My Philosophy of Education:  10 Brief Statements on the Learning and Teaching Process

1)      The teaching and learning process has often been patterned in such a way that knowledge is a predetermined product of the past, which must be transmitted through the teacher and books and retained by the student.  Therefore, knowledge is not something to be created by the student but a truth to be attained, and the educational process is one of absorbing and retaining these truths.  This idea of obtaining fixed knowledge comes from the teachings of Plato and can be seen in his writing, The Republic. [i]   This style of education places the teacher as the possessor of knowledge, but I would argue that a more effective educative process is one that patterns itself more closely on experiences of daily life.  For example, the child does not consult a book or an adult to learn that tearing an insect in half will kill it.  He tears a captured insect in half and witnesses, along with his playmates, that it dies.  The children playing with the child learn from observation.  Therefore, the learning for all involved occurred in a social situation through experience.  This pattern of individual and shared discovery in daily life is a good model for classroom learning.  Both Ptahhotep and Isocrates wrote on the value of student-centered learning, although they did not call it that. [ii]   John Dewey writes of a “new education,” wherein, rather than learning from “texts and teachers,” students learn from experience and there is “active participation by the pupils in the development of what is taught.” [iii]   Dewey argues that this model breaks down the barrier between school and the rest of a student’s life, making a more fluid usefulness of knowledge gained in and outside of school. [iv]   It only seems logical that students will invest more in knowledge that they have created themselves and can share with others in many areas of life.  It gives the students the chance to become both teacher and learner.

2)      It is important for teachers to manage their classrooms in a way that demonstrates their understanding of the students as people, not just academic learners.  The students affect and are affected by one another daily because the school is not a place exempt from social and emotional experiences.  One way of demonstrating the value of students as social and emotional beings is to create a student-centered style of classroom management to match student-centered lessons.  In situations where the teacher is the judge, who identifies inappropriate behavior and pre-determines the punishments to be avoided, students are likely to misbehave in his or her absence.  Nancy K. Martin is one author who writes in support of “student-centered classroom management,” [v] which is an important concept because it values the students’ role in determining what is appropriate behavior and deciding what actions are to be taken when inappropriate behavior is displayed.  Given ownership over their disciplinary fate, the children will internalize values and establish self-control, thereby eliminating the impulse to view the teacher as an outside source for judgment. [vi]

3)      If one has established that classroom management will be student-centered, it then goes that each discipline situation will have to be evaluated and handled in a just manner.  In order to enact due process, it is useful for teachers to have a framework from which to work through the situation ethically. (This goes, of course, not only for discipline issues but also for all other ethical situations faced by teachers.)  Both the nonconsequentialist framework of philosophers such as Emmanuel Kant and the consequentialist structure of Jeremy Bentham and John Stewart Mill can be helpful in weighing an ethical situation. [vii]   However, as each situation is unique and complex, it seems valuable to employ a both frameworks when contemplating a dilemma, reaching a conclusion through some combination of the two methods.  If a teacher has a working knowledge of the concepts behind each method, she will be well equipped to reason through ethical situations.  In the area of discipline, it will prevent arbitrary or default punishments, and in a setting where teachers are faced with ethical decisions daily, it will make the process more smooth and bearable.

4)      An effective teacher must be aware of and sensitive to the different kinds of intelligences brought into her classroom by students.  Having moved away from the analytic, IQ view of intelligence, psychologists now speak of multiple intelligences.  The educational system as I have observed it, however, has not yet changed to give credit to the ideas of multiple intelligences. [viii]   This is unfortunate because, as Dr. Richard Bucko says, “the neurological system of each child contains a variety of skill strengths and weaknesses that influence school performance.” [ix]   In order to ensure that each student is valued for his or her ability and to enable each student to use that ability to enhance all learning should be an important goal for a teacher.  As such, she is best advised to incorporate a wide range of activities in the classroom, allowing students to utilize and exercise all intelligences—not just mathematical and verbal. [x]

5)      Because multiple intelligences exist and students also have different learning styles, it is reasonable to assume that their paths toward knowledge should differ.  Therefore, differentiation can be a way for teachers to help students pursue knowledge in ways that will be the most beneficial for each learner.  It certainly requires a great deal of planning and hard work on the part of the teacher, as well as a fine-tuned awareness of what each student brings to the classroom and what each student needs to reach the teacher’s goal for learning, but teachers, by definition, should seek to do these things anyway.  Carol Tomlinson provides a compelling argument for differentiation in the classroom and presents ideas for how teachers can implement the process. [xi]  

6)      As one who believes in the value personal relations skills, I cannot stress enough how important it is for teachers to recognize and foster the development of emotional intelligence in their students.  After all, students are not operating in a vacuum, and more of their lives will be spent interacting with other people than utilizing the skills of linear algebra, British literature, and botany combined.  In addition, as Daniel Goleman points out in chapter three of Emotional Intelligence, most of what determines a person’s success in life lies beyond the boundaries of IQ—in the realm of the social and emotional. [xii]   The important task for a teacher is to understand this and take advantage of the emotional skills students bring to class as well as to facilitate further healthy emotional development.

7)      As Jane Roland Martin asserts, gender traits applying to education are socially constructed, not biological. [xiii]   What I’m referring to, in part, is the fallacy that females are good at English and males are good at math and science.  The truth is girls are encouraged to be good in at English and boys are encouraged to be good at math and science, due to societal gender roles.  A teacher must realize that she is not free from societal bias and as such should do her best to be aware of and to break away from gender differences in her treatment of students, both academically and otherwise.  In addition and perhaps more elusive is the need to be aware that students come to the classroom affected by such biases as well.  One must be attuned to the students so that when Jenny, who aced mathematics in sixth grade last year, cannot pass a quiz in seventh grade math, one can consider the possible non-academic reasons for this.

8)      Inclusion students present a challenge for any teacher, and the thought of having students with disabilities in the classroom may even frighten some teachers, causing them to question their ability to help that child.  The law, however, provides that they too are entitled to a reasonable education in our public schools. [xiv]   As a teacher, one must have an open mind about such situations, seeking to find the value in what that student can bring to class, what new perspectives she can provide both you and the other students, seek to understand how to best serve the child.  One must constantly keep in contact with the team of people concerned about the child’s education (teachers, administrators, aids, etc.) to discuss the needs and developments of the child.  At best, a teacher with the right attitude could see the occasion of having inclusion students as the opportunity to engage in self-evaluation of lessons and to implement praxis with a fresh outlook. [xv]

9)      In the information age, it is important that students have access to and are encouraged to use technology, such as the Internet, in the classroom.  This should be done, however, with the idea of controlled freedom in mind. [xvi]   Lessons may require students to research from time to time or may involve learning games on the computer, but teachers should not expect computers to teach for them and must have a clear plan on how computers can best be utilized in the classroom because computers, while they can be wonderful learning tools, can also be wonderful toys or sources of information and activities in appropriate to school.  Teachers should view computers as another tool among many in helping students learn.

10)  Robin Fogarty [xvii] and Ranae Stetson [xviii] inform my view of how lessons could and should be run in schools.  At the heart of their practical knowledge one can see Dewey’s idea of the importance of experience in learning [xix] and Rousseau’s idea of controlled freedom. [xx]   In my ideal classroom, the students are active participants in their education, and risk-taking is encouraged.  Learning is social and communal, which encourages emotional intelligence. [xxi] The classroom is filled with a variety of learning material—not just books.  Students explore individually and have the opportunity for plenty of practice [xxii] Lessons are integrated—not divided by subject--, when possible, they are more topical and real than abstract, and they encourage students to construct, not consume knowledge.  Learning is hands-on and “structured in naturally integrated ways that call upon various intelligences,” [xxiii] and assessments are done in many styles.