Philosophy of Education
Kurstin’s Philosophy of Education
Why I Chose this Profession
Why would I choose to become a teacher? To many people, it is an easy answer of liking kids or being passionate about something, and I am really no different. I was really thoroughly inspired by two teachers in particular, though most of the time I only mention one: my art and agriculture teachers in high school. My art teacher helped me to feel seen and heard at a time that I felt all I could be was the youngest Larsen girl, and he helped me realize that I don’t have to live in that shadow and I could be myself. I could shine for myself. His encouragement took my love of art to the next level and made me really think that it was something I knew I had to do for the rest of my life. My agriculture teacher did the same for me in a way, but instead it was with my personal identity. She showed me that no matter where you came from, you can be knowledgeable about agriculture and even “city slickers” can win FFA competitions and start their own ranches. She inspired me to pursue agriculture as not just a backup option, but so I could one day be an FFA advisor and maybe even start my own farm. The fire for teaching truly ignited while I was in the military and I had to train my junior Marines on how to do helicopter maintenance, and I had to create lesson plans every week determining what that morning training would be about and how to execute it. I would make diagram drawings and lend them to my juniors to study from and hearing them say how much it helped made me realize that I want to teach. This profession is the culmination of the last 7 years of my life mixed into one giant goal and dream. I want to be a high school art and/or agriculture teacher, and now all I need to do is achieve it.
Personal Educational Philosophy
My personal philosophy on education has its main roots in progressivism, with support from existentialism and postmodernism. Progressivism focuses on the students and basing the curriculum around their interests, in order to better prepare them for the future. It’s a teaching style that I’ve had most of my teachers use to support their teaching, but I haven’t seen a lot use it as a foundation for their teaching. I prefer this style because it encourages students to dig deeper into their education, and the more a student likes what they are learning, the more they will learn and retain from it. It can also help them learn problem-solving skills and help them to be better prepared for the world outside of school. With the support of postmodernism, I will be providing more perspectives on teaching topics than just the traditional ones because I want my students to have a more complete understanding of things. For instance, in art, most of the history taught is primarily European. While that is fine and all, I want to also include Asian art, African art, and other areas of the world that are not typically covered in most classes, so that there can be a unique understanding of the differences location and culture can make to art that was made in the same time period! Not only that though, I want my students to have the power to think their own thoughts, not just what they are told or expected to. Lastly, adding existentialism to my pot of philosophies helps balance everything out, as the goal with this is to teach the whole person and not just the individual subjects. Implementation of this would be on a smaller scale, because I would be an art teacher first, but I want to be able to also help students learn things that I didn’t get to in school like taxes and saving money and building credit. How to apply for a job or how to leave a job with a good relationship. How to build on communication skills and build up empathy and understanding to better interact with others. It’s not a traditional way of teaching, but I think that’s what makes it something that should be given a try and done.
These three philosophies combined create a unique outlook where I center my teaching more around my students, letting them take the lead in most cases and helping them to pursue what they take interest in, even if it goes a little beyond required curriculum. I want to emphasize the importance of trying your best and improving over time rather than just on raw natural talent or coming into class already knowing everything, and I want everyone to learn something and improve themselves by the end of our time together. I want to explore more perspectives where I can and encourage exploration into different subsets of my subjects when my students take interest, and I want to be able to provide them not only with an immersive learning environment, but also the opportunity to change their environment everyone once in a while (like going outside for class that day). Basically, my job as teacher would be to set the base standard and go through required curriculum, while also providing multiple and sometimes contradicting perspectives in order to encourage growth within students and critical thinking. I will be there as a role model, a mentor and a resource for help and knowledge. My students would be in charge of themselves, getting their work done and pursuing more knowledge in things they enjoy or wish to learn about. They can take their own creative spin on assignments, or not, and their grade won’t just be reflected on how well they can take a test, but how well they know the actual knowledge they learned in my class.
Educational Theories
Progressivism is the primary base of my philosophy and the reason I align more with it is because of the relationship described between the teacher, students and education style. My theory is that, if the students find something they like in the lesson, they will do more to actually learn and participate in it. Again, implementation of that is restricted in the sense of an art classroom, but it would be something more like instead of “make a coil pot,” it would be “find something that interests you about your family heritage, research and study pots from those people and recreate your own version of it.” Not only would the students then find more motivation in the project itself, but they would also learn more about themselves, their families and maybe some lost heritage that didn’t make it to their generation. This isn’t the only way I would implement this of course, but an example of one of the ways I would.
Classroom Management
I will establish a routine with my students during the first month of school that would set the pace for the entire semester/year. I want my environment to be more open and animated versus sterile, so things like cell phone use and talking wouldn’t be prohibited per say, but a trust would be put in for students to not abuse it. High school is a time when a lot of kids are discovering themselves and wanting to be treated with respect and more like the young adults they are becoming rather than the children they are often still seen as, so I want to give them the opportunity to experience that and trust them with the responsibility of having self control. There will be cases where students will need to be disciplined, but I will do so appropriately with the violation, and I plan on not being the kind who does negative reinforcement. Nothing hurts more than knowing you messed up and then the people you look up to punish you harshly like you didn't understand what you did wrong. Students will be expected to treat each other with respect, and if they struggle, then I will help them learn what that looks like. I also want to teach my students how to positively critique artwork without being mean, and how to accept criticism, even when it can be a bit hurtful, because at the end of the day, it only helps us to become better artists and is not meant as a personal insult.
My classroom environment will be bright and colorful! I want to fill the walls with student work and pieces I’ve done, as well as posters about famous and lesser known artists through the ages, books filled with sculptures, patterns, and art to inspire my students, and flexible seating so that students can move around as they feel comfortable. Because I will be focusing on secondary education, things like connection activities will not be a daily occurrence, but rather a weekly exercise for the students to make connections, but also giving them enough time to actually do their artwork as well. If students have issues, I want to provide them with a safe and neutral space to work things out without distracting the rest of the class and help them to get back on track with their homework. And if they get ahead of their work in my class, I will allow them to work on other classes' homework or allow them to sketch till the end of class, that way they can still be productive till the end of class. I want the students to be able to enjoy themselves and relax, and focus more on the fun of the process of art versus perfection of art.
Assessment and Evaluation
Assessment will be done in a more relaxed manner. I’ll use things like simple group reviews to see how well they are maintaining progress in class, and smaller mini tests that are not graded to follow the individual student and thus, I can adjust my teaching to help everyone stay on track. There will only be two tests (if I can help it) that will record their progress in my class with a grade, and I want to provide flexibility in case they have test taking issues or are not ready for a test that day (like if something bad happened or they are not focused). As for their actual art assignments, those will be determined on progress made versus how the art itself looks. If my student went from drawing stick figures to somewhat more of a human form, they are going to get a grade reflecting on the progress and effort they made rather than how good it subjectively looks, and if they struggle, I want to be able to help them improve and build their confidence.
In conclusion, I want to become a teacher closer to the upgrading style of modern teaching. I want to help my students thrive by exploring their interests and preparing them for more of the obstacles of real life versus just the obstacles of school life. I want my students to learn how to communicate, empathize and think for themselves with multiple unique perspectives to build from in order to formulate their own ideals and opinions. I want to fill them with a passion of not just art, but of the world they live in and in learning things, new and old. And I will constantly push to improve myself as their instructor so I can always give the best education possible.
References
Sara. (2019). Your Introduction to Education: Explorations in Teaching 4e. Pearson.