My Educational Philosophy

Caitlyn McLaughlin
My educational philosophy comes from aspects of learning theory, In particular Constructivist Learning Theory, mainly from ideas from such theorist as John Dewey, Jean Piaget, David Ausu el, and Leo !ygots"y# Mainly, learners learn from more "nowledgea le peers $whether that is a teacher or another student% and when they are developmentally ready they can egin to understand more a stract thoughts and ring those thoughts into concrete e&amples# My educational philosophy is congruent with Dewey's eliefs that students should e allowed to as" (uestions and e in control of their own learning# )ince all students are not from the same ac"ground, as an educator it not safe to assume information is *common sense+# ,ducators should e accepting of (uestions that students as" ecause it may not -ust further the thin"ing of one student ut it is possi le other may have the same (uestions# I would em race a student's curiosity and may help them find solutions to their (uestions# According to Piaget's theories children continuously learn and relearn things at deeper and deeper levels, as an educator I will use concepts from developmental theory to encourage students to grasp concepts at more a stract levels, and e a le to ma"e connections from a stract thought to concrete thought# I will encourage the students to ma"e their own connections and continuously uild on information already learned and ma"e connections to other things they have learned# They would do this through learning ased on their own e&plorations and social interaction# As a teacher I would guild the thought process, not conduct it# I would accept some student's developmental limitations $since each student develops at their own rate%, yet continue to encourage them to thin" critically# Compara le to Ausu el, I elieve that meaningful learning is hand in hand with high level learning# As o vious as that sounds rote memori.ation still manages to find its place in some educator's curriculum# As an educator, I feel higher level thin" is the goal of learning, and memori.ation that is meaningless and does not help a learner uild a schema, and can end up do the student more harm than good, especially if they thin" rote memori.ation is learning# My goal as an educator is to promote meaningful leaning among the students y relating new information to information already learned, helping students develop more connections and improve their memory on a meaningful level, thus lasting much longer# /rom !ygots"y, I agree with the notion that peers learn from each other first# )tudents should all have the opportunity to e&plore and learn with their peers, and while learning with educators should feel more challenged, ut not so much so that it would e impossi le to do without the assistance of an educator or more "nowledgea le peer# It is within the .one of pro&imal development where most students learn# As an educator I anticipate this and will challenge my students to wor" with each other and overcome learning o stacles they may not e a le to overcome themselves# 0verall, I feel that each student learns at his or her own pace and in his or her own ways and employing many different instructional strategies can aid all children in individual learning# I encourage each student to pursue his or her own interests within art as well as let me and their peers offer a viewpoint they may not have noticed or considered#