My Educational Philosophy

Several weeks ago in EDUC 400 we were asked to discuss our educational philosophies, and this is what I said:

"In relation to a personal educational philosophy, I have tried to consider what I would like my students to be doing in my classroom. I know that I want to do a lot of group activities and discussions. Other than that, I'm not sure what I want to do with my philosophy...I guess I should spend some time thinking about this..."

So, I have been thinking, and I believe I now have a better answer. I have decided that I believe the purpose of education to be to provide students with the necessary knowledge and skills in order to be successful with their endeavors inside and/or outside of the classroom. I then decided that, to me, the most important skills students will need are how to work well with others, how to communicate well, and how to develop their own ideas. Therefore, I want to focus on improving and/or developing these skills in my students.

Because I believe these are the three most important skills necessary to be successful, I plan on implementing a lot of cooperative learning mehtods. I like the ideas of large and small group discussions, group projects, sharing ideas with peers, and playing a role in the learning of one's peers.

I plan on assessing my students through participation, observations, and classroom discussions. I believe that this will work well in conjunction with the every day flow of my classroom routine. There will, of course, be concrete assignments like worksheets, quizzes, exams, etc., but I do not want my students to feel as if these are their only opportunities for earning their grades and expressing thier abilities/knowledge. I want to do everything possible to eliminate and avoid development of test anxiety. I plan on allowing my sutdnets to play a role in creating their written assessments by letting them suggest questions or topics that they feel comfortable writing about.

When I first thought of an educational philosophy a few years ago, I believed that I would teach the way that most of my teachers had taught; I thought I would develop good lectures, my students would take notes, and then they would use those notes to study for exams. I'm glad I have changed my mind. I believe taht my new philosophy will make me a better teacher than my old one would have, and it will facilitate the development of my students' interest in thier own learning experience.

Questions for my partner: How do you think your assessment methods will work with your own educational philosophy? Has your philosophy changed over time?