Teaching Philosophy Cards for Card Sort Exercise
To supplement the teaching philosophy exercise by Joy Beatty, Jennifer Leigh, and Kathy Lund Dean
(2009), Finding Our Roots: An Exercise For Creating A Personal Teaching Philosophy Statement,
Journal of Management Education, 33(1): 115-130.
Directions: Print this MS Word document in double-sided mode so that the philosophy terms will be
matched with the appropriate philosophy on the back of the sheet. You can confirm this matching
process by making sure that the superscript numbers at the beginning of each term correspond with the
number on the back.
Feedback: We would appreciate hearing your feedback, including how you used the exercise and the
outcomes. Please email us at jebeatty@umd.umich.edu.
THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY BLANK
CARDS BEGIN ON NEXT PAGE
1
Asking challenging questions
2
Civic education and citizenship
Community
Learning environment
Community of learners
4
3
5
7
Collaborative learning
Learning from others
Competency testing and
assessment
6
Concrete to abstract, simple to
complex
9
Constantly changing universe
Competition
8
10
Conflict
Critical examination of culture
2
4
1
Locke
3
Dewey and philosophy of pragmatism
5
10
6
Spencer
8
Wild card
Philosophy of social reconstructionism
Hutchins
Philosophy of progressivism
Philosophy of realism; Boyer and AACSB
standards
7
Pestalozzi (following nature)
9
Philosophy of pragmatism
11
13
Critical thinking
Cultural relativism
15
17
12
14
Cumulative learning
Curiosity
Developmental stages
19
Dignity
Cultural heritage
16
18
Democratic
Different learning styles
20
Direct experience
11
12
Philosophies of idealism and realism
Many
Hutchins, Philosophy of pragmatism
Bloom’s taxonomy of learning
13
14
Locke, Comenius, Pestalozzi, Spencer
16
Philosophies of pragmatism,
progressivism, social reconstructionism, and
critical theory
ant: perennialism
15
Dewey
Wild card
17
18
20
Kolb
Rousseau (as opposed to learning from
books)
Learning cannot be forced
Rousseau, Piaget, Comenius
19
Froebel
21
23
Drill training
25
27
29
Discipline
22
Discussion and dialogue
24
Emotional
Experience
Focus on academic content
Effort and hard work
26
28
Emotionally safe
Evil social influences
30
Focus on process
22
Illich, Friere
Constructionism
21
Philosophy of essentialism
23
24
(For specific skills)
Illich (deschooling)
Philosophy of essentialism
25
26
28
Pestalozzi
Many foundations
Ex: Goleman (emotional intelligence);
Gilligan (w.r.t. gender)
27
Rousseau, Pestalozzi
29
30
Philosophy of pragmatism
Dewey, Piaget
Philosophies of realism, idealism,
perennialism, essentialism
(To the exclusion of social, emotional, and
political objectives)
31
33
32
Individualized instruction
35
37
39
Fun
Integrating
Intrinsic motivation
Learning as social process
34
36
Individuality
Innately good
Interdisciplinary
38
Humor
32
34
31
Montessori, according to her critics
Naturalistic educators, in contrast to earlier
theories of child depravity; Comenius,
Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Spencer
33
Wild card
Piaget (for developmental stages)
36
Pro: Philosophy of pragmatism
Con: Idealism, realism, perennialism and
essentialism (these prefer pure organization
of subjects)
38
35
37
Wild card
39
Many
Montessori
Communities of practice
41
Learning by doing
43
45
42
Liberation
44
Maintaining high intellectual
standards
47
49
Liberal, general education
Mental models
Multiculturalism
46
48
50
Listening
Materials and props
Moral and ethical development
Natural growth and development
42
Pro: philosophies of idealism, realism,
perennialism; Hutchins, Adler
Con: Spencer
41
Locke (empirical method); Pestalozzi
(observing environment); Spencer; Dewey
(problematic encounters)
44
Wide application
Ex: Kolb (2002) setting up conversational
space
46
48
Montessori
43
45
Dewey, philosophies of pragmatism and
progressivism; Friere
Plato; philosophies of idealism and realism
47
Herbart, Hutchins
Constructivism; Piaget; Argyris
50
Naturalistic educators - people learn when
they are ready and should not be coerced of
pressured
49
Philosophies of pragmatism and critical
theory
51
53
Objectivity
52
Problem solving
55
Reflection
57
Relational
59
Repetition
54
56
58
Practical
Rationality
Relativity of values
Reliance on sensation
60
Role of nature and
natural objects
52
Syn: Useful, competent
Locke; Spencer (“utilitarian”); theory of
essentialism
54
51
Philosophy of realism; Aristotle, Aquinas,
Whitehead
53
Aristotle, Hutchins; theory of perennialism;
philosophy of realism
56
58
60
Philosophy of pragmatism
Locke (empiricism); Rousseau (nature);
Pestalozzi (object lessons)
Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Locke, Franklin,
Dewey
55
Syn: Scientific method
Dewey, Spencer
Philosophy of existentialism
57
59
Wild card
Montessori
61
Self-assessment
63
65
67
62
Self-directed
Social critique
64
66
Self-expression
Service learning
Social reform and justice
Socialization and social
participation
68
Speaking
Spirituality
70
Structure
69
62
61
Philosophy of existentialism
Constructionism
63
64
Dewey, Zlotkowski
66
Philosophies of progressivism, social
reconstructionism, and critical theory
68
70
Philosophies of pragmatism,
progressivism, and existentialism (personal
choices)
65
Philosophies of social reconstructionism
and critical theory
67
Wild card
Many different approaches and attitudes
about this
Montessori; essentialism
69
Froebel, Dewey
Froebel (to develop latent spiritual
essence)
71
Students’ interests and needs
73
Tabula rasa
“Blank Slate”
Systematic Inquiry
74
Teacher as expert
Teacher as facilitator
76
Teacher as role model
Theory and abstraction
78
Understanding wholes
75
77
72
79
Universal truths
80
Values
72
74
76
71
Rousseau; Philosophies of pragmatism
and existentialism
Ant: Hutchins; perennialism
73
“Blank slate”, Locke’s belief that at birth
the human mind is a blank slate
Attacking Plato’s belief that ideas are
present latently in the mind at birth.
Philosophy of realism
Philosophy of realism
Plato, Hegel, Froebel; Philosophy of
idealism
75
Philosophies of pragmatism and
progressivism
77
78
80
Constructionism
Many, with many different views on how
values should be approached
Included in many
Philosophy of realism; organizing and
classifying knowledge hierarchically
79
Aristotle, Hutchins; philosophies of
idealism, realism, perennialism
81
Vocational and Professional
82
Writing
82
Wild card
81
Spencer