Philosophies and Theories of Education & Methods of Teaching Reflection Paper Review all the material you have learned throughout the program, paying speci

Philosophies and Theories of Education & Methods of Teaching Reflection Paper Review all the material you have learned throughout the program, paying special attention to the theoretical orientations described in 5200.Spend some time reflecting on philosophies and theories of education and methods of teaching. What was of greatest interest to you? What will have the greatest impact on you as a teacher? Write a one to one and a half-page (approximately 500-800 word) essay integrating what you have learned in your research and describing your personal philosophy and theory of teaching. You should list at least one philosophical orientation and one educational theorist, although you are not limited to one of each. To support your position as to why you align with the philosophy and theorist(s) you selected, cite at least two outside sources. Section 2. Educational Philosophy and Learning
Theories
Educational Philosophy
A sports coach should have a philosophy about how her team should play. For instance, a
famous football coach at Ohio State was known for “3 yards and a cloud of dust.” His
team ran the ball down after down. That was his offensive philosophy. In basketball, some
coaches have a philosophy of slowing the game down, while others have a “run and gun”
philosophy. As a teacher, you need a philosophy too. A teacher will be more consistent if
he or she has a clearly thought-out philosophy of education. Here is a summary of some of
the enduring philosophies of education:
The perennialist educator is concerned with opening students’ minds to rational thought
and truths found in the “classics,” works of great authors like Aristotle, Plato, Saint
Thomas Aquinas, Shakespeare, and others. Some perennialists advocate a “great books”
curriculum. Philosopher Mortimer Adler suggested three criteria for a book to be included
for study: 1) the book has contemporary significance; that is, it has relevance to the
problems and issues of our time; 2) the book is inexhaustible; it can be read again and
again with benefit; and 3) the book is relevant to a large number of the great ideas and
great issues that have occupied the minds of thinking individuals for the last twenty-five
centuries.
The essentialist believes that schools should exist to see that certain selected elements of
the culture are passed on to succeeding generations. The primary focus of the essentialist
is the subject matter, rather than the student. E.D. Hirsch suggested that schools teach
“cultural literacy,” the things he thought every American should know. These include the
ability to converse fluently in the idioms, allusions and informal content that create and
constitute a dominant culture. From being familiar with street signs to knowing historical
references to understanding the most recent slang, the essentialist believes that literacy
demands interaction with, and reflection of, the culture.
The progressivist believes that schools should focus on developing the unique talents,
capabilities, and interests of each child. The emphasis is on the individual child, rather than
on society or subject matter. The progressive curriculum emerges from the needs and
interests of the students. Philosopher/educator John Dewey wrote many books explaining
this approach in the first half of the 1900s.
The reconstructionist believes that schools should be active agents of social change,
leading the way to a new and more ideal social order. Students are encouraged to
question traditions and traditional values and even the value of academic content. Under
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this philosophy, society becomes the subject matter, and the function of the student is to
effect social change through skills and attitudes learned in school. The reconstructionist
curriculum cannot be separated from the current events taking place within the
community. The teacher serves as a guide and a leader. You can see how this is directly
opposite to the first two philosophies.
The existentialist believes that the most important human activity is the search for the
meaning of one’s own existence in an irrational world. This philosophy is most concerned
with developing the individual student. For the existentialist teacher, students are
considered subjects, not objects. The existentialist curriculum could be anything
negotiated between the teacher and the student, and the relationships between teacher
and student are very important.
Note that each of these philosophies is based upon a different idea about the purpose of
education. You may identify with one or more of the viewpoints, or have a completely
different idea of the purpose of education. The upcoming sections of this course will
discuss various educational theories. These educational theories (or learning theories) are
different from the educational philosophies in that the learning theories are focused on
explaining how learning happens, as opposed to why education exists. However, you may
also observe that some learning theories seem to be naturally aligned to support the goals
a particular educational philosophy.
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Learning Theories and Theories of Learner Development
In response to the B.B. King quote introducing this
section, an educational psychologist might respond,
“But how does one acquire learning in the first
place?” After all, knowledge is not something that
you can buy at the store! The field of educational
psychology is concerned with understanding exactly how people think and learn, and
applying this knowledge to make education more effective.
“The beautiful thing about
learning is nobody can take it
away from you.”
– B.B. King
As you will read, educational psychologists have determined that certain teaching methods
can lead to more effective teaching and learning. Yet, there is still much about the brain’s
processes for acquiring new information that science has not clearly defined. In spite of
remarkable advances in medical science and technology, researchers still have limited
understanding of exactly how the human brain acquires and applies new information—in
other words, how people learn. In fact, as you will read in the following material, this is an
incredibly complex question. Not all educational psychologists even agree about how to
measure that learning has taken place, much less how it occurs in the brain. However, over
the years, several prominent educational psychologists have proposed theories about what
learning is, how it occurs, and how to measure it. Note that the various theories described
in this section are only theories—albeit influential, classroom-tested ones.
As you read this course material, try to ask yourself:
• Do you agree with any theorist more than the others? Why?
• How will you know that your students have learned something new?
• What is the value to you in knowing about an educational theory that you disagree
with?
• How might teachers of different theoretical approaches differ in their day-to-day
work in the classroom?
The concepts presented in this course can serve as anchors to hold your teaching steady.
While there is no one theory that fully explains learning or can be applied in every
situation, you should be equipped at any time to point to a theoretical basis for the
teaching strategies you are using in the classroom.
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Metacognition
Educational psychology is a field with many branches, and a teacher’s theoretical approach
will influence many factors of his or her work. Some of these topics will be addressed in
this course, while others will be addressed in later courses or will be topics you may wish to
research on your own.
For now, consider this: What are your assumptions about what learning “looks like” in a
child. Take this opportunity to evaluate your own preconceptions about what learning is
and how it occurs.
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Overview of Major Theories and Theorists
Timeline of Learning Theory
There are a few primary theories of learning that dominate the educational landscape.
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Behaviorism
Cognitive Learning Theory/Cognitivism
Constructivism
Some scholars consider cognitive learning theory an independent school of theoretical
thought, whereas others group cognitivism as a kind of constructivism. The classification is
not as important as the key ideas and contributions that each theory has made to
education.
Over the years, various educational psychologists and theorists advanced and built upon
these theories. Understanding the major branches of learning theory, along with
knowledge of some key theorists, will have direct application to your work in the
classroom.
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Behaviorism
Behaviorists believe that the only valid measure of learning is how a person behaves. To the
behaviorist, a person’s inner thoughts and feelings are impossible to measure and
therefore irrelevant to demonstrating learning. Important writers/researchers who shaped
this viewpoint are Ivan Pavlov, J.B. Watson, E.L. Thorndike, and B.F. Skinner.
To the behaviorist, behavior is the focus of instruction. Under this theory, the teacher can
only reliably measure what a student can do. A teacher can measure if a student has
learned to add 4 + 3 by asking him the answer. If the student has learned answer, he will
prove his knowledge with a behavior by responding “7.” On the other hand, a student
who behaves by answering “6,” or by shrugging, “I don’t know,” has behaved in a way
that shows that he has not learned the principals of basic addition. A teacher cannot
measure whether the student “loves math” or “appreciates art” because these thoughts
or feelings are not objectively measureable. If a math teacher asks whether her students
like math, they might say “yes” because they know what the teacher wants to hear. There
is no way a teacher can know if that is what the student truly feels.
To the behaviorist, learning is a reliable change in behavior. In the example above, the
student could have guessed when he answered “7.” Just because the student gives the
correct answer once, the teacher can’t assume that the student has learned. However, if
the student consistently says “7” when asked to add 4 + 3 or 3 + 4, then it can be
assumed that he has learned the answer. The best measure of learning is to ask the
student to add 4 + 3 several weeks after the end of instruction. If the material is learned, it
will persist and not be deleted from the brain immediately after a test; hence, the behavior
will permanently change. On the other hand, if a student studies a quantity of material,
passes a test, and then promptly forgets the material, the behaviorist would say that the
student never learned, because his behavior was not changed for the long term. Looking
at it this way, very little of what the teacher presents is ever learned.
The behaviorist approach is best for teaching material with a specific, known answer, or
accepted answers. Examples would be math facts such as multiplication tables; historical
facts; scientific information such as the names of the bones in the hand or the Periodic
Table; or the names of artists who painted specific works of art.
Ivan Pavlov (Classical Conditioning)
Ivan Pavlov was a Russian scientist who helped to develop the idea of classical
conditioning. In his experiments, he found that when dogs were presented with food,
they would salivate. Pavlov began to play a bell while providing the dogs food, and soon,
the dogs began to associate the bell with food. They would salivate when they heard the
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bell, even if they had not yet received food. In other words, the dogs learned to associate
the sound of the bell with food. The dogs were conditioned to expect food at the sound
of the bell.
Behaviorists call anything that triggers a response (in a dog or a learner) a stimulus. You
can read more about Pavlov’s work at http://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html.
B.F. Skinner (Behaviorism and Operant Conditioning)
B.F. Skinner helped to define behaviorism and built upon the idea of conditioning. He
believed that people are conditioned to repeat behaviors that have good consequences
and not to repeat behaviors that have bad consequences (recall positive and negative
reinforcement from 5100). When a learner responds directly to a stimulus, he is
demonstrating respondent conditioning (similar to Pavlov’s classical conditioning).
However, Skinner built upon the idea by pointing out that, at any given moment, a person
might behave in a way that was not triggered by any particular stimulus. When a learner’s
spontaneous behavior is reinforced, this is called operant conditioning. The emphasis on
reinforcement (giving a positive stimulus for desired behavior, and a negative stimulus for
undesirable behavior) was one of Skinner’s major contributions to behaviorism and the
field of education. Using stimuli and reinforcement to bring about a change in student
behavior is called shaping.
Read more about Skinner’s work at http://www.simplypsychology.org/operantconditioning.html.
Teachers who apply behaviorism in their classrooms will want to make sure they give
specific feedback to their students during the class day and also on student work. Positive
feedback for good work or constructive criticism can be enormously helpful to students in
helping them to shape their behavior.
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Teaching Strategies for Behaviorist Classrooms
The behaviorist educator believes that knowledge exists on its own outside the human
mind and that learning occurs when knowledge is transmitted to and acquired by learners.
Therefore learning is the change in behavior due to external experiences or practices.
Teaching methods consistent with behaviorist theory include: instruction which focuses on
teaching sequences of skills beginning with lower level and moving to higher level skills,
clearly stated objectives with test items matched to them, more individual work than group
work, and traditional teaching and assessment methods (where the teacher lectures to the
students and then assesses learning with a written exam, such as a multiple choice or fill in
the blank test).
A leading form of instruction based on the behaviorist approach is direct instruction, which
is an instructional method for the explicit teaching of a skill set using lecture. The guiding
principles of direct instruction are that every child can learn if he is taught, and all teachers
can be successful when they are provided the tools of effective programs and delivery
techniques.
The basic components of direct instruction are:
1. Setting clear goals for students and making sure they understand these goals.
2. Presenting a sequence of well-organized assignments.
3. Giving students clear, concise explanations and illustrations of the subject matter.
4. Asking frequent questions to see if the students understand the work.
5. Giving students frequent opportunities to practice what they have learned.
Consequentially stated, in direct instruction it is the teacher who is ultimately responsible
for student learning; students should not be blamed for their failure to learn. “If the
learner hasn’t learned, the teacher has not taught” (Tarver, 1999).
While many of today’s educators favor inquiry-based learning, in the 1980s Robert Slavin
of Johns Hopkins University found direct instruction to be an effective educational
technique.
Sources:
Lindsay, J. (n.d.). What the data really show: Direct instruction really works. Retrieved from
www.jefflindsay.com
Tarver, S. (1999, Summer). A focus on direct instruction. Current Practice Alerts 2. Division
for Learning Disabilities and Division for Research.
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Cognitive Learning Theory
In contrast to behaviorism, cognitive learning theory/cognitivism focuses on the internal
cognitive processes that occur during learning. In cognitive learning theory, the brain can
be likened to a computer that receives information, processes it, and then responds based
on what is processed.
This approach focuses on learning large ideas rather than facts. These ideas are called
concepts, generalizations, and beliefs. This approach also focuses on certain skills such as
proving generalizations, testing and defending beliefs, and critical thinking. It sees the
learner as active rather than passive in the learning process. Major writers about this point
of view are Jean Piaget, David Ausubel, Lev Vygotsky, and Jerome Bruner. Some
definitions are helpful at this point.
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Fact – Something that was true at one point in time and is not transferable to
another situation. Examples: George Washington was the first President of the
United States. 6 + 1 = 7.
Concept – A generalized idea of a category. Examples: tiger, car, economy, or
primate.
Generalization – A statement that is true most of the time and can be proven.
Examples: “If the supply of a product exceeds the demand for that product, the
price will go down.” “People who have lost their eye sight compensate by
developing stronger than normal hearing.”
Belief – Something that a person believes to be true (even if it isn’t). Your behavior
will be based on your beliefs. A simple example when a child who fears the “Boogie
Man” hides under his bed. Even though this creature does not exist, the child
exhibits fear because he believes it exists.
Rote learning, as exemplified by Behaviorism, has some merit and is useful for things we
need to memorize for convenience sake such as the alphabet or times tables. But, for the
most part, learning is more meaningful when students are given the opportunity to play
with, apply, manipulate, and assimilate new ideas into their own schema (Nunley).
Schemas are organized ways of understanding the world.
Proponents of the cognitivist view emphasize the role of the learner’s environment, brain
patterns, and the search for meaning when developing new knowledge.
Environment
The search for learning is inborn. Humans have a natural drive to understand their
environment. This can be observed in babies who look when they hear a sound, touch
anything they can reach, and put anything they can grab into their mouths, even
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disgusting things. There is a drive to learn things important to them.
Try a thought exercise: If you had never been in a desert before and were suddenly
teleported into the middle of Arizona, alone, with a scheduled pickup in five hours, what
would you do? You would use your current concepts to try to understand the
environment. You have a concept of plants so you would interpret some of the items in
your environment as plants because they come out of the ground and are green. You
might not know their names, but you know they are plants. You might see some little
mice-like creatures running around and would decide, correctly, that they are rodents.
You might see a snake that is different than any snake you have seen, and if it looked
aggressive, you would know to move quickly away from it. You might want to inspect
some of the plants more closely to see what they are like. As you got hotter you might
want to find some shade to cool and protect you from the sun. In other words, you would
try to understand your environment enough to survive until you got picked up. What if
your scheduled pickup was in two days? Would you have a need to learn more, like what
you could eat or where you could get water?
Whenever a student’s environment changes they will want to find out what is going on.
Jean Piaget, an educational theorist, called this “equilibrium”: humans want balance, we
want to know what is going on in the environment. You may have heard of the “fight or
flight” instinct, which describes humans’ innate awareness of the environment around
them and ability to respond to it. Like adults, children are curious about the world around
them. Even teenagers are curious, even if they want to appear to be too “cool” to show
it. This curiosity is one of the driving forces of learning. Use it. Try to develop students’
curiosity about what you have to teach them.
Brain Patterns
The brain seeks patterns. When encountering some new stimulus, a person wants to know
how it fits into what he already knows. If a toddler has a dog and sees a cat for the first
time, he may call it a “doggie.” The parent then has to explain the difference between a
dog and a cat. When the child sees a skunk, he may call it a “kitty.” Again, an explanation
would be helpful, so the child can set up a different category in his/her brain. If the child
then sees another type of cat and calls it a “kitty,” the parent is happy because the child
has correctly assimilated the new stimulus into the proper catego…
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