My philosophical orientation is progressivism. This
philosophy is based on the following assumptions: 1. The content of the
curriculum ought to be derived from student’s’ interests rather than from the
academic disciplines; 2. Effective teaching takes into account the whole child
and his or her interests and needs in relation to cognitive affective, and
psychomotor areas; 3. Learning is essentially active rather than passive.
Effective teachers provide students with experiences that enable them to learn
by doing; 4. The aim of education is to teach students to think rationally so
that they may become intelligent, contributing members of society; 5. At
school, students learn personal, as well as social values; 6. Humankind is in a
constant state of change, and education makes possible a future that is better
than the past.
I believe that this educational philosophy, on the whole,
accurately represents my beliefs about teaching and learning. I affirm
assumptions two to five, but disagree with one and suspend judgment on six is
because the proposition is too ambiguous.
An example that conveys my progressivist philosophy was when
I taught a lesson simplifying expressions containing exponents. Before starting
the lesson, I tried to gauge how individuals
are doing emotionally by talking them at the door and where they are with
respect to the content by doing warm-ups and checking their understanding.
Further, instead of being the transmitter of knowledge, I took on the role of a
guide by arranging the questions such that they have the appropriate content to
discover the rules of simplifying
expressions containing exponents.
The purpose of education is to, in Dewey’s words, “select
the kind of present experiences that live fruitfully and creatively in [the
student’s] subsequent experiences.”
The school’s role in society is to empower each student to
assume an increasing level of personal, social, and global responsibility.
Learning is a continuous process of culminating, creating, and
reconstructing experiences “that live fruitfully and creatively in [the
student’s] subsequent experiences.”
Learning is best achieved when the learning experience is in
close relation to the actual life of individuals. Therefore, the best teaching
method in mathematics is to give students problems that they will face in their
actual lives.
The teacher’s primary role is not to be the transmitter or
source of knowledge; but rather, to serve as a guide or resource person whose
primary responsibility is to facilitate learning experiences.
The student’s role is to be an active participant of the
culmination, creation, and reconstruction of learning experiences.
The relationship between the teacher and the student is one
that is based on mutual respect, understanding and trust.
The curriculum’s purpose is to be a framework in which the
learning experiences will designed. For example, if the curriculum requires
that the students must demonstrate their learning of x, I will create a lesson that facilitates learning experiences
such that the students, after it, will be able to demonstrate their
understanding of x.
The educational philosophy described above is a good
foundation upon which my subsequent learning experiences will continue to
improve and transform. It also summarized my beliefs regarding teaching and
learning.
