Lillian Hartgraves

February 13, 2016

Philosophy of Education

Definition of Progressivism

The word progressive means developing in stages and/or growing. A person with

progressive views in the political world is someone that is seen as a reformer or an innovator. An

educator that uses a progressive philosophy in the classroom is a teacher that looks at the whole

student rather than just the academic side of the individual. Progressivism is seen as a

contemporary philosophy of education and is most closely related to pragmatism when talking

about traditional educational philosophies. A progressive educator believes that students learn

through experiences and will learn most if they are interested or can relate to the topic. These

educators will make sure that students are active in their learning and are being prepared for

adulthood rather than just being prepared for an academic test. Certain social qualities or skills

are also incorporated into the classroom and curriculum. By incorporating and involving so many

different aspects and ideas into the classroom the child as a whole is educated.

How Progressivism Aligns With Me

When I took the self-assessment, I was actually very surprised how accurate this

assessment was for me! I align with progressivism the most because I see school as more than a

place of academic learning. School should be a place of learning about oneself, others, and all

aspects of life. Students are in school for eight hours five days a week, therefore our job as

educators is to teach the whole student. These students are the future of the world so we need to

educate them to the best of our abilities to ensure our worlds future is in good hands. As a

teacher, I think it is important to learn as much as you can about the students in your classroom
to better target their interests and to create engaging lessons. My future classroom will have a

sense of community and have many opportunities for active learning.

Instructional Implications

Educational Goals

Since I align best with progressivism my educational goals are not just academic based,

but very real world based. Everything we are teaching in the core subjects is very important and

there are ways we can teach these core subjects while relating it to real world problems. By the

end of each school year I hope that my future students leave my classroom a smarter, well-

rounded, and productive citizen. I want students to leave my classroom an overall better and

smarter person. I will be able to achieve these educational goals by implementing many different

progressive and contemporary approaches through my curriculum, teaching methods, learning

environment, and assessment.

Curriculum

As teachers we have so many things we are required to teach and in many districts the

way it is taught is up to the teacher. I want to relate everything they are learning to how the world

is today. I want the students to question things they are learning and explore new ideas. When

students are questioning things they are learning and they are gaining problem solving skills in

the process. For example, a lot of times students blow off math because they think they will

never use it other than in class. By changing this stigma and letting them work through real life

problems they are going to be more likely to learn the information.

Teaching Methods/Roles
 When teaching my future students I will not be their main source of information or their

main focus for seven hours a day, but I will be guiding them in their learning. It is my job and

duty as a teacher to develop lessons that will be interactive and useful for their learning. On top

of that it is also my job to ask them the questions that get them thinking about what they are

learning. Leading and having classroom discussions is a great way to guide learning. We are

always learning more from each other than we are by just reading or listening to someone talk.

Learning Environment

The learning environment is such an important aspect of school. If a student does not feel

safe in your classroom they will not be learning, which is why having a sense of community in

the classroom is so important. If the students feel loved and safe they are more likely to be open

to learning and opening up to others. In a progressive classroom, there is a lot of collaboration

and self-regulation so if a student does not feel confortable in your classroom they may not fully

involve themselves. I think an environment that shows no one is perfect puts many to ease. There

are many ways to make students feel confortable, but one way is to make sure that students know

making mistakes is apart of the learning process. As a teacher if you make a mistake do not make

a big deal about it, instead show them how you learned from your mistake.

Assessment

Making mistakes is also a great way to self-assess. For example, if it is a math lesson

have the student pinpoint where they made the mistake and have them try a different way to

solve it from that point on. This is a skill that they can use without the help of others and a great

skill for taking multiple-choice exams. There are so many different ways other than just exams to

assess students. I find that informal assessments are very useful and easy to use in the classroom.

One-way to do so is having the students write on a sticky note every day at least one thing they
felt they really grasped that particular day. This will show you who understood what and this will

also give the students a time to self-reflect on the day.

Conclusion

Even though I aligned most with progressivism based on my self-assessment, I truly

believe I align with all of the contemporary educational philosophies. These contemporary

educational philosophies include progressivism, postmodernism, and social reconstructionism.

Personally, after further research, I feel like they are so closely related and actually build upon

one-another. They build upon one another in a way that will really help educate the whole

individual rather than just the academic side. Due to my progressive and contemporary

philosophy of education my classroom may look and feel different than your average classroom

years ago and today. It will be very student centered and the lessons will be customized to their

overall interests and levels. You would also not see the same thing year to year in my classroom

because one size does not fit all. Every single year I will have a new bunch of students that are

different than the ones prior and as a teacher it is my job to adapt. Three of the main differences

between my educational philosophy and the traditional educational philosophies are that they are

not student centered, they are lecture, and academic based. As the years go on, I believe that we

will not see many traditional philosophical traits used within the classrooms.