Assignment: "My Philosophy of Early Education"   

What is the purpose of a Philosophy of Education?

1.    Provides a foundation from which to examine curricular or methodological decisions.

1.    Important for constructing a personal plan for the best form of educational practices.

2.    It provides a direction for what is desired based on specific contextual factors.

3.    Provides guidelines for constructing and holding to principles and policies.

4.    Highlights and clarifies those issues in educational policy or practice that will require resolution by either empirical research or rational examination.

5.    Provides a focus of inquiry into education with the goal of improving practice and contributing to optimal learning. (Parkay, 1998)

 

Assignment:  Short Thought Paper - "My Philosophy of Education" (about 3-5 pages).

This paper should be written as a clearly flowing narrative rather than a set of bullet points or loosely connected paragraphs.
In your paper you should address the following issues:

a.     What is the relative role of internal and external developmental forces?

b.    How do children learn best?

c.     What should be the purpose of education?

d.    What should be the students' and teachers' roles in the learning process?

e.    How could these ideas and beliefs be manifest in actual classroom practice?

f.     What characteristics should a teacher have? 

g.     Why?

 

The topics represented by the following open-ended sentences (Morrison, 1991 p. 484) may prove useful as a means of focusing your thoughts (please do note actually include these as the beginning of each paragraph):

1.    I believe the purposes of education are...

2.    I believe that children learn best when they are taught under certain conditions and in certain ways.  Some of these are...

3.    The curriculum of any classroom should include certain "basics" that contribute to children's social, emotional, intellectual, and physical development.  These basics are...

4.    Children learn best in an environment that promotes learning.  Some of the features of a good environment are...

5.    All children have certain needs that must be met if they are to grow and learn at their best.  Some of the basic needs are...I would meet these needs...

6.    The teacher should have certain qualities and behave in certain ways.  Qualities I think important for teaching are...

 

After you have written a rough draft of your philosophy, you might reflect on it by asking yourself the following 6 questions (Morrison, 1991 p. 484):

1.    Does it accurately reflect my beliefs about teaching?

2.    Is it understandable to me and to others?

3.    Does it provide practical guidance for teaching?

4.    Do I spell out a connection between my beliefs and actual classroom practices?

5.    Are my ideas consistent with each other?

6.    Does what I believe make good sense?

 

I include a reading from Dewey: "My pedagogical Creed" to assist in the process, but also suggest chapter 5 in Becoming a Teacher (Parkay) is a great place to start.

 

Rubric for Paper Evaluation:

	Strong 5	Proficient 3	Beginning 1
Depth of Thought	Shows exceptional grasp of relevant ideas.  Demonstrates ability to assiduously analyze issues.	Shows solid grasp of relevant ideas.  Demonstrates ability to analyze issues.	Shows lack of grasp of relevant ideas.  Demonstrates inability to analyze issues.
Continuity of thought	Evinces ability to adeptly connect ideas and construct a cohesive and conceptually tight philosophy.	Evinces ability to connect ideas and construct an organized philosophy	Philosophy is composed of disconnected ideas that do not come together
Connection to Practice	Provides thoughtful explanations of how ideas and beliefs might be manifest in pedagogical practice.	Provides some connection between ideas and classroom practice.	Contains generalizations with no realistic connections to classroom practice.
Articulation	Manifests mellifluous prose that eloquently  articulates the philosophy	Contains well structured writing that adequately articulates the philosophy.	Contains obfuscatory writing that makes it hard to understand the philosophy.
Grammar	Philosophy is grammatically consummate	Philosophy contains adequate spelling, syntax and punctuation.	Philosophy contains problematic spelling, syntax or punctuation.