find out your philosophy of education. https://community.eflclassroom.com

1. “Know thyself”
What is your
Philosophy
Of
Education?
My own: Short Version Long Version Whohub Interview

2. Introduction
Online Version Quick Quiz
Your educational philosophy is your beliefs
about why, what and how you teach, whom
you teach, and about the nature of learning.
It is a set of principles that guides
professional action through the events and
issues teachers face daily.

3. Instructions
Answer these 40 questions and learn
more about your philosophy of education.
The steps are simple:
Read each statement carefully.
Write your response, from the scale
below, on a sheet of paper.
Respond to each statement quickly and
based upon your beliefs.
Score your test and reflect on the result

4. Answer the questions with;
Strongly Disagree / S.D
Disagree / D.
Neutral / N
Agree / A
Strongly Agree / S.A.
SD / D / N / A / SA

5. SD / D / N / A / SA
The curriculum of schools should
be centered around the basic
subjects such as reading, writing,
history, math, and science.
(1)

6. The curriculum of the schools
should focus on the great thinkers
of the past.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(2)

7. Many students learn best by engaging
in real-world activities rather than
reading.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(3)

8. The students should be permitted to
determine their own curriculum.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(4)

9. Information is taught effectively when it
is broken down into small parts.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(5)

10. The curriculum of a school should be
determined by information that is
essential for all students to know.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(6)

11. 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.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(7)

12. Schools should prepare students for
analyzing and solving the types of problems
they will face outside the classroom.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(8)

13. Reality is determined by each individual's
perceptions. There is not objective and
universal reality.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(9)

14. People are shaped much more by their
environment than by their genetic
dispositions or the exercise of their free will.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(10)

15. Students should not be promoted from one
grade to the next until they have read and
mastered certain key material.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(11)

16. An effective education is not aimed at the
immediate needs of the students or society.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(12)

17. The curriculum of a school should be built
around the personal experiences and needs
of the students.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(13)

18. Students who do not want to study much
should not be required to do so.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(14)

19. Programmed learning (sequential, step-by-
step) is an effective method of learning
SD / D / N / A / SA
(15)

20. Academic rigor is an essential component of
education.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(16)

21. All students, regardless of ability, should
study more or less the same curriculum
SD / D / N / A / SA
(17)

22. Art classes should focus primarily on
individual expression and creativity.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(18)

23. Effective learning is unstructured and
informal.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(19)

24. Students learn best through reinforcement
and reward.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(20)

25. Effective schools assign a substantial
amount of homework.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(21)

26. Education should focus on the discussion of
timeless questions such as "What is
beauty?" or "What is truth?"
SD / D / N / A / SA
(22)

27. Since students learn effectively through
social interaction, schools should plan for
substantial social interaction in their
curricula.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(23)

28. The purpose of school is to help students
understand themselves and find the
meaning of their existence.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(24)

29. Frequent objective testing is the best way to
determine what students know.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(25)

30. My country must become more competitive
economically with countries such as China,
and schools have an affirmative obligation to
bolster their academic requirements in order
to facilitate such competition
SD / D / N / A / SA
(26)

31. Students must be taught to appreciate
learning primarily for its own sake rather
than because it will help them in their
careers.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(27)

32. Schools must place more emphasis on
teaching about the concerns of minorities
and women.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(28)

33. Each person has free will to develop as he
or she sees fit.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(29)

34. 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.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(30)

35. Our schools should attempt to instill our
traditional values in students.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(31)

36. Teacher-guided discovery of profound truths
is a key method of teaching students.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(32)

37. Students should be active participants in the
learning process.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(33)

38. There are no external standards of beauty.
Beauty is what an individual decides it to be.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(34)

39. We can place a lot of faith in our schools and
teachers to determine which student
behaviors are acceptable and which are not.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(35)

40. Schools must provide students with a firm
grasp of basic facts regarding the books,
people, and events that have shaped the
American heritage.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(36)

41. Philosophy is ultimately at least as practical
a subject to study as is computer science.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(37)

42. Teachers must stress for students the
relevance of what they are learning to their
lives outside, as well as inside, the
classroom.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(38)

43. It is more important for a student to develop
a positive self-concept than to learn specific
subject matter.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(39)

44. Learning is more effective when students are
given frequent tests to determine what they
have learned.
SD / D / N / A / SA
(40)

45. SCORING
 1 = Strongly Disagree / S.D
 2 = Disagree / D.
 3 = Neutral / N
 4 = Agree / A
 5 = Strongly Agree / S.A.

46. SCORING
 Statements 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, 31, 36 ___
Essentialism
 Statements 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, 27, 32, 37 ___
Perennialism
 Statements 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, 28, 33, 38 ___
Progressivism
 Statements 4, 9, 14, 19, 24, 29, 34, 39 ___
Social Reconstructivism
 Statements 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 ___
Existentialism
Total

47. The results reflect what your
philosophy of education is.
Do you practice what you believe?
Compare your results with those of
some colleagues. Are you surprised
by their own philosophies?

48. Profile of the Philosophies

49. Perennialism
 Develop the minds of rationale beings to
control our emotions
 Basic subject matter and “great works” are at
the center – not the student
 Human nature consistent so we should all
have / experience the same core education
 The teacher knows, the student shows (what
they know)
Further Reading

50. Plato
 'And once we have given our community a good
start,' I pointed out, ' the process will be cumulative.
By maintaining a sound system of education you
produce citizens of good character, and citizens of
sound character, with the advantage of a good
education, produce in turn children better than
themselves and better able to produce still better
children in their turn, as can be seen with animals.'

51. Essentialism
 The school’s task is to teach mastery over a set
core of “basic knowledge”.
 Learning is hard work. Must drill, memorize,
“know” the content.
 The teacher is all knowing and the disciplinarian
controlling the curriculum and students.
Further Reading

52. Albert Einstein
 There are only a few enlightened people with a lucid
mind and style and with good taste within a century.
What has been preserved of their work belongs
among the most precious possessions of mankind.
We owe it to a few writers of antiquity (Plato,
Aristotle, etc.) that the people in the Middle Ages
could slowly extricate themselves from the
superstitions and ignorance that had darkened life
for more than half a millennium. Nothing is more
needed to overcome the modernist's snobbishness
than to read the original great minds.

53. Progressivism
 The student’s world is the focus and starting
point of education.
 Learning is an active, democratic and social
process. Knowledge is constructed by the
student as they experiment and solve
problems.
 The teacher is a facilitator and guide. School
is a reflection of the wider world.
Further Reading

54. Maria Montessori
 “We cannot know the consequences of suppressing
a child's spontaneity when he is just beginning to be
active. We may even suffocate life itself. That
humanity which is revealed in all its intellectual
splendor during the sweet and tender age of
childhood should be respected with a kind of
religious veneration. It is like the sun which appears
at dawn or a flower just beginning to bloom.
Education cannot be effective unless it helps a child
to open up himself to life.”

55. Social Reconstructivism
 Schools should be “change agents” and
educate students about their place in the
world and how to change the world.
 Community based learning, addressing real
problems
 Social action, critical thinking, praxis
Further Reading

56. Paolo Freire
 “Education either functions as an instrument
which is used to facilitate integration of the
younger generation into the logic of the
present system and bring about conformity or
it becomes the practice of freedom, the
means by which men and women deal
critically and creatively with reality and
discover how to participate in the
transformation of their world.”

57. Existentialism
 emphasizes the ability of an individual to
determine the course and nature of his or her
life and the importance of personal decision
making.
 Help students “self-actualize” and become
free agents who decide the course of their
own lives
Humanism / Psychology / Logotherapy
Further Reading

58. Rollo May
 "Human freedom involves our capacity to
pause between the stimulus and response
and, in that pause, to choose the one
response toward which we wish to throw our
weight. The capacity to create ourselves,
based upon this freedom, is inseparable from
consciousness or self-awareness."

59. Philosophies of Education
AT THE MOVIES
Perennialism Progressivism
Social
Reconstructivism
Existentialism
Essentialism

60. He who knows the Buddha, does not
know the Buddha.

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