I was impressed with how thorough this overview of educational philosophies was. It was organized in a way that made sense--it could have been grouped by most common attributes or by categories like "existentialism" and "pragmatism" but the choice to make it a timeline was a good one, I think. That way, not only do we get to see what the prevailing educational ideas of a certain time were, but we can see how they grow and change over the centuries. I was also interested to see some of the teachers on this list--Jesus and Native Americans particularly. I didn't apply any of their teaching strategies to my own philosophy, but I was interested to read about their values from an educational perspective. It seems the authors spent some time rooting around through passages in the bible and researching Native American social structure in order to write a pretty comprehensive and concise summary of their educational beliefs. It made the summaries of the other great thinkers seem more informed, as well.
As for my personal favorites, I think that in order of their greatest help to my personal philosophy, it would have to be Piaget, Counts, Froebel, and Aquinas.
I liked Piaget's pragmatic approach to student learning, and his belief that content of a higher level of thinking should be introduced when the student is intellectually mature enough to get the most from it. His emphasis on cooperation also falls in line with my own ideas, though i don't think it is quite as essential to the "real exchange of thought and discussion" as he might.
Counts' idealization of the teaching profession is an important idea. I liked how earnest he is in his belief that teaching has the most direct effect on mankind. As teachers we are responsible for educating future generations, who will be responsible for making the decisions that shape future societies. I think that this can be considered the most important profession of all.
Froebel is like me in that he rejects the idea of a child being able to be "shaped or bent" or starting off with a blank slate. His introduction of early childhood teaching tools and activities stem from a belief that every child has their own unique talent, something that I agree with. the quote "In play a child reveals his own original power" is one that I can really get behind. It emphasizes my belief that students all have unique qualities, but they must exercise them in order to bring them to the surface.
Aquinas' ideas on character development made an impression on me, especially the importance he places on giving students the opportunities to make good choices. I believe that each student has the "potential for knowledge" of Aquinas' vision, but that it must come from their interactions within their lives. I also appreciated the idea that if one "accustoms" students to being virtuous, they will remain virtuous throughout their lives. I think this idea is a little lofty and foolishly optimistic, but it is a hopeful idea nonetheless. Being a good role model to your students would be a good way to work this into your classroom without acting as though you know what it takes to be virtuous (hint: no one does.) There are some glimpses of the idealistic "teacher knows the truth" attitude in Aquinas' philosophies, however, and I am not sure I agree with everything he stands for.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Personal Philosophy Reflection
Classroom Organization
I'm not sure how much say I will have in the physical placement of things in my class, but I really don't think it matters much beyond moving the desks into either groups or a circle, depending on the activity. I find rows of seats to be intimidating, and I have a gut feeling that, while it might help keep students from peering over at their friends' work without being seen, it doesn't keep them any more motivated or engaged. Other than that, I think I will position my personal work space somewhere in one of the corners of the classroom so that I can counsel students during class time without making them sit or stand up in everyone's plain view.
Motivation
This is a tough area for every teacher. For the most part, I feel as though every rationale I've made up on all of my lesson plans just isn't good enough. I feel as though I'm trying to arrive at an elusive "right" answer that I can use as a retort to every rationale prompt, but it is the same "right" answer that has plagued the pedagogies of countless teachers and educational philosophers throughout history. What keeps a student motivated? Personally, I think that all examples depend on the student's interest in the subject. This is not always easy to achieve, but if you can help a student not just relate to the subject, but to gain an active personal interest in it, you will hold their attention for as long as you can keep feeding them more information about it.
Discipline
The punishment should fit the crime, and there are always exceptions to rules. A teacher's judgment can be the most prominent thing that a student experiences, and if it is handled the wrong way, the teacher will be made an immediate enemy of that student, undoing however many weeks or months of respect has been gained. I think that the administration's disciplinary actions should be utilized as a last resort, when something that can't be resolved at the moment or in class needs further attention. Then again, what do I know? My ideas on this are guaranteed to change after I student teach with my at-risk students.
Assessment
Formative and Summative assessment are great tools in theory, but I have a feeling that they don't gauge the learning of the class all that well. Maybe with an 80% success rate, 90% if your assessment is good. By good, I don't necessarily mean thorough, but intuitive. How can you tell that your students have been absorbing all of that stuff you made up for the last four weeks? Will a multiple choice test tell you, or just make it so that you can keep some numbers in a book of your students' names? I think that any assessment that gauges your students on both how many skills they have retained and to what extent they can apply those skills is good assessment. It's not so easy to create assessment that does all of that, though.
Classroom Climate
I need my students to respect me, but it should be a mutual respect. I want to have a class where discussions are encouraged and frequent, where no student feels as though they will be corrected in a way that insults their ideas or their intelligence. No one should feel outcast or on a different level of ability, and I have to make sure that my demeanor and action plans reflect the kind of atmosphere where a classroom like that can flourish.
Learning Focus
Since I think that knowledge is the most important thing you can gain to enrich your life, I am going to try and make the goal of learning in my classes about practical application. I will have my work cut out for me making rationale statements, but I think that thing is useless which isn't going to enhance my students' understanding of the world that they are going to be thrust into.
Technology Integration
There should be a healthy balance of technology integration in the classroom. If it can't be easily done with typical methods of student creation and planning, then I am all for it. I am not on board with substituting every class activity with a technological equivalent, particularly if the technological avenue requires more work or setup and nets little payoff to the students' learning. For creative projects and blog participation, however, I will be relying heavily on technology.
Teacher and Leadership Style.
As I have said in my Classroom Climate section, I want my class to be a comfortable place for anyone to ask questions without feeling like they are going to be judged or ridiculed for their input. In order to get to this level of trust and respect in my class, I am going to have to work hard to model this attitude. In this case, "work hard" means "pay attention to what I'm doing and saying" since one bad classroom experience or decisive action can outweigh the benefits of five good experiences or actions. In order to best prepare for the mindset I'll have to be in, I will make the professional distance from my students apparent, while still being someone they can feel comfortable coming to for help, academically or otherwise. I want my students to feel valued as people first, then as students.
I'm not sure how much say I will have in the physical placement of things in my class, but I really don't think it matters much beyond moving the desks into either groups or a circle, depending on the activity. I find rows of seats to be intimidating, and I have a gut feeling that, while it might help keep students from peering over at their friends' work without being seen, it doesn't keep them any more motivated or engaged. Other than that, I think I will position my personal work space somewhere in one of the corners of the classroom so that I can counsel students during class time without making them sit or stand up in everyone's plain view.
Motivation
This is a tough area for every teacher. For the most part, I feel as though every rationale I've made up on all of my lesson plans just isn't good enough. I feel as though I'm trying to arrive at an elusive "right" answer that I can use as a retort to every rationale prompt, but it is the same "right" answer that has plagued the pedagogies of countless teachers and educational philosophers throughout history. What keeps a student motivated? Personally, I think that all examples depend on the student's interest in the subject. This is not always easy to achieve, but if you can help a student not just relate to the subject, but to gain an active personal interest in it, you will hold their attention for as long as you can keep feeding them more information about it.
Discipline
The punishment should fit the crime, and there are always exceptions to rules. A teacher's judgment can be the most prominent thing that a student experiences, and if it is handled the wrong way, the teacher will be made an immediate enemy of that student, undoing however many weeks or months of respect has been gained. I think that the administration's disciplinary actions should be utilized as a last resort, when something that can't be resolved at the moment or in class needs further attention. Then again, what do I know? My ideas on this are guaranteed to change after I student teach with my at-risk students.
Assessment
Formative and Summative assessment are great tools in theory, but I have a feeling that they don't gauge the learning of the class all that well. Maybe with an 80% success rate, 90% if your assessment is good. By good, I don't necessarily mean thorough, but intuitive. How can you tell that your students have been absorbing all of that stuff you made up for the last four weeks? Will a multiple choice test tell you, or just make it so that you can keep some numbers in a book of your students' names? I think that any assessment that gauges your students on both how many skills they have retained and to what extent they can apply those skills is good assessment. It's not so easy to create assessment that does all of that, though.
Classroom Climate
I need my students to respect me, but it should be a mutual respect. I want to have a class where discussions are encouraged and frequent, where no student feels as though they will be corrected in a way that insults their ideas or their intelligence. No one should feel outcast or on a different level of ability, and I have to make sure that my demeanor and action plans reflect the kind of atmosphere where a classroom like that can flourish.
Learning Focus
Since I think that knowledge is the most important thing you can gain to enrich your life, I am going to try and make the goal of learning in my classes about practical application. I will have my work cut out for me making rationale statements, but I think that thing is useless which isn't going to enhance my students' understanding of the world that they are going to be thrust into.
Technology Integration
There should be a healthy balance of technology integration in the classroom. If it can't be easily done with typical methods of student creation and planning, then I am all for it. I am not on board with substituting every class activity with a technological equivalent, particularly if the technological avenue requires more work or setup and nets little payoff to the students' learning. For creative projects and blog participation, however, I will be relying heavily on technology.
Teacher and Leadership Style.
As I have said in my Classroom Climate section, I want my class to be a comfortable place for anyone to ask questions without feeling like they are going to be judged or ridiculed for their input. In order to get to this level of trust and respect in my class, I am going to have to work hard to model this attitude. In this case, "work hard" means "pay attention to what I'm doing and saying" since one bad classroom experience or decisive action can outweigh the benefits of five good experiences or actions. In order to best prepare for the mindset I'll have to be in, I will make the professional distance from my students apparent, while still being someone they can feel comfortable coming to for help, academically or otherwise. I want my students to feel valued as people first, then as students.
Bright Futures
It's interesting to see how schools go about reforming themselves. This is a pretty lengthy and detailed fleshing out of the middle school's most problematic practices, and every issue was tackled head-on. I can't begin to imagine how long it took all of the faculty to do the research and compile these guidelines, but it is clear that there was a great deal of thought put into the document. All the same, I think that while the sheer volume of research and planning holds a lot of water, it came across as a little bit romanticized. Knox is pretty much aligning itself eye-to-eye with NCLB's standards. That's not at all a bad thing, of course. NCLB's 12 core standards are very ambitious and they address problem areas that need to be addressed, but aside from the usual 6 steps of "phasing out" in every rationale, I don't think that the school explained exactly how they were going to implement their new standards--of course, if I just overlooked that part, that might be an indication that they need a little bit more attention to the particulars of school-wide application. Also, describing ideal scenarios in every rationale for pages does a good job of painting a mental picture for the aspiring school reform hopeful, but at the end of the day it accomplishes little in the field of practical application.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Educational Issue: Assessment
I liked how much emphasis was put on the issue of standardized testing in this presentation. We often get a chance to become naysayers in our classes, but it was good to see the problem areas spelled out in so many different ways for us. Also, I liked how the focus on standardized tests didn't come solely from a position of negativity--there were enough examples of why the tests could be successful to make the criticism fair and balanced (though of course everyone knows that standardized tests are the devil).
The videos you showed in class were informative, especially the second one, in which the keynote speaker gave some interesting perspectives on his reasons for teaching outside of standardized assessment. The brief sample we saw of that video made me want to watch the rest of it and broaden my knowledge of assessment strategies.
Your strongest point was that the right assessment is the difference between students merely learning the "answer" and not the "process" or content. The points your group made to support the importance of students learning more than simple, concrete answers were clearly outlined and well presented. Good work!
The videos you showed in class were informative, especially the second one, in which the keynote speaker gave some interesting perspectives on his reasons for teaching outside of standardized assessment. The brief sample we saw of that video made me want to watch the rest of it and broaden my knowledge of assessment strategies.
Your strongest point was that the right assessment is the difference between students merely learning the "answer" and not the "process" or content. The points your group made to support the importance of students learning more than simple, concrete answers were clearly outlined and well presented. Good work!
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