Classroom Organization - I believe that teachers need to be organized in their classroom. Nothing is worse then when a teacher loses a student's assignment or can't find what they need for a lesson. Students can shut down if they have to redo an assignment. The main thing is that the more organized and structured a teacher is in the classroom the more time there is for student learning.
Motivation - Teachers need to be able to motivate their students. There are some students who will do whatever you ask just because you're the teacher, but there are other students who need more motivation. They need to see a reason for doing assignments. Without a purpose certain students won't be motivated.
Discipline - My personal belief about discipline is that it can be prevented. Teachers need to get to know their students so they know how to prevent disciplinary situations in the classroom. If two students talk too much when they're together then make sure they're not in the same group. If one student acts out when he has nothing to do, then make sure he doesn't run out of work. If it looks like a student is having a really bad day, then don't call on him during class. I think it's all about knowing your students and their habits.
Assessment - Students need to be assessed in different ways. They can't just be graded on tests and quizzes because that's not an accurate measure of assessment for all students. Some have anxiety with tests, and it's pretty common in math. I've even drawn blanks on math tests and I love math. Students need to be able to show you in different ways that they know the material and can use their knowledge in different situation. Projects are a great way for students to do this.
Classroom Climate - Students need to feel comfortable in class so they will participate in classroom discussions and will answer questions that you ask. Students also need to know that they won't be made fun of for asking "stupid" questions or saying the wrong answer. Teachers need to make a classroom climate where all students are encouraged to share their ideas without feeling embarrassed.
Learning Focus - I believe that the students should be the majority of the learning focus. Students have needs and they should be met in order for them to learn and retain more information. Students should also have some say in what they're going to be learning. They can help decide what projects the class can do and what they're going to be graded on. I also believe that some parts of the curriculum should be decided on by the teacher. Teachers are the experts in the classroom and know what students should know before going on to the next grade.
Teacher Styles - My teaching style is closely related to student centered learning. I don't like to lecture because I don't like to listen to lectures as a student. If I find a lesson boring to teach, I know that students will find it boring too. And if I find an assignment boring to grade, then I know students will find it boring to do. I think it's better for students to discover things on their own, instead of me just giving them the answer and them taking my word for it.
Leadership Styles - My leadership style is based more on encouragement more then anything. I am a role model for students and want to encourage them in any way I can so that one day they can all be leaders. I don't think that leaders should be bossy and an authoritative person, but a person that is looked up to. I want students to be able to look up to me for support and guidance.
Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts
Monday, November 10, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Reflection on "Voices"
One of the early philosophies that really got my attention was the philosophies of the Greek educators. Socrates believed that it was the teacher's role to draw the knowledge out of the student and that students had to discover the knowledge. He thought teachers needed to ask the right questions and believed in higher order questioning. Plato said that the purpose of education is to help the students to grow and develop their character and ability to do good. Aristotle thought a methodology in the classroom had to be used that encouraged thinking and reflecting and then allowed time for practice of the skills. Even though all of these philosophies are old, I believe they're important in today's schools.
I made a lot of connections with Pestalozzi's philosophy of education. He believed that educators need to think of the whole child, including their heart, body, and feelings, and not just their mind. Learning has to be stimulated by the interests and motivation of the child, but also has to be completed at each stage before going onto the next. This is important in many subjects, but especially in math. If a student doesn't know how to add, subtract, multiply or divide, then they can't start solving problems. Teachers also need to take into consideration the child's emotional and social needs while trying to educate them. Teachers need to be able to tell when a student is having a bad day and give them some slack. Students will respect you more in the long run.
The philosophy that I made the most connections to was Dewey's philosophy of education. He believes that teachers have to create a learning environment in which students can have meaningful learning interactions with their classmates. These interactions are hands-on activities based on the problem solving method. Students should be able to make connections between the different subjects. Dewey also believes that the goal of education is to make intelligent citizens and that education must be democratic, providing students with free and intelligent choices between alternates. Students need to be engaged to their environment - the subject matter, their teachers, and their classmates. Dewey's philosophy is very student-centered, so teachers should create their lessons around the interests of the students. I think all of these things are crucial - students need to see a purpose in what they're learning. If they don't see a purpose, students will shut down. It's the teacher's job to make these connections for students, and it's also their job to create a safe learning environment so all students have the opportunity to learn.
I made a lot of connections with Pestalozzi's philosophy of education. He believed that educators need to think of the whole child, including their heart, body, and feelings, and not just their mind. Learning has to be stimulated by the interests and motivation of the child, but also has to be completed at each stage before going onto the next. This is important in many subjects, but especially in math. If a student doesn't know how to add, subtract, multiply or divide, then they can't start solving problems. Teachers also need to take into consideration the child's emotional and social needs while trying to educate them. Teachers need to be able to tell when a student is having a bad day and give them some slack. Students will respect you more in the long run.
The philosophy that I made the most connections to was Dewey's philosophy of education. He believes that teachers have to create a learning environment in which students can have meaningful learning interactions with their classmates. These interactions are hands-on activities based on the problem solving method. Students should be able to make connections between the different subjects. Dewey also believes that the goal of education is to make intelligent citizens and that education must be democratic, providing students with free and intelligent choices between alternates. Students need to be engaged to their environment - the subject matter, their teachers, and their classmates. Dewey's philosophy is very student-centered, so teachers should create their lessons around the interests of the students. I think all of these things are crucial - students need to see a purpose in what they're learning. If they don't see a purpose, students will shut down. It's the teacher's job to make these connections for students, and it's also their job to create a safe learning environment so all students have the opportunity to learn.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Theories of Philosophy
Abstract:
Perennialism - Perennialism focuses foremost on the everlasting importance of human beings. And since everything else changes in life, perennialists focus on personal development. Facts can change, but principles can't. This is a teacher-centered theory that teaches principles and scientific reasoning. Teaching methods are similar to essentialism, they include lecture, memorization, and examinations.
Essentialism - Essentialism is a mixture between idealism and realism. It stresses that everyone needs to know basic core information to be a productive member of society. But this core information changes with time and with different societies. The goal of all essentialists is to produce good citizens, so this is why they stress subjects like literature, history, language, and religion. Teaching methods are minimal and include lecture, memorization, and examinations.
Behaviorism - Behaviorism is closely linked to realism. People who believe in this think that all behaviors can be explained as responses to a stimuli and that behaviors represent the essence of an individual. One's behavior is determined by their environment, so the school environment for children need to be organized and the curriculum needs to be structured. Teachers who are behaviorists use both positive and negative reinforcers. Students are praised and get good grades when they do good things, and are reprimanded and get bad grades when they do poorly.
Positivism - Positivism is limited to known truth and knowledge that is observable and measurable. A lot of scientists and mathematicians are positivists because it is based on logics of the world. Positivists require schools to have set standards for students but also encourage students to develop their own skills of observation, classification, and analysis. Teachers decide what students should learn, but they teach it in different ways. It is the teacher's job to make sure the students learn the information, can recite the information, and can retain the information.
Progressivism - Progressivism is a theory that believes learning takes place from the questions developed by the learner. The learner's ideas should be tested by experimentation. Progressivism is the most popular in the United States. It emphasizes learning how to think, rather then what to think. Flexibility is very important in a progressive classroom. Classrooms should also have organized freedom, where everyone takes part in the decision-making. Progressivism views the learning as an experiencing, thinking, exploring individual.
Humanism - Humanism is closely related to existentialism and is concerned with enhancing the goodness of the individual. Therefore students are encouraged to make their own decisions and choices. They get to make the classroom rules and also get to decide what books are going to be read in class. Teachers use non-traditional ideas like individualizing instruction, open-access curriculum, non-graded instruction, and multi-age grouping. Humanists created the schools without walls that were popular in the 70's.
Reconstructivism - Reconstructivism focuses on democratic values, because students are the future generation that is going to shape society. Reconstructivists focus on community based learning because students are going to have to work together in society. They want to improve human conditions by focusing on real problems. Teachers want their students to gain experience so they are well prepared when they enter society.
Constructivism - Constructivism is also related to existentialism emphasizes hands-on and activity-based learning. The curriculum is based on big ideas rather then the memorization of factual information. Students learn by shaping their own understandings about the world around them. Instead of leading students to the right answer, constructivists encourage students to think on their own, even if it is in the wrong direction. Teachers use short activities called hooks to engage the students into the lesson, but the teachers main job is to act as a guide or coach in the learning process.
Reflection:
The two theories that best fit my theory of philosophy are Positivism and Constructivism. They are kind of opposites - positivism is a teacher-based approach and constructivism is a student-based approach to learning. But I believe that there should be a combination of the two. The teacher needs to create some activities because standards need to be met, but sometimes the students need to be able to make decisions for themselves. I think it's good for a classroom to have both.
I believe the same is true for the curriculum. Especially in math, there are things that students need to have memorized. For example, students should know their multiplication tables and the order of operations by heart. That's the positivism point of view. But at the same time, it's difficult for math teachers to cover everything their supposed to in one year - that's why it's good to cover the big ideas. If students know and understand how to use the big ideas, they can use their knowledge to figure out different problems. This is the constructivism point of view. They seem like opposites, but when brought together positivism and constructivism work nicely together.
A positivist teacher sets clear standards so students know exactly what they need to learn within a lesson. The students have clear expectations, which a lot of students like to have. But these clear standards can be boring for students. This is where the constructivism part comes in. A constructivist teacher creates hooks for lessons, that engages the students so they're excited to learn. Usually hooks incorporate real life situations which students love because they need to see the relevance in things. I think that my personal teaching style is a mixture of a positivist teacher and a constructivist teacher.
Perennialism - Perennialism focuses foremost on the everlasting importance of human beings. And since everything else changes in life, perennialists focus on personal development. Facts can change, but principles can't. This is a teacher-centered theory that teaches principles and scientific reasoning. Teaching methods are similar to essentialism, they include lecture, memorization, and examinations.
Essentialism - Essentialism is a mixture between idealism and realism. It stresses that everyone needs to know basic core information to be a productive member of society. But this core information changes with time and with different societies. The goal of all essentialists is to produce good citizens, so this is why they stress subjects like literature, history, language, and religion. Teaching methods are minimal and include lecture, memorization, and examinations.
Behaviorism - Behaviorism is closely linked to realism. People who believe in this think that all behaviors can be explained as responses to a stimuli and that behaviors represent the essence of an individual. One's behavior is determined by their environment, so the school environment for children need to be organized and the curriculum needs to be structured. Teachers who are behaviorists use both positive and negative reinforcers. Students are praised and get good grades when they do good things, and are reprimanded and get bad grades when they do poorly.
Positivism - Positivism is limited to known truth and knowledge that is observable and measurable. A lot of scientists and mathematicians are positivists because it is based on logics of the world. Positivists require schools to have set standards for students but also encourage students to develop their own skills of observation, classification, and analysis. Teachers decide what students should learn, but they teach it in different ways. It is the teacher's job to make sure the students learn the information, can recite the information, and can retain the information.
Progressivism - Progressivism is a theory that believes learning takes place from the questions developed by the learner. The learner's ideas should be tested by experimentation. Progressivism is the most popular in the United States. It emphasizes learning how to think, rather then what to think. Flexibility is very important in a progressive classroom. Classrooms should also have organized freedom, where everyone takes part in the decision-making. Progressivism views the learning as an experiencing, thinking, exploring individual.
Humanism - Humanism is closely related to existentialism and is concerned with enhancing the goodness of the individual. Therefore students are encouraged to make their own decisions and choices. They get to make the classroom rules and also get to decide what books are going to be read in class. Teachers use non-traditional ideas like individualizing instruction, open-access curriculum, non-graded instruction, and multi-age grouping. Humanists created the schools without walls that were popular in the 70's.
Reconstructivism - Reconstructivism focuses on democratic values, because students are the future generation that is going to shape society. Reconstructivists focus on community based learning because students are going to have to work together in society. They want to improve human conditions by focusing on real problems. Teachers want their students to gain experience so they are well prepared when they enter society.
Constructivism - Constructivism is also related to existentialism emphasizes hands-on and activity-based learning. The curriculum is based on big ideas rather then the memorization of factual information. Students learn by shaping their own understandings about the world around them. Instead of leading students to the right answer, constructivists encourage students to think on their own, even if it is in the wrong direction. Teachers use short activities called hooks to engage the students into the lesson, but the teachers main job is to act as a guide or coach in the learning process.
Reflection:
The two theories that best fit my theory of philosophy are Positivism and Constructivism. They are kind of opposites - positivism is a teacher-based approach and constructivism is a student-based approach to learning. But I believe that there should be a combination of the two. The teacher needs to create some activities because standards need to be met, but sometimes the students need to be able to make decisions for themselves. I think it's good for a classroom to have both.
I believe the same is true for the curriculum. Especially in math, there are things that students need to have memorized. For example, students should know their multiplication tables and the order of operations by heart. That's the positivism point of view. But at the same time, it's difficult for math teachers to cover everything their supposed to in one year - that's why it's good to cover the big ideas. If students know and understand how to use the big ideas, they can use their knowledge to figure out different problems. This is the constructivism point of view. They seem like opposites, but when brought together positivism and constructivism work nicely together.
A positivist teacher sets clear standards so students know exactly what they need to learn within a lesson. The students have clear expectations, which a lot of students like to have. But these clear standards can be boring for students. This is where the constructivism part comes in. A constructivist teacher creates hooks for lessons, that engages the students so they're excited to learn. Usually hooks incorporate real life situations which students love because they need to see the relevance in things. I think that my personal teaching style is a mixture of a positivist teacher and a constructivist teacher.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
The 4 Philosophies
Abstract:
The four philosophies are idealism, realism, pragmatism, and existentialism.
The purpose of school for an idealist is to provide students with an educational environment that will help them expand on their ideas. Idealists believe that schools need to help prepare students to be a beneficial member of society. Students should focus on literature, philosophy, politics, history, and the arts. They are encouraged to study and most importantly reflect on their subjects. Reflection is a big part of the preferred methods of instruction, along with lecture and discussion.
Realists believe that the purpose of school is to help students understand the causes of things and to teach them intellectual and moral virtue. They focus on subjects such as mathematics, science, language, literature, and history. Realists like a lot of variety of teaching methods and believe that even the teacher is considered a learner. Students need to know how to think clearly and understand the world.
The purpose of school according to pragmatism is to model a democratic society. They focus on subjects like history, geography, and the sciences because that's the most relevant in society. Pragmatics want to understand humans and why they do the things they do in social situations. The instruction is very hands-on and deals with a lot of experiments. Students are seen as more adult-like, and are capable of setting their own goals for their learning. The teacher is expected to model the type of knowledge they want the students to have, which is experimental knowledge.
Existentialism deals a lot with the freedom of choice, so school for an existentialist is supposed to show students how to take responsibility for their own actions and deal with the consequences of their actions. It focuses on the individual student and their own personal learning. Each student is unique and is capable of making their own choices. Teachers are expected to help their students achieve their own personal potential by being a good role model to them.
Reflection:
None of these four philosophies really jumped out at me as my own philosophy, but I think that realism was the one that I agreed with the most. I liked what realism said about the nature of the learner and the nature of the teacher. I believe strongly that throughout our lives that we never stop learning. Teachers can learn a lot from their students, and they have to be open to the idea that their students can be smarter then them at some stuff. To a realist, the teacher's job is to teach their students how to think clearly so that they are able to understand things in the world. Realists believe that theoretical subjects like math and science are more important then the arts, which I don't agree with. Math and science are very important in school, but so are the arts. I don't like it when art and music programs are the first things cut whenever a school needs to cut out something. Realists also believe that schools should help students find the causes of how things work. I think that students need to know how to find out causes of things, but schools also need to help students grow as individuals so they can be productive members of society. So overall I agree with what realists believe in, but I think there are more things that are important.
The four philosophies are idealism, realism, pragmatism, and existentialism.
The purpose of school for an idealist is to provide students with an educational environment that will help them expand on their ideas. Idealists believe that schools need to help prepare students to be a beneficial member of society. Students should focus on literature, philosophy, politics, history, and the arts. They are encouraged to study and most importantly reflect on their subjects. Reflection is a big part of the preferred methods of instruction, along with lecture and discussion.
Realists believe that the purpose of school is to help students understand the causes of things and to teach them intellectual and moral virtue. They focus on subjects such as mathematics, science, language, literature, and history. Realists like a lot of variety of teaching methods and believe that even the teacher is considered a learner. Students need to know how to think clearly and understand the world.
The purpose of school according to pragmatism is to model a democratic society. They focus on subjects like history, geography, and the sciences because that's the most relevant in society. Pragmatics want to understand humans and why they do the things they do in social situations. The instruction is very hands-on and deals with a lot of experiments. Students are seen as more adult-like, and are capable of setting their own goals for their learning. The teacher is expected to model the type of knowledge they want the students to have, which is experimental knowledge.
Existentialism deals a lot with the freedom of choice, so school for an existentialist is supposed to show students how to take responsibility for their own actions and deal with the consequences of their actions. It focuses on the individual student and their own personal learning. Each student is unique and is capable of making their own choices. Teachers are expected to help their students achieve their own personal potential by being a good role model to them.
Reflection:
None of these four philosophies really jumped out at me as my own philosophy, but I think that realism was the one that I agreed with the most. I liked what realism said about the nature of the learner and the nature of the teacher. I believe strongly that throughout our lives that we never stop learning. Teachers can learn a lot from their students, and they have to be open to the idea that their students can be smarter then them at some stuff. To a realist, the teacher's job is to teach their students how to think clearly so that they are able to understand things in the world. Realists believe that theoretical subjects like math and science are more important then the arts, which I don't agree with. Math and science are very important in school, but so are the arts. I don't like it when art and music programs are the first things cut whenever a school needs to cut out something. Realists also believe that schools should help students find the causes of how things work. I think that students need to know how to find out causes of things, but schools also need to help students grow as individuals so they can be productive members of society. So overall I agree with what realists believe in, but I think there are more things that are important.
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