Explain your educational philosophy and discuss that of your peers.
To help foster this thinking and discussion, consider the following:
To help foster this thinking and discussion, consider the following:
- What is the purpose of public education?
- What is the purpose of required courses compared to that of elective courses?
- What is the role of the teacher in public education?
1 comment:
I believe public education needs to prepare people for the world by providing them a foundation for success and to feed their initial interests that might lead to future career. There are three primary attributes that when applied properly to just about any field will lead to success. They are the three Cs: Curiosity, Creativity, and Communication. It is our duty to exercise these attributes in our students so they can utilize them in their futures.
With Curiosity a person will have a drive to learn about what is most interesting to them. They will seek out the information, knowledge, and skills that they need. We as teachers need to guide students in how to manage this curiosity so they can continue to learn in our absence.
With Creativity a person takes what they know and have continued to learn through their curiosity and expanded or altered it to create new ideas or practices. With Creativity they improve their world and become innovators rather than simple consumers or reproducers. Even if a person is working what people might consider a menial job, if they exercise creativity in it, they will become better at the job and as a result be a valued member of that working community.
With Communication people can take the ideas and skills that they have improved upon with their creativity and share them with others. Only through the ability to effectively share new ideas can people's creativity be appreciated.
This communication then leads to feeding other people's curiosity who then will expand or improve on and then communicate with others. The process becomes a cycle of on-going learning, continued expanding of ideas and sharing.
Therefore, it is our duty as teachers to help students learn to be independent learners who can expand on ideas they learn and communicate their thinking. This would be the primary role of a teacher of a required course in high school.
Teachers of elective courses would better serve their students by feeding their curiosity. The elective courses will have an advanced focus on both learning knew ideas and practicing methods of learning more on the topic as an independent learner. We want the students to continue feeding the passion that drew them to selecting the elective course.
My educational practices are driven by this desire to help students become Curious and Creative individuals who can Communicate ideas to others. It is our duty to not focus on "A students" but instead to give our students those Cs that they need to be successful.
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