Eight Educational Philosophies

Progressivism: This philosophy addresses the idea that changes happens. It is not set in stone, and as teachers we should giving our students freedom. It suggests that we should consider how to teach over what to teach, and that 'doing' in the classroom is very important (hands on approach). Progressivism hones in on the idea that discovery in the classroom is key, and it certainly sounds like one of the better of the ten philosophies. I definitely feel like I side with this one the most because of how we were taught in all of our education classes thus far.

Humanism: This one focuses on the multiple intelligences and that everyone learns differently. Individual growth is very important in this philosophy and there is a strong relationship between the student and the teacher to promote even further learning. It is centered around the fact that the person is good, and they are corrupted as they grow by the institutions. Certainly this one is very important in teaching, so I believe I side with this one as well. Having a strong relationship with students makes them more driven.

Reconstructivism: This philosophy focuses on tackling societal issues and helps students to learn how to build their own opinions and individual thoughts. We want to teach individuality and how to form opinions based on personal beliefs.

Constructivism: This idea is centered around the idea that everyone's background is different, and the regardless of people's opinions, it is important to always be reasonable when discussions about differing ideas. A main component of this philosophy is agreeing to disagree, and that you can't always change everyone's perspective on things.

Perennialism: This philosophy, I believe, is focused mostly around English, although there are some math components such as The Elements written by Euclid. Essentially, the classics are extremely important, and that everlasting ideas can be applied to any era.

Essentialism: The focus for essentialism is that there is core knowledge that is key. The curriculum is important, although it can change. In addition, a systematic approach to education and teaching is how it should be, and there is a certain discipline for learning that revolves around education.

Positivism: Observable and measurable facts are crucial for positivism, and it revolves around the idea of the scientific method. This approach is very structured and the teacher needs to define exactly how and what should be taught. Logic is used to get the desired answer.

Behaviorism: This philosophy is based on the idea of behavior and how to get the desired results we want from students. Strategies such as positive and negative reinforcement, conditioning, as well as proximity control can be used to get what we want from students. While I believe there is certainly a give and a take to this, I believe we should be using this approach with our students--but not to an extreme. Often we need our students to be productive, but if we do not let them know how we feel about their off-task behaviors it certainly won't stop. However, basing our lessons around the idea of conditioning our students may be a little extreme.

Gender Inequalities Educational Issue

I thought the group did an excellent job of capturing the history behind the gender gaps in education. They touched on a lot of different topics and made the presentation engaging.

I was pleased with the activity at first that broke us up into gender and brought out our strengths. In addition, I thought the memes were an integral part of the presentation, and I really enjoyed considering the pros and cons for single sex education.

The slide show was very nicely done and very professional looking. There was not too much clutter so it was easy to follow. The text was a little small, although it was manageable. I'm sure it was much more readable on the computer screen.

Some things that I considered during the presentation (my reflective questions):
Is the monetary gap between males and females broken down and examined by profession? For example, we say that women get $0.77 to the $1.00 that men get, but could there be confounding variables that create this difference? For example, Engineering is primarily male, whereas education is primarily female, and obviously engineers get payed more. Is this taken into consideration with the $0.77 to the $1.00?

Also, the component of percentages of males and females in specific jobs as it relates to the gender gap is interesting to me. If there is discrimination based on gender, of course that is an issue, although if the reason there are so few men in education is because they don't want to go into education, then that isn't a problem. For example, Clarkson University is 70% male because it is an engineering school. They don't turn down women to the program, it just so happens that men tend to go more towards engineering. If it is peoples' choice is it really an issue that needs to be addressed?

Your presentation did a great job of getting me thinking of these questions. Well done!

Teaching Hope: Empowerment Reflection

In our schools in this day and age we will--no doubt--work with students who are part of the LGBTQ community. Many times for these students they are too worried about the social aspect of school that they aren't necessarily as engaged in the schoolwork they have to do. However, it is very important that we as teachers provide as much support at we can. In entry 138, a student feels very comfortable telling her teacher that she is gay, and that is the way it should be. As long as we can foster an environment that allows students to be themselves many things will come out that previously might have not. For example, at UB there are a large amount of students who are either gay or lesbian. Is it coincidence that UB is such a judgement free zone, and students are able to act the way they truly want to?

Entry 139 reminds me a lot of Upward Bound. This teacher is the epitome of what a teacher at UB is supposed to act like. I firmly believe that if you are not acting 100% positive 100% of the time, students will not a) feel comfortable in your class and b) not feel the confidence they need to. The words that the teacher used to describe this student are true; the only problem is that she was the first to ever say them to the student. If we can reinforce positive growth in students and keep beating it into their head that they are capable and have the potential to do anything, they will be successful. Another interesting component of this entry is what it will look like with the new proficiency based learning model. Perhaps in this case it would not necessarily matter because the student was doing well in his classes and not the standardized tests (go figure). Regardless, a student who only doesn't meet proficiency in specific standards will only need to make those standards up if I understand the new model correctly. This makes much more sense than having students retake an entire year if they only bombed a select number of standards. It will certainly have an impact on the age at which students are graduating high school.

Educational Philosophies

Idealist: The idealist is focused on literature, the mind, spirit, and soul. They also view themselves as the authority figure, and focus the class around self-actualization.

Realist: Similar to the idealist, this theory focuses on teacher centered authority. This approach, however, deals with rationality, observation, proof, and the scientific method.

Existentialist: This belief focuses around choice and creating your own meaning. There are no outside acting forces, and it is the individual that is important. Focus on the imagination and human condition.

Pragmatist: Similar to the existentialist, the pragmatist focuses on student centered learning. They believe meaning is derived from experience, and teachers model experimental knowledge. Teamwork is very important for them, and nothing is solidified meaning truths and values are always changing.

I think the two philosophies that best describe my teaching styles are pragmatism and realism. Using the table 4.1 on page 93 of the book, I was able to discern two out of the four educational questions to be pragmatism. I then split the remaining two with realism and idealism.

The two questions I related to pragmatism were, "What is the proper teaching approach?" and, "How should character development occur?" I believe that the proper teaching approach is for problem solving through inquiry projects, hands-on learning, and product development. As a learner who did best when given those circumstances, I naturally stick to them. Granted not every learner will be like that, but it certainly opens more doors to learning.

This philosophy is a great balance of both idealism and realism that believes in community based learning. I believe the teaching I have done thus far is structured primarily around pragmatism.

Standardized Testing Education Issue

The presentation by Kristi, Mackenzie, and Alyssa was done very well to help present the conflicts regarding standardized testing. I learned a lot of interesting facts about standardized testing that I did not previously know, and it further cemented my beliefs on standardized testing. They presented some great points including the fact that standardized tests are created to be standard; however, the most important thing that isn't standard is each school's situation. I really enjoyed moral of the school problem activity. That really got me thinking about problems associated with standardized testing.

Following the presentation, the biggest question I had was what can we do as teachers that might eventually help tear down this evil of standardized testing? It really is too bad that standardized testing is such a huge incorporation, because it would be so difficult to break it down. I wish there was something that a politician could do to put an end to what was started.

I thought the presentation was very strong and had great activities that kept the crowd engaged. The only suggestion I might have had was the amount of talking in the beginning. There was about 15 minutes of direct instruction from the group, which by no means was bad, but the second half was more engaging. This is not something that took away from the presentation by any means, it was still extremely well done.

Teaching Hope: Rejuvenation Reflection

In entry 114, I am reminded that Jose is the type of student that I hope I am able to have an impact on as a teacher. Unless I am teaching in a very affluent school, I anticipate having many students like Jose who don't put a ton of effort into school and fall behind quickly--and unfortunately all too often stay behind. I have said it before and I will say it as many times as I need to: when I am a teacher I want to be able to sit down with each student and have a serious conversation with them about how they should be doing in my class. If they are slacking, I am going to tell them that and let them know that they are fully capable of great things if and only if they put in the effort. If they are are excelling, I will tell them that, and continue to encourage them to push themselves to the next level.

Entry 120 once again reminds me of what I would like to do as a teacher. I want to be the teacher that has the most fun with students in the school but also expects the most out of them. This entry really brings a warm feeling when reading it and makes me optomistic of what I might experience when I am a teacher. In my first two years of college I though I wanted to teach calculus and the advanced math classes; however, the more I think about it, the more I realize I want to teach algebra I and algebra II and do fun activities with my students every day that I might not as easily be able to do with a calculus class. More importantly, I want to be able to catch students before they advance into higher math classes and hopefully convince them that they are not terrible at math, and they they might even find an interest in it. I want to change their perspective on math and hopefully even interest them in it, similar to how the teacher from this entry didn't take no for an answer and ended up having Tara be so successful. Convincing students that they are capable and have the ability is very difficult but the end result if successful is what teaching is all about.

The Story of Schools: Episode 4 Reflection

As education progressed in America, it seems that the pressure on schools and teachers began to get more and more intense. Starting back in the 50s and 60s, schools started to crack down on students and their grades as far as extracurricular activities was concerned. Interestingly enough, like many of the philosophies of the past, that rule still sticks today--and rightly so. Students were starting to be held more accountable for the way they preformed in schools, although perhaps it wasn't for the right reasons...

As soon as school districts began being held accountable for how their students did in the classroom, a threatening feeling began to brew. To no surprise, stress built for the teachers which in tern built for the students. It was bad enough that standardize testing was implemented every five grades or so, but then the push for every grade started in the hope that schools would be help more accountable, and students would 'progress' further. In truth, it was likely the opposite effect that happened. Standardized tests are not the answer. In fact, if I could have it my way things would be a little different.

Teacher's salaries would increase so more people would be interested in joining the profession. The more people interested in joining the profession creates greater competition for jobs, so better teachers are being hired. Because better teachers are being hired, students will inherently do better in school, and will not need to be tested on such high stakes. But hey, there isn't much I can do about that.

To quickly and easily wrap it up, standardize testing has put education in America in the opposite direction of where we want to be headed. If only educators has a real say in what went on at the higher levels of government... "Let's teach our students to think outside the box rather than fill in the circles."

The Story of Schools: Episode 1 Reflection

It is pretty amazing what we take for granted today in our school systems. Seeing that only a select few children were educated because education was not something that was funded by the government was unlike what I had ever pictured. Originally, it seemed like education was meant to be available to all students (excluding blacks) although it ended up being only for the students whose families could afford it.

Horace Mann, the first Secretary of Education, really paved the way for the first set of reforms among schools. I was impressed to hear that he traveled to nearly 1,000 schools in such a short amount of time to do a report on every school. He recognized that many of them were underprivileged and even made the point, "How could students learn in an environment like this?" That sounds similar doesn't it? We make that point all the time with the schools and classrooms we encounter today.

Although this was the incorrect era for relating my interview data to, I am excited to see the responses my grandfather came up with and how similar they may be to what we have watched thus far. I am curious to hear about his transportation to school, and what type of environment he learned in, and the types of teaching strategies that teachers used back in the mid 30's. Perhaps they were more similar to 19th century than we may think?

A Nation at Risk Reflection

All of these statistics sound very mind boggling. It is not the case that those statistics were relevant to all parts of the country; however, those parts of the country are the ones that should be focused on for providing better educational services. It is unfortunate to see that although we said education is available to everyone regardless of race, culture, economic status, etc... we still let students slip through the cracks with nearly every subject--especially those who are in minority groups.

It seems like we recognized the problem and the ideal solution to the problem, although often times it is much easier said than done. The root of all evil, money, determines what we should and should not do for fixing the current dilemma we are in. In addition to the trouble that is faced with money and governmental issues, the public begins to become inpatient with what is happening and they demand more change.

Twenty-five years later, many things have changed yet, somehow, many things still stay the same. Between 1983 and today, there have been many laws that have been signed into effect that, according to some are great, while according to others are terrible. One in particular is the No Child Left Behind Act that President Bush signed into law in 2002 that required teachers to make students preform well on standardized tests for their school to receive more money. Was something like this that was supposed to be a step in the right direction, in fact, in the opposite? While there may be an ideal way to make things work today, the feasibility of it happening is unfortunately too slim due to all of the loops that need to be jumped through to actually get something productive.

Toppo, Greg. "Education." 'Nation at Risk': The Best Thing or the Worst Thing for Education? USA Today, n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2015. <http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-04-22-nation-at-risk_N.htm>.

"A Nation At Risk." Archived:. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2015. <http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html>.