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PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION INSTRUCTIONS
Assignment Description:
You will articulate a personal philosophy of education noting specifics of belief in the areas of worldview foundations. The philosophical foundations will include metaphysical and epistemological beliefs. Applied beliefs will include the role of the teachers, students, and curriculum in the classroom environment. Relevant issues will include discipline, diversity, curriculum development, professional development, and learning communities. As an academic paper, it is to be supported by the body of knowledge in the field, which is to include references to the literature from educational philosophy, psychology, curriculum, and learning theory.
You will need to plant these belief statements firmly in your worldviews, basic philosophical statements and in the literature. The writer then makes some of the above issues more important than others, depending on the personal philosophy espoused. The focus is that the articulation of your philosophy must be personal, logical, and well integrated. This last point includes both integration within the paper, but also integration of the various thinkers and those who have gone before. What makes this distinctively different than an undergraduate statement of an educational philosophy is the expectation of integration with literature and critical engagement with ideas. This is very important. Do not merely write a list of beliefs, but rather pull in ideas from authors and thinkers from the course and critically integrate those ideas.
Paper Components:
The paper must be 8–10 pages (excluding title, abstract, and reference pages), use APA format, and include a minimum of six scholarly references. You will submit the paper in both LiveText and SafeAssign. There is a rubric that will be used in grading (see below).
1. Title Page
a. Title: Consider the title of your paper to be a motto or slogan reflecting your philosophy. It should be clear enough to give the reader some idea of what you believe about education. Avoid statements that sound vague or flippant.
b. Other Information on Title Page
• Student Name
• Student ID#
• Course# and Section
• Instructor’s Name
2. Abstract (100–120 words)
• Write this paragraph last but place it after the title page and before the introduction to the paper.
• This should be a synopsis of the main findings of your paper.
• Consider this an abridged version of your full philosophy statement.
3. Introduction
• Although not labeled with a heading on your paper, this section will introduce your philosophy and provide a specific thesis statement that will be developed throughout the paper.
• It’s always best to place the thesis statement at the end of the introduction. This serves as a transition into the rest of the paper, which supports the thesis statement.
HEADINGS: To ensure that your paper meets the requirements of the rubric, the following elements must be clearly identified with headings.
4. Worldview & Philosophy of Life: This is what you know and believe about the world and life. How does your Christian faith influence your beliefs? This section should flow smoothly into and be consistent with your thoughts about schools and learning. (The questions listed here are strictly to provoke thought and to help you know how to focus your writing. Do not write your paper as a list of direct answers to these questions.) What is your worldview and what is it based upon? How would you describe your view of life in general? How will your worldview influence your practice as a teacher? What is your basic philosophical belief, and how is it related to/grounded in my worldview?
• Metaphysics: What is ultimately real? What gives life purpose or meaning?
• Axiology
o What do you most value?
o What do you want your students to value most?
o What ethical principles will guide you?
o If appropriate to your content area, what principles of beauty do you hope to instill in your students?
5. Philosophy of Schools & Learning
• What is the purpose of learning, education, schools?
• Epistemology: How do learners come to know truth? What causes learning to occur?
• This is what you know and believe about schools and learning. How does your Christian faith influence your views? It should connect with the previous section and flow smoothly into the next section about instructional practice. Avoid the common error of fragmenting your paper into sections that do not relate to one another. Each section should build on previous ones and support the others.
• Identify key theories from your courses that will impact your teaching. In this section describe the theories and in the next section discuss how you would practice the theory in your instructional methods.
• How will professional knowledge guide your practice?
• Refer to the knowledge base in teacher education that includes educational psychology, philosophy, and learning theory. Don’t try to cover everything; just identify two or three key theories you espouse.
• From what specific professional knowledge will you draw in your practice? Whose theories, ideas, etc., are meaningful to you? Be cautious about assigning to yourself a label that you do not fully understand. This could be potentially embarrassing once you discover everything the label entails.
6. Instructional Practice/Methodology
• This is what should be implemented in the classroom.
• How does your Christian faith influence your practice?
• This section should flow smoothly from the previous one. In the previous section you should have identified and briefly discussed what theories you plan to implement. In this section you will explain how you will put those theories into instructional practice.
• What pedagogical practices or methods should be used most frequently? Why?
• What instructional strategies do you value and implement?
• What do you hope to accomplish by using these strategies?
7. Teacher-Learner Relationships
• How does your Christian faith influence your relationships?
• What is the role of the learner?
• What is the role of the teacher?
• How should they relate to each other and why?
8. Diversity
• How does your Christian faith influence your views of others?
• What diversity factors need to be taken into account by the teacher?
• How do factors of student diversity impact instruction?
9. Your Choice of Headings (optional)
• You may insert optional headings to address issues that are important to your philosophy of education.
• Here are some ideas you might want to consider:
o My calling
o Classroom management philosophy
o Content/subject-area philosophy
o Assessment philosophy
o Parent role and relationship with teacher
o Current critical issues in education
o Etc.
10. Conclusion
• Your conclusion should tie in with the introduction somehow so that your paper displays coherence.
• If your introduction included a metaphor, quote, theme, etc., it would be appropriate to tie back into that.
