Krueger 1

Courtney Krueger
Professor Watson
Teaching in America
November 28 2018
Philosophy of Education
I believe the purpose of education is to help students learn and because of that, educators and

schools should make that their number one priority. As a future teacher, I want to do all I can to ensure

that my students really take something out of my class and learn what they need to. Self-reflection and

constant feedback are things that are going to help me to tell how effective of a job I am doing in teaching

the students. “Reflective teachers are thoughtful and critical about their teaching, focusing not only on

their failures, but also their successes. Through reflection, teachers figure out not only what works in their

classrooms, but also what doesn’t. They plan lessons carefully and take the time to analyze them

afterward” (Kauchak 21). A lot of being a teacher is learning by trial and error and asking yourself and

others what has worked. The goal is to help the children as much as I can to learn the most that they can.

Something that is super important to keep in mind regarding education is that each student is

different. There are a lot of different ways that students learn, meaning there are a lot of different ways

that teachers can teach and relay important messages unto their students. As a teacher, it's important to

understand the different ways to teach and provide a balance between them in order to teach to all of the

students in an effective way. Some students are more auditory learners, where some learn kinesthetically

and some verbally. “People often describe themselves as visual, verbal, or tactile learners. These

descriptions reflect your unique learning style, or your preferred way of learning, studying, or thinking

about the world” (Kauchak 96). Including all three of these within lesson can ensure that every child is

reaches and can understand and process the information. I saw this being done in my observation as for

the math lesson the students would read the problem on the board, the teacher would read it out loud and

then they were given a chance to solve it themselves. Also, sometimes students won’t learn when you

teach it one way, and so trying to explain it different ways or using different methods can be helpful.
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There is also the theory of multiple intelligences by Howard Gardner. “Many researchers now

believe that intelligence is composed of several distinct dimensions that may occur alone or in various

combinations in different individuals. In other words, we can be “smart” in many ways instead of just

one” (Kauchak 94). Gardner believed that there were 8 types of intelligences that people can have;

linguistic, logical/mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and

naturalist. These intelligences are also important to understand in the classroom because subjects taught in

school like math and reading aren’t always students strongest subject. And just because a student isn’t

good at math, doesn’t mean they are not smart. Keeping that in mind is important as well as trying to

incorporate lessons that display other intelligences.

Understanding the role of the teacher is essential when it comes to education and teaching

students. It is the teacher's job to teach the students not lessons. This requires meeting the needs of the

students and focusing it on their learning process rather than just relaying information to people. This is

something really big that I have learned in my college experience and I think that it is important as a

teacher to find a balance between factual and more open-ended teaching. Another important thing I’ve

learned is that the teacher cannot make the student learn. Since learning only happens in the student, the

teacher can aid the student in learning as well as create conditions where students want to learn. I once

read a book by Ken Robinson called Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That's Transforming

Education. In this book, Robinson makes an analogy between gardeners and teachers, he writes,

“Gardeners knows that they don’t make the plants. They don’t attach the roots, glue the leaves, and paint

the petals. Plants grow themselves. The job of a gardener is to create the best conditions for that to

happen”(Robinson 102). He then explains how this is the same way with teachers, teachers cannot make

the students learn, the students learn by themselves. It’s the teacher's role to help the student to learn on

their own and to create the best environment to do so. An example of this I saw in my observation was

during the math lesson of a 1st grade class. The student were to solve problems and then one of them was

picked to write the answer on the board. The one girl got the answer wrong, and instead of picking

another student or just telling her the right answer, the teacher instead helped her to learn her mistake on
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her own. It would have been easier to just tell her the answer, but then the student wouldn’t have learned

anything. Instead, the teacher asked her a leading question like “does 5+4=10?” and the child thought to

herself and realized it didn’t and then figured out her mistake and then used that to solve the rest of the

problem correctly. I think this was very effective because the student learned how and why she was

wrong on her own and the teacher aided that realization and learning.

There are 4 main philosophies of education, and the one I feel like my views most closely

resemble is progressivism. Progressivism is “an educational philosophy emphasizing real-world problem

solving and individual personal development. Progressivists believe the purpose of schooling is to

develop students as completely as possible—physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally”

(Kauchak 159). This type of educational philosophy focuses on the application of things that students

learn which I feel is the most important thing. When kids leave my class, I don’t want them to leave with

just knowing facts and having book smarts, I want to teach them more than that and how to apply things I

teach them to better their lives. This philosophy also backs up the idea that everyone learns different and

encourages different types of learning to reach each and every student. I want my students to be engaged

in the material I’m teaching them and to actually pay attention and care about what I have to say. Kids are

less likely to want to learn if they don’t think the thing they are learning has value. I remember in high

school everyone would always complain “why do we need to know the quadratic equation? When are we

ever going to use this in life?”. I also think that giving application gives meaning to the subject in the

student’s eyes which is a very important thing. I want my students to be excited about learning and to

enjoy my class. I feel that giving meaning to the curriculum is the best way to get children to learn about

the information because it will interest them and encourage them to learn.
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References

Kauchak, D., & Eggen, Paul. (2017). Introduction to Teaching: Becoming a Professional (6th

ed.). Pearson Education.

Robinson, K., & Aronica, L. (2015). Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That's

Transforming Education. New York, NY: Penguin Random House LLC.