Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Education Trends
I see a conflict in education coming upon us rapidly. This weeks reading affirmed my thoughts on the conflict. I feel like the education world is leaning more and more towards a student centered classroom where the teacher is more of a facilitator meant to encourage the inquisitive student mind. But I feel like the way the politics of education are going, we are trending more and more towards national standardized testing that leads to national curriculum. The perceived gap between the U.S. and other countries in education is leading us towards more and more standardized testing. I see that standardized testing leads to more teacher centered classrooms, particularly if teacher's pay becomes tied into the results of this standardized testing. This is not a good thing for education. I think that accountability for teachers is a good idea and needed, but I feel like standardized testing is not the best way to gauge teacher success and also student learning. Many things that are learned in school cannot be measured by standardized tests.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
1st Educational Philosophy Post
What are your beliefs about learning?
I believe that learning and knowledge is the only thing that can truly make our state, country and world a better place. Learning and knowledge has led us on this progressive track through history that brought us to where we are now. The human race learned how to create a civilization and to create a government. We learned how to sail ships and to more productively grow crops. We created religions that we now use as reasons to kill one another. We learned how use material from this Earth to materials such as steel and we learned how to utilized other resources such as coal. We built machines that made life easier for ourselves but also polluted the earth. We created a weapon that could someday end life on this planet as we know it. The world has had problems since its inception and the only way we will overcome these problems is to learn and to use our knowledge. We need to learn how to live within our means, we need to learn how be accept others, we need to learn how to minimize our impact on this earth. I believe that learning is what can safe our state, country and world for our great great great grand-kids. I believe that anyone can learn if we hold them accountable to the learning and invest in that person's learning. That is a brief synopsis of what I believe about learning.
What do you belief is the purpose of school, the needs of
students, the needs of society,..?
I believe that the purpose of school is to prepare our students to be successful contributors to our rapidly globalizing society. The society that we live in today puts and emphasis on use of technology and on critical thinking. Especially in the U.S. we are in a post-Industrial society that values critical thinking skills over brute strength. So if order to help make our students successful we have to give them access to technology and get them to think critically. A person who can critically think also makes a good member in a democratic society and we need people to be good citizens. Society not only needs critical thinkers, it also needs good citizens who know the issues, know their beliefs and make good sound decisions when voting. Society also needs these citizens to look out for one another and to have a sense of togetherness and patriotism amongst them. I don't mean this in a Socialist manner, but instead in just a good neighbor sort of way. It is the schools job to churn out students who are equal to the aforementioned requirements.
How does your philosophy manifest itself in your management
style, lesson planning, learning environment, curricular
decisions, ...?
I try to foster a togetherness amongst my students. A sense that it isn't just me that needs to do well, but others as well. Plus I let them know that when they teach someone else, that increases their learning as well. I try to include technology and cooperative learning strategies in my lesson plans whenever I can. I also try to present both sides of an issue when talking about it. For example I present both the Colonial view and the British view to the start of the American Revolution and I also look at the lack of real change from the American Revolution. (i.e. Britain was still our biggest trading partner, instead of the British ruling elite running the show, it was now our own ruling elite running the show) This is an effort to get students to empahize and to also critically think about a topic.
Does your philosophy represent or reflect a particular
philosophical position?
As I mentioned in my Educational Philosophy post, I am a Pragmatist and little bit of a Realist. I believe that reality and life is what we make it and the our experiences help to shape the person that we are today. This shows up in the classroom when I do perspective activities or lecture such as the American Revolution one that I just presented. The only place that I really sway from the Pragmatist view is on the values portion. I believe, like Realists, that some values are natural and absolute. I believe that a want for life, love and happiness are absolute values. There are some values that are relative, but otheres are absolute.
I believe that learning and knowledge is the only thing that can truly make our state, country and world a better place. Learning and knowledge has led us on this progressive track through history that brought us to where we are now. The human race learned how to create a civilization and to create a government. We learned how to sail ships and to more productively grow crops. We created religions that we now use as reasons to kill one another. We learned how use material from this Earth to materials such as steel and we learned how to utilized other resources such as coal. We built machines that made life easier for ourselves but also polluted the earth. We created a weapon that could someday end life on this planet as we know it. The world has had problems since its inception and the only way we will overcome these problems is to learn and to use our knowledge. We need to learn how to live within our means, we need to learn how be accept others, we need to learn how to minimize our impact on this earth. I believe that learning is what can safe our state, country and world for our great great great grand-kids. I believe that anyone can learn if we hold them accountable to the learning and invest in that person's learning. That is a brief synopsis of what I believe about learning.
What do you belief is the purpose of school, the needs of
students, the needs of society,..?
I believe that the purpose of school is to prepare our students to be successful contributors to our rapidly globalizing society. The society that we live in today puts and emphasis on use of technology and on critical thinking. Especially in the U.S. we are in a post-Industrial society that values critical thinking skills over brute strength. So if order to help make our students successful we have to give them access to technology and get them to think critically. A person who can critically think also makes a good member in a democratic society and we need people to be good citizens. Society not only needs critical thinkers, it also needs good citizens who know the issues, know their beliefs and make good sound decisions when voting. Society also needs these citizens to look out for one another and to have a sense of togetherness and patriotism amongst them. I don't mean this in a Socialist manner, but instead in just a good neighbor sort of way. It is the schools job to churn out students who are equal to the aforementioned requirements.
How does your philosophy manifest itself in your management
style, lesson planning, learning environment, curricular
decisions, ...?
I try to foster a togetherness amongst my students. A sense that it isn't just me that needs to do well, but others as well. Plus I let them know that when they teach someone else, that increases their learning as well. I try to include technology and cooperative learning strategies in my lesson plans whenever I can. I also try to present both sides of an issue when talking about it. For example I present both the Colonial view and the British view to the start of the American Revolution and I also look at the lack of real change from the American Revolution. (i.e. Britain was still our biggest trading partner, instead of the British ruling elite running the show, it was now our own ruling elite running the show) This is an effort to get students to empahize and to also critically think about a topic.
Does your philosophy represent or reflect a particular
philosophical position?
As I mentioned in my Educational Philosophy post, I am a Pragmatist and little bit of a Realist. I believe that reality and life is what we make it and the our experiences help to shape the person that we are today. This shows up in the classroom when I do perspective activities or lecture such as the American Revolution one that I just presented. The only place that I really sway from the Pragmatist view is on the values portion. I believe, like Realists, that some values are natural and absolute. I believe that a want for life, love and happiness are absolute values. There are some values that are relative, but otheres are absolute.
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