Test Your Understanding About the Philosophy (Reflection #3)

          The five major Philosophies of Education has been taught to us by Dr. Olga Alonsabe and made it more active by letting us group ourselves to which philosophy we truly believed. After the very good and active participation of each group, we were given another activity containing 6 members each group and let us answer page 12 of The Teaching Profession book, Test Your Understanding of the Philosophies, wherein YES or NO is the answer to each question.  Each Philosophy has 4 questions and we got 2 wrong answers on the Progressivism and 1 wrong answer on Perennialism.

            Same with my group mates, I thought that Progressivist teachers look at education as preparation for adult life, believing that preparing for adult life is the same as coping with the changes of life, which the progressivist really adheres to. Another wrong answer is we say No to the question “Are the students’ interests and needs considered in a progressivist curriculum?” Again, we were able to miss conceptualizing that Progressivist is a student-centered philosophy and thus be answered as Yes.  Another wrong answer is the question from Perennialism, “Are the perennialist teachers concerned with the student’s mastery of the fundamental skills?” We gave a Yes answer. Supposed to be a big No because it is the belief of Essentialism. Perennialism, which is more related to Essentialism, teaches on principles and not facts. It is very concern on the reasoning ability of every person and not on the essential skills. So, all in all, we had a score of 17/20.

            Testing one’s understanding like that of page 12 of The Teaching Profession book helps every future educator to evaluate himself to how far where he able to go and understand the ideas previously discussed. For me, it is really a big help because like what we have done with our group, there was an exchange of ideas to every member and eventually allowed us to identify our understanding on each philosophy. It broadened my knowledge about some facts a philosophy holds which I think is not. It is a tool in measuring how deep my understanding on every ideas, and personally I would really want to know more about the philosophy because I know this will be my guide to my future teaching career. Besides, I don’t want to be a teacher without even understanding fully the major philosophies of education. I want to be a part of teachers’ community who is ready to serve and has a very good disposition on handling diversity.                                                                                                                                 

Educational Philosophy (Reflection #2)

According to the book, The Teaching Profession, Philosophy is the window and compass of a teacher in her teaching profession. It becomes his opening to every opportunity so he could identify every existence of learners and make it a guide in imparting his knowledge towards the students. Basically, there are 5 major educational philosophies: Essentialism, Perennialism, Existentialism, Progressivism and Behaviorism. According to the article of Bayla Maya, The Five Key Educational Philosophies, these five philosophies are mainly being incorporated by educators considering the makeup of the classroom setting. A good educator is capable of adapting changes through times and does the thing that is relevant to the development of the person. Existentialism, the conservative philosophy, it teaches facts. It allows the individual to learn the basic education so he could be prepared for making up as citizen of a society.  The concern of this also is to pass the culture from teachers to students. Here, the students are passive that what is being instilled in their minds is the truth and nothing more. Perrenialism, like existentialism, is also a teacher-centered philosophy but it teaches principles and thus believe that truth is eternal and changes occur is superficial. Since it believes that man is a rational being, so it is concern more on developing the reasoning ability of every person. Progressivism is the philosophy that adheres to the constant change. Thus, teaches learners to adapt to any change in the environment. It is a student-centered concept wherein the student test ideas through experimentation. Eventually, values will depend on every person. The fourth one, which is the Existentialism where is values the essence of every individual. It allows the individual to use his free will, choice and personal responsibility without adhering to the rules. He uses his freedom to learn and to make new things. But this might give a learner to choose and use his freedom not to learn about anything or something. The last philosophy, Behaviorism is a teacher-centered one. The learning of every child depends on the teacher’s way of giving emphasis to the learning environment. He controls every behavior a child must have. Thus, the behavior of every child is through the outside force and not by his own free will. Here, behavior is learned and there is eventually repetition of every meaningful connection. One is also motivated to learn through reinforcement.

When I was in my Elementary years, I had a teacher whom I call a good model because her existence was really appealing to us. She wanted all of us to learn something before leaving our classroom. If one of our classmates is intellectually behind us, she never forced the child to learn believing that our classmate is still growing and will eventually learn in time. She wanted us to be confident in expressing our thoughts and there was no wrong answer. She accepted everything and made some clarification regarding ideas expressed. SJe taught us also values that until now I am still bringing it anywhere I go, and that is to respect others so you could be respected in a way you want to be respected. She did a lot of great things in my life until I reached my high school years for she had a very big impact in my life and become my very inspiration now that I am in line with the teaching profession.

After 2 years in my college years, I believe that I will be a teacher having a mind that welcomes diversity among students and respect their differences, as what my Elementary teachers taught the value of respect. Of course, to serve us my guide in my teaching career, I have to formulate my own philosophy as my guide in teaching. All of those five major philosophies of education is a good thing because those are a big help in shaping individuals to become effective people in an effective society. I know that I will be a teacher who will understand that every individual is unique and they vary on their thoughts and choice. One might be good in everything and the other is of something. I would also let my students use their free will to know that they really exist and make their good choice to make a good life and guided with great values to be developed holistically. I want to be part of my student’s lives because as a teacher, you need to be an individual carrying affectivity of how life should be lived.

“An unexamined life is not worth living for.” –Socrates              J

         

Personal & Professional Qualities of an Elementary Teacher (reflection # 1)

Teacher, considered as the second parent of the students, plays a vital role in shaping individuals. According to Johney Maron, in his article, Personality Traits of a Great Elementary School Teacher, teachers’ role in our society is a big responsibility for whatever possible outcome a child possesses, whether good or bad, it’s his influence mostly that took part and reflects the way how he brought up his students and act in the society. Reason that it is really a very difficult task to handle Elementary students, but could be very successful especially to those who embraces passion for teaching and take it professionally. It simply requires a personality and character beyond the ordinary. The article also emphasizes that taking that job does not only require personal quality so you could live with it, but it also needs a right training- an Elementary Education bachelor degree. Here, they can acquire the right knowledge on how to become an Elementary teacher. How a teacher acts, handles things appropriately and how he visualizes certain things/ incidents.

             In Johney Maron’s article, he mentions there some of the best qualities a teacher must have. One is patience, it begins where the teacher develops a thought that children are still learning, developing and growing so he must have patience on kids. Cheerfulness is the one that could say no to any pressure and could still give a wonderful impression on difficult and uncontrollable issues. Optimism, where teachers hold up hope and think that hard learners can one day is a very good learner. Lastly, determination, when everything like patience and optimism run dry, it is that flourish again patience and optimism and help through any hard times.        I have also read Beth Lewis article, talks about qualities of a good teacher. She said that a teacher must be compassionate, passionate, persistent, always up for challenge, results-oriented, creative & curious, and flexible. These all are basically can make a teacher a better and create better individuals that could make up a society.

             Beth Lewis said, “Teaching is more than just a job. It’s a calling. It’s an ever-surprising mix of grueling hard work and ecstatic successes. The most effective teachers are in it for more than just a paycheck. They keep their energy levels up by focusing on why they got into teaching in the first place.” I totally agree with it. Teaching is a passion. It is a dream job that brings out the world and let your students connect. Best teachers are not teaching because of money, but, teaching because of touching lives of students.