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Philosophy of Education
Laura A. Williams
Salem College

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Philosophy Statement

My dream and ultimate goal in life has always been to be an educator. From the moment
I entered my kindergarten class, I knew I wanted to be a teacher one day. This aspiration and
desire of mine has never changed throughout all of these years. Instead, it has continued to
flourish my ambition and passion to become the best educator that I can possibly be. The idea of
being able to shape, influence, and impact anothers life has always been an aspiration of mine,
and that is what has always captivated me about the teaching profession. Nelson Mandela once
said, Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. The
ability to help a child grow, learn, and achieve the impossible is what teachers create in their
students lives. I am an educator because I want to teach the minds of the future and impact their
lives like my previous teachers have done for me.

My goal of education is to create creative minds that are able to go out into society and
become whatever they aspire to be. Every student possesses different unique qualities and
talents. It is my desire to stimulate and establish these talents in students. I believe the most
effective way to achieve this in students is the educational theory known as, constructivism. The
constructivist paradigm states, that students learn by constructing their own meaning of the world
around them based on their past experiences and prior knowledge. According to constructivist
theories, learning is a social advancement that involves language, real world situations, and
interaction and collaboration among learners. The learners are considered to be central in the
learning process (Ozer, 2004). As this states, the learning process is different for all students,
because all students experiences and cognitive abilities are different. Therefore, teachers need to
construct a fitting learning environment that is meaningful to all learners.

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In addition, influential educational theorists Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky expanded on
the constructivist philosophy of how students learn. Piagets theory of cognitive development
can be described as, the goal of the theory is to explain the mechanisms and processes by which
the infant, and then the child, develops into an individual who can reason and think using
hypotheses (McLeod, S. A., 2009). In order to understand how students learn, it is important to
understand their cognitive development. The main concepts of Piagets theory states that all
students learn differently, all students develop at their own rate, students should have interactions
with their peers, students should be problem solving, and that the learning process should include
interactive activities. Since every student has different demands, learning styles, and cognitive
abilities, it is crucial for teachers to accommodate the needs of all their learners in their teaching
practices. It is also crucial for students to interact with their peers around them, because students
learn from each other and learning is shaped by social interactions that children experience. Also,
since all students are different, interaction with peers allows students to view others perspectives
other than their own. Continuing, Piaget believed that in order for students to develop and grow,
they have to analyze and question what they learn. This can be achieved by doing problem based
educational practices. It is important that students are provided with opportunities to challenge
and analyze their understanding on their learning material in a meaningful classroom. A
meaningful environment for children to learn needs to be interactive, as Piaget stated. Students
need to explore, examine, discover, and question what they are learning because listening to a
teacher explain it is simply not enough.

Continuing, another influential education theorist was Lev Vygotsky. One important
concept of his philosophy of how children learn correlates with Piaget. Basically, both believed
that no students are the same as stated previously. Some students may need more assistance than

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others. Vygotsky defined this as the zone of proximal development. He referred to the zone of
proximal development as, the difference between what a child can do on his or own and what he
or she can accomplish with some assistance (McCown, 2013, p. 36). In order for students to
learn, they have to be challenged in their work. The zone of proximal development lets a teacher
know where the students are in their learning. Without it, teachers would not know the full
capabilities of their students. Another concept that Vygotsky used to describe how children learn
was through the use of scaffolding. The concept of scaffolding is defined as, supporting
learning during its early phases through such techniques as demonstrating how tasks should be
accomplished, giving hints to the correct solution to a problem or answer to a question, and
providing leading questions. As students become more capable of working independently, these
supports are withdrawn (McCown, 2013, 2006). Scaffolding goes hand in hand with the zone of
proximal development, because some students may require little to extreme scaffolding. This is
pivotal because while the learning should be challenging, it should not be unrealistic for the
students to master. By providing scaffolding temporarily, it can help students learn the material
and eventually the scaffold would no longer be needed because the student has mastered the task.

Furthermore, the role of the teacher in the learning process should be the facilitator.
Students are the ones that should be the center of focus. Teachers need to let the learning process
be the students responsibility with them guiding over them. The role of a teacher is to establish
high expectations for everyone, model appropriate behavior, manage the class, engage students
in the material, have continuous assessment, and make sure to meet the individual needs of every
student. In order for students to succeed, they must be challenged. Therefore, teachers need to
establish and encourage high expectations for all the students. As discussed, some students
cognitive abilities may be more developed than others and they may learn faster than others.

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Regardless, realistic high expectations need to be established for everyone. However, not every
students expectations are the same, but one thing that is the same is they are all expected to
achieve their personal best. Continuing, teachers also need to be the ones that model how tasks
should be done and what appropriate behavior looks like. From day one in a class, teachers
should model professional behavior. Otherwise, a positive and effective classroom environment
will not be present. By the teacher modeling what is appropriate; students will model the same
behavior.

Continuing, another role that teachers must do is engage students in the material. As
stated before, learning is a process that needs to be interactive for the students. Therefore, having
engaging and meaningful tasks are crucial. If students are not engaged in the material, then they
will not succeed in learning it because it does not have valuable meaning to them. The teacher
needs to provide creative ways to deliver the content to the students. This involves activities that
have the students problem solving, exploring, collaborating with their peers, analyzing, and
synthesizing new ideas. Another significant responsibility of a teacher is assessment. Teachers
need to know how their students are progressing in the material. Therefore, teachers need to
assess students to determine what they are struggling with and what they are succeeding at.
Assessment also lets teachers view what they need to reteach and informs the teacher if their
teaching practices are effective or not. Nonetheless, all these are what the role of a teacher
involves.

As shown, the role of the teacher is the facilitator, but students also have a role in their
education. Students are responsible for making sure they do all that is asked of them by their
teacher. A benefit to the students of a teacher being a facilitator, is that students have the

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freedom to construct and explore their own meanings on topics as opposed to be confined to a
desk and just listening to a teacher. Education in the 21st century is interactive learning. Students
role is to take advantage of all the learning opportunities their teacher provides for them.
Students role is to be the best student and learner they can be. This means participating in
learning, doing their work, asking questions, being respectful to teachers and peers, having a
positive attitude, setting goals for themselves, but more importantly, the role of the student is to
give their best effort in everything they do.

Not only do teachers and students have roles in education, but parents are significant as
well. The families role in the education process should be to support and encourage their child
every step of the way in school. However, reality is that many students do not have this support
system in their home setting. Therefore, it is important for teachers to provide support and
encouragement to all students because sometimes a teacher may not know what occurs at home
for a student. Numerous statistics show that parents who show little interest in their childs
education contributes to them having the same negative attitude about school and possibly
dropping out in the future. Therefore, I think parent involvement is crucial and can be established
by the teacher keeping the parents current on what is going on in the class by sending emails,
calling, or simply having meetings with the parents.

In addition, another important role in education, is the role of the community. Students
are influenced and shaped by the community they reside in. A study was done to assess the
communities role in education, and one student had this to say, Your community is where your
heritage lies. Where you grow up and who you grow up with has a huge influence in the outlook
you have on life, how you speak, how you view the people around you, and how you view

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yourself. I see the influence of my community at work in my life because I always had someone
telling me that I could reach my goals if I worked hard enough (Citizens League, 2008). As this
states, students that have a community that is supportive and appreciative of education,
influences students within the community to appreciate their education. This student had a
community that was encouraging and the outcome for the student having this caring community
helped achieve her goals. Therefore, the community plays a large role in the success of education
within its citizens because your community is your home. The role of the community should be
to promote the advancement and encouragement of educational affairs to its citizens.

It has been established that teachers, students, parents, and the community all have roles
in the institution of education. Schools themselves also have their own role to ensure of academic
success. The schools role is to create a school environment that encourages its students and
believes in its teachers. The administration of a school need to make sure the school ensures a
safe learning environment and has high expectations for the students and its educators. This
includes the personal safety of all that are in the school. For example, the role of the school is to
have a safe learning environment for all, which means taking the appropriate steps to ensure that
no students are bullied. The only worry students should have at school should be about their
work, not about being physically or mentally abused by another student.

Continuing, school is also responsible for making sure that all students are treated equally
regardless of their ethnicity, religion, heritage, culture, gender, sexuality, or other personal
matters. The schools role is to value and respect individuals of all statues. Currently, the world
is more diverse than ever, and schools have the role of making sure they are creating global
citizens of the world, which means respecting everyone and their differences. School plays the

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role of educating students and modeling behavior that is nonjudgmental and no prejudices when
it comes to citizens of the global community. Schools should be the example of what respected
values and behavior looks like for students.

As shown, there are a plethora of components that make up the success of education for
students in the 21st century classroom. One matter that shapes the quality of the education
provided is effective teaching strategies and practices. One effective teaching strategy is the use
of graphic organizers. Students are nationally tested on state tests that assess them on problem
solving and comprehension. Therefore, graphic organizers can help organize a students thoughts
and understanding of topics, as opposed to a regular worksheet that requires minimal thinking.
Another teaching strategy that should be implemented in the class are the use of journals. The
Common Core expects high performance in reading and writing. Therefore, having students
write their thoughts and explanations down in a journal not only improves their writing skills, but
it also serves as an assessment tool to the teacher. Teachers can assess the journals by the
students writing ability and comprehension.
Continuing, another effective teaching strategy for teachers to use in the 21st century
classroom are strategies that promote higher order thinking and problem solving. The Common
Core requires the use of problem solving and higher order thinking. It is important that students
develop their higher order thinking skills by doing problem based assignments and tasks. Blooms
Taxonomy states that teachers help students develop their higher order thinking skills by slowly
requiring students to do work that challenges them. The levels start at lower thinking skills and
progresses to higher order thinking skills that students should be able to do. It starts at the lowest
being knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and the highest thinking skill

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being evaluation (Blooms Taxonomy, 2007). The goal of the teacher should be for their students
to progress through all of these levels, with the end goal being the students evaluating.

In addition, another crucial teaching strategy to be used is assessment strategies. There

should always be formative and summative assessments occurring in the classroom. Formative
assessment are assessments that include but are not limited to, keeping running records of
students in reading, asking them questions, graphic organizers, or simply personal observations
of the students. Formative assessment should be done continuously to monitor the students
progression in the material. Assessment strategies are also useful to the teachers because it lets
them know how the students are coming along in the material and lets the teacher know what
they need to improve upon in their instruction, as stated earlier. Summative assessments are done
at the conclusion of unit plans or at the end of the academic year on the state tests. These
assessments evaluate the students overall performance on a final task or project, which are
important to view because it shows how the student has progressed over a long period of time.

Moving along, many of the core subject areas receive the most instruction in schools,
which are math, reading, and writing. Many subjects get reduced from instruction such as, social
studies and science. One important aspect that teachers need to do is make sure all content can
relate to a students life outside of the classroom. A student experiences science every day when
they walk outside and they experience social studies every day because they are a member of
society. Math, reading, and writing are significant to students, but these other areas of instruction
that are reduced in schools are crucial to a students life experience as well. Therefore, it is
crucial for teachers to integrate these subject areas into instruction. Many of these areas can be
implemented through reading. For example, students can read books that are about science and

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social studies. There is a plethora of books on history, people, animals, weather, and more of
these topics. Another integration strategy in reading, can be the use of integrating music and art.
Students could write their own poetry to music or display their comprehension of a book by
drawing a scene from the book. Also, core subject areas can be integrated within each other as
well. In math instruction, students can write their own word problems, or a teacher could do a
read aloud on a book about math to the class. Nevertheless, there are numerous ways to integrate
core subject areas with other subjects that tend to get cut from the curriculum. It is all about
being a creative educator and creating authentic and meaningful tasks.

In addition, another crucial area to integrate into instruction is technology. In a world

where technology and knowledge is available anywhere at any time, it is the teachers job to
create a technological 21st century classroom for students that utilizes these advancements in
society. Technology is here to stay, and it is only going to become more pervasive and more
central to the way we communicate and live our lives. The 21st century demand[s] that we
prepare students to be educated, sophisticated owners of online spaces, (Richardson, 2008, p.
19). Technology is going nowhere and it offers a plethora of benefits to teachers that can be
implemented into instruction. Technology can be integrated into every subject area. Computers
and the internet can serve as a source of research when students are assigned papers and topics to
study and explore. The internet can provide numerous information and added knowledge for
students. Not to mention, that books can be read online for students.

Another way to use technology is for enrichment activities. For students that finish early,
they could go to a math website and play a game that improves their skills, or students could
have books read to them from online, which could increase their reading skills. Also, the

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SMART board has many beneficial features for students and teachers. SMART boards have
replaced many chalkboards and dry erase boards in many United States classrooms. They
provide many possibilities for the class. For example, they come equipped with math activities
that can be done and students could come up to the board and answer questions. SMART boards
also allow the teachers to display and highlight information in historical documents that are only
found online and also science theories, or they could play videos that the whole class could view.
Technology is a part of students everyday lives and instead of banning or ignoring the practice,
teachers should utilize all the resources that it provides.

To conclude, education is a powerful institution that affects all parts of society. Education
is such a powerful tool and changes the lives of people every single day. My education from
grade school to college has shaped the person that I am today and continues to enrich my life
daily. Jon Dewey once said, Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.
Learning and growing are a part of the life cycle. Being able to guide and watch students learn,
grow, and change the world every day in a classroom are what educators do. I want to spend the
rest of my life continuously educating myself and I want to inspire other students to want to be
educators like I was inspired. Effective educators have to create a meaningful learning
experience for all students, which requires meaningful tasks, encouragement to all students,
utilizing 21st century instructional techniques and technology, and always fitting the needs of
every student. Robert Frost once said, There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you
with so much quail shot that you can't move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind
and you jump to the skies. I aspire to be the educator that makes students feel that they can
achieve anything in life and if that involves them believing that they can even jump to the skies,
then I know I am doing my job well.

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