Philosophies Essay, Research Paper

The essentialism theory of education calls on the traditional aspects of education.

Reading, writing, and arithmetic are the main focus points. From those skills learned in

elementary schools, the students are told to continue with these skills onto the next level.

Essentialism relies heavily on testing and grading to show improvement of the student.

Students are supposed to follow the rules closely and the teachers will be making sure of

that. Subjects are to be taught separately and students will move on based on their testing

performance and not because their peers have moved on.

Progressivism is very different than essentialism. The students are usually set up

into small groups to accomplish tasks together. The students are shown to value the

intrinsic aspects of completing their work. Not to go for the grade, but to set a goal for

yourself and try and accomplish that goal. The teacher is to draw on the student s

reactions to projects to see where to go with the next lesson. So, the students basically

decide which direction the class is headed in. A progressive teacher gets to be really close

with the students that they are teaching and this theory of education is designed to

accomplish that task. The students are free to move around a lot, and they are stressed on

the aesthetics of learning.

I would chose to draw on different aspects of each of these teaching philosophies.

I think it is great for students to have academic goals and standards to reach for. But I

would make these goals easier to attain for many students and not emphasize the grade so

much. I would make sure that the students truly learns what they accomplished instead of

just trying to make the grade and forget the material later on. I also like the progressive

idea of small group projects because it is an awesome way for students to learn. It teaches

them how to deal with other individuals and how to accomplish things together. I would

like the students to follow the rules for the class, like in essentialism. But, I would also like

the students to have the ability to move around in the classroom. So I would try and limit

the amount of rules there are to give the students a greater sense of freedom. I always

think it is best to take different aspects of certain philosophies because that way there is

always a new way to learn something.