Teaching Philosophy :: Philosophy of Teaching Education Essays

Teaching Philosophy When I was growing up I cherished to be everything I could think of from an astronaut to a doctor. You name it and I wanted to be it. I could not make up my mind and even as I started college no decision fro my major was made. I waited deuce years until coming to the realization that I would like to teach. A small girl in Wal-Mart helped me come to this realization. I did not even know who she was, besides somehow she caught my attention. The first time I looked at her I saw nothing, just an ordinary girl, but something made me look again. When I did the girls face was intent like she was an angel and then she just smiled. The smile filled my heart with such joy that from that moment on I realized that I wanted to see that smile everyday as an elementary school teacher. I wanted to become a part of a childs acquisition experience and development. The following pages contain my philosophy on education and some goals that I will meet in my teaching experiences that are waiting for me. Recently, I have discovered my philosophy of education is progressivism. The person most responsible for the success of progressivism was John Dewey. This approach stimulated schools to mold education to the needs and gratify of the bookmans. After the launching of Sputnik progressivism was looked down upon to go back to traditional instruction with defense-related subjects. Progressivism came back with renewed popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, however in the 1980s and 1990s traditional approaches dominated the nations schools again. I intend to have classroom management, the curriculum, teaching methods, and ways of evaluating my students all following the progressives approach. I believe that the classroom should be student centered so they feel free to make decisions on their own. After all, education is for the students so they should have some say in how they want to lean. First, I would li ke to discuss how I intend to manage my classroom.