Education Philosophies In Schools
I think that the type of philosophy that is incorporated in the schools, effects the school's expectations for their students to achieve and how their faculty is supposed to teach the students. They also effect the schools' layout of curriculum because they would want to have classes that benefit their philosophy the best and made sure that their student's master those subject over other subjects that are not considered important to them. There is also an impact on how the students relate to their peers because if they are forced to be in competitions with each other continuously, then they would be more distant from each other than those that go to a school were they are more collaborative with each other.
Most students in America have been under the philosophy of essentialism, which places an importance on test scores and making sure that their students have a mastery of basic knowledge of core subjects. This though puts a pressure on both the student and the teacher to make sure that they can pass the test enough to move on to the next grade level. This is very different from the progressive philosophy because they focus on their students learning about what they would like to learn, so they can learn from their experiences. They would rather see how their students are changing in their understanding of the world rather than see them take a test on what happened in the past. These two philosophies creates two similar types of stress for their students because they are both based on the student's ability to learn and know what is needed for their growth. which could be the understanding of a subject that the school has assigned or what the student has picked.
I am not saying one is better over the other because I was able to benefit from the essentialism philosophy and I do not know how I would function under the progressivism philosophy. If you could pick the type of philosophy for your high school to follow, which one would you pick?
Hi Krista! I really enjoyed your post and think you made some great points. I was also taught using essentialism and it clearly was not a bad strategy because I survived it as well as my classmates but I do think there could have been more beneficial ones. I feel that it would be more beneficial to use multiple strategies that way students get a feel of all different types of learning and find one that best suits their academics. I really like how you pointed out that essentialism can turn students against each other, that is something I witnessed first hand. I was in the top 10 of my class and it was almost unhealthy as to how competitive we were with each other. It was so stressful trying to be perfect on each assignment, each test, each project, just in hopes to pass the person in front of you. I am a really big fan of progressivism, I think that working together makes earning a lot more fun and collaborating with your classmates and teachers builds healthy relationships. I think that is the strategy I resonate most with and that is what I'll be using in my future classroom. Great post Krista!
ReplyDelete-Catarina :)
Hey Catarina,
DeleteThanks for the comment and I am glad that you liked my post. Also thanks for sharing your experience with essentialism and the competition aspect of it because I never experienced it first hand, but I have heard about how toxic it was for others in your same circumstance. I also somewhat like essentialism because of my personal experience with it, but I wonder if we were taught a different would we still like it and gain from it benefits. I do agree with your statement about progressivism leading to us creating better and healthier relationships with their methods, which is what our education system needs with the current rise in bullying and hate being spread through it. Thanks again for the comment!
- Krista F.
Hey Krista! This is a really great post! I guess perhaps I look at essentialism in another way? I was not really taught /any/ core knowledge like essentialism strives to do. From what I am understanding, I think essentialism is one of the better philosophies I read about.. But I do think it is important to have a balance of more than one strategy!
ReplyDeleteHey Maddie,
DeleteThanks for the comment and I agree that having more than one teaching strategy is the best for anyone's education. I do wonder what type of philosophy did you learn knowledge from? I have never really met others that did not experience other types of teaching strategies besides essentialism. I also wonder how you would look at essentialism in an another way because of your past experience in school?
-Krista F.
Hi Krista, thank you for sharing your views on philosophies of education. I totally agree with your first statement, I also think that you can tell a lot about a school based on which philosophy they choose to follow. That's why I think it is important to decide what teaching style resonates the most with you and use that as a guide to decide what school you want to apply to teach at. I know of many teachers that have decided to resign after teaching for a while at a school and couldn't get a feel for or didn't believe in the teaching practices they wanted them to teach the curriculum. I agree that essentialism teaching and the use of standardized testing puts pressure on not only the students but the teacher as well. I don't really like the fact that it's the most used philosophy in the United States as of right now.
ReplyDeleteHey Kady,
DeleteThanks for the comment! Having a common teaching strategies/philosophy with the school that you are working with definitely alleviates the stress of either fighting your boss or co-workers about how you manage your classroom and the environment that you set for yourself. With the philosophy of essentialism, I have a love and hate relationship with it because I think it is necessary for all ages to have the basics of education mastered, but I do not believe in the constant standardized test being shoved everyone's throat's. Especially since now we are experiencing the effects of it being that now some teachers and schools are teaching the test more than the actual knowledge needed for students to be productive people in life. This is a very sad result of the thing that was supposed to be help that is now hurting everyone and causing massive stress for everyone in the education system.
- Krista F.