Educational Philosophies Essay -- Philosophy Education Psychology Essa

Educational Philosophies Many different ideas of the correct educational philosophy exist. Highly acclaimed psychologists and educators developed these varying philosophies. Each of these philosophies have their strengths and weaknesses and have their positives and negatives in different situations. It is our job as educators to sift through this list of philosophies to find our own style and philosophy. We must research the pros and cons of each philosophy and pick and choose which sections of each idea to take out and make our own. Our job is also to familiarize ourselves with the philosophies that we do not agree with. So that we have a clear picture in our minds of what we want and do not want as part of our educational thinking and to have the knowledge to back up these opinions. After reading through different writings on each of these philosophies, I have begun to take on the task of sorting out which I choose to support and which I strongly oppose. Once having a clear idea of which philosophies appeal to me and which do not, I hope to have the groundwork laid to then analyze the philosophies and take from them what I need to develop my own personal philosophy. Sometimes to find out what you are or what you find true, you must first learn what you are not and what you do not find as truth. Therefore, in beginning my search for my own personal philosophy, I began with ruling out the philosophies that I am strongly opposed to. These philosophies are perennialism and behaviorism. Perennialism is a very conservative and inflexible philosophy of education. It is based on the view that reality comes from fundamental fixed truths-especially related to God. It believes that people find truth through reasoning and revelation and that goodness is found in rational thinking. As a result, schools exist to teach reason and God’s will. Students are taught to reason through structured lessons and drills. The teacher’s role is a fountain of knowledge, put in place to regurgitate the wisdom of the past and pass it down to the next generation. To begin with, I find this philosophy extremely outdated since church and state have been separated for quite some time now. Perenialism leaves no room for progression, which seems to be it’s objective. Students in these schools do not learn to think independently. They do not learn creativity or how... ...personal satisfaction. I most identify with this philosophy and strongly agree with the majority of its principles. As stated above, the most important lesson a teacher can teach a child is the importance of learning, the enjoyment of learning and how to learn. Above all, this is the most important lesson. I agree that students are self-motivated if the desire to know something. The job of the teacher is to make the student want to learn, not make the student learn. I agree that self-evaluation and self satisfaction should weigh above grades. Grades should be a measure more for the teacher, not the student. The humanistic philosophy can be effectively applied to literacy mainly with its ideas of choice and desire. Students will be more inclined to write to their best ability and read at a high level if they are the ones choosing the topic to write on or the book to be reading. Humanism parallels with my strongest conviction of teacher and once again I will repeat what I have repeated throughout this entire paper. The goal of literacy learning is to instill a love of reading and writing within them and to give them the tools to continue with that love.