What's Philosophy got to do with it?

This question was used to start our discussion on educational philosophy. We were to examine our own thoughts on education by using the PAEI, and then to engage in a discussion that attempted to classify our collaboratively derived course values by philosophy. I like that our group has people of diverse backgrounds. We never settled on one philosophy that encompassed all aspects of our course values. However, there seemed to be a consensus that the educational values derived fall under Progressive and Humanist philosophies.

Several side discussions of interest also came up as part of our discussion. One was whether or not corporate training environments were always Behaviorist in nature. Group members gave examples to support the fact that corporate training is not always Behaviorist in nature. I thought Armi made a valuable distinction that corporate training is designed to address specific needs whereas formal schooling is more commonly charged with developing a whole, critically thinking person.

My most valuable contribution...I feel like I'm supposed to toot my horn here..awkward. I tried to make clearer the distinction between Progressive and Liberal philosophies with respect to the role of the teacher. I did this by pointing out that in our text book (Carliner and Driscoll) in Table 2.1 define the role of the teacher as "guide on the side" under Progressive philosophy and as "expert" in subject matter under Liberal philosophy. Our class values statement viewed the teacher more as a "guide" in line with Progressive philosophy. I also think that Dewey's ideas about experience and relevance are critical to the way we think about education today. I saw Dewey's influence throughout our common values statement. It has been a long time since I reviewed educational philosophy. It was reassuring to have a couple of classmates indicate that they felt Dewey's ideas were also influential and very present in our common values.

Joni gave us some interesting questions to ponder about halfway through the week. Are our philosophies set, or not? The belief that one chooses their philosophy strategically, based on type of content or learners was voiced. Many people in the discussion seemed to feel this way. However, Kay commented that she didn't feel this way, as her philosophy represents her values. She wouldn't change her values to meet an audience. Her strategies might change based on her audience, but not her philosophy. I think that this is right on. If your philosophy is your world view, how likely are you to change that so suddenly, or for each audience? Not very. Another intriguing idea that came out of the discussion was that two individuals might embrace the same teaching strategy in a given learning environment but for different philosophical reasons.

There was a lot to think about in this discussion. I enjoyed participating in this discussion with my peers and hope I get better at acknowledging their contributions by using Karma points more effectively.