My Philosophy of Education

The education of our students is important to society. That is why teachers have to be the best they can.
The following is how I believe the very best teacher would treat education and what they would do in the
classroom.
Purpose of Education
Education helps students open doors of opportunity and knowledge that used to be closed to them. To do
this, a teacher must help students make knowledge applicable to their lives, help them understand basic
concepts they need in the future, and help develop students individual talents and traits.
Essentialism and Progressivism philosophies best fit with this ideal. An aspect of Essentialism is that it
requires all students understand the basics of math, science, language, and social studies. In the Progressivism
philosophy, you seek to help students develop talents and traits that they choose to work on.
Curriculum
The required curriculum in schools should be the basics of math, science, language, and social studies so
each student can create a foundation that will help them succeed in life. Students also need to be able to explore
things based on their needs and interests.
Once again, the philosophies that coincide with this idea are Essentialism, and Progressivism, which
emphasize a focus on teaching the basics, as well as individual learning and development.
Instructional Strategies
BYU-Idaho uses a learning model that I really like: Prepare, Teach One Another, Ponder and Prove. I
would use this in my classroom by assigning short readings on the next class periods topic (Prepare) and
promote teacher-led, in-class discussions and activities where students feel encouraged to participate (Teach
One Another). At the end of the class, students would have homework on what was taught in class that day

(Ponder and Prove). In addition, it is important that I pay attention to my students so that I can focus my
teaching on specific areas they do not understand.
This ideology best works with the philosophies of Social Reconstructivism and Essentialism. Social
Reconstructivism encourages discussion, collaboration, and student projects, where Essentialism emphasizes
practicing what is being learned (homework).
Assessment
Testing is essential for helping the teacher understand how students are progressing in the subject. It can
help a teacher know if they need to adjust their teaching. It can also be used to help students understand what
knowledge they lack on a topic. For testing to be effective, it needs to be frequent so that the teacher can make
necessary adjustments.
Also, testing needs to include detailed feedback to help students understand where they went wrong on a
problem. This can help them do better on a similar question in the future.
Testing also needs to be objective to be fair. Taking some time in class to go over the tests where the
students can ask questions will also help the students.
A philosophy that matches closely with my idea is Essentialism, which requires a teacher to test
frequently, using objective and performance tests, and give feed-back to the students.
How My Philosophy of Education has Changed Overtime
Since being in the elementary education program, I have been able to learn a few more things about
what a good educator does to help their students. This has helped reshape how I think of education. Reading
though this philosophy I can see that some things have changed, while other things I believed before I came to
the program have become strengthen by what I have learned.
First, I still believe that the purpose of education is to help open doors of opportunity to our students that
would be closed to them otherwise. However, now I understand that in order to help our students we need to not
only teach them the basics of math, reading, and writing, but we need to also make sure that they have
experiences that help them to be cultured as well. This means that we also teach them the subjects of art, social

studies, and science in addition to the others. It is also important to give our students opportunities to learn how
to serve and become good citizens of where they live and introduce them to other cultures and ideas, so that
they can understand the world around them and contribute effectively.
Second, I still believe that a good instructional strategy includes having students prepare themselves to
come to class and learn, encouraging participation in discussions and working as a class, and having my
students take what they learn and do something with it which often times will be their homework or a project
that they do in class, but now I have several more strategies to add to this. For example, I can see the need to
have a clear objective of what I want them to learn and the necessity to tell them that learning goal. I also have
learned the value of modeling to my students what I want them to learn, challenging them so that they learn,
extending my students understanding of a subject, and using grouping effectively to solidify concepts.
Lastly, I still think that it is important to assess students learning, however I think that it is important to
not only assess their learning at the end of a unit or at the end of the year, but all of the time. This does not mean
that we need to give our students standardized tests all of the time, but part of our job as teachers is to make sure
that our students are understanding which means that we need to use assessments that help us monitor student
learning. This can be done in lessons with formative assessments. These help us to see if our students are hitting
the learning targets necessary to reach a learning goal and helps us to give appropriate feedback to our students.
I have also learned the need to have our summative assessments be in alignment with what we have taught in
our lessons and units.
In conclusion, looking back on what I believed about education and what I believe now, I can see that it
has changed from what I have learned. However rather than having to discard what I once believed about
education completely, I can see that the ideas I had about education have evolved over time to become what
they are today. This means that my ideas about education will continue to change and be refined as I learn about
teaching and as I work with my students.