My Philosophy of Education :: Teaching Education Essays

My Philosophy of Education Philosophy of education helps educators understand the purpose of education, what should be taught, and how students learn. All teachers must think about these important questions. A philosophy helps integrate understanding into the educational process. My philosophy is that all children should be educated, because it makes our society better as a whole. I believe that if we can educate all children, we can improve our society in many ways. In my opinion, the best way to educate children is using the pragmatism theory. Pragmatism is knowledge that is obtained and developed through experiences and interactions with the environment (Tanner 1997). This is important in education because children learn more through actual experiences. They learn from their actions, some even being mistakes. Pragmatism is a practical approach and it will work well when teaching children. Pragmatists believe that we should improve society through means of education that are geared toward problem solving and must be ongoing (Encarta Online 1995-2000). This is a great point because learning is a continuous process throughout life and it is all about solving problems. A teacher who is a pragmatist will help students understand what is known is changeable, there are a number of ways to interpret events, and there is no absolute truth (Crooner, Knight, and Wiseman 1999). Pragmatism has been around for a long time. It was developed by the 19th century by American philosophers, one of them being John Dewey. To him pragmatism implied that education should represent growth in individual capacity to deal with situations, should be a continuous process that cannot be terminated by the completion of course requirements, and demands self-direction as opposed to authoritarian imposition (Wyett 1998). This led to using the interests of students and their desires to learn as a main point in curriculum. I believe this helps in the classroom. If the children are interested in what they are learning, they will most likely learn that subject matter better. Along with this the classroom should also be democratic. In this process students will have their values respected, and their insights made available to fellow students and professors (Beck 1993). A philosophy in education is very important for a teacher to have.