Who am I? - May 28 & 29, 2008

A major theme of this week's reading assignments is "Who am I?" and "What do I believe about education?"

With regard to the question of who I am, I found my own idea of myself to be in line with the questionnaires in the reading. For example, my instinct is to want to teach children in the lower grades and the supplied questionnaire supported that assumption. However, I found myself to be unsure of my own educational beliefs.

While reading about the different educational philosophies, I noted that I aligned myself with elements of each belief. For example, I agree with Essentialism's focus on the classics, yet not with its inflexible methods. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I believe in Existentialism's belief that students have the power to shape their futures, but I have serious concerns about the power young children have to direct their own education. In order to examine my own beliefs about educations, I accepted the High Achiever Challenge and took the Educational Philosophies Test, which classified my beliefs as Progressive. I thought the issue was settled - I am a Progressivist. However, Dr. Lewis raised a valid point in class on Wednesday: one's espoused theory is not necessarily one's theory in practice. Which makes me wonder, "Does theory influence practice, or does practice influence theory?" My inclination is that for many teachers, practice influences their beliefs about education, when ideally, theory should influence practice.

Thus, it is important that I fully examine my own beliefs about education and form a personal philosophy so that I may tailor my educational methods to my own well-defined beliefs. Otherwise, my classroom will fail to have purpose and meaning which will result in the diminished learning of my students.