Artifact Ten

Toward a Philosophy of Teaching: Finding the I in my Educational Research

The process of teaching—the activity aimed at the achievement of learning--is intimately connected with philosophy (Passmore, 1980). My perspective on education, and my outlook on life as it is lived in schools, provides a permanent and organic reference between education and my own personal experience: teaching. Investigating one`s philosophy of teaching presents an opportunity for what Dewey (1963) refers to as “conducting education.” It is an occasion to put into practice a principle of order that follows from understanding what educative experience signifies. Teachers aim to act together with their students to bring about certain conditions and situations, and thus in a sense education involves courses of action designed to “bring students to places where they have not been.” (Chambliss, 1987, p. 1). To conduct is to act. To act is to do. This line of thought identifies the philosophy of my teaching: bringing students along to places and points where they have not been before. The idea that ways of thinking about education are ways of thinking about conduct is the entry point for my teaching philosophy.

Dewey (1963) returns regularly to the principle of experience in education, stating that an “educator [must] see in what direction an experience is heading” (p.38). He further remarks that educational experience “does not go on simply inside the person” (p. 39); it influences the formation of attitudes of purpose in our practice. Dewey`s educational experience plays a considerable role in Brookfield`s (2006) argument that “the most important knowledge skillful teachers need to do good work is a constant awareness of how students are … perceiving [their] teachers” (p. 28). Simply put, the product of reflection should be educational improvement.

Aristotle, in The Politics, raises the question of whether education should be directed mainly to the intellect or to moral character, and whether proper studies are those that are useful in life, make for excellence, and expand the boundaries of knowledge (Lord, 2013). The great Greek philosopher`s comments are still relevant today, because as educators we have to constantly consider the fundamental questions of human existence. If we fail to investigate questions about the meaning of life, the nature of truth, goodness, beauty, and justice—with which the philosophy of education should be concerned—we promote an education that is inadequate. The idea that the learner is something like an empty vessel into which knowledge must be poured is objectionable to many professionals within the field of education. The question “What should the student know?” is giving way to “What should the student be?” Both are very important questions I intend to consider simultaneously in my teaching approach.

I hold an educational philosophy that reflects my interests in collaborative authorship. Instead of the "full frontal teaching” method of large lectures of autocratic seminars, I prefer student-centered teaching that encourages learning by both students and teachers. I favor classroom dynamics that permit student input in terms of dialogue and critical thinking, and creativity and imagination from the teacher`s perspective. I also like students to think about their class as a community. This means that in all of my classroom engagements, I have students spend a fair amount of time in smaller groups in which they not only talk and think together, but write together. In keeping with this emphasis, I allow students to re-appraise their positions as autonomous individuals and thinkers. As I view it, my teaching philosophy then has the potential to become a pedagogy as soon as the opportunity to educate is present. Here, I cannot consider the issue solved, only raised, but to me, what teaching does—within the range I discussed it above—is to enrich life through a better realization of its philosophical possibilities.

I regard matters of education and teaching in particular as a serious undertaking, because, as Kilpatrick (1951) asserts, the “quality of life itself is at stake” (p. 271). I now think that my primary task is to equip learners with skills and understanding that will allow them to function effectively in the world at large.

References

Brookfield, S. (2006). The skillful teacher. On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom.

(2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Chambliss, J. (1987). Educational theory as theory of conduct: From Aristotle to Dewey. Albany,

N.Y.: State University of New York Press.

Dewey, J. (1963). Experience and education(The Kappa Delta Pi lecture series). New York: Free

Press.

Kilpatrick, W. (1951). Philosophy of education. New York: Macmillan.

Lord, C. (2013). Aristotle’s politics (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Passmore, J. (1980). The philosophy of teaching.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.