Chapter 1 You, the Teacher

as a Person in Society
“ Teachers… are the most
responsible and important member of
society because their professional
efforts affect the fate of the
earth.”
-Helen Caldicott
 Learning Outcomes:

1. summarize atleast seven (7) philosophies of education

and draw their implications to teaching and learning.

2. formulate your own philosophy of education.

3. discuss and internalize the foundational principles of

morality.
4. accept continuing values formation as an integral part
of your personal and professional life.

5. clarify if you truly value teaching.

6.explain teaching as a vocation, mission and profession.

7. embrace teaching as a vocation, mission and profession.
Corpuz,B.: “Our thoughts,
values and actions are
somehow shaped by events and
by people with whom we come
in contact.
We in turn, help shape
society- its events, its people
and its destiny:.
 Teachers have a SIGNIFICANT ROLE to play
in the society.

* As a teacher, there are many demands and

expectations that we have to do or
accomplish. That’s why it is no joke to
become a TEACHER.

*Despite many demands, GREAT TEACHERS

receive many REWARDS also.
*Teachers, (YOU) influence on their students
and on other people with whom they work
with and live depends a great deal on THEIR
PHILOSOPHY AS A PERSON AND AS A TEACHER.
What is Philosophy?
-can be defined as a set of ideas that
answer question about the nature of reality
and about the meaning of life.
-the love of wisdom
Some philosophical questions that
maybe important in the teachers’ lives:
What is knowledge?
What is worth striving for?
What is just, good , right, or beautiful?
What is philosophy education?

Philosophy of education is a set of

related beliefs that influence what and
how students are taught.
Teachers’ philosophy of education
guides their behavior or performance or
performance in the classroom.
This philosophy statement reflects
their personality and values.
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE OR PHILOSOPHY
OF EDUCATION

-serve as the “ window” to the world

and “ compass” in the sea of life.
-these are principles and values that
will determine how one look at life as a
whole.
-they govern and direct your lifestyle,
your thoughts, decisions, actions and
your relationships with people and
things.
Your Philosophical Heritage

SEVEN (7) PHILOSOPHIES OF EDUCATION

1.ESSENTIALISM
Why Teach? ( objectives)
-Teachers teach for learners to
acquire basic knowledge, skills and
values.
-To transmit the traditional moral
values and intellectual knowledge that
students need TO BECOME MODEL
CITIZENS.
What to Teach? (curriculum/content)
* Programs are academically rigorous.
*Emphasizes on academic content for students
to learn the BASIC SKILLS or the FUNDAMENTAL R’s-
reading, writing, arithmetic, and right conduct.
These are ESSENTIAL to the acquisition of HIGHER
or MORE COMPLEX SKILLS needed in preparation
for adult life.
*Curriculum are: math, natural science,
history, foreign language, and literature.
* Vocational courses and other courses not
academic content are not important.
 -The teachers and
administrators decide what is most
important for the students to
learn.
- Little emphasis is given to
students interests, particularly
when they divert time and
attention from the academic
curriculum.
How to Teach? (methods and
strategies of teaching)
- Teachers emphasize mastery
of subject matter.
-To gain mastery of basic skills
they observe core requirements,
longer school day, longer
academic year.
 -Teachers rely heavily on the use of
prescribed books, DRILL METHOD and
other methods that will enable them to
cover as much as academic content as
possible like the LECTURE METHOD.

- Emphasizes on MEMORIZATION and

DISCIPLINE.

- Teacher- centered approach

Essentialist Teachers
-Believe that teachers have
authority to discipline students.
-Believe that teachers should have
mastery of the knowledge and skills they
teach
-Believe in the use of deductive
method
-Believe that students should learn
the “ ESSENTIALS”
 - Believe that only when the
students have mastered the
required competencies can they
be promoted to the higher level.

- Believe that test scores are

the basis for evaluating students’
progress.
2. PROGRESSIVISM
Why Teach?

-Teachers teach to DEVELOP LEARNERS

INTO BECOMING ENLIGHTENED AND
INTELLIGENT CITIZENS OF A DEMOCRATIC
SOCIETY.
- Teachers teach learners SO THEY MAY
LIVE LIFE FULLY NOW not to prepare them
for adult life.
What to Teach?
- need- based and relevant
curriculum- a curriculum that
“responds to students’ needs and
that relates to students’ personal
lives and experiences.
 - Teach learners the SKILLS TO
COPE WITH CHANGE.
-Teach the skills or processes in
gathering and evaluating information
and in problem-solving.
-Subjects given emphases are:
Natural and Social Sciences
- Teachers expose students to many
scientific, technological and social
developments which means that
Progress and Change are fundamental.
 -Progressivist teachers
teach students to solve
problems in the classroom
similar to those they will
encounter outside the school.
How to Teach?
-Experiential method- one learns by
doing. -John Dewey
-Problem solving method, scientific
method
-“ hands –on-minds-on-hearts-on”
such as field trips, thought
provoking games and puzzles.
-Learner-centered approach
Progressivist Teachers
- Believe that teachers should
possess a repertoire of learning
activities to be used in the teaching-
learning process like problem- solving,
field trips, creative artistic expression
and projects
- Believe that the child should
develop naturally
- Believe that interest motivated
by direct experience stimulates learning
 - Believe that the teacher is a
facilitator of learning.
- Believe that there should be
close cooperation between the
home and the school.
- Believe that students’ needs,
interest and readiness should be
considered in constructing the
curriculum.
 Progressivist teachers were
against traditional education and
the following:

1. authoritarian teachers
2. book- based instruction
3. rote memorization
4. authoritarian classroom
management
3. PERENNIALISM
Why Teach?
-As a rational being, teachers
should develop the students’ RATIONAL
AND MORAL POWERS.
-Aristotle:”If we neglect the
students’ REASONING SKILLS, we
deprive them of the ability to use their
higher faculties to control their passions
and appetites”.
What to Teach?
- Perennialist curriculum:
views that all human beings possess
the same essential nature.

- Heavy on humanities and on

general education.
- A general curriculum, not a
specialist, less emphasis on vocational
and technical education.
-Teachers use the Great Books of the
ancient and medieval times.
How to Teach?
- Classrooms are “centered around
teachers” or teacher- centered approach.
-Teachers apply whatever creative
techniques and other tried and true methods
which are believed to be the most conducive
to disciplining students’ minds.
- Socratic dialogues or mutual inquiry
sessions or question and answer method
4. EXISTENTIALISM – Jean Paul Sartre
Why Teach?
- Teachers help students understand and
appreciate themselves as unique individuals who
accept complete responsibility for their
thoughts, feelings and actions.
- Teachers create an environment in which
students freely choose their own preferred way.
-Teachers demand the education of the
whole person, not just the mind.
What to Teach?
-Curriculum: students are given a wide variety
of options from which to choose. Students choose
their subject matter.
-HUMANITIES AND ARTS: are given tremendous
emphasis to help students unleash their own
creativity , imagination and self-expression.
Ex. historical events: they focus on what the
actors/heroes modeled behavior for the students to
imitate.
-Vocational education/subject: a means for
teaching students about themselves and their
potential, NOT A LIVELIHOOD.
How to Teach?

- Methods focus on individual learner. Learning

is self-paced, self- directed.
- Includes a great deal of individual contact
with the teacher, openly and honestly.
- Help students know themselves and their
place in the society using values clarification
strategy.
- Teachers should not be judgmental and take
care not to impose their values on their
students.
- Learner- centered approach
Existentialist Teachers
- Believe that the purpose of
education is to awaken our consciousness
about our freedom to choose and to
create our own self- awareness that
contributes to our identity.
-Believe that students should be
trained to philosophize, to question, and
to participate in dialogues about the
meaning of life.
 - Believe that self-expression,
creativity, self awareness, and self
responsibility should be developed in
the students.
- Believe that open classrooms
maximize freedom of choice.
- Believe in self- directed
instruction.
- Believe that students should
decide what they want to learn and
when to learn it.
5.BEHAVIORISM
Why Teach?
-Concerned with the
modification and shaping of
students’ behavior by providing
for a favorable environment.
-Teachers are after students
who EXHIBIT DESIRABLE
BEHAVIOR in society.
What to Teach?
-Teach students TO
RESPOND FAVORABLY TO
VARIOUS STIMULI IN THE
ENVIRONMENT.
How to Teach?
-Teachers ought to arrange environmental
conditions so that students can make the responses to
stimuli.
Ex. Adequate and good physical facilities, visual
materials are important
-Teachers ought to make the stimuli clear and
interesting to capture and hold the learners’ attention.
- Teachers provide appropriate INCENTIVES TO
REINFORCE POSITIVE RESPONSES AND WEAKEN OR
ELIMINATE NEGATIVE ONES.
Ex. Reward and punishment, rules and regulations
in class or in school to control students’ misbehavior
- Teacher –centered approach
6. LINGUISTIC PHILOSOPHY
Why Teach?
- Teachers teach to develop in the
learner good communication skills or skills
to send messages clearly and receive
messages correctly.
-Teachers develop learners the ability
to articulate, to voice out the meaning and
values of things that one obtains from his
experience of life and the world.
What to Teach?

- Learners should be taught TO COMMUNICATE

CLEARLY.
- How to send clear, concise messages and how to
receive and correctly understand messages sent.

- Communication takes place in THREE WAYS:

1)verbal component: refers to the content of our
message, the choice and arrangement of our words. Oral
or written
2) nonverbal: refers to the message we send
through our body language.
3) para verbal: refers to how we say what we say-
the tone, pacing and volume of our voices.
 -Teachers teach learners to use
language that is correct, precise,
grammatical, coherent, accurate so that
they are able to communicate clearly and
precisely their thoughts and feelings.
-Help students expand their
VOCABULARIES to enhance their
communication skills.
-Teach the learners how to
communicate clearly through non-verbal
means and consistently through para- verbal
means.
 - Caution the learners of the
verbal and non-verbal barriers to
communication.

-Teach learners to speak as

many languages as they can.
A multilingual has an edge
over the monolingual or
bilingual.
How to Teach?
- Experiential method- students
should experience verbal, nonverbal
and para-verbal to enhance their
communication skills.
- Dialogues so that there are more
exchanges of words and ideas to help
students improve their communication
skills.
learner- centered approach
7. CONSTRUCTIVISM
Why Teach?

-To develop intrinsically

motivated and independent
learners adequately equipped with
learning skills for them to be able
to construct knowledge and make
meaning of them.
What to Teach?
-Learners are taught HOW TO LEARN.

-Teachers teach learners the LEARNING

PROCESSES AND SKILLS :
- SEARCHING, CRITIQUING AND EVALUATING
INFORMATION, RELATING THESE PIECES OF
INFORMATION, REFLECTING ON THE SAME, MAKING
MEANING OUT OF THEM, DRAWING INSIGHTS,
POSING QUESTIONS, RESEARCHING AND
CONSTRUCTING NEW KNOWLEDGE OUT OF THE
INFORMATION LEARNED.
How to Teach?
- Teacher provides students with data
or experiences that allow them to:
HYPOTHESIZE, PREDICT, MANIPULATE
OBJECTS, POSE QUESTIONS, RESEARCH,
INVESTIGATE, IMAGINE AND INVENT.
- Interactive classroom
-Dialogical exchanges of ideas among
learners and teachers in class. Teachers
act as a FACILITATOR
 - Knowledge is constructed by
learners through an active, mental
processes of development.

- Learners are the builders and

creators of meaning and knowledge
hence, teachers must help facilitate
learners on this.
- Learner centered approach
8. Christian Philosophy
It places a high value upon
knowledge, both of God and of
His works.
It describes the moral and
spiritual fruits of this knowledge
and defines its ultimate purpose.
Why Teach?
The purpose of Christian
Education is the directing of the
process of human development
toward God’s objective for man:
godliness of character and
action.
It bends its efforts to the
end” that the man of God
maybe perfect, thoroughly
furnished unto all good works.
What to Teach?
Education of the child of God
must include both the knowledge
of God and the preparation for
exercising that knowledge in
SERVICE.
Christian education students
are taught to know God and to
imitate Him and in His CHARACTER
AND IN HIS WORKS.
 The BIBLE is the center of the
Christian school curriculum.
The Bible is not only the most
important subject matter but also the
source of the PRINCIPLES DETERMINING
THE OTHER SUBJECT MATTERS AND THE
WAY IN WHICH THEY ARE TAUGHT.
The study of the bible is diffused
throughout the teaching of all subjects.
 The teacher’s knowledge of
the Scriptures controls his
selection and interpretation of
materials and determines his
whole perspective on his
subject matter.
 Christian school gives emphasis to the
HUMANITIES: the study of man’s language,
his literature, his artistic achievements, the
record of his history, the logic of his
mathematical reasoning, and other forms of
his personal and cultural expression.
Curriculum: natural sciences,
astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology,
mathematics and related subjects because
they provide a knowledge of God’s nature
and His work in this world.
How to Teach?
The educational procedures
and vehicles of Christian education
in the Christian school must follow
BIBLICAL EXAMPLES AND NORMS.
Christian methodology follows
the PRINCIPLES OF SCRIPTURE.
Ex. Parables, bible stories,
reflection
 The character and conduct of the
Teachers are important in Christian
schools because “ what the student
knows of God is often what he sees in
his TEACHER.
The position of the teacher is one
of authority and service.
In scriptural leadership, HE WHO
LEADS MUST ALSO SERVE.