Doering 1

Jennifer Doering
Katie Rasmussen
Connections in Education
10 February 2015
The Circle of Learning: My Educational Philosophy
Many people believe that school is all about knowledge and learning facts. This is true, in
a sense, but not the most important aspect of the classroom. The classroom should be childcentered, with the teacher focused on the students first and the subject second. In collaboration
with Emma Davenport, I concluded that my educational philosophy hinges on three concepts:
curiosity, engagement, and thinking. All three are connected in a circular manner. Curiosity and
engagement work hand in hand, with curiosity promoting engagement and engagement inspiring
curiosity. Thinking is my ultimate goal for my students, developing in them the desire to be
curious about the world, bringing my philosophy full-circle.
Curiosity is the first component of my educational philosophy. I believe that to get
students to learn the curriculum, they must be interested in it. If students are forced day in and
out to study things that they find boring and a waste of time, they wont learn and wont enjoy
learning. To avoid this, Ryan and Cooper, in their book Those Who Can, Teach, suggest that the
teacher should allow and encourage ... students to ask and seek ... answers to their own
questions...leading them on a lifelong journey of inquiry and self-motivated learning (308).
Learning is much more fun and rewarding when one is genuinely interested in understanding
how something is put together or solved. As a teacher, I will work towards using the childs
interests to define the curriculum (300). If we are studying the life-cycles of animals and I had
decided to focus on butterflies, but they are much more interested in frogs, I will change my

Doering 2
plans to reflect their curiosity. Keeping my classroom child-centered is important to me.
A well-known educational philosopher who also chose to focus her style of teaching on
her students curiosity was Maria Montessori. She developed the Montessori method of allowing
the child to choose their learning through large blocks of uninterrupted work time and choices
of activities. I went to a Montessori school for most of my life, preschool through eighth grade,
and I really admired the philosophy. The child is given control over his or her own learning and
is taught self-discipline in the process. Curiosity and engagement both play a huge role in the
Montessori method.
Engagement is the second component of my educational philosophy. It is intrinsically
linked to curiosity, as the two go hand in hand. I want my students to learn material that is
relevant to them, that will engage them in the learning process. If they are curious about the
material, they will be engaged in it. If they are engaged in it, they will be curious about it. In the
words of Emma during our collaboration, bridging the learning is important to me as an
educator. I want my classroom to be a place where the real world and the school world are
the same place, where my students learn information that they can actually use in their daily life.
Students are naturally curious about the world around them, especially the things that they do not
understand. I want to base my curriculum, as much as possible, on those things. If students want
to know how the water fountain outside our classroom works, I will teach them about it. If it
rains and they want to know why different places get different amounts of rain, well study it. I
hope that by fostering my students curiosity about the world around them, I will engage them in
learning and make them into lifelong learners.
Once I have my students curious about the world and engaged in the learning process, I
want them to be able to think critically. John Dewey is an educational philosopher who also

Doering 3
valued thinking. Dewey said that schools should teach children not what to think, but how to
think (Ryan and Cooper 303). He was a progressive educator of the late 1800s who prized
inquiry and democracy in the classroom. He believed that schools were a place to prepare
students for life in adult society. I dont agree with all of his educational ideals, but I do agree
that thinking is important in the classroom.
Thinking is the third and final component of my educational philosophy. Thinking
critically is an incredibly important skill for everyone to have. In the words of a progressive
educator, interviewed in Those Who Can, Teach by Ryan and Cooper, Although much
knowledge is important, [students] need to realize that knowledge is only todays tentative
explanation of how things work (305). I agree wholeheartedly with this view of the world,
especially in light of some of the classes Ive taken here at Dominican, such as Big History,
Linguistics, and California, the Golden Dream. Our perception, as a human race and culture, of
how the world came to be, how the world works, and even recent history changes over time.
Teaching students only arbitrary facts instead of techniques for discovery of new information and
ideas seems ineffective in todays world. Google is much more accurate for finding facts and
being able to constructively use that information is much more important than being able to
recite it. In fact, thinking about information usually causes one to become more engaged with it
and more curious about it, bringing my educational philosophy full-circle.
My educational philosophy is a circle of student curiosity, engagement, and thinking. I
admire the methodologies created by the educational philosophers that came before me,
especially Maria Montessori, and I hope that I will inspire my students to be lifelong learners
that are curious about the world. I will strive to create a child-centered classroom and always
remember to keep my students curious, engaged, and thinking!