Educational Philosophy:
What do YOU believe?
Inspiration Clip
Imagine:
Playing for Change
Julie Machnaik, ECS100, Fall 2014
Journey for Today
•To reflect on how we learn & respect how others may learn differently
•To explore our educational philosophy
•To see how beliefs are connected to own experience, own way of knowing
• To begin to build “I BELIEVE…” statements (for portfolio)
•To understand educational philosophy orientations
•To link educational philosophy to upcoming field experience (where beliefs
may be challenged, validated, strengthened, weakened)
•To reflect on messages from educational philosophers
•To understand educational philosophy as a journey of looking
back…looking here…looking between and looking within…
I Believe...
1. On a blank piece of paper, write the words I Believe...
2. As you listen to today’s lecture, reflect on your own experiences
and beliefs about teaching and learning.
3. Jot down words, phrases that resonate with you.
4. Your beliefs are emerging...
5. Continue adding to your “I Believe” page throughout semester –
page for your Professional Portfolio
What do I believe about
teaching and learning?
What do I believe about
students?
How do I view knowledge?
What do I think should be
taught?
What knowledge is worth
knowing?
What IS my
educational philosophy?
Julie Anne Park, UofR, First year field experience, 1999
“We cannot understand schools today without
a look at what they were yesterday.”
Becoming a Teacher, 2012, p. 60
Annie Kinghorn, Grandmother
Attended Normal School in 1916
Regina, Saskatchewan
One-room Schoolhouse: 1909-1958
Rocanville, Saskatchewan
Essential characteristics of the teacher:
 instructional efficiency
 technical knowledge and skills (with well thought out lesson plans)
 physical efficiency (all teachers should be beautiful with no physical abnormalities
or weaknesses)
 efficiency in control (because disorder means idleness and good discipline is the
foundation of moral training)
 social quality (to know how to act and who to socialize with in the community)
 professional spirit and enthusiasm
 high personal character
 mechanical proficiency where the "ability to stand at the blackboard and impress
instruction by illustrative drawing is always a source of power in the teacher”
Normal School, School Management (1912) textbook
1924 Classroom - 3 uncles sitting in back
Residential Schools YouTube
Birtle Residential School Video Clip
Laurene Harrison (mother), Residential School Cook, Birtle, Manitoba, 1939-1941
Julie Anne Park
Grade One
1964
Community of Learners: My Best Teachers
University of Regina, Faculty of Education 3rd Year Pre-interns, Fall 2009
Northern Experiences in Nunavut
So what
would this
LOOK like?
Photo
Gallery
The Fun Theory
 Piano Steps
Different Learners…Different Needs…
Who are you as ‘learner’?
Different Learners…Different Needs…
Who are you as ‘learner’?
Clipboard
Microscope
Beachball
Puppy
What do I believe about teaching and learning?
What do I believe about students?
How do I view knowledge?
What do I think should be taught? What knowledge is worth knowing?
What IS my educational philosophy?
What is an Educational Philosophy?
Educational philosophy is:
 a way not only of looking at ideas, but also of
learning how to use ideas in better ways. (Ozman &
Craver, 1999)
 a set of beliefs about how human beings learn and
grow and what one should learn in order to follow a
successful path
What do YOU believe?Learning
About
teaching
and
learning?
Learning
environment?
About Students?
This Is The Classroom (STF)
View “A Day in the Life” videos
experiences?
About what
knowledge
is worth
knowing?
Purpose of
schools and
schooling?
Teacher role?
5 Philosophical Orientations
to Teaching
 Perennialism
 Essentialism
 Progressivism
 Existentialism
 Social Reconstructionism
Perennialism
 Views truth as constant (or perennial)
 Aim of education is to ensure students acquire
specific knowledge
 Stresses arts and sciences
 Learn about laws of motion rather than build a model
 Focuses on significant works created rather than real
world events or student interest
Essentialism
 Conservative philosophy
 Believes in a core of common knowledge to be
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


transmitted in a disciplined manner
Focuses on the basics
Schooling should be practical, focus on order
Schools should NOT try to challenge social policies
Little possibility of change
Progressivism
 Education focuses on the child, not the subject
 John Dewey (1920’s and 30’s) father of progressive


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education, “Learning is doing”
Content derived from students’ interests
Integrating thinking, feeling, and doing
Learning is active, not passive
Solve problems by reflecting on own experiences
Teachers begin where students are at
Teacher serves as a guide, a facilitator
Existentialism
 Focuses on the experiences of the individual
 Offers students a way of thinking about own life
 Emphasizes creative choice
 Maxine Greene (1995), “We have to know about our
lives, clarify our situations, if we are to understand
the world from our shared standpoints”
 Requires students to ask own questions, to conduct
own inquiries, to draw own conclusions.
Social Reconstructionism
 Schools should take the lead to reconstruct society

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

primary
Ties to progressive philosophy
Believe in bringing the community into the classroom
Learning experiences involve opportunities to
interact with people beyond the four walls (field trips,
community-based projects)
Critical pedagogy (Paulo Freire) – students must
question and challenge ‘common’ beliefs & practices
(Banking metaphor=School)
How can Educational Philosophers guide our journey?
Inukshuk in Pangnirtung, Nunavut (or Pang, also ᐸᖕᓂᖅᑑᖅ)
Huebner’s Messages:
 We must surpass technical
foundations of education
 We require historical
awareness of:
 where we once were
 sensitivity to present
problems, resistances and
binds
 and openness to future
possibilities
Dwayne E. Huebner’s (1923 - )
Philosopher of education and
curriculum theorist
Poses Questions:
 What are/should be the
purposes of education?
 Who does/should control
education?
 What do/should children learn?
 What relationship do/should
schools play with respect to
society and justice?
Paulo Freire (1921-1997)
Critical Pedagogy
Shortly before his death, Paulo Freire is reported to have said: “I could never think of education
without love and that is why I think I am an educator, first of all because I feel love.”
John Dewey
 Truth as process of discovery
 Education and learning are social & interactive
 Hands-on, experiential learning
 School is a social institution where social
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(1859 – 1952)
Father of Progressive Education

reform can and should take place
Project Based Learning (PBL) students as
active researchers...“Learning is doing”
“We need to prepare our students for their
future, not our present or our past”
“Give students something to do, not something
to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to
demand thinking; learning naturally results!”
John Dewey: His Life and Work
Maxine Greene
“We can't separate imagination from the ethical, the political, the social...it is our opening to
what is not yet, what might be, new possibilities...“
 Experiential learning
 Imagination
 Arts
 Making meaning
 A way of making sense of the world
 Ask questions, take action
Inside the Academy:
Maxine Greene
(Maxine Greene, 1917)
Educational philosopher, author, social activist and teacher
Releasing the Imagination (1995) by Maxine Greene
Essays on Education, the Arts, and Social Change
Nel Noddings
 Known for her work in philosophy of
education, educational theory, and ethics of
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care.
Makes distinction between natural caring
and ethical caring
Educating the ‘whole’ child
Centred around happiness
Build community of learners
Books:
 The Challenge to Care in Schools (1992)
 Happiness & Education (2003)
 Educating Citizens for Global Awareness
(2005)
 Critical Lessons: What Our Schools
Should Teach. (2006)
(1929)
American feminist, educationalist & philosopher
Nel Noddings YouTube
Reflections...Revisit…Rethink…Respond
 Why do you want to become a teacher?
 What is the importance of self-
knowledge?
 How does self-knowledge inform what we
believe about teaching and learning?
 How do our school experiences shape what
we believe?
 What do our own life stories have to tell us
about who we are today and who we may
become as ‘teacher’
 What is YOUR story?