My Educational Philosophy

My Educational Philosophy

Caleb Langner

South Dakota State University

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My Educational Philosophy

As a future educator, it will be important to know and understand my educational philos-

ophy. I can use it to guide my goals in the classroom and aim for success. I believe that it is im-

portant to be well aware of my philosophy because it helps define me as a teacher. There are

many influences that can influence my philosophy. But it all comes down to me and what I be-

lieve is best for me and my class. Understanding my philosophy will also guide me in my lesson

plans, and help with classroom management. I also believe that understanding my philosophy

will help me become a professional teacher and to think professional and effectively for my class

and my school. I believe that it is important to be as professional as possible in any area of life.

Education is no exception. Being professional will allow me to grow and become a success. I be-

lieve that it is important to firstly understand what a philosophy is before one can define their ed-

ucational philosophy. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, philosophy is "the study of

ideas about knowledge, truth, the nature and meaning of life.” I believe this to mean that I could

use my philosophy as a guide to life. It can be a map that I can use for success in my life.

Part of my map of life, will be my philosophy in education. I plan on education being a

big part of my life. The basic definition of philosophy of education, according to Eggen and

Kauchak (2011), is “a set of ideas and beliefs that guides teachers’ actions and provides a frame-

work for thinking about educational issues” (pg. 197). This shows that not only does my philoso-

phy guide my classroom, but it also guides my thoughts and ideas in educational issues. My phi-

losophy of education is progressivist. Because I know my philosophy, I will be able to prepare

myself for the future and give my students the best way I believe possible to reach our learning

goals. Progressivism is “the educational philosophy the emphasizing real-world problem solving

and individual development” (Eggen, Kauchak, 2011, pg. 204).

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My Educational Philosophy

Progressivist believe that the purpose of education should be focused on developing the

student as a whole, “physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally.” (Eggen, Kauchak,

2011, pg. 204). Progressive teachers focus on real world problems as they guide their students in

development. Progressive teachers also focus on thinking about and having the students problem

solve. They want students to see how content in the class relates to their own live and their own

understanding.

When I first took my educational philosophy assessment, I was kind of surprised by my

results. Before taking the assessment, I thought of myself as more of an essentialist. I thought

this because I believe that in education it is important for students to know and understand the

essentials and basic skills in order to thrive in society. The more I thought about, the more I

could see my tendencies going towards progressivism. I also started to see how it could be a very

important philosophy to have in a Social Studies classroom.

First off, since I am wanting to each history courses, I thought it would be important to

do a little history research on progressivism. John Dewey is considered to be the brain child be-

hind the progressivist thought. In 1920, education was measured by intelligence test. Dewey and

a group of educators thought it to be important to not focus of these test. He “insisted on the im-

portance of the emotional, artistic, and creative aspects of human development--"the most living

and essential parts of our natures” (Koliba, 2002). This idea was a completely new idea in the ed-

ucation setting. Reading this made me more excited about the progressive agenda!

I believe that the progressivist motive will help me tremendously in the Social Studies

classroom. I believe that it is important because one of my goals in Social Studies is for students

to connect the past with the present. Students need to see how the past created our lives today.

Using the progressive approach, I believe that I will be able to supply my students with the

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My Educational Philosophy

knowledge through many different creative outlets allowing them to mature in as a whole. There

are three INTASC standards that I believe with help me to achieve this goal. They are INTASC

standard 3, INSTAC standard 4, and INSTAC standard 5.

INSTAC standard 3 wants me to be able to understand that students learn differently and

approach learning differently. I really love this standard because it brings out the idea of multiple

intelligences. Howard Gardner introduce the idea of multiple intelligence. His thought behind

multiple intelligence was that instead of students being smart in just one way, there are many

ways that students are smart. McClellan and Conti (2008) stated that “instructors need to teach in

a variety of ways which provide varied learning experiences for students.” This is what I love

about multiple intelligence, it allows the individual student to learn and gain knowledge the most

comfortable way. It will be my job to teach with this different intelligence in mind. One thing

that I want to do in my future classroom is to keep “History Journals”. The students will have

various writing topics to write about on a daily basis. I want to do this because it will touch many

different intelligence in one activity. It will foster the linguistic intelligence because of the writ-

ing involved. It could also involve Interpersonal Intelligence because sometimes I will have the

students “think” like people of the past. It was be their duty to think and feel like them. I also be-

lieve that INSTAC standard 3 goes great with my progressivist philosophy because of its focuses

on developing the intellectual needs of the student.

INSTAC standard 4 is also important in my educational philosophy. This standards says

that I need to create a various amount of instructional strategies so my students can develop/ en-

hance a number of skills, like problem solving. Problem solving is a key idea in the progressive

thought. I love this standard because it flows together with standard 3 so well. Since I understand

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My Educational Philosophy

that all students are intelligent in different ways, I can also adapt the way I instruct in order to fill

those certain intelligences.

In Social Studies classes, I believe that Lecture- discussion and guided discovery will be

the most beneficial strategies to use. I believe that lecture- discussion is important because I will

be teaching students about different events in history. The students and I will need to be able to

talk together and see what they are feeling about said event. The guided discovery strategy works

well with lecture- discussion. An example that I can think of is when my partner and I were go-

ing our team teach. We originally went into the class room solely using just lecture-discussion,

but we also used guided discovery. We had introduce our topic and then we had a lecture-discus-

sion about our topic. After that the class had to put the lecture together by mapping out the the

three branches of government and their important functions. This allowed the students who

learned best with bodily-kinesthetics intelligence to get up and move. It also allowed for the stu-

dents to practice with their peers to develop a greater understanding of the material.

Gould talks about how it is important for teacher to differentiate their learning strategies.

She explains how schools sometimes lead toward the “one-size-fits-all” method of teaching, but

this does not celebrate the diversity of students. Instead she believes that it is important to take

the time and create different learning strategies for students (2004). I agree with her. I believe

that it is important to tend to the needs of most students, and having different strategies to ap-

proach thinking will help tremulously. This standard fits well with my philosophy because it fo-

cuses on the learner and their responsibly in learning. There is also the main focus on classroom

application in teaching with multiple methods, with the main focus on problem solving. I believe

it also helps develop the students has a whole. If a student feels comfortable learning in various

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My Educational Philosophy

ways, they will be able to develop intellectually and even socially and emotionally. They will

feel good because of classroom interaction.

The next standard that I believe is important is INSTAC standard 5. I believe it to be my

most important INSTAC standards in the classroom. I believe if I have superb motivation and

great management in the classroom, everything will efficiently fall into its proper place and my

classroom will run to the best of its abilities. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs is a great example that

highlights the importance of motivation in the classroom. Maslow came up with a theory that hu-

mans prioritize their needs in a certain order. He believed that people needed to satisfy their

lower needs before they could satisfy their high leveling thinking needs. (Ormrod, 2011). He ba-

sically said that if a person is going hungry or feels unsafe, then one would not be able to achieve

other needs such as esteem needs. This theory can help me in the classroom because students

will be unlikely to work in the classroom with interest and energy until their basic needs, such as

a safe classroom are met.

Another important idea behind motivation is interest. One of my goals in my future class-

room is to get ride of the stereotypical “history class is boring” idea. This means that it will be

my duty to perk the interest of the students and show them that history is actually fun and full of

amazing knowledge they can used for the rest of their life. I really want to teach middle school

Social Studies. I think the students are at a fun age and they still have more of a willingness to

learn. I attended a conference and the main topic was technology in the classroom. I think tech-

nology is a great tool to use in the classroom if it is executed properly. One idea that I gained

form the conference and also plan to use in my classroom is gamification. The basic idea behind

gamification is taking game concepts into non-game application. The non-game application will

be the concepts learned in my classroom. The game concepts in my lesson will be a point sys-

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My Educational Philosophy

tem, ranking, and rewards. I believe that this will be a great tool to keep students motivated in

the classroom because they will want to reach goals through means of rewards.

I believe that motivation goes very well with my philosophy because one of the main fo-

cuses of progressivism is emotion. I believe that emotions are a huge part in creating motivation

because students tend to work for goals that make them feel good about themselves and also are

rewards for their hard work.

I believe that understanding my philosophy will help me grow in my profession. It will

also allow me to set goals in my classroom to obtain them with my students. It will also guide me

in many different areas of my career. I can use my philosophy to direct my beliefs about educa-

tion and how to execute my ideas in the classroom. I can also use my strengths from my philoso-

phy to use my favorite INTASC standard effectively in my classroom. I believe that it is impor-

tant to be aware of the multiple intelligences of students. It is also important to think of effective

strategies to develop the students. I also believe that the student needs to have motivation in or-

der to achieve greatness in the classroom. I am excited to use my new found knowledge about

my philosophy in my future career. I am excited to help create successful young individuals in

all areas of development, not just intellectually.

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My Educational Philosophy

Works Cited

Gould, H. (2004, December 1). Can Novice Teachers Differentiate Instruc-tion? Yes, They Can!. . Retrieved April 26, 2014, from http://educa-tion.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/strategies/ topics/Differentiated%20In-struction/novice/index.html

Kauchak, D. P., & Eggen, P. D. (2011). Introduction to teaching: becoming a professional (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson.

Koliba, C. (2002, January 30). A Brief Overview of Progressive Education. A Brief Overview of Progressive Education. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from http://www.uvm.edu/~dewey/ articles/proged.html.

McClellan, J., & Conti, G. Identifying the Multiple Intelligences of Your Stu-dents. Journal of Adult Education, 37, 24. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from ERIC.

Ormrod, J. (2011). Educational psychology: Developing learners . (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education

philosophy. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/philosophy

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