Approaches to Philosophy of Education

Each educator must develop his or her own personal philosophy of education. A tremendous body of educational theory exists, however, making it difficult to choose a specific school of thought. For example, some educators base their theories on different approaches to grouping students for instruction, various forms of curricula, methods of evaluating student progress, or the objectives of instruction. Phrases such as "cooperative learning," "multiple intelligences," and "whole learning experiences" abound in the literature. Instructional methods range from free exploration to direct instruction. Models of learning range from transactional to transmission. Synthesizing even a small fraction of the various educational philosophies into a personal philosophy would easily take years of effort. A worthwhile direction, however, is to use as a foundation theories that have stood the test of time. Therefore, a valid approach to a philosophy of education would be to start with the works of John Dewey. Dewey was an education philosopher whose child-centered philosophy continues to influence modern education; such a philosophy using practical methods of guided discovery represents the best approach to the education of young people.

Both theory and practice have their place in today's classroom. Theory helps instructors to develop achievable goals for teaching. Practice is the implementation of these goals. Teachers must be willing to reevaluate their theoretical approaches

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teacher is to facilitate the students' recognition of interests and to help him or her realize how relevant the interests are to their lives. A philosopher whose ideas complement Dewey's is Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky believed that learning occurred from a combination of the child's spontaneous concepts developed as part of everyday living and the structured concepts learned in the classroom. The zone of proximal development is where these two concepts meet. Vygotsky related individual learning, social interaction, language and culture: "He thought that concepts from the adult world provide a framework or "scaffolding" for the growth of the child's conceptual understanding" (Ozmon and Craver, 1999, p. 233). Scaffolding has evolved into a teaching technique in which instructors act as facilitators or coaches to their students, guiding them in learning experiences until the student is not only able to grasp concepts on his or her own but also develop critical thought. The concept of reflective thought was central to Dewey's philosophy. He believed that intelligence was developed by presenting the student with purposeful problem-solving activities. Reflective thinking is a two-phase process. The first phase is characterized b

Category: Psychology - A