Chapter 5: Building an Educational Philosophy in a Changing World.

This chapter was about the many teacher or student center education philosophies, classroom management options, and teachers’ role of change for society. The three philosophies that are teacher-centered are: essentialism, behaviorism, perennialism and positivism. Essentialism believes that there is a set of knowledge and skills that a person must acquire in order to be a functional member of a society. Behaviorism states that an individual’s actions are determined by the environment, so a teacher who subscribes to this theory would have their classroom set up in a specific way, with not a poster or chair in the wrong place. Perennialism says that there are specific knowledge and guiding principles that are equally relevant throughout time. Humans are rational beings therefore they must learn how to think and achieve cultural literacy. Positivism believes that every thing in the world can be explained by rules and laws of matter; any sort of spirituality has no place. Student-centered teaching philosophies are: progressivism, humanism, reconstructionism, and constructivism. Progressivism is propelled by students’ questions and these ideas should be tested by experiments. Humanism believes that humans are essentially good and focus should be on developing that in an individual and not on the group. Reconstructionism is about understanding social problems, learning in and about diversity and multicultural issues, and taking responsibility for the choice the students’ have in the future to improve injustices in the world. Constructivism is based on creating personal meaning and connection to material or information through activities and hands on situations. This uses real life applications as a main component of learning because there can be multiple solutions to contemporary problems. Also students choose to solve the problem that makes the most sense to their way of thinking, it is individualized. The chapter also presented different ways to set up a classroom, assess, motivate, and how much voice students are given. The last part was about a teacher’s role in society, whether a teacher should help students adapt to change, a teacher should be a catalyst in social change, or rationally mediate the tension between the individual and society.

I connected to reconstructionism and constructivism the most of all the philosophies. A main reason was that they were student centered. I liked the aspect of reconstructionism that deals with talking about social issues and multiculturalism in the class. I also want my students to understand that humans have a ability to destroy each other but they don’t and to be able to answer some of the big questions in life. I liked constructivism because I believe if a student has a personal connection to the material it will be remembered later. Students learn material through hands on experiences and simulations. I understand that the facts are important in history but I also know that it is a ‘social science.’ I want to balance the need to show that history is about people as a whole in society and with the need to recognize my students as individuals whose voice can be heard.