To help me in determining my personal educational philosophy, I completed the Philosophy Preference Assessment found in the book, Foundations of Curriculum and Instruction. My results show that I am primarily an experimentalist. The other philosophies were scored closely. Realism was my lowest score. After graphing my results, my pattern shows a flowing curve which suggests either an eclectic philosophy or a person that is starting to study his or her personal philosophy.
I agree with the results from the philosophy preference assessment. First of all, I do have an eclectic philosophy. My philosophy comprises components of the Hierarchy of Needs, the perennalism, essentialism, and experimentalism philosophies, as well as the theory of Multiple Intelligences. Secondly, I am only beginning to study and understand my own educational philosophy. My personal philosophy will modify and strengthen as my teaching experiences continue and I maintain the desire to grasp an understanding of the diverse theories and philosophies of education. As new educational discoveries are made and additional technologies are available to the classroom, my philosophy will alter.
Once these needs are met, the students are ready to learn. This leads us to the first philosophy of perennialism. Perennialism means �everlasting,� like a perennial flower that comes up year after year (Shaw, 2000). Espousing the notion that some ideas have lasted over centuries and are as relevant today as when they were first conceived, perennialism urges that these ideas should be the focus of education (Shaw, 2000). I believe that there are everlasting ideas that should be taught in the classroom. There is also a time in which the teacher should be the center of the classroom and the student�s interests should not dictate what the teacher is teaching. Students must learn basic concepts that have lasted over the centuries. Perennialists suggest that a greater emphasis be placed on teacher-guided seminars, where students and teachers engage in Socratic dialogues, or mutual inquiry sessions, to develop an enhanced understanding of history�s most timeless concepts (Shaw, 2000). A school curriculum called Paideia Program uses this type of seminar. The Paideia Program is a systemic, whole-school transformation project based on the work of philosopher Mortimer Adler (Roberts, 2002). I experienced the Paideia Program during my student teaching at a magnet school. The Paideia seminar, an integral component of the Paideia approach, is a collaborative, intellectual discussion
Like perennalism, essentialism focuses on the ideas that have proven to work over time. Essentialism can be divided into idealism and realism. Essentialists believe that teachers should instill such traditional American virtues as respect for authority, perseverance, fidelity to duty, consideration for others, and practicality (Shaw, 2000). I believe that these virtues are important to be taught to our students. To do this, the teacher must act as a role model demonstrating these character traits. Essentialism refers to the �traditional� or �Back to the Basics� approach to education (Shaw, 2000). I believe that there are basic academic skills and subjects that need to be taught. The three R�s are everlasting. However, both the perennalism and essentialism philosophies do not allow for the interest of the students, that is where tenets of the experimentalism come into focus.
My personal philosophy supports most of the ideas presented by experimentalism. Expermentalism can be divided into progressivism and reconstructionism. Progressivism has a respect for individuality. It is believed that people are social animals who learn well through active interplay with others and that our learning increases when we are engaged in activities that have meaning for us (Shaw, 2000). I believe that students learn best from what they consider most relevant to their lives, and I try to center my teaching on the experiences, interests, and abilities of my students. Since experimentalism encourages interaction with others, my students work in cooperative groups and learn through hands
Experimentalism leads me into the last component that influences my philosophy, Multiple Intelligences. Experimentalism and Multiple Intelligences are similar in that they both focus on the student as an individual. In his Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Dr. Howard Gardner expands the concept of intelligence to include such areas as music, spatial relations, and interpersonal knowledge in addition to the traditional view of two intelligences�mathematical and linguistic (Understanding the Theory, 2005). Many learning styles can be found in one classroom. It is impossible for a teacher to accommodate every lesson to all learning styles, but I try to teach using as many learning styles as possible. One Chinese proverb states, �I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand.� The more learning styles that are integrated into a lesson, the more students will grasp the concepts being taught. As children do not learn in the same way, they cannot be assessed in a uniform fashion (Understanding the Theory, 2005). Knowing how each student learns will allow me to properly assess a student�s learning. Traditional tests do not give all my students a chance to shine. Providing my students opportunities to explain their progress in a personal way gives me a more accurate assessment.