My Teaching Philosophy Statement :: Education Educational Educating Essays

My Philosophy Statement Methods of how to educate individuals have been studied by many different philosophers in many different ways. I formed my view of method, curriculum, nature of students, nature of knowledge, and the purpose of public education, as well as my person career goals from those philosophers. I took different aspects of the philosophies of Plato, Rousseau, Sophistry/Foucault, and Pragmatism/Progressivism to create my own philosophy of education. My first view of method is an idea formed by Pragmatism/Progressivism. Being student centered is one method of effective teaching. I believe that students should enjoy their classes. I think part of being a good teacher is making the students want to learn. The most important person in the classroom should be the student. Teachers should base their lessons around the needs of their students. One way in which a teacher could do this is through group work sessions. If one child were behind in a subject the other students in the group might be able to help them. Another idea that I agree with is Rousseau's idea that students should learn through experience. I believe that instead of lecturing, students should learn through experience. The students could bring in leaves and study them, instead of just learning about them in their Science books. I think having variation in the classroom is also an important method of teaching. Instead of their usual Friday spelling test have a Spelling Be e instead. These are all ways to keep the students interest. The main method I chose for my philosophy is student centered. All other methods I have discussed fall into this category, in which the main focus of the classroom is the students. My next philosophy is on curriculum. I agree with Pragmatism/Progressivism. I believe that the purpose of a teacher is to teach their students how to think. Not what to think. There are several ways to go about doing this. One way is through math, students can be taught how to think through reading problems. One reason schools have many subjects is to make their students well rounded, another is to help students develop ways to reason. I agree with Rousseau's idea that students should be taught reason so that they can care about and respect others. Through out ones life they need reason to make decisions. I think students should be taught history so that they do not remake the mistakes of the past.