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.