Essay On Teaching Philosophies

Different Teaching Philosophies Introduction

There are many different styles of teaching philosophies that regard themselves as the teaching foundation of how classrooms function when it comes to learning. This paper focuses on the two distinct teaching philosophies that circle around the way teachers teach and students learn. The two categorical philosophies are teacher-centered and student-centered, which are self-explanatory on what it pertains to. According to Sadker & Zittleman (2010), the table they provide include specific philosophies of student-centered and teacher-centered philosophies (p. 291). The following table consists of brief descriptions of: Progressivism, Social Reconstructionism, Extentialism, Essentialism, and Perennialism.

334). It also focuses on key subject areas in the class that are crucial when running a classroom based on this teacher-centered philosophy. These core subjects, based on Roberson (2014), involve: math, social studies, and science (p. 344). It is clear that Essentialism reminds whoever the source of information which is given to the students is directly from the teacher. A teacher, who is following this philosophy, knows that the information the teacher provides to the students is, “based on knowledge and evidence-based experience” (Elgstrom & Hellstenius, 2011, p. 721-722). Essentialism, according to Elgstrom & Hellstenius (2011) also plays an effective part in teaching when key elements of discipline and hierarchy are in play (p. 721-722). Advantages in essentialism include, school work that is coordinated and prepared by the teacher for the students (Roberson, 2014, p. 345). Disadvantages for essentialism involve how well the teacher and the student process all the information. For the teacher it involves how well the teacher teaches the subjects and for the students; on how well they can score on the test remembering the information. Roberson (2014) says that when not meeting up to the standards of the testing, teachers are more likely to take the blame than students

44). Several different methods are about to promote progressivism, based on the characteristics of these two methods, which are sort of like off springs from this philosophy. The two methods according to Sherman (2009) are open education and differential instruction; both help influence progressivism, because their goal is to raise the individual growth of students (p. 42). Unlike Essentialism, Progressivism makes its effort to have “recognition of the uniqueness of every child, personal relevancy in learning process requirement active and engaged quality of learning environment” (Sherman, 2009, p. 43). In short, progressivism ditches the academic standards for more freely based learning depending on the students’ needs. This plays as advantage for progressive based classrooms, who are tired of standardized testing. Unfortunately, the disadvantage of progressivism is all dependent on how school systems are run now. According to Sherman (2009), progressivism lacks the power of being utilized in classrooms, because of the political ideals in regards to education (p. 44). Sherman (2009) also says that even though teacher programs help promote progressive practice, it is hard to involve that practice in the classroom when the school system favors more of an essential philosophy (p.