Educational Philosophy

“Second only to freedom, learning is the most precious option on earth.”
-Norman Cousins-

Travel back to your teenage years. It’s a beautiful sunny day, the birds are singing, and the swimming hole beckons with its cool, clear promise of a spring afternoon’s happiness. But you’re stuck inside a musty old classroom listening to Mr. Fooglehorn drone on about the evolution of Chinese offshore fishing policy or some other equally useful piece of information. Sounds like fun, right? Unfortunately, this is how some educators instruct within their classrooms, emphasizing boring facts at the expense of the adventure in learning.

“The illiterate of the future are not those who can’t read and write but those that cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
-Alvin Toffler-

Learning is the most important common denominator in classrooms. How do people learn? What is our natural way of learning? These are simple questions but their answers are far from simple. A sophisticated and detailed look at education and all of its complexity is beyond the scope of this philosophy; however, the adventure and spontaneity of learning is what I hope to achieve.

How we learn often determines the quality and usefulness of the knowledge gained. I first argue that only learning from experience, without the benefit of structured education or training, is a slow “hit and miss” process. Without the structure and direction of classroom education, there’s no way to be sure experience is providing all the important learning we need. And, of course, there’s the matter of efficiency. Learning only by experience is often slow and time consuming. While traditional classroom education is a poor substitute for learning by experience, it does, however, when combined with gaining experience, help speed up the learning process.

Klas Mellander (1993) says that, “the purpose of (leading) is to make learning possible.” That is, it creates conditions that encourage and support learning as opposed to simply conveying information. This definition holds educators and trainers accountable for high quality inputs (e.g., a supportive and challenging learning environment, relevant examples, quality learning materials) as opposed to simply being responsible for activity (e.g, lecturing, handing out materials, controlling side conversations). Furthermore, my adopted theory recognizes that learning involves a choice. As a teacher, you can make learning possible, but you can’t make learning happen.

Traditional teaching is “jug and mug,” with the big jug (the teacher) filling up the little mugs (the students). Traditional teaching only pays little attention to learning readiness and learning climate. In traditional teaching, the teacher explains the meaning of each term separately, in a linear fashion. Students are asked to “pay attention” and have few opportunities to make use of their own experience. Opposed to the traditional teaching method is my philosophy of the teacher serving as a guide to education. Where he / she coach each student to understand and grow with a foundation of information. A key function of this educational philosophy is to be a facilitator in the classroom (i.e, seek and challenge viewpoints, synthesize ideas, summarize key points, focus on decisions and tasks, ease group processes, offer mediation and resolve, and support a safe learning environment). Rather than simply presenting material to a captive and passive audience, I plan to deal with students who active, involved, and who draw their own conclusions. I also plan to assist students in their endeavor to create and discover their own opinions and insights, rather than believing that my personal conclusions can become student’s conclusions just because I say so. I will encourage students to work for things that they already understand intuitively. I will provide for experimentation and discovery, rather than turning students into walking reference books and champions of total recall.

“If teaching is transformed in our time, it will not be the result of snappier teaching techniques. It will happen because we are in the midst of a far reaching intellectual and spiritual revisioning of reality and how we know it.”
-Parker Palmer-