PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

My Philosophy of Education based on the Reading Material and Life Experiences

Samuel J. Shemwell
Concordia University Chicago

PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

Education has always had a profound purpose in history. Great empires rise and fall on
the backs of mathematics, literature and science. Some of the biggest names in history are those
of educators, they all shared one simple goal: to pass down knowledge, discipline, skills, and
dreams through generations. My philosophy of education is based on my beliefs towards the
purpose of education, the roles of teachers in education, and the roles of students in education.
The purpose of education is fairly simple given at face value. Educators teach students
what they need to know in order to both grow and develop. As education progresses the fields
are pulled farther apart into specialized sections for training students for their future vocation.
This all holds true in my view of education, however there is far more to it. One of the purposes
of education is to ignite a fire in students, to enable them to learn and become passionate about a
subject. My goals for my students are exactly that. I want my students to learn what they need to
know, but I also want them to find their passion while in my classroom. I believe there are two
ways students can learn, either by having the facts beaten into them by a lecture based teacher, or
allowing them to explore a subject, through guidelines, and find their own interest. I believe that
the latter is a far more effective way of teaching.
My role in all this is first as an instructor, and hopefully a guide. My role as an instructor
is to be sure that my students are able to meet the standards and even excel past them. My role as
a guide is in finding the methods that work and enabling my students to think independently. My
beliefs will have a strong impact on my teaching style. My classroom management will be based
off of the first few weeks in the class where it will be mostly lecture based. During this time I
will set up rigid expectations towards course work. Thankfully as a science and anatomy teacher
instructional tools are easy to come by. I do plan on following my anatomy teachers method of
letting her students make her models as part of a project. My curriculum will be two fold. Firstly

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through lecture of basic information, and secondly through large group and solo projects that
require students to explore their own interests. I plan on assessing my classroom almost entirely
from test grades. I will also be grading the notes of my students at the end of class. All of
expectations will be laid out for each student to be able to see on the syllabus.
In my opinion the role of the student in his/her own education is firstly participation,
followed by attentive ness, and bound together through research. Teaching students biology is
one thing, but teaching students effective methods of finding information online about biology is
a life skill. Students should be responsible for getting large projects in on time as well as being
prepared for tests. I hold to the belief that students should be directly involved in the what and
the how of their education. I want to be a teacher in a private school, as in the one that their
parents pay thousands for every year, the students should be given plenty of decisions. I want to
assign large scale projects that will require research ant time. The topics for these projects will be
very vague and will allow for a lot of student exploration. The student to teacher relationship
should be 100% professional. Teachers should be willing to help students and meet with them,
and they should be respected by their students.

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References
Pearson. (2014, 2011, 2008, 2005). Foundations of American Education. In Philosophy: Reflections on the
Essence of Education (pp. 74-100). New Jersey: Pearson.