Decision Making: Developing Your Philosophy of Education - Essay Example

There are those also who believe that education should be used as tool to improve and reform society such as those espoused byt the social constructiionist theorists. Whichever of these philosophies on education are adopted, depends on the value system and belief of the the individual and institution. II. Body In the test, I am more inclined to the social reconstrutionism model of philosophy in education with a score of 18. My other scores were not that far behind which is 15 on both perrenialism and progressivism.

I scored a near 14 on essentialism. In general, I agree on the hierarchial order of my belief system in the test. That I am more generally inclined to be a reconstructionist in view towards education while not discounting the two other essentials of perennialism and progressivism. I also agree to score lowest on essentialism Social Reconstructionism is my highest score among the more because I believe that education should be a tool for society to improve itself. It is an empowering tool that would enable us as a race and as a people to learn and improve our lot.

Education and learning after all is geared towards the betterment of our condition and could be a liberating tool in minimizing injustices in this world (Cohen, 1999). Progressivism and perennialism were a near second because I am also a beliver that a person should develop himself or herself to the fullest by discovering the greatest achievement of humankind and make it as a benchmark as one pursues his or her ideals. There are truths, beauties and values that endures time that could serve as a solid foundation for a student to build his or her intellectual capacity and moral stature (Dewey, 1938).

I am also a believer of progressivism because education should be focused on the student and not on stringent curriculum. I believe that the best teacher is experience and this is inherent in the progressivist construct which emphasizes experiment for the student to discover the universe around him or her. Esssentialism was the last on my list because I am not really inclined to view education to be only a set of core skills that need to be learned as essentials to survive. In education, I am more of an idealist and not a pragmatist which is why I am not inclined to subscribe to the idea that school curricula should be practical according to the reality of the world.

I believe that essentialism, or the view that education would become useful in the real world, would be a natural consequence of social reconstructionist ideals and does not have to be the objective itself. In a way they are similar only that essentialism is devoid of the lofty purpose to change society for the better. III. Conclusion During the process of taking the tests, there were questions that I answered 3 or neutral because I could neither agree fully or disagree with the proposition fully.

I believe they are right only that it lacks certain elements on the proposition for me to subscribe with the idea. For example, proposition such as “Teachers should help students learn a common core of useful knowledge, not experiment with their own views about curricula” and “Schools should emphasize basic skills more than humanistic ideals” were in my views to partially true only that it is a very simplistic view that I could neither agree nor disagree. I can only surmise that this predicament of mine is only