Troy University, Dothan
EDU 4471
Abstract
The effects of Progressivism can be seen in classrooms across the country today in the forms of constructivism, non-graded schools, authentic assessments, block scheduling, and a host of others. The key to the Progressive philosophy focuses on the student’s interests and needs and is based on intrinsic motivation. As John Dewey and Jean Piaget noted, teaching is creating a classroom into an atmosphere where children can feel like a community. No two students are alike; each student is comprised of a lifetime of experiences and characteristics that affects him or her as a learner and as a person. Teaching is a delicate balance: I must convey a set spectrum of knowledge to my students while nurturing their skills within the learning process based on their personal needs and interests. It is my goal to shape my classroom around the endless diversities of my students so as to inspire the born leaders within them and encourage the seeds of growth that will anchor them into a confident future.
Philosophically Speaking …show more content…
A teacher’s educational philosophy “constitutes a moral and social compass, behavioral, attitudinal, and value guide-posts, essential personal and professional prescriptions, and a consistent but alterable assessment means for professional evaluation” (Ryan, 2008, p.
258). As an educator, it is my job to make learning a part of life for my students. There are five teaching philosophies that teachers use to enable students to achieve their best in the classroom and in society. The teaching philosophy that best fits my style of teaching is Progressivism because I believe that a classroom should be a society in and of itself and my students should be able to work together with each other in making the rules and
procedures.
Progressivism was founded by John Dewey in the 1920’s as a very important part of the early twentieth-century reform of the reconstruction of American democracy. The goal of the Progressive reform was to equip students with the skills they needed to play an active role in an American democratic society (Loss, 2011). Dewey believed that school did not prepare students for life, but instead education was life.
Progressive educators believe that learning should be child-centered and begin with the student rather than the content area. They believe that progress and change are fundamental to their learning (Kohn, 2008). Learning should focus on the needs and interests of the students instead of drill and practice and rote memorization. When the classroom is focused on the students’ interests and needs, the students are clearly able to grow and bloom (Loss, 2011).
Progressivism is for all social classes and diverse populations that are in schools today. This is my teaching philosophy because I am not a visual or auditory learner. I learn by active participation and experimenting. Progressives believe in an inquiry based learning style where the scientific method is used. “Unlike Perennialism and Fundamentalism, it rejects unchanging and universal absolute facts and sees change as the center of education” (Yilmaz, 2011, p. 344).
Extreme formalism and traditional education is opposed in Progressivism. Interdisciplinary teaching is performed and the assessments rarely focus on rote memorization. The goal is to get students to critically think about ideas that are important to them from the inside out (Kohn, 2008).
The term "progressive" was coined to distinguish today’s education from the traditional curriculum of the 19th century, which was rooted in classical preparation for the university and strongly differentiated by socioeconomic status. In contrast, Progressive education is rooted in present experience. I agree with most of the Progressive philosophy; I believe that teaching vocations as electives in high school is very helpful to some students. For example, if a student does not choose to go to college, they can fall back on the welding, sewing, or medical assisting class they took in high school. Not all students are cut out for a college career.
Progressives believe that the classroom is a mini society, and in society, when someone does something legally wrong they are punished for the wrong-doing. I believe in discipline and holding students accountable for their actions. In my classroom, I will have rules posted and I will communicate my expectations daily. My students will know exactly what is expected of them in the first days of school and thereafter as needed. If students break a rule or act out in class, they will tell me what they did wrong and why it was wrong. If the behavior continues, behavior contracts will be drawn up between the students and me, and the students will follow that contract. If the contract does not help with the behavior, a parent meeting may be warranted. Beyond that, I may let my students decide how to discipline. Being flexible and giving the students some control of their classroom is the key with the Progressive philosophy.
The first few days of school in my classroom the walls may look a little bare. I feel like the teacher should collaborate with the students in making the classroom rules and procedures in order to give the students some ownership of their new classroom. I will have one bulletin board decorated with a calendar and another bulletin board will be blank for the students to decide how to decorate. I will not have assigned seating; I will let my students sit in a different desk every day in order to give them some freedom to choose where to sit. If a behavior problem arises, I may have to assign seats, but I will handle behaviors when as they happen. I believe that having a classroom that my students have ownership of will allow them to feel less intimidated and proud to call it a community of learners.
Over time teachers have developed teacher-centered Progressivism. This is a blended version of traditional and progressive pedagogy. Teachers normally spend more five hours a day in the same classroom with students who rarely have the same interests, motivation, or prior background knowledge. Society expects teachers to manage classroom behavior, teach the course of study, maintain student interest in content areas and skills, differentiate the instruction, and provide evidence that they have performed satisfactorily. All the while, these classroom sizes continue to grow larger due to budget cuts, proration, and a lack of professionals entering the teaching field. Cuban’s (2009) study found that because of these issues:
Teachers have created teacher-centered Progressivism to match the inherent grammar of age-graded schools and fulfill unceasing societal demands for mass education. Most teachers hug the middle of the pedagogical continuum, a fact that policy elites too often neglect to consider. Most experienced teachers have learned through trial and error that no particular teaching approach, no matter how successful its champions say it is, yields desired outcomes with all students, all the time (p. 30).
In conclusion, progressive education is a child-centered education that focuses on individuality and diversity. I believe that if I give my students a voice and let them choose how their classroom operates it will be more enjoyable for the student and the teacher. I believe that Progressivism is important because it teaches children how to become not only good learners but also good people. In a progressive environment, students play a vital role in helping outline the curriculum, form the questions, discover the answers, problem solve to consider the possibilities, and evaluate to see how successful they have been.
References
Cuban, L. (2009). Hugging the middle. Education Week, 38(30), 30.
Kohn, A. (2008, Spring). Progressive education. Independent School, 1-10.
Loss, C. (2011). Progressive education. Retrieved January 29, 2013, from http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2336/Progressive-Education.html
Ryan, T. (2008). Philosophical orientation in pre-service. The Journal of Educational Thought, 42(3), 247-260.
Yilmaz, K. (2011). Developing the educational belief scale: The validity and reliability study. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 11(1), 343-350.