Originally, I was one of those students who was successful in the traditional, essentialist method of schooling.  A schooling where you were taught a set of “essential” information, memorized it, and reiterated it into a test or project (Sahin, 2018). This style of education was a teacher-centered philosophy which meant that the content taught, and the pace was solely dependent on the teacher. Since I was successful with this style, I had naïvely attributed the reason for others struggling to laziness. I realize now, this could not have been farther from the truth.

Between studying of psychology, working, and participating in the education program, I have found that my previous assumptions were horribly wrong. It is not a lack of effort that is holding students back from being successful, but the underlying philosophy of the education system that did not allow for an equal education. The essentialist method does not compensate for differences in learning style, pace of learning, and factors outside the school that affect the way students learn; which means that lots of students do not get a meaningful education. One way that we can start to change this system is by allowing other educational philosophies to underlie the structure of the education system and allowing teachers to practice their own pedagogy.

A personal pedagogy is a teacher’s definition the ontology, epistemology, and axiology of learning. This definition is highly dependant on the teachers’ personal beliefs and values on the topics. For myself, I believe in the individuality, creativity, and strength of each individual student.  In order to see these unique traits, there must be flexibility in curriculum such that students can expand on their learning and dive into their interests. Therefore, my personal pedagogy is aligned with four educational philosophies which include Constructivism, Humanism, Progressivism, and Anishinaabe.

Constructivism

Constructivism speaks to me because of its approach to knowledge acquisition and social learning. In Constructivism, learning is viewed as an active process (WGU, What is Constructivism?, 2020), where, “What we see changes what we know. What we know changes what we see” (Piaget, n.d.). This philosophy emphasizes that people actively organize knowledge into new or pre-existing groups. Moreover, the way that we interpret new information is reliant on what we have already learned and experienced (University at Buffalo, 2020). Since each person’s experience is unique, the way in which information is constructed in is also unique (University at Buffalo, 2020; WGU, What is Constructivism?, 2020). Making learning from others experience a good way to contextualize knowledge. So, this philosophy requires teachers to elicit learning intentions that require students to reflect on previous experience, and then compare it to incoming information and work with other students in order to organize it effectively (University at Buffalo, 2020).

To me, as a future teacher, this philosophy aligns with my epistemological values of learning based on it being an active process, specific to the individual, and enhanced with social interactions. This philosophy reflects the reality that each child is different, and we can not treat, teach, or assess them as if they were. I have incorporated this into my own pedagogy as a lens to apply over the curriculum to provide valuable learning experiences. In attempt for students to gain critical thinking skills, and appreciation for other people’s ideas an experience, which are essential skills in the workforce and beyond.

Humanism

A second educational philosophy that I align with is Humanism and its view on student motivation. Humanism is reliant on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, in which he describes that people are striving towards becoming their best self (WGU, The five educational learning theories, 2020).  However, in order to learn and work towards becoming that best self, people require their basic needs met which include safety, shelter, and food (WGU, The five educational learning theories, 2020). When these needs are met, then the child is responsible to motivate themselves to learn in order to reach self-actualization (WGU, The five educational learning theories, 2020). The role of teachers in this philosophy is to guide student, support their curiosity and provide a safe place to do this work (WGU, The five educational learning theories, 2020).

I feel that this philosophy of education aligns with my values on who needs to be represented in the learning. What I have learned in the education program and working as an educational assistant, is that students cannot begin to learn if they are busy worrying about safety or food. Even myself, being privileged and having access to safety, lodging and food, when I’m hungry, I do not focus in class either. Therefore, I could not even begin to fathom the stress that students have without the necessities which makes sense why they are not in a place to learn. Necessarily, I have incorporated the importance of producing a warm, safe, and flexible learning environment to hopefully create a space that can lead to learning experiences for all children.

In addition, Humanism also aligns with my ontology of learning because it explains that learning helps you become your best self. What aligns with me is that, when you engage in learning, you figure out what your strengths are.  I believe that when a person figures out their strengths, it can create a sense of self confidence, which in turn produces the intrinsic motivation that students need to accomplish their goals. I think that if learning these things through school can be accomplished then it will have a positive effect on giving students a sense of direction after graduation and an openness to learning in the future.

Progressivism

A third philosophy that matches my beliefs towards student representation in learning is Progressivism. Progressivism is a child-centered educational philosophy that acknowledges that each child is an individual, and as such should be represented in the curriculum (Cohen & Gelbrich, 1999). This educational philosophy instills a chance for students to inquire, research, and extend upon their learning and interests as a part of the learning. These child-centric views align with my pedagogy because it addresses the idea that not all children learn in the same way. As such, I feel as teachers, we need to find a way to teach and assess students to accommodate those unique differences. Moreover, I think it is essential to allow students a chance to represent their learning in a way that is meaningful to them and highlights their strengths.

One method of individualizing learning was suggested by John Dewey, a foundational philosopher of Progressivism. Dewey emphasized the importance of using scientific method and hands on experience as a method of learning. The incorporation of theses experiences allow students to hypothesize, experiment, and critically assess in order to transform those experiences into knowledge (Cohen & Gelbrich, 1999). The structure of the scientific method allowed kids to individualize their learning by introducing experiments from their own experience or interests.

Personally, having a science background, I think this model of experimentation is a great way to test out new ideas and develop habits in critical thinking. Cementing itself as a component of my pedagogy.  Furthermore, if there is no opportunity to investigate or follow up on interesting topics, students will lose interest in that class. However, what I do want to highlight, is that this process of experimentation may not resemble the same thing in all students, because as mentioned above, we need to assess and teach students differently. But I think it does provide a basis or starting point for a student’s inquiry.

Philosopher, Jerome Bruner created the spiral curriculum which spoke to the ideals of Progressivism. In this curriculum, learning is spiraled upwards, allowing topics and ideas to be taught, reviewed, and expanded upon leading to distinct opportunities for extension and contextualization of the content (Gibbs, 2014). Bruner’s goal was the de-compartmentalization of subjects, to allow for contextualizing connections to be made between concepts students were learning (Gibbs, 2014).

What I really appreciate about this model is that it will help children start structuring their thinking in terms of the content, and what it relates to. I that the spiral curriculum will allow students to understand the importance of learning a concept, coming back to it later with a different lens and then extending upon it. I think that this will help students develop an innovative mindset and that leads to more meaningful knowledge.  I feel like when I went to school our learning was a linear and scaffolded process, so even connecting concepts within the same course was a challenge, let alone connecting the content to real world examples and dynamic interactions.

Anishinaabe

The last educational philosophy that I have aligned with is the indigenous educational philosophy of Anishinaabe. Anishinaabe is a holistic educational philosophy (Morcom, 2017). Contrarily to essentialism, Anishinaabe addresses teaching to the student as a whole. This means acknowledging and valuing a student’s physical, intellectual, emotional and spirituals aspects of their being  (Morcom, 2017). This means what is included in teaching addresses the information, the way that this new information impacts the child, and what connections do they make from it emotionally, spiritually, or physically (Morcom, 2017).

I wanted to incorporate this to the axiology of my pedagogy because it speaks the fact that the learner in front of you is a human, not just a sponge to learn information. Additionally, I do not think you can build the relationship with a person required to teach them if you are only addressing the intellectual side. I feel that more meaningful lesson planning and learning will be achieved when you know who your students truly are in order to develop the necessary connection between teacher and student.

A second important component of Anishinaabe is the connection between the self and community, living things, earth, spiritual and divine (Morcom, 2017). This relationship also addresses the idea that the teacher and the classroom are not the only place for learning. Students need to learn from other adults and experiences as well. Furthermore, this connection creates accountability for students to learn so that they use their new knowledge to contribute to bettering their community (Morcom, 2017).

I applied this importance of connection to my pedagogy by idealizing the importance of feeling included within the classroom community. I will strive to make my classroom one that is inclusive and attempt to set up learning activities that include everyone. The second way I want to incorporate connection into my pedagogy, is by highlighting the importance to connect to community. I am very aware that I do not know everything, and I do not think that I should pretend. So, I really align with the idea of having other adults also play a role as educator outside of school or brought in as a special guest. I also think this gives students opportunities to reach out to for questions, and to help their community.

Conclusion

Overall, I feel that my personal pedagogy is defined by the idea that our students are human. They all have different experiences, perceptions, home lives, and needs. I think it is our duty as a teacher to figure out who these students are and how we can teach them in a way that addresses their strengths and fosters self-growth. My biggest reason for this is if we are not tailoring our lessons to the learners then, why even bother teaching the material at all? Putting ourselves as the teacher at the center of learning is irrelevant because we have already learned this information. We need to be flexible and adaptable to the individual students present in the classroom and help them learn through exploration, questioning and develop a sense of community. Through these experiences I believe that students will begin gain the self confidence, critical thinking skill, and an openness to lifelong learning that can applied for the rest of their lives. Furthermore, allowing teachers to define their own pedagogy really allows for teachers to model their individuality, beliefs, and self-growth and learning like we are trying to teach students today. Consequentially, I think this will also allow for a migration away from constrictions of essentialist schooling, and hopefully provide a more meaningful education of all students.

 

References

Cohen, L., & Gelbrich, J. (1999). Section III – Philosophical Perespectives in Education. Oregon State University. Retrieved from https://oregonstate.edu/instruct/ed416/PP3.html

Gibbs, B. (2014). Reconfiguring Bruner: Compressing the Spiral Curriculum. SAGE Journals, 41-44. doi:https://doi-org.prxy.lib.unbc.ca/10.1177/003172171409500710

Morcom, L. (2017). Indigenous holistic education in philosophy and practice. witj wampum as a case study. Foro de Education, 121-138. doi:doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14516/fde.572

Piaget, J. (n.d.). Jean Piaget Quotes. Retrieved from GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/12064.Jean_Piaget#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWhat%20we%20see%20changes%20what,know%20changes%20what%20we%20see.%E2%80%9D&text=%E2%80%9CEach%20time%20one%20prematurely%20teaches,consequently%20from%20understanding%20it%20compl

Pink, D. (2009, Aug 25). The puzzle of motivation. (TEDTalks, Interviewer) Youtube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y&t=117s

Sahin, M. (2018). Essentialism in Philosophy, Educaiton, Social and Scientific Scopes. Journal of Innovation in Psychology, Educaiton and Didactics, 193-204.

University at Buffalo. (2020). Constructivisim. Retrieved from University at Buffalo: Center for educational innovation (CEI): http://www.buffalo.edu/ubcei/enhance/learning/constructivism.html

WGU. (2020, May 30). The five educational learning theories. Retrieved from WGU: https://www.wgu.edu/blog/five-educational-learning-theories2005.html

WGU. (2020, May 17). What is constructivism? Retrieved from WGU: https://www.wgu.edu/blog/what-constructivism2005.html