I took my Educational Philosophy Survey to determine which philosophy and learning orientation is closest to my own. After I obtained my scores, I was shocked by the results. According to my scores, I was an Essentialist, and at close second was Perennialist. NO WAY!!
As a youngster I attended Catholic school with Essentialist conservative perspectives. My teachers – nuns – drilled me on the basics skills of the three “Rs”, reading, writing, and arithmetic. I was taught to do as I was told, not to challenge authority, and to work hard. There was very little expression of independent thinking. It was a “Cookie Cutter” school; each student shaped with the same systematic core ideas of strict/high moral standards, discipline, and intelligence. This is not what I envision for “my” classroom.
Although I plan to reinforce moral standards in my students and demonstrate a respect for others and authority, I want them to think for themselves, to be hands-on and actively involved in their learning process, and to feel free to question and challenge other ideas. I don’t want a “cookie cutter” classroom with "cookie cut" students. That’s why I knew there was something wrong with my Education Philosophy survey results. I decided to retake the survey, paying extra attention to each question.
On my second take of the survey I found my BIG MISTAKE. I had scored incorrectly. Instead of scoring with #1 = Strongly Disagree and #5 = Strongly Agree; I scored ,
#1 = Strongly Agree and #5 = Strongly Disagree. What a relief with my second survey results. My scores suggest I lean towards the philosophy of Cognitism/Constructivism; a close second was a tie between Progressivism & Humanism. This is a closer judgment to my teaching philosophy.
Cognitism-Constructivism defined: Learner actively constructs own understandings of reality through interaction with environment and reflection on actions. Student-centered learning around conflicts to present knowing structures.
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