I don’t feel that I need to identify a single educational philosophy around which I build my teaching career. In fact, I don’t follow only one educational philosophy. I develop my own philosophy of education, a unique blending of two or more philosophies. I hold philosophical views from these schools of thought.
As an idealist, I believe that the concepts of truth, beauty, and honor are absolute. To apprehend the reality of ideas, human beings rely on the intellect and reasoning. Idealism holds that the teacher is the center of the educational process and the person closest to Absolute Reality.
I am also a realist because I hold the view that education should be concerned with the actual realities of life in all its aspect. Newmann and Whelage cited in Sergiovanni (1998) state that authentic student learning is the result of active engagement of the student with the material of the curriculum. Authenticity calls for student accomplishment to reflect the construction of knowledge, through disciplined inquiry, to produce discourse, products, and performances that have meaning beyond success in school. In other words, for education to be valid, it must be contextualized. It must relate to the actual realities of life in all its aspects. Problems and concepts presented in the classroom must be similar to those students have encountered, or are likely to encounter, in life beyond the classroom. There must be a connection between the classroom and reality.
I am also a pragmatist. I believe that knowledge is rooted in experience. I believe that students learn best when they interact with the material presented to them, especially in meaningful projects and simulations. As a pragmatist, I believe that education is a lifelong process. I believe that teachers must instill into students a love for lifelong learning. I also believe that education should be learner-centered and that the curriculum and my teaching methods and strategies should be adapted to the needs of students.
FIVE PHILOSOPHICAL ORIENTATION FOR TEACHING
My teaching philosophy have also influenced by three psychological orientations such as humanism, behaviorism and constructivism. I see educational values of humanism in having open classrooms in our school, free schools and schools without failure. I share some principals of behaviorism. I believe education is a process of behavioral engineering. Behavior may be modified by manipulating environmental re-enforcers and the teacher’s role is to create an effective learning environment that will provide positive reinforcement.