What Is Your Philosophy of Education?

Each of us has a philosophy of education, or a set of fundamental beliefs

regarding how we think schools should be run. What is your philosophy

of education. Decide whether you agree or disagree with each statement.

Use the following numbers to express your response:

5 Agree strongly

4 Agree

3 Neutral

2 Disagree

1 Disagree Strongly

___ 1. The curriculum of the schools should be subject centered. In particular, student learning should be centered around basic subjects such as reading, writing, history, math, and science.

___ 2. The curriculum of the schools should focus on the great thinkers of the past.

__5_ 3. Many students learn best by engaging in real-world activities rather than reading.

__4_ 4. The students should be permitted to determine their own curriculum.

__5 _5. Material is taught effectively when it is broken down into small parts.

___5 6. The curriculum of a school should be determined by information that is essential for all students to know.

___7. Schools, above all, should develop students' abilities to think deeply, analytically, and creatively; this is more important than developing their social skills or providing them with a useful body of knowledge about our ever-changing world.

___5 8. Schools should prepare students for analyzing and solving the types of problems they will face outside the classroom.

___9. Reality is determined by each individual's perceptions. There is no objective and universal reality.

___10.People are shaped much more by their environment than by their genetic dispositions or the exercise of their free will.

___11.Students should not be promoted from one grade to the next until they have read and mastered certain key material.

___12.An effective education is not aimed at the immediate needs of the students or society.

___13.The curriculum of a school should be built around the personal experiences and needs of the students.

___14.Students who do not want to study much should not be required to do so.

___15.Programmed learning is an effective method of teaching information.

___16.Academic rigor is an essential component of education.

___17.All students, regardless of ability, should study more or less the same curriculum.

___18. Art classes should focus primarily on individual expression and creativity.

___19.Effective learning is unstructured and informal.

___20.Students learn best through reinforcement.

___21.Effective schools assign a substantial amount of homework.

___22.Education should focus on the discussion of timeless questions such as "What is beauty?" or "What is truth?"

___23.Since students learn effectively through social interaction, schools should plan for substantial social interaction in their curricula.

___24. The purpose of school is to help students understand themselves and find the meaning of their existence.

___25.Frequent objective testing is the best way to determine what students know.

___26.America must become more competitive economically with countries such as Japan, and schools have an affirmative obligation to bolster their academic requirements in order to facilitate such competition.

__27. Students must be taught to appreciate learning primarily for its

own sake, rather than because it will help them in their careers.

__28. Schools must place more emphasis on teaching about the concerns of minorities and women.

__ 29. Each person has free will to develop as he or she sees fit.

___30.Reward students well for learning and they will remember and be able to apply what they learned, even if they were not led to understand why the information is worth knowing.

___31. American schools should attempt to instill traditional American values in students.

____32. Teacher-guided discovery of profound truths is a key method of teaching students.

____33. Students should be active participants in the learning process.

___34. There are no external standards of beauty. Beauty is what an individual decides it to be.

___35.We can place a lot of faith in our schools and teachers to determine which student behaviors are acceptable and which are not.

___36. Schools must provide students with a firm grasp of basic facts regarding the books, people, and events that have shaped the American heritage.

___37.Philosophy is ultimately at least as practical a subject to study as is

computer science.

___38. Teachers must stress for students the relevance of what they are learning to their lives outside, as well as inside, the classroom.

___39. It is more important for a student to develop a positive self-concept than to learn specific subject matter.

___40. Learning is more effective when students are given frequent tests to determine what they have learned.

Now that you have responded to all 40 items. Write the number of your response to each statement in the spaces below. Add the numbers in each column to determine your attitudes toward key educational philosophies.

A B C D E

Perennialism Progressivism Existentialism Behaviorism Essentialism

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36.____ 37.____ 38.____ 39.____ 40.____