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Ruthie Johnson
5, December 2015

My Philosophy of Education
The following paragraphs will contain, what I believe, is crucial in a childs
education. I have had help creating my philosophy from many individuals. Some
of them include my past teachers, my mentor teacher, and even my students.
I feel I fit into three different categories. I teach using my philosophy which
is part Perennialism, Progressivism, and Extentalism.
Perennialism is more behaviorist than constructivist. Behaviorist is more
teacher centered-direct instruction. Constructivist is more student centered-indirect
instruction. I love the setting of a constructivist classroom, but, I feel there has to
be some sort of instruction and good behavior before a student can learn.
Perennialisms educational goal is to train the intellect and focuses on enduring
ideas. This method of teaching is extremely useful when teaching my second
graders. - . (Kauchak, Eggen, 161)
Progressivism is constructivist. Its Educational Goal is to develop problem
solving, decision making, and other life skills (Kauchak, Eggen, 161). I use this
especially in math, after I teach them how to think for themselves, math becomes
so much easier on me as a teacher. Getting them to think for themselves takes time.
One of my main scenarios is when a student asks for help on a paper I have them
read me the question (assist as needed) then I ask so what is this saying? What
are we going to do? Just walking them through the problem helps a lot. Pretty
soon they start asking these questions to themselves. At this point in the year my
students only ask for help when they cant read the problem themselves. I believe
this Education Philosophy is probably my favorite, if I can teach my students to
think for themselves and to make effective decisions; they will be set for life.
Extentialism is humanist. This focuses on students individual strengths-uses
their talents in learning (Kauchak, Eggen, 161). This philosophy is exciting to the
students who are extremely creative to be able to create a solar system with paper
crayons and scissors. When learning on a personal level, they are not likely to
forget.
With these main categories I fit into, my lessons usually go a bit like this;
First, a short lecture, Second, do it on board to visually show them, at the same
time I say it out loud to help them hear how I think things through, third,
(depending on the concept and amount of time) I split class into groups and give
them an activity that uses the concept we just learned.(much thought goes into

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creating the groups- due to their personal talents) I then circulate the room and hear
students thinking it through. This also helps them to make decisions concerning
their group. They usually do this without much thought. For example one student
will take the lead, usually the one talking through the activity-telling everyone
what to do and saying what I said when doing the problem on the board, and
another two students will be doing the problem hands on(this is where the talents
come in). My groups are small so each of them is involved in the activity. After this
I pass out a paper that has this new concept on. Now by this time they know and
enjoy solving this problem. They do this paper independently while I circulate the
room assisting as needed.
This example of one of my lessons included lecturing-training the intellect
(perrenialism), focusing on their talents (extentialism), and problem solvingdecision making (progressivism).

Bibliography
Eggan, Kauchek And. Introduction to Education: Becoming a Professional. New Jersey: Pearson
Education Inc., 2014.

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