CHAPTER  7 Developing a Philosophy of Teaching and Learning Teacher Interview: Heather Cyra Heather Cyra has been a teacher at Guild Gray Elementary School for four years. Approximately 600 students attend kindergarten through fifth grade at Guild Gray. The school is located between an older, well-established neighborhood and low-rent apartment complexes. Student enrollment fluctuates at the school, and teachers may be asked to change grade levels when populations at specific grade levels decrease or increase. Ms. Cyra began teaching first grade but after one year she was moved to fifth grade. For as long as she remembers, she wanted to be a teacher. She knew that there would be challenges and rewards in teaching, but teachers make a difference in the world. She wanted to be creative and use the natural skills she possesses for helping people learn. What do you see when you see excellence in teaching? I see someone who is organized and has created an enjoyable, engaging environment—teachers who keep the students engaged in learning and also help everyone learn. I see excellence in teaching when I see teachers who have “fun” with their students; teachers who listen to their students and keep the students from being bored. Excellence in teaching is also surprising the students with unexpected activities, rewards, or information. How do you know when your students are learning? There are many ways to know that students are learning. You can often tell just by the looks on their faces that show whether they are confused or enlightened. You can tell by verbal cues from how the students respond to the questions you ask or how they contribute to class discussions. You can tell from a written assessment or merely a show of hands. If they are not responding the way I expect them to then I realize I have to reteach a concept or go back over something that may not have been explained in a way that they can understand. If you are tuned in to your students it is quite easy to tell when students have checked out by the way they look at you or don’t and by the responses they give you. What brings you joy in teaching? When I see how far the students I started out with grow in a year. By keeping track of their stages of development, I can see how much they have learned and how their attitudes and behavior have developed. When my students tell me at the end of the year that they don’t want to leave, I know that I have created a warm, nurturing environment. I feel like I am doing something right. It’s not entirely about what the tests say. As long as they’re learning, showing growth, and enjoying themselves in school and have enjoyed their fifth-grade experience I am happy and feel like I have done my job. How did you develop a personal philosophy of teaching? I constructed my philosophy one course at a time through integration of the most prominent and influential pieces of knowledge from each professor and textbook. During the course in special education my ...

1. CHAPTER 7
Developing a Philosophy of Teaching and Learning
Teacher Interview: Heather Cyra
Heather Cyra has been a teacher
at Guild Gray Elementary School
for four years. Approximately 600
students attend kindergarten through
fifth grade at Guild Gray. The school
is located between an older, well-
established neighborhood and low-rent
apartment complexes. Student enrollment fluctuates at the schoo
l, and
teachers may be asked to change grade levels when populations
at specific
grade levels decrease or increase. Ms. Cyra began teaching first
grade but
after one year she was moved to fifth grade. For as long as she r
emembers,
she wanted to be a teacher. She knew that there would be challe
nges and
rewards in teaching, but teachers make a difference in the world
. She
wanted to be creative and use the natural skills she possesses fo
r helping people learn.
What do you see when you see excellence in teaching?
I see someone who is organized and has created an enjoyable, e
ngaging environment—
teachers who keep the students engaged in learning and also hel
p everyone learn. I see excellence in teaching when I see teache
rs who have “fun” with their students; teachers who listen to the
ir students and keep the students from being bored. Excellence i
n teaching is also surprising the students with unexpected activi

2. ties, rewards, or information.
How do you know when your students are learning?
There are many ways to know that students are learning. You ca
n often tell just by the looks on their faces that show whether th
ey are confused or enlightened. You can tell by verbal cues fro
m how the students respond to the questions you ask or how the
y contribute to class discussions. You can tell from a written ass
essment or merely a show of hands. If they are not responding t
he way I expect them to then I realize I have to reteach a concep
t or go back over something that may not have been explained in
a way that they can understand. If you are tuned in to your stud
ents it is quite easy to tell when students have checked out by th
e way they look at you or don’t and by the responses they give y
ou.
What brings you joy in teaching?
When I see how far the students I started out with grow in a yea
r. By keeping track of their stages of development, I can see ho
w much they have learned and how their attitudes and behavior
have developed. When my students tell me at the end of the year
that they don’t want to leave, I know that I have created a war
m, nurturing environment. I feel like I am doing something right
. It’s not entirely about what the tests say. As long as they’re le
arning, showing growth, and enjoying themselves in school and
have enjoyed their fifth-
grade experience I am happy and feel like I have done my job.
How did you develop a personal philosophy of teaching?
I constructed my philosophy one course at a time through integr
ation of the most prominent and influential pieces of knowledge
from each professor and textbook. During the course in special
education my attitudes about special education students were fo
rmalized when I thought about what kind of an educator I would
be if I did not accept the challenge of working with special nee
ds students to the fullest extent of my abilities to positively infl
uence people.
My philosophy was also formulated by my personal experiences
as an elementary school student. I have always been passionate

3. about learning, so I look back at what I loved about being at sch
ool, what I admired about my teachers, and what lessons and act
ivities provided me with the best experiences to prepare me for t
he future.
How do students learn?
Students learn in many different ways. I pay attention to the ind
ividual differences among my students and use differentiated in
struction to focus on individual needs. I balance instruction wit
h mini lessons, group activities, and individual practice. When s
tudents are engaged, they are learning, and I vary my instructio
n in an attempt to keep them involved.
Questions to Consider
1. Ms. Cyra said she constructed her philosophy of teaching thr
oughout her teacher education course work. Would such an appr
oach to developing a philosophy of teaching work for you? Why
? Why not?
2. Is the enjoyment one gets from learning as important as score
s on standardized tests? Explain.
3. What other ways, besides the ones Ms. Cyra mentioned, can t
eachers use to know if their students are learning?
4. How do you anticipate finding joy in teaching?
INTRODUCTION
Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
1. Identify specific events that may help you develop an educati
onal philosophy.
2. Draft a personal philosophy of teaching.
3. Understand how an educational philosophy influences instruc
tional practices.
4. Summarize the relationship between philosophical perspectiv
es, educational psychology, and approaches to teaching.
A beginning step in becoming a teacher is to examine the attitud
es and assumptions you have about teaching and learning throug
h developing an educational philosophy.
Knowledge about teaching and learning is most useful to teache

4. rs when past knowledge is constantly rearranged and integrated
with new ideas and new experiences. The knowledge, skills, atti
tudes, and opinions we all bring to any situation have a powerfu
l influence on our behavior and expectations. What we have lear
ned and practiced, and what we have gained from experiences b
oth favorable and not so favorable, has caused us to create a per
sonal perspective toward life (isms if you will) that influence ev
erything we think and do. Naturally what teachers know and are
able to do have changed over time, but like all of us, teachers ar
e motivated by their assumptions (i.e., Do you think technology
diminishes personal interaction?, Do you believe there is some
knowledge that all students should learn?, Do you believe comp
etition is a great motivator?).
Learning to teach and how to apply this knowledge in the classr
oom is truly a developmental process. In this chapter you will b
egin to understand why it is important for teachers to confront t
he assumptions that guide their behavior and practice in classro
oms.
HOW DO TEACHERS DEVELOP PERSONAL PHILOSOPHIES
TOWARD TEACHING AND LEARNING?
Heather Cyra, the teacher interviewed at the beginning of this c
hapter, was required to write multiple statements of her philoso
phical perspective toward teaching and learning during her educ
ation course work.
Formulating a philosophical perspective on teaching and learnin
g gives you a chance to reflect on what you want to become. An
d then when you become a teacher you can look back on what y
ou wrote and make sure that you are not being a hypocrite. I fin
d myself reflecting on my experiences as a learner and who wer
e the teachers who had the greatest influence on me, and who w
ere the teachers I most admired and wanted to learn from and tr
y to be like.
Everyone operates from a personal philosophy. We know what
makes sense to us, what is important, and what is good. When y
ou become a teacher you take your personal vision of the world

5. into the classroom with you. This personal vision affects everyt
hing you do in your classroom and with your students. It is nece
ssary to understand your philosophical perspectives so that you
can understand and reflect on what you are doing and why you a
re doing it. Teachers who do not know or understand themselves
can be of little service to the students in their classrooms. Or as
Confucius put it, “What has one who is not able to govern hims
elf to do with governing others?”
Video Link
Watch a video about taking stock in your students.
Meet 2010 National Teacher Of The Year Sarah Wessling
(teachingchannel.com)
Developing a Personal Philosophy of Teaching
An educational philosophy consists of the beliefs and principles
that guide teaching and learning practices. Teacher education c
andidates are usually asked to draft a statement that organizes t
heir thinking about how students learn and how teachers should
teach. Revisiting this original philosophy statement over time th
roughout your program is one way you can keep track of your gr
owth as a professional. As you acquire more wisdom and encou
nter new ideas you will develop new attitudes and opinions that
will cause changes to your personal philosophy. Understanding
can be achieved only through an examination of what you have l
earned about teaching and learning and how well you are able to
articulate your perspectives. Figure 7.1 provides an example of
one teacher’s effort to identify a philosophical perspective on te
aching.
I know an English composition teacher who requires students to
attach all previous drafts of a composition to the final copy that
is being submitted. This allows the teacher to evaluate students’
growth in writing ability and also to see whether students have

6. incorporated or learned from the teacher’s editorial comments.
The final packets can be rather substantial, but they do represen
t effort and the process of coming to a final, publishable paper.
Keeping copies of your original and subsequent philosophy state
ments will provide you with a graphic representation of the cha
nges in your thinking as you become more knowledgeable about
teaching.
Whether it’s fair or not, you will be expected to do the same job
on your first day of work as a veteran of five or 10 years. Logic
ally, this doesn’t seem possible, but who can argue with the fact
that the children in your classroom deserve no less than the chil
dren in Mrs. Z’s room who has been teaching for 20 years. Begi
nning teachers may react to this dilemma by performing certain
actions that make them appear capable of keeping up with the m
ore experienced teachers, even when those actions don’t exactly
mesh with their own personal philosophy of teaching. Nothing
can be more exhausting than maintaining a false front or uphold
ing the assumptions of others. Ideas need time to percolate in th
e reality of full-time teaching.
Dr. Mark Bailey of Pacific University School of Education (200
3) offers eight critical dimensions of an educational philosophy.
In order to build an educational philosophy, Bailey poses the fo
llowing questions for teacher education candidates to consider.
1. What is knowledge and understanding?
2. What is worth knowing?
3. What does it mean to learn?
4. How do you know that learning has taken place?
5. What should be the role of a teacher?
6. What should be the role of the student?
7. What is the ultimate purpose of education?
8. What are your core educational values?
Respond to these questions when creating your personal philoso
phy of teaching statement. During your teacher education course
work, reread your personal philosophy and revise it according t
o any changes in your philosophical perspective. If you are in a

7. practice teaching situation, examine how your philosophy of tea
ching is enacting through your teaching behaviors.
There are always more questions than answers in life, but as yo
ur answers to the above questions begin to take shape, your idea
of who you will be as a teacher will fall into place. You will al
so begin to understand the many ways your opinions can shape
your teaching behavior and practice. Having a firm belief regard
ing your place in the teaching profession will provide you a soli
d foundation from which to try out new ideas—
something teachers are always challenged to do. Advice from ex
perts to anyone attempting to cross a rushing stream on rocks is
to make sure your footing is secure before taking the next step.
Believe it or not, sometimes classrooms can resemble rushing st
reams.
The Influence of Stories in Building a Personal Philosophy of T
eaching
There are defining moments in everyone’s life. We tell stories a
bout them. Stories are powerful. We all remember a good story
whether true or not. Stories can alter our perception of things. T
hat’s one reason the news media and television are so powerful.
The stories we hear and tell can frighten us or evoke courage. S
ooner or later the stories we tell about our lives become our live
s. We can make the stories we tell about our lives healthy or des
tructive. The choice is ours. Stories provide us with ideas, actio
ns, and tools for working toward goals. Stories are what Robert
Coles refers to as “reservoirs of wisdom” (Coles, 1989, p. xii).
Many of the professors where you are preparing to be a teacher
have been classroom teachers or still are. They may work in cla
ssrooms, serve as mentors for new teachers, or work with teache
rs in professional development seminars. They have had the ben
efit of experience to help them mold their philosophies of teachi
ng. They have no doubt kept track of their professorial careers t
hrough portfolios and tenure and promotion files. Talk to them a
bout the defining teaching moments in their lives that helped th
em construct a specific approach to teaching. Teaching is a peop
le profession. People like to talk and tell stories about their live

8. s.
Researchers and writers have looked at teachers and listened to
their stories of teaching to unravel the mysteries of the professi
on (Lieberman & Miller, 1984; Lortie, 1977). Clark and Peterso
n (1986) listened to teachers talk about planning. They then map
ped their stories into flowcharts for new generations of teachers
to follow and learn from. Ester Wright (1999) says, “There is a
moment when the struggle to master an activity or subject cease
s and the action becomes familiar and regimented. Teaching is h
undreds of such moments, strung together to create a career” (p.
11). As you try out your ideas, you will become more familiar a
nd therefore comfortable with what works in a variety of contex
ts. You are fortunate to be learning to teach in this period of tim
e. Life is full of choices, and many of those choices add depth a
nd breadth to your ultimate practice in the classroom. What hap
pens in classrooms will continue to accommodate evolving ideas
and trends about which learning is of most worth.
Figure 7.1 A Personal Philosophy Example
Prior to completing this assignment, I had not given much thoug
ht to my own teaching philosophy nor taken a reflective analysi
s of myself as a teacher. Because I have only been in the classro
om for five months, I feel like I am just now “getting it” and dis
covering the type of teacher I am and want to be. Just like our st
udents, the diversity among teachers guides each individual clas
sroom. The values that I hold with high importance will be displ
ayed throughout my instruction, regardless of curriculum. In my
initial teaching experience, I have held an eclecticism viewpoin
t due to gathering as many resources and as much advice from p
eers as possible. However, as a scientist, I also strongly relate t
o the experimentalism philosophy and always try to incorporate
an element of discovery for my students.
Experimentalism draws from the notion that we are constantly a
dapting our viewpoints and collaborating with one another to m
ake discoveries (Kurtus, 2001). As a science teacher, this is an i
dea I am constantly trying to promote with my students. Science
is always changing and with this change comes the opportunity

9. to make discoveries and collaborate with peers to find answers.
I believe experimentalism closely connects with science in a wa
y that other philosophies do not. Existentialism and realism pro
mote more abstract and individualized viewpoints, in my opinio
n.
With increasing advances in technology and communication, sci
entists are able to experiment and collaborate with peers easier t
han ever before. As I try to incorporate an integration of science
, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) into my curriculum
, I promote student-centered learning and self-
discovery for my students. The research has shown that true und
erstanding of concepts comes from individual internalization rat
her than oral or written reception of material. In my recent scien
ce methods class, my professor discussed her “three touch meth
od” with instruction. She pulls out the main concepts and subco
ncepts from the curriculum documents and plans to instruct on e
ach topic at least three times and with three different styles (ver
bal, written, kinesthetic, etc.). This is a practice I have started t
o integrate into my lesson planning. Taking curriculum docume
nts and pulling out the main concepts that unite all objectives fr
om within a unit is a necessary skill that helps connect all parts
of my instruction back to the original goal.
Experimentalism also connects to the scientific inquiry process.
Student-centered learning and inquiry-
based activities give students the opportunity to discover for the
mselves by going through a problem-solving and critical-
thinking process that leads to retention. I also stress to my stude
nts that there are many answers to a given problem, and that pro
blems and failures are often a necessary pathway to success. In
connecting teaching with epistemology, I try to foster a meta-
cognitive process within my classroom as well. As I encourage
my students to make their own discoveries, I try to guide their c
ognitive processes to work through their own assumptions on th
eir way to understanding.
A deeply rooted understanding through a process of experimenta
tion and analysis is the key to learning science. I encourage my

10. students to embrace change, ask questions, and then go on a jou
rney to answer them. While reflecting through this paper, I reali
ze that my teaching philosophy does pull from a variety of sourc
es. I aim to encourage individualization in my students through
identifying problems and discovering solutions for themselves. I
constantly have to stop myself from giving every answer or exp
lanation; even though the processing might take much longer, it
is more beneficial to my students to individualize my instructio
n through their own personal experimentation. Reflection is a cr
ucial part of teaching and something I will aim to work on throu
ghout the next school year. Through changes in curriculum, I wi
ll always use my own philosophies and interpretations to serve
my students to the best of my ability.
Angie Marsden
Philosophical Perspective Paper
June 19, 2012
Defining Events in Building a Personal Philosophy of Teaching
Certainly, high-
profile events on the education scene affect the type of teaching
and the content you are required to study. Knowing the effect c
ertain events have had on teaching and learning when you were
a student will help you better understand your own philosophica
l perspectives toward schooling. There have been defining mom
ents in society as well as in our own lives. We learn about defin
ing moments in the world of education in history and foundation
s of education courses. Defining moments change the way we go
about our business. In many ways the launch of Sputnik in 195
7 was a 9/11 of the mind. It changed the ways Americans thoug
ht about the future. It initiated a reexamination of the purpose o
f schooling and school curriculum. The National Science Found
ation (NSF) made millions of federal dollars available for the de
velopment of modern science and mathematics programs and ma
terials. Another defining moment was the publication of A Natio
n at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform (National Co
mmission on Excellence in Education, 1983), which prompted a
renewed focus on student achievement and the condition of scho

11. oling in America.
Keeping a record of your own stories of teaching and events in
a journal or diary can also help you build a data reference syste
m for comparing new ideas you encounter with the old ones you
have used. The act of looking back to remember which way you
’ve come is a device that has been used by travelers and learner
s for centuries. From time to time you need to revisit your journ
ey to becoming a teacher with a critical eye. By checking where
you’ve come from you will have a better idea where you are he
aded. Looking back can help you to assess the defining moment
s in your professional development and to prepare for the future
.
Taking Stock of Your Beliefs
Teachers can become exhausted operating under expectations co
unter to what they believe. For many first-
year teachers, discouragement raises its ugly head about mid-
December when they begin to realize that the theories they have
put into practice are not working. Formulating who you are goi
ng to be as a teacher will prepare you to act on your beliefs and
assumptions rather than someone else’s. When you do this, you
increase your chances of success and happiness as a teacher.
Using tenets of known philosophies as keystones for developing
your own philosophy about teaching and answering some of the
questions these philosophies pose can help you decide who you
will be as a teacher. Do you think that the world is an orderly, l
ogical place, or do you see it as chaotic and random? Obviously
these two views would have a strong influence on how, for exa
mple, you arrange your classroom and lessons. Do you learn by
repetition or by connecting new information to what you already
know? Do you prefer to discover information for yourself or ha
ve it delivered to you in an organized outline? What senses do y
ou find most important? In other words, how do you learn about
the world around you?
Do you believe there are clear rights and wrongs in life (black a
nd white) or is life a series of slightly differing shades of gray?
Do you feel it is possible to understand everything if enough int

12. elligence and logic is applied, or do you believe some things mu
st simply be taken on faith? Are you an abstract or random learn
er?; linear or global? There is so much to learn and so little tim
e.
All teachers create mental images of how their future classroom
will appear in reality.
Taking Stock of Your Students
Every child is an individual, a smaller-
sized person than most of the people you socialize with, but no l
ess individual in opinions and thinking. We all have a friend wh
o can’t follow the simplest directions, or one who asks the same
question over and over until you answer it in a way that makes
sense to her, or one who never shows up on time and may even f
orget the day he was supposed to meet you. Frustrating, at times
, yes, but we try to understand them and help them understand u
s. Humans (friends, relatives, and students) have so much to lea
rn that any single theory or simple approach to helping them jus
t won’t do. Teacher-focused and student-
focused approaches to teaching and learning combined can enco
mpass the spectrum of philosophical perspectives that underpin
decision making and curriculum in education. It is the teacher’s
responsibility to continuously question what to teach and how to
teach it, and to learn about and develop skill in using methods t
hat have their roots in philosophical approaches to teaching that
may differ from your own.
When classroom teachers puzzle over which educational goals s
hould be met and how these goals might be achieved through tea
ching practices, they are dealing with questions about knowing,
learning, and teaching. In Plato’s discussion of epistemology, h
e argued that in order to grasp reality or know, individuals use u
nderstanding, reason, perception, and imagination. Visit http://
www.e-torredebabel.com/History-of-
Philosophy/Summaries/Plato-
Summary.htm for a summary of Plato’s ideas.

13. Video Link
Watch a video about taking stock in your students.
Student Centered Classroom, How-To (teachertube.com)
Teachers implement Plato’s ideas of knowing when they plan an
d structure lessons and decide which methods are most appropri
ate to a specific learning task. As you progress in your teacher e
ducation course work, you will no doubt become very familiar
with the theory of constructivism or constructivist teaching. Wh
en you study this approach to teaching and learning, think of it
as an epistemological view. Constructivist approaches to teachi
ng take into account the ways that children learn and what condi
tions are necessary to promote such learning. The theory of cons
tructivism ponders how knowing is achieved.
HOW DO STUDENTS LEARN?
When asked how students learn, Ms. Cyra replied,
Students learn best in a nurturing environment—
one in which they have fun and can work together to solve probl
ems. I do not allow bullying or other forms of meanness from st
udents and encourage my students to show respect for others. I l
earned all the ways of delivering instruction in my classes in th
e university but I never realized, until I started teaching, how i
mportant it was to vary instructional strategies.
Few modern educators would argue that there is but a single wa
y to learn, or a single way to teach the skills, facts, and concept
s deemed essential to a contemporary education. However, there
are those who would argue that one particular way of teaching i
s inherently better or more efficient than another. Listen to teac
hers talk about how they teach their students to read or spell, an
d chances are that you will hear quite different philosophies reg
arding learning, methods, and materials. Such discussions often
generate more heat than enlightenment and provide proof of the
value we place on our own firmly held assumptions.
Ideas about how students learn are in abundance, and since not
all ideas are of equal value, it can be difficult to weed out the g
ood from the bad. Some ideas are priceless. Some are not. Some
are in direct conflict with one another. Ideas germinate in know

14. ledge and are driven by opinions, beliefs, assumptions, and expe
riences, and the context in which the ideas blossom. Unfortunat
ely, in education, as in all areas of life, some good ideas are sta
mped out before they have a time to blossom, while some bad id
eas flourish in unguarded cultures.
Understanding ways students construct meaning from what they
see and hear can provide teachers insights into how students lea
rn.
As you progress through your teacher education program you wi
ll encounter many ideas about how students learn. Such ideas ar
e often based in one or another of the established philosophies o
f life. There will be more about this later in the chapter. Good i
deas about how students learn can come out of educational resea
rch conducted by professors and research centers dedicated to th
e study of teaching and learning. Good ideas also emerge from t
eacher educators and teachers practicing their craft, collecting d
ata, and making grassroots changes in practice. Some of the teac
hers who have generated great ideas for future generations of te
achers and learners are famous. Some are not, but all have, thro
ugh thinking about teaching and learning, contributed to the pro
fession.
Ideas About How Students Learn
Great minds in American education wrestle with ideas of what s
hould be taught in America’s schools, how it should be taught, a
nd when it should be taught. As American education has evolve
d, a number of approaches and programs to promote students’ le
arning have been tried. Nearly everyone you talk to has some id
ea about what should be happening in school. The popular press
has nearly as much to say about teaching and learning as educat
ors. The range of ideas teachers are confronted with is staggerin
g.
Numerous ideas about structuring curriculum and methods for d
elivering the curriculum have been tried, revamped, and re-
tried. The Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes says that there is
nothing new under the sun. Teachers who have been around for

15. any length of time and have experienced the ebb and flow of pro
grams and approaches to teaching will tell you that many of the
new programs they are asked to implement are really only reva
mped versions of tried and true methods. The fact is that data co
llected on some of these tried and true methods is frequently use
d to improve them. Constant thinking about teaching can lead to
new ideas that will improve education for teachers and learners
alike.
While educators know an informed populous helps build a demo
cratic society, they do not know exactly what skills a six-year-
old of today will need 30 years down the line in order to be succ
essful and to contribute to the well-
being of the society. The constant generation of ideas about teac
hing and learning is one way educators attempt to imagine and p
repare for the future. The following sample of individuals who h
ave generated ideas about teaching and learning ranges from the
recent past to the present and from the famous to those who ma
y be known only to a local community or school district. Their i
deas provide a cross section of ways thinking about education h
as affected schooling and how students learn.
The Western world’s first great philosophers came from Athens,
Greece. The names of three of these philosophers are no doubt
familiar to you: Socrates (470–399 BCE), Plato (427–
347 BCE), and Aristotle (384–
322 BCE). Socrates is famous for creating the Socratic method
of teaching still used by many teachers today who ask a series o
f questions that lead the student to a certain conclusion. Plato b
elieved that each person’s abilities should be used to serve socie
ty and should be developed to the fullest capacity. Aristotle fav
ored the scientific, the practical, and the objective in learning, a
nd believed that the quality of a society was determined by the
quality of the education that society promoted.
Deeper Look
Read about educational models and methods.
John Dewey (1859–1952)

16. It would be folly to try to adequately cover the contributions of
Dewey’s ideas to how students learn best in this chapter. Suffic
e it to say he was a giant among the thinkers of the 20th century
. For more than 50 years, Dewey’s ideas helped shape the destin
y of education in America. Dewey’s thoughts on pedagogy and e
pistemology (knowing) and his pragmatic approaches to ethics a
nd aesthetics remain influential in education today. You should
become familiar with John Dewey’s ideas as you progress throu
gh your teacher education course work. His ideas can provide a
basis for you to establish your own pedagogical vision. Visit htt
p://dewey.pragmatism.org/ to view a comprehensive coverage of
Dewey and his accomplishments.
Dewey established the Chicago Laboratory School for the purpo
se of testing the sociological implications of his educational the
ories and the effect his theories had on student learning (http://j
ohndewey.org/). Dewey called his laboratory school a “miniatur
e society,” an “embryonic community,” in which children learne
d collaboratively by working together to solve problems (Martin
, 2002, pp. 199–
200). Dewey described “the fundamental factors in the educatio
nal process as (1) the learner, (2) society, and (3) organized sub
ject matter” (Dewey, 1974).
Many of John Dewey’s educational theories were tested at the C
hicago Laboratory School.
Dewey’s ideas in The School and Society (1943) have remarkabl
e significance to the field of education as we now know it. His i
deas about the needs, the problems, and the possibilities of educ
ation are detailed in Experience and Education (1963), perhaps t
he best concise statement on education ever written.
Dewey devised a five-step, process-
oriented method for students to approach problem solving that i
nvolved
1. Encountering a problem that needed to be solved;
2. Defining the problem, asking questions that would help clarif

17. y exactly what needs to be solved;
3. Collecting information about the problem;
4. Making tentative hypotheses and reflecting on possible action
s and outcomes; and
5. Acting on a hypothesis that is likely to solve the problem.
Problem solving using the scientific method, action, and empiri
cal testing is considered by many to be the most effective strate
gy to help students learn. Dewey believed that schools should te
ach children not what to think but how to think through “contin
uous reconstruction of experience.”
Hilda Taba (1902–1967)
This Estonian-
born U.S. educator spent much of her professional career conte
mplating ideas concerned with the development of thinking skill
s in students. She believed that information must be organized f
or students to understand it. She developed concept developmen
t and concept attainment strategies to help students learn. She b
ased her teaching model on three main assumptions:
1. Thinking can be taught,
2. Thinking is an active transaction between the individual and
data, and
3. Processes of thought evolve by a sequence that is “lawful” (J
oyce & Weil, 2000, p. 131).
According to Taba, “efforts to develop thinking take a different
shape depending on whether the major function of education is s
een as fostering creative thinking and problem solving or as foll
owing the rational forms of thinking established in our classical
tradition. As such, differences in these concepts naturally deter
mine what are considered the essentials and the dispensable frill
s in education” (Taba, 1962).
Taba was famous for her work in concept development in social
studies. Visit the Global Connections for Elementary Students w
ebsite at http://www.globaled.org/curriculum/tomcollins.html fo
r a look at how Taba’s ideas on concept attainment can be appli

18. ed in a classroom to promote student learning.
Ralph W. Tyler (1902–1994)
Ralph W. Tyler’s innovative ideas made him one of the most inf
luential men in American education. Tyler believed that success
ful teaching and learning could be determined by scientific stud
y, but he stressed that evaluation should start with objectives an
d not rely entirely on a statistical process. His insights into educ
ational evaluation affected the lives of generations of students
whose performance and potential are frequently tested. As direc
tor of the Eight-Year Study (1933–
1941), he helped convince the educational community that scho
ols that offer programs that are interesting and useful to their st
udents can help students become successful in college.
Tyler’s 83-
page book, Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction, publ
ished in 1949, made an indelible mark on teaching practices in t
he American public schools. This short text was originally the s
yllabus for one of Tyler’s courses at the University of Chicago.
In the text Tyler espoused four basic ideas for developing a curr
iculum that would promote student learning. These four basic id
eas, listed here, remain as relevant for teachers today as they we
re 60 years ago, and they serve as a framework for selecting app
ropriate strategies to use to connect the learner with the content:
1. Define appropriate learning objectives.
2. Establish useful learning experiences.
3. Organize learning experiences to have a maximum cumulative
effect.
4. Evaluate the curriculum and revise those aspects that do not p
rove to be effective.
Through Tyler’s ideas teachers became scientific observers of st
udent behavior, checking for evidence of student learning and m
aking modifications to plans when necessary to guarantee result
s. Tyler’s ideas were so powerful, functional, and easy to apply
that they are still widely implemented in public schools today.

19. Paulo Freire (1921–1997)
Paulo Freire’s idea that the process of education can never be ne
utral and that education should provide nontraditional education
al opportunities grew out of his efforts among illiterate poor wo
rkers in Brazil. Helping the workers learn to read and write led
him to recognize the ways education can result in powerful chan
ges among people and governments. In 1967, Freire published E
ducation as the Practice of Freedom, and in 1970 he published t
he Pedagogy of theOppressed in English. Briefly stated, Freire p
osits that education is a political act—
the way students are taught and what they are taught serves a po
litical agenda. The purpose of education should be the liberation
of the “oppressed” (those not currently in control of the politic
al agenda) through nontraditional forms and through their own e
xamples, not the models presented by the oppressors. Education
can help the oppressed overcome their status as long as they pla
y a role in their own education. Freire’s ideas encouraged educa
tors to consider the political aspects of the institution of educati
on, thereby bringing a new perspective to teaching and learning
in the form of critical pedagogy. Critical pedagogy presents a p
hilosophical perspective toward teaching and learning that seeks
to empower the student to “recognize authoritarian tendencies,
and connect knowledge to power and the ability to take construc
tive action” (Giroux, 2010).
Eleanor Duckworth (1935–)
Eleanor Duckworth is a professor at Harvard Graduate School o
f Education. She has grounded her work in Piaget’s (1896–
1980) insights into the nature and development of intelligence,
and she has developed Piaget’s research methods into a critical
exploration approach to helping students learn. According to Du
ckworth, ideas are the essence of intelligence. Through her rese
arch she has demonstrated that there are many ways of knowing
and that different paths can be taken to understanding similar co
ncepts (Duckworth, 1996).

20. Duckworth’s ideas on teaching and learning provide exceptional
insight into the blossoming of ideas, how they are nurtured, and
how they grow. She discusses the detrimental effect teachers w
ho view learning from only one perspective can have on the won
derful ideas of their students. She encourages teachers to explor
e their students’ intelligence rather than turn it off in the pursuit
of conventions and standardized ways of thinking. This may se
em difficult to teachers, given the current standards-
based assessment culture in American education. Duckworth’s i
deas require that teachers engage in intellectual conversation wi
th their students—
that teachers make time to listen to students’ explanations so th
ey may recognize the students’ wonderful ideas.
Howard Earl Gardner (1943–)
In his 1993 text, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intell
igences, Howard Earl Gardner presented the idea that intelligen
ce cannot be determined by only one measure. He created a list
of seven intelligences and demonstrated how some are typically
valued in school, while some are usually associated with the art
s and some are what he termed “personal intelligences.” In brief
, the seven intelligences defined by Gardner are
1. Linguistic intelligence: the ability to learn, understand, and u
se language
2. Logical-
mathematical intelligence: the ability to think logically and scie
ntifically
3. Musical intelligence: the ability to recognize musical patterns
and compose music
4. Bodily-
kinesthetic intelligence: the ability to direct bodily movements t
hrough mental abilities
5. Spatial intelligence: the ability to recognize dimensions of lar
ge and confined spaces
6. Interpersonal intelligence: the ability to understand and work

21. effectively with others
7. Intrapersonal intelligence: the ability to understand oneself a
nd to regulate one’s life
By helping educators think about the many ways intelligence ca
n be understood and demonstrated, Gardner provided teachers a
rationale for designing lessons in ways that would engage all st
udents in learning. Visit http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.
htm to learn more about Gardner’s ideas.
Grant Wiggins (1950–)
Grant Wiggins, president of Authentic Education in Hopewell,
New Jersey, is perhaps most famous for his ideas on curriculum
expressed in Understanding by Design (2005), which he coautho
red with Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design (UbD) presents
a framework for improving student learning. UbD helps teacher
s create learning goals, build engaging activities, and develop a
uthentic assessments. Four ideas to improve student learning inh
erent in UbD are (1) that topics taught should be covered in dep
th rather than breadth, (2) that goals and assessments should be
established prior to instruction, (3) that teachers should collabor
ate in planning lessons and units for students, and (4) that mater
ials should be adjusted according to student success. One of the
subcomponents of UbD is “backwards design,” encouraging teac
hers to consider the end goal in deciding what is most important
for students to learn. Wiggins’s ideas encourage teachers to im
prove student learning by exploring essential questions and big i
deas.
Diane McCarty (1954–)
Diane McCarty, a former classroom teacher, now a professor of
education at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, has been a sou
rce of great ideas throughout her teaching career. As a classroo
m teacher, McCarty was trained as a consultant at the National
Geographic Headquarters in Washington, D.C. There she met ot
her teachers with great ideas, and working together they develo
ped numerous projects. One of the projects McCarty promotes, “

22. Travelmates: Geography for Kids” (1993), is essentially a way o
f letting students travel around the world without ever leaving h
ome. More information on Travelmates can be found in the artic
le “Travelmates … One More Time,” in Teaching PreK–
8 (2003). Other projects McCarty has created from good ideas i
nclude, The Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (McCarty, 1997), Kid
s Writing for Kids (McCarty, 1994), and A Literacy Luncheon (
McCarty, 2004).
McCarty’s projects provide opportunities for students to learn t
hrough participation in places and ideas outside of their daily en
vironment. By developing multidisciplinary curricular experienc
es for her students, she translates her great ideas into activities t
hat enrich the lives of students and their families at home and ar
ound the world. McCarty is one of those hero teachers—
a teacher who has good ideas, puts them into practice, and share
s them with others. This is not always the easiest thing to do wh
en working on the front lines of teaching, but good ideas should
be disseminated to inspire learning and more “good” ideas.
Effective teachers provide learning opportunities for students by
creating curricula such as “Travelmates.”
Conflicting Perspectives in Teaching and Learning
There is a back and forth nature to the struggle to educate. Perp
etual controversy over one or another reigning educational philo
sophy and the give and take regarding ideas about classroom pra
ctices often create a cyclical effect. Ideas in education have bee
n batted back and forth like ping-
pong balls, falling out of favor only to be, at some later date, re
-
embraced as brilliant. Education is neither here nor there, one w
ay or another. It is what works, and what actually works is not a
lways most commonsensical.
During the 1960s, a period of unprecedented upheaval and chan
ge in the field of education in America, two men in particular, J
erome S. Bruner and David P. Ausubel, came to symbolize a dic
hotomy of viewpoints regarding the methods and means of teach

23. ing and learning, and, between them, defined the terms of a deb
ate that continues unabated to this day.
For his part, Jerome Bruner theorized that by categorizing one’s
environment, a learner is better able to comprehend it. Bruner’s
learning theory, which emphasized the structure of disciplines
and the use of inquiry—
or what came to be called the discovery method—
stressed the importance of teaching the sort of thinking skills ne
cessary to the development of problem-
solving abilities. His concept attainment theory was based on th
e technique of combining rules learned by discovery into a conc
ept the learner is desired to understand. This discovery or experi
ence of the learner is the “moving force” Dewey described as ce
ntral to learning.
It was David Ausubel’s view, on the other hand, that the teacher
’s major task is to transmit large bodies of already organized kn
owledge to the learner through a reception-receptive method—
the relationship between the way knowledge is organized and th
e manner in which the mind works to process such information.
Ausubel, considered the more traditional of the two thinkers, wa
s opposed to most learning activities that could be described as
discovery, and felt “discovery” was not an indispensable conditi
on for the occurrence of meaningful learning (Ausubel, 1967).
Bruner was attempting to find new answers to basic questions of
how students learn, and from there to lead learners to construct
models of reality on their own terms (Bruner, 1966). Ausubel w
as adamantly opposed to passive learning on the part of the stud
ent, and unyielding in his insistence that receptive learning coul
d be meaningful, arguing that just because learning by reception
implies the material is “presented” rather than “discovered” do
es not make it inherently less meaningful (Ausubel, 1963).
Deeper Look
Read a comparison of popular theories.
Bruner’s and Ausubel’s contrasting theories came into prominen
ce on the education scene as Dewey’s progressivism entered its

24. final stage, and there was a felt need for some sort of orderly gu
idance, some sort of basic adjustment to the entire education sys
tem, from top to bottom. As American education got busy flexin
g its newfound muscles during the early sixties, Bruner and Aus
ubel found their models of learning increasingly at the center of
debate over how to best help students become processors of inf
ormation. Oddly enough, within their theories are many broad ar
eas of agreement, which have never been of much interest to the
“warrior-pedagogues” of the continuing methods wars.
Their ideas were well founded, based on research and clear thin
king. Both men supported the necessity of the teacher as directo
r in the classroom, although from Ausubel’s point of view the m
ost efficient arrangement for the acquisition of knowledge invol
ved the teacher “telling” the student what needed to be known.
Ausubel did not consider discovery a prerequisite for understan
ding, believing instead that it was possible to teach students to t
hink deductively. Though Ausubel did not deny the usefulness a
nd practicality of problem-
solving skills, he regarded “knowing” as a substantive phenome
non, not a problem-solving capability.
According to Jerome Bruner, when students take an active role i
n their learning, they construct meaning from the experience.
The Necessity of Evaluating Ideas
What could be better than always having the correct answer? Ri
ght? A quick, right answer in the classroom and on timed standa
rdized tests is always appreciated. Unfortunately, quick, right a
nswers measure what students have already mastered, not what t
hey are in the process of figuring out. Learning is, however, the
process of understanding concepts and for many of us the under
standing of complex concepts does not take the form of quick, ri
ght answers. Think about the process you have gone through in
your teacher education course work. Facts and concepts that you
learned early in your program will take on more meaning as yo
ur experiences with the concepts in action increase. You may ha

25. ve been able to recite back ideas expressed by your professors,
but ideas do not become part of your teaching schema until you
have figured them out through thoughtful action.
Schooling as we know it today appears to focus more on a right
answer than how the student came to that answer. This may be i
n part that schools have so much to teach and so little time to te
ach it. It may also be in part that society seems more concerned
with how a world-
class golfer thinks through a shot to the green or a putt, or how
cyclists prepare for different legs of the Tour de France, than ho
w a seventh-
grader comes to appreciate the elements of literary style in a co
mpelling story about the death of a favorite pet. Your mission a
s a teacher, should you chose to accept it, is to help your studen
ts recognize the routes they have taken to finding the right answ
ers, and that those paths represent learning as much as a right an
swer does.
Having a Research-Based Perspective
Some ideas that seem good have been held through long-
standing beliefs. They are what we have come to know through
experience, and they stick with us regardless of how the facts or
our environment change. Jerome Kagan’s book Three Seductive
Ideas (1998) challenges some basic assumptions the social scie
nces have held about intelligence, child development, and motiv
ation. His arguments are based on research and give teachers, b
oth new and experienced, some ideas to ponder about the way w
e conduct business in classrooms. William James, a 20th centur
y pragmatist, said that new knowledge derived from new experie
nces is absorbed slowly into firmly held prejudices and beliefs s
o that old knowledge is maintained and unaltered as much as po
ssible to maintain one’s equilibrium of thought (James, 1975).
Theory and practice are fundamental to how we organize and thi
nk about our intellectual and practical world. Ideas and theories
sometimes prevail and sometimes take a backseat to the driving
force of practicality. It may be an unfortunate fact that many tea
chers consider application the only relationship between theory

26. and practice when, in reality, the relationship is ever more comp
licated. When teachers test ideas, they have a better chance of d
etecting those that contain flaws based on beliefs and assumptio
ns. Each one of us could probably make a list of the bad ideas w
e have had. Sometimes we’re lucky not to put our bad ideas into
action; sometimes, after the fact, we have proof that they were
bad ideas and we don’t try them again.
Video Link
Learn more about research-based education.
(111) Finland's education succes CNN report (polskie napisy) -
YouTube
Great ideas and grand plans for educating the children and youn
g adults of this country can come from a variety of sources. Suc
h thoughts may spring forth from the minds of the country’s lea
ders as they did from Thomas Jefferson, or from the minds of bu
siness executives such as Andrew Carnegie, or from the minds o
f thoughtful teachers, or from the minds of leaders in the field o
f education like John Dewey. While tried and true ideas are bein
g implemented, newer and seemingly more radical ideas are bei
ng proposed. The continuous flow of refreshing ideas is part of t
he reason many of us have been drawn to the profession. Teache
rs constantly work with ideas. Teachers also represent a rich po
ol of creative thinking that has the power to stimulate major cha
nges in education as well as in student learning. Everyone has a
n opinion, though sometimes the ideas that reach popularity are
not of the highest caliber. Regardless of where the ideas about e
ducation come from, they are put into play by a classroom teach
er. Translating ideas into practice is a heavy responsibility and t
akes a courageous heart. In order to fulfill this responsibility, te
achers must be knowledgeable of the ideas of numerous others
who have encountered the same concerns and have established t
heories that have practical application in teaching and learning.
HOW DOES EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY HELP TEACHE
RS UNDERSTAND STUDENT LEARNING?

27. Teacher Heather Cyra shares how educational psychology helps
teachers understand student learning:
Knowing stages in a student’s development is important to unde
rstanding ways students can learn. Teachers have to adjust their
teaching practices in order to meet the students at their level of
understanding. When my fifth-
graders start the year they exhibit behaviors that would be consi
dered immature for fifth-
graders. However, after about six weeks I can see a big change i
n the way they act in class; they are more responsible about thei
r work and demonstrate the attitudes and behavior expected of fi
fth-
graders. When they come back from Christmas vacation they ha
ve grown so much, and by the end of the year they are truly read
y to go on to middle school.
Since you are studying to be a teacher you will no doubt take a
course in educational psychology. How students learn in school
is what educational psychology is mainly about, and it underlies
all that teachers do. The role of research in educational psychol
ogy is to carefully examine certain questions about factors that
may contribute to learning. Such research can help you interpret
your experiences and understand why you teach and learn the w
ays you do. Educational psychology is concerned with the behav
ioral and social development of an individual and is a branch of
applied psychology that studies children in educational settings.
It deals with the psychological aspects of teaching and learning
processes of early childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. One
focus of educational psychology is the assessment of ability and
aptitude, the evaluation of teaching and learning (Lucas, Blaze
k, Raley, & Washington, 2005).
Research on Teaching and Learning
Perhaps the first research on learning occurred when people beg
an to ask why? Why do I know how to do that? How did I learn
that? What do I need to know now? Or when philosophers began
to ask questions related to the state of knowing. Research that a
ttempts to explain what we know and learn is deeply ingrained i

28. n the history of learning. Some important events in the establish
ment of educational research include, but are not limited to, the
following list. Many of the names will be familiar to you.
·
1690, John Locke publishes An Essay Concerning Human Under
standing
·
1802, Johann Pestalozzi publishes How Gertrude Teaches Her C
hildren
·
1896, John Dewey establishes the laboratory schools in Hyde Pa
rk, Chicago
· 1917, First large-scale IQ testing of American adults
·
1921, Jean Piaget publishes his first article on the psychology o
f intelligence
·
1956, Benjamin Bloom publishes Taxonomy of Educational Obj
ectives
·
1962, Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory published in the
United States
· 1969, Carl Rogers publishes Freedom to Learn
A glance at this short list makes it clear that as schooling in Am
erica developed it was accompanied by researchers documenting
its growth through studies and assessments of teaching and lear
ning. Knowledge of past findings can help you understand teach
ers’ roles and responsibilities toward student learning, and it ca
n often illuminate the path of education so past mistakes are not
repeated.
Translating Educational Psychological Perspectives Into Teachi
ng Practice
Theories of learning translate into teaching practices as organiz
ation of information, creation of environments to promote stude
nt access to this information, and ideas about human developme
nt come together; and through this combination echo Dewey’s i

29. deas of the learner, society, and organized subject matter (1974)
. Theorists often differ in their perspective on what provides the
optimum setting for student learning; hence the variety of progr
ams and activities that exist in schools today.
Deeper Look
Read more about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Johann Pestalozzi (1746–1827), Jean Piaget (1896–
1980), and Abraham Maslow (1908–1970)
Pestalozzi’s theories emphasize group and participatory activiti
es. His ideas on recognizing individual differences and grouping
students by ability rather than age were considered radical for h
is time. He felt teachers should allow students freedom to expre
ss themselves and develop naturally. He envisioned children lea
rning through observation of the “real” world rather than from b
ooks.
Piaget is best known for his epistemological studies (how we kn
ow what we know) of the intellectual growth of children. Piaget
concluded from his studies that human knowledge is “construct
ed” through interactions with reality. Piaget’s work has had a pr
ofound effect on educational theories regarding when students a
re ready to learn specific information.
Maslow developed the theory of human motivation now known a
s Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. He described the power of hum
an needs and organized these needs into five general categories,
from most urgent to most advanced. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Ne
eds became a framework for considering the individual needs of
students as indicators of what they were capable of learning wh
en constrained by personal needs.
Piaget studied the ways children come to know the world about
them; for very young children, knowledge of “what’s in the box
” can only be constructed if it can be seen.
These different, yet somewhat similar, perspectives have promot
ed self-
actualization and developmental and motivational approaches to

30. instructional practices.
Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936), Edward Thorndike (1874–
1949), and Burrhus Frederick Skinner (1904–1990)
Pavlov demonstrated a form of conditioning in 1927, with the h
elp of a dog and a bell. His experiments on stimulus and respons
e led him to posit that learning required a dependent relationshi
p between an unconditional stimulus (presenting a stimulus to el
icit a reflexive response) and a conditional stimulus to create a
conditional response.
Thorndike developed the Law of Effect principle suggesting that
responses closely followed by satisfaction are more likely to eli
cit similar responses when the situation is repeated. However, w
hen a situation is followed by discomfort the response to the sit
uation will be less likely to occur or will become weakened over
time. Thorndike helped lay the scientific foundation for modern
educational psychology.
Skinner based his theories of operant conditioning on the work
of Thorndike. He studied observable behavior by looking at an a
ction and its consequences. Skinner believed that the best way t
o understand behavior is to look at the causes of an action and t
he consequences of that action and so be able to predict and con
trol behavior.
Each of these theorists believed that behavior can be modified,
controlled, or directed when specific stimuli are present or whe
n a behavior is rewarded or depressed. Behavior modification pr
actices are widely used in classrooms today that affect instructi
onal practices and classroom management strategies.
Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934)
Lev Vygotsky presented the Social Development Theory, viewin
g cognition as the end product of socialization and social behavi
or. Interactions with more knowledgeable others help students l
earn. His theories support the foundations of constructivism. Th
ree major themes in Vygotsky’s social development theory are t
hat (a) development in a child appears first on a social level wit
h others and then inside the child, (b) the child learns from a mo

31. re knowledgeable other, and (c) learning occurs in a zone of pro
ximal development between the learner’s ability to learn with th
e support of others and the ability to learn independently (Vygot
sky, 1978).
It would be foolish to suggest that the complex theories of these
educational psychologists can be explained and discussed in su
ch succinct terms. Detailed information about their contribution
s to the ways educators perceive student learning is available th
rough the references listed at the end of this book. It is necessar
y that as future teachers you begin to understand the many ways
their ideas have influenced different modes of instruction in sc
hools.
Deeper Look
Read more about Vygotsky’s Theory.
HOW DO PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES HELP TEACHE
RS UNDERSTAND STUDENT LEARNING?
Ms. Cyra believes that teaching and learning are a social proces
s and should be shared by everyone in the classroom. In her clas
sroom everyone is a teacher.
By developing a mutual respect with my students and creating a
n environment that is comfortable and relaxed, my students are
eager to share information and stories. I wish there were more ti
me to just have conversations with my students about what they
think, what they know, and what they know how to do, but the p
ressure of standardized testing limits how much time teachers h
ave to truly get to know their students. I know there are days th
at I learn as much from my students as they learn from me.
You no doubt took a philosophy or logic course as part of the co
re requirements for your degree. Understanding philosophical th
ought prepares teachers for critical thinking and reasoning and c
onstructing logically sound arguments. The study of philosophy
helps teachers sift through ideas and articulate thoughts in ways
that others can follow. Understanding the practices of philosop
hical perspectives helps teachers learn how to look and listen, h

32. ow to engage in meaningful discussions, and how to recognize t
he many ways of thinking about teaching.
We all seek answers to questions in order to make sense of our
worlds. In translation, the word philosophy can be defined as “l
ove of wisdom,” though it’s clear we don’t all have the same qu
estions or view wisdom in the same way. Philosophers have tho
ught long and hard about their philosophies and about the impli
cations their perspectives have for learning and teaching.
Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Axiology
Three different branches of philosophy are concerned with seeki
ng answers to different types of questions. Metaphysics is conce
rned with questions about the nature of reality and humans’ atte
mpts to find coherence in the realm of thought and experience.
Questions on teaching and relationship between learners and tea
chers.
Epistemology examines questions about how and what we know,
and how knowing takes place. Questions dealt with in the study
of epistemology may include “Where do ideas come from?” and
“How do we pose and solve problems?” The axiology branch of
philosophy deals with questions concerning the nature of value
s. Questions examined from the axiology perspective deal with
what should be or what values we hold: “What is good for stude
nts?” “How should students behave?” As you can see, the questi
ons that are the focus of each branch of philosophy are related t
o different aspects of education. Such questions posed by the dif
ferent branches of philosophy can be found in educational conce
rns over curriculum, methods, and teaching behaviors.
Teachers must engage in critical thinking to be able to translate
ideas so their students can understand complex problems and be
gin to make sense of the world.
The Metaphysical Questions of Content or Child
In 340 BCE, Aristotle declared that metaphysics involves intuiti
ve knowledge of unprovable starting points (truths) and demonst
rative knowledge of what follows from them. Teachers want to

33. know why some students are successful at particular tasks while
other students struggle with them. Can a child choose whether t
o learn or not to learn? Is the ability to learn determined by fact
ors outside of a student’s control? Is understanding of specific c
ontent necessary to a successful life, or is the way in which the
content is learned of utmost importance to the learner. The man
ner in which a teacher approaches the content and how the child
interacts with the content depends somewhat on the teacher’s at
titudes about human nature. Diann Musial, from Northern Illinoi
s University, believes that a teacher’s classroom approach is lin
ked to the teacher’s metaphysical beliefs: “If the teacher believe
s that very specific basic knowledge is crucial to the child’s inte
llectual development, it is likely that this teacher will focus on t
he subject matter. If, on the other hand, the teacher holds that th
e child is more important than any specific subject matter, it is l
ikely that this teacher will focus on the child and allow the chil
d to provide clues as to how he or she should be instructed” (J.
A. Johnson, Dupuis, Musial, Hall, & Gollnick, 2005, p. 308). C
hildren are real. How they develop and learn is, at times, metap
hysical.
Ways of Knowing, Learning, and Teaching
In the concern over how students learn, what they should learn,
and how they should learn it, educators connect epistemology an
d education. Epistemology is the study of the origin, nature, met
hods, and limits of knowledge. Epistemology is the science of h
ow we learn and teach, and encompasses the range of questions
educators face in designing the very best schooling for children.
Education is focused on how students best learn the knowledge
they must have and how teachers learn the necessary behaviors t
o facilitate student learning.
When classroom teachers puzzle over which educational goals s
hould be met and how these goals might be achieved through tea
ching practices, they are dealing with questions about knowing,
learning, and teaching. In Plato’s discussion of epistemology, h
e argued that in order to grasp reality or know, individuals use u
nderstanding, reason, perception, and imagination.

34. You will also learn about Jean Piaget in your course work and h
ow his program of naturalistic research helped teachers understa
nd child development. Piaget was primarily interested in how kn
owledge developed in human organisms, and he termed his gene
ral theoretical framework “genetic epistemology.”
The Role of Values and Ethics in the Classroom
There are many reasons that parents care a great deal about who
teaches their children. Certainly parents hope for a teacher who
is knowledgeable. They hope for one who will be sympathetic t
o any idiosyncratic behaviors or learning styles their particular
child might possess. But probably nothing concerns parents mor
e than the moral values, or ethics, the teachers of their children
demonstrate. Parental concern over the moral values of individu
al teachers as well as those expressed by schools has given rise
to an increased interest in homeschooling and school vouchers.
As one example, the National Character Education Center (http:
//www.ethicsusa.com) relates core values to human anatomy and
gets at the heart and mind of values in action. In this approach,
the seven virtues attributed to respective body parts are respect
(eyes and ears), integrity (mouth), compassion (heart), persever
ance (stomach), cooperation (hands), initiative (feet), and positi
ve mental attitudes (mind).
Another initiative to accomplish the teaching of core values is t
he Institute for Global Ethics (http://www.globalethics.org). Thi
s institute provides guidelines for ethical literacy through ethica
l fitness. The Ethics Resource Center, a character education web
site at http://www.ethics.org, discusses the questions of whether
schools should be teaching values and if so, whose values shoul
d be taught. Ethics is a way of processing behavior. Teachers w
eight different elements of their own behavior and the behavior
of their students differently depending on their own set of ethics
and values.
While ethics might provide food for thought, not everyone has t
he same beliefs that public institutions should dictate to individ
uals what should be considered an acceptable form of conduct.
Teachers must negotiate the omnipresent conflict between societ

35. al values and individual values in the classroom. A well-
informed teacher understands and respects the diversity of cultu
ral and ethnic thought in any community and uses this knowledg
e to help all students learn. Teachers faced with questions about
values are dealing with the axiology branch of philosophy.
Philosophical Perspectives’ Influence on Teaching and Learning
Various schools of philosophy seek to answer the broad philoso
phical questions posed through metaphysics, epistemology, and
axiology from differing perspectives. The schools of philosophy
most often mentioned in terms of the implications they have for
education are idealism, realism, perennialism, pragmatism, pro
gressivism, essentialism, and existentialism. These philosophies
represent a broad spectrum of influence on educational practice
and thought, and ways of knowing. Some schools of philosophy
give rise to compatible educational theories, while others gener
ate quite opposite and competing points of view. Some of the ph
ilosophical perspectives listed below may not be considered sch
ools of philosophy in the truest sense. However, their impact on
teaching and learning has given them a relevant stature in the r
ealm of thinking about education. Observance of one or another
of these philosophical perspectives, or a combination of two or
more, could produce differing school structures, curriculum, ins
tructional methods, and classroom practices for teachers and stu
dents. What follows is a succinct description of some of the sch
ools of philosophy teachers should be familiar with as they unde
rtake construction of their own personal philosophy of teaching.
Confucianism
Confucius (551–
479 BCE) is in many cultures regarded as the world’s foremost
and greatest philosopher. Confucius’s teachings, a source of per
ennial good sense, encourage people to lead good lives by doing
what is right. At some time in your preservice teacher educatio
n course work and during inservice professional development yo
u will no doubt see or hear one of Confucius’s many axioms. On
e of the most frequently displayed is, “I hear, I know. I see, I re
member. I do, I understand.” Here is another: “If you think in te

36. rms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; i
f in terms of 100 years, teach the people.” Confucius taught that
there are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflecti
on, which is the highest. The second is imitation, which is the e
asiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest. As a teach
er education candidate, you will have the opportunity to use all
three methods to gain wisdom.
Idealism and Realism
Idealism, the oldest of the Western philosophies, originated wit
h Plato (427–
347 BCE). Idealism refers to a rational world of the mind where
ideas or concepts are the essence of all that is worth knowing.
The idealism philosophy guides behavior or thought based on th
e theory that the objects of external perception consist of ideas.
Universal and absolute truths offer examples of the ideal to stri
ve for. Since ideas are consistent in an ever-
changing world, they should be learned and understood. The ide
al should be sought and emulated when found. Hegel’s (1770–
1831) absolute idealism posits that since ideas about reality are
products of the mind, there must be a mind at work in the univer
se that establishes reality and gives it structure. Idealism is used
to refer to any metaphysical theory positing the primacy of min
d, spirit, or language over matter.
Realism describes a world in which material objects exist in the
mselves apart from the mind’s awareness of them. Aristotle (38
4–
322 BCE) built upon the ideas of his famous teacher, Plato, to d
escribe the realistic world. That world is real and exists whether
or not a mind is there to perceive it. Remember the question of
the tree falling in the forest that you discussed in your first phil
osophy class? If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to h
ear it, does it make a sound? Imagine the answer from both an i
dealist and a realist perspective. In realism, laws of nature and t
he order of the physical world override the idealist notion that i
deas are the ultimate reality. In a realist’s world we respond to
what is seen and sensed. According to John Locke’s (1632–

37. 1704) tabula rasa theory, we all begin as blank slates and our se
nses help us fill the void with knowledge. Plato’s idealistic pers
pective has us full of ideas at birth and life’s experiences help u
s eventually know these ideas. Is it the teacher’s responsibility t
o bring out the knowledge students already possess or to engrav
e it on their blank slates?
Ancient philosophical ideas are present in current teaching pract
ices.
Perennialism and Essentialism
The roots of perennialism lie in the philosophies of Plato and Ar
istotle and also of St. Thomas Aquinas. Perennialism offers a co
nservative and traditional view of human nature. In this school
of thought, humans do not change much, but they are capable of
analytical thinking, reason, and imagination, and should be enc
ouraged along these lines. Through reason lies revelation. When
certain perpetual truths are learned, individuals will develop rat
ionality. While human nature is somewhat predictable, it is poss
ible to improve the human condition through understanding of h
istory, the great works of literature, and art.
Essentialism became a popular educational philosophy in the Un
ited States in the 1930s following what was considered an exces
s of progressive education. Essentialists believe there is a funda
mental core of knowledge that any functioning member of societ
y must possess. Such knowledge is absolutely essential for an in
dividual to lead a productive life. Learning takes place through
contact with the physical world as well as with specific core dis
ciplines. Goodness lies in acquisition of certain essential knowl
edge. E. D. Hirsch clearly delineated the finer points of essentia
l knowledge in his 1987 book, Cultural Literacy, making clear t
he exact information that every literate person should possess. T
eaching the essentials has since colonial times been the dominan
t approach to American education. The testing frenzy of the curr
ent No Child Left Behind movement would attest to the staying
power of essentialism in American education. “While essentialis

38. m reflects the traditional view that the ‘real’ world is the physic
al world we experience with our senses, perennialism is more op
en to the notion that universal spiritual forms are equally real” (
Sadaker & Sadaker, 2000, pp. 400–401).
Pragmatism and Progressivism
Pragmatism was first introduced into philosophy by Charles Peir
ce in 1878. The term pragmatic is derived from the Greek word
pragma, meaning action, which is also the source for the words
practice and practical. The universe of pragmatism is dynamic a
nd evolving. Change happens and humans are constantly in the
process of becoming, evolving to reach ever-
greater understanding. Truth is what works in one place and tim
e, and even if it worked once it might not work again given diff
erent variables. Concepts and outcomes should be tested by thei
r practical results. Maybe your university professor who answer
s “Depends” to your questions about what works best is taking a
pragmatic point of view. Pragmatism shares some views with A
ristotle’s realism but is less rigid since in pragmatism experienc
e is of utmost importance. Because of the changing nature of tru
ths, individuals must be flexible and be capable of dealing with
change. America was founded on pragmatic ideals. Since the arr
ival of the first explorers and settlers, Americans have spent a l
arge portion of their energy adapting to one another and to ever-
changing environments.
Progressivism, marked by progress, reform, or a continuing imp
rovement, became popular in the 1920s through the work of Joh
n Dewey. The tenets of progressivism demonstrate respect for in
dividuality, a high regard for science, and receptivity to change.
According to Dewey, humans are social animals that learn thro
ugh interaction with one another. Learning increases when we ar
e engaged in activities that have meaning for us (Dewey, 1963).
The influence of progressivism helped American educators take
a closer look at the role of the learner in any acquisition of kno
wledge.
Libraries around the world, such as this one at Trinity College i

39. n Dublin, Ireland, contain the wisdom of the ages.
Existentialism
Existentialism rose out of the cult of nihilism, a philosophical p
osition that argues the world, and especially human existence, is
without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or e
ssential value, and pessimism, a general belief that things are ba
d and tend to become worse. The rise of this view followed the
destruction of European civilization in World War I. Existential
ism presents a world in which individuals determine for themsel
ves what is true or false. Only through free will can individuals
oppose hostile environments. The first principle of existentialis
m, according to Jean-
Paul Sartre, is “Man is nothing else but what he makes of himse
lf.” When the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland asks, “Who R
U?” had Alice been an existentialist she might have answered, “
Yes, who am I and what should I do?”
Maxine Greene, a long-
time professor at Columbia Teachers College, contends that livi
ng is philosophy and that freedom means overcoming obstacles t
hat obstruct our attempt to find ourselves and fulfill our potenti
al (1988). The writings of Friedrich Nietzsche (1884–
1900) offer a framework for cultivating a healthy love of self. H
e wanted to help liberate people from the oppression of feeling i
nferior.
Carl Rogers (1902–
1987), the founder of humanistic psychology, made outstanding
contributions to the field of education. His writings focus on em
powering individuals to achieve their full potential, that is, beco
ming self-
actualized. According to Rogers, existential living means living
in the here-and-
now, being in touch with reality, while learning from the past an
d dreaming of the future (1969). Though the ideas of existentiali
sm seem radical to many people, Donald Kauchak and Paul Egg
en (2005) point out that “existentialism makes a contribution to
education because it places primary emphasis on the individual,

40. and in doing so, it reminds us that we don’t teach math, science,
reading, and writing; rather, we teach people, and the people w
e teach are at the core of learning” (p. 214).
There are far more philosophical perspectives than have been m
entioned here. When you read of the naturalists or of scholastici
sm, humanism, or social reconstructivism, you will increase you
r knowledge of the ideas that have influenced how you may be e
xpected to perform in the classroom. Most philosophical perspe
ctives hold increased knowledge or understanding as good. For
more details on schools of philosophy and their implications in
education visit the website of the Sophia Project (http://www.so
phia-
project.org/). The Sophia website lists numerous links to the thi
nking and writing of educational theorists.
Knowledge of teaching and learning is always incomplete even t
hough there is a wealth of theories to support many of the practi
ces and policies that exist. Knowledge and attitudes about educa
tion grow and change as the physical and social world changes.
Teachers construct a personal philosophy toward teaching and le
arning in order to make sense of the complexities of their craft.
Teachers may not be able to name a specific school of philosoph
y if you ask them to tell you which philosophy they adhere to in
daily practice, but they will certainly be able to give you their t
houghts on how children learn, what they should learn, and how
they should be learning it. Most teachers select ideas from a nu
mber of schools of philosophy and apply what works best for th
em given the requirements of their teaching situation. In order t
o maintain a sense of humor and hope in teaching, most teachers
are pragmatic and operate from a philosophical viewpoint of ec
lecticism. They select ideas from various systems in the same w
ay they gather materials from various sources. Such is the practi
cal world of teaching.
The Presence of Educational Philosophies in Classrooms
All teachers have moments in the classroom when they are capti
vated by the topic they are teaching, only to be caught up short
by blank stares or student questions from left field. It is at such

41. moments that teachers begin to realize that their perspectives on
what is important to know may not be universally shared. The k
nowledge one person believes fundamental, from say a perennia
list’s point of view, may seem like so much intellectual dominat
ion to another. Any personal philosophy of teaching sets the sta
ge for plans and actions. Teachers, by nature of the profession,
must make decisions that incorporate a range of philosophical p
erspectives that are doable and that “work” given a variety of co
ntexts. Figure 7.2 provides a comparison of ways some philosop
hical perspectives might be apparent in classrooms and teaching
practices.
Teacher-Focused Classrooms
Room arrangement may not be the best clue as to a teacher’s vie
ws on what and how children should learn, but it is an indicator.
Picture students seated in individual islands separate from othe
r students with eyes directed toward a teacher at the front of the
room explaining or demonstrating something the students are e
xpected to remember. The students are quiet. The teacher is talk
ing. We’ve seen examples of this style of teaching in movies an
d on television. Unfortunately, in most of these examples, the te
acher is oblivious to what the students are doing or thinking. W
atching TheAmanda Show on the cartoon network with my youn
gest grandson, Kai, I was struck by the parody of a teacher-
focused classroom. The teacher was writing questions on the bla
ckboard while the students were being turned into frogs and mic
e by a witch, and Mark, Amanda’s friend, was trying to explain
to the teacher, who was totally in outer space, what was going o
n.
Figure 7.2 The Influence of Philosophical Perspectives on Teac
hing and Learning
Source: Adapted from Webb, L. D., Metha, A., & Jordan, K. F. (
2013). Foundations of American education (7th ed.). Upper Sad
dle River, NJ: Pearson.
Teacher-

42. focused approaches to teaching, in which the teacher is master o
f the knowledge to be learned and dispenses it to all students at
a specified rate over a specified period of time, adhere to the es
sentialism school of philosophy in which learning the content is
of major concern.
The teacher-
focused approach also follows a perennialist perspective, believ
ing that education serves to inform students of knowledge that
will remain constant through life (Oliva, 2005). In education, es
sentialism and perennialism perspectives dictate basic and presc
ribed subject matter. Learning is transferred in a programmatic f
ashion from teacher to students.
Student-Focused Classrooms
Student-
focused approaches to teaching correspond to pragmatism and p
rogressivism. In education, these philosophical perspectives vie
w the major role of schools and teachers as being to create learn
ing opportunities that will allow students to construct knowledg
e relevant to a specific task or situation through self-
interest and dialogue with others. The tenets of a constructivist
teaching style are closely associated with progressivism, empha
sizing hands-on, activity-
based learning. The room arrangement in a student-
focused classroom is open and flexible. Students can easily inte
ract with one another. Motivation is encouraged through intrinsi
c rewards. Teacher and learners share control of behavior and th
e learning environment. Inquiry is promoted and divergent point
s of view are respected. The teacher models participatory evalua
tion through questioning and student-
led discussions of results. The students value themselves as lear
ners and welcome the active role they have in directing their ed
ucation along the lines of their own interests. In a student-
focused classroom, the curriculum should take into account stud
ents’ interests. Students construct knowledge through interactio
n with others.

43. Video Link
Learn more about student-focused classrooms.
The Changing Focus
In any given day in a classroom, the focus shifts from teacher to
students and back again. This is not wishy-
washy. It is merely a fact of the profession. In much the same w
ay a world-
class photographer will shift the focus on a scene to emphasize
or pick up an unusual feature, an effective teacher is able to vie
w the classroom as a vibrant life form, taking note of all movem
ent and features. In doing so the teacher may find it necessary t
o redirect student attention, or perhaps momentarily call a halt t
o all activity. Learning how to combine parts of different educat
ional philosophies for the benefit of all of the students may be o
ne of the hardest tasks a new teacher must learn.
Using Philosophy to Problem Solve
Thinking and trying to find answers to questions is much of wha
t teaching is about. A teacher perplexed by certain student beha
viors or by the content of the textbooks mandated by the school
district administrators can find comfort in the teachings of philo
sophers. With a little effort teachers can use the great ideas fro
m different philosophical perspectives to help them understand
human learning, behavior, and value systems. As your knowledg
e of teaching practices increases, so must your understanding of
the basis for such practices. Do not take anything on hearsay. S
eek the answers to your questions and build a cognitive framew
ork of theory and practice to rival the architecture of the Taj Ma
hal. The mind should be a beautiful thing.
Our opinions about public school teaching and learning begin w
ith the very first moment we enter schools as students. Every be
ginning teacher’s knowledge of teaching is more memory than s
chema. Beliefs are the frameworks that all subsequent knowledg
e is incorporated into. It is necessary for teachers to categorize t
heir thinking and understand the traditions of practice and the hi

44. storical circumstances out of which certain kinds of thinking ari
se.
There are many ways to think about teaching and learning, and
because of this, identifying one particular philosophical perspec
tive for your approach to teaching can be like looking for a need
le in a haystack. Don’t worry. Be happy that there are so many p
ossibilities and ideas. It is important for you to become familiar
with a variety of philosophical perspectives in order to organiz
e your own thinking and develop a personal wellspring of origin
al and useful ideas to help your students learn. The more you thi
nk about teaching and the more you hear how others think about
it, the easier it will be for you to construct your very unique pe
rsonal philosophy of teaching.
Teachers’ Lounge
The One Constant
Thirty-
one years ago I walked into school with a set schedule, set class
list, set curriculum, and set lesson plans…or so I thought. With
in the first hour, I realized that I would need to change a “few”
things. As the day wore on, then the weeks, the months, and the
n years, I have come to understand that ideas, students, methods
, expectations, and anything else related to education is anythin
g but set. The commonality for all these things is change. You c
an’t fight it. You can’t worry about it. You can only be flexible
and open-
minded and know too that change will be the one constant in yo
ur teaching career. I have experienced changes in students, fami
lies, changes in discipline, changes in standards, changes in tec
hnology, and, well, you get the idea. Sometimes we think we ha
ve found a “better way” only to revert back to the way we did th
ings a decade earlier. Flexibility is being capable of being “bent
without breaking.” There were many times I thought I would br
eak but didn’t. We are a unique group in that way. We contort,
give, change, and bounce back. Students need us to be that way

45. and hopefully by doing so they will learn a very valuable lesson
about life through us. I honestly believe that as an educator, my
philosophy of education has a direct impact on my students’ liv
es. Our greatest responsibility as educators is to be everything
we can be, learn everything we can learn, and to find and capita
lize on the strengths of our students—
not for our own benefit, but for the lives of students we touch o
n a daily basis.
Mary Ella Bauer as told to Dr. William Bauer,
Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio
Understanding and Using Evidence
Changing Values
From 1950 to 1990, American values experienced radical chang
e. Consider the following, and then discuss with your classmate
s the consequences such changes may have had on American ed
ucation. How do current American values compare now in 2013
?
1950
1990
2013
delayed gratification
instant gratification
middle class
underclass
“We”
“Me”
heroes
cover girls
value-added
charge cards

46. Ozzie & Harriet
latchkey kids
unionization
bankruptcy
equity
renting/leasing
public troubles
private issues
“Do what you’re told”
“Do what you want”
public virtue
personal well-being
achievement
fame
regulation
deregulation
One way to process the ideas presented in the Understanding an
d Using Evidence feature of this chapter is to first consider the
major events in American life now and compare them with ideas
present in the 1950s and 1990s. How are current events differe
nt from or similar to events that took place for past generations?
How might these differences affect American values? What is o
n YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter? How might what we watch
on TV influence American values? How has technology changed
the ways students think about their world? What potential does
it have to change American values?
Consider the public nature of a person’s private life given the re
ality aspects of media programming. In what ways can reality T

47. V possibly change the ways that students and teachers react in a
classroom or think about education in general?
Make a list of your own ideas about the state of American value
s today. To get you started, here are some ideas.
Your Task:
Corporate Fraud
Terrorism
Social Networks
Animated Movies
Childhood Obesity
Graying Baby Boomers
Health Care
Challenging Assumptions
Is one method of teaching reading skills universally better than
another?
The Assumption
Teacher-focused direct instruction is not as effective as a child-
centered, constructivist method in helping children learn, retain,
and apply reading skills. Teacher educators, teachers, and scho
ol administrators have long debated the effectiveness of a whole
language approach versus the direct instruction approach to tea
ching early reading skills. Critics of the whole language approa
ch blame colleges of education for continuing to advocate a teac
hing method that does not seem to be working for all students,
while proponents of the whole language approach argue that the
direct instruction approach constrains a child’s learning style. A
ccording to educators who advocate the whole language approac
h, the child-
centered focus of this method introduces students to reading in
a way that makes them enjoy reading and become lifelong reade

48. rs.
The Research
Schug, Tarver, and Western (2001), of the University of Wiscon
sin–
Madison, examined the issue of direct instruction in their study,
Direct Instruction and the Teaching of Early Reading. Their go
al was to conduct research on direct instruction in authentic sett
ings using methods that would capture the rich complexity of cl
assroom experience. Six schools in Wisconsin participated in th
e study. The researchers observed and conducted interviews rela
ted to the use of direct instruction programs in these schools. In
this qualitative study, teachers and principals reported positive
effects from use of direct instruction for both regular education
and special education students in reading decoding, reading com
prehension, and attitudes toward reading. Teachers also reported
other positive effects that included improved writing skills, im
proved capacity to focus and sustain effort, and, generally, impr
oved student behavior. Teachers also reported no evidence of th
e various negative effects critics have attributed to direct instru
ction methods.
Implications
Since not all individuals learn, retain, and apply information in
the same way, it is important for teachers to use a variety of inst
ructional methods to meet the needs of all students. One approa
ch to teaching reading may gain popularity to the detriment of o
ther equally effective methods. It is important for teachers to be
aware of the role of academic fashion in instructional programs
, and to examine research results.
There are more sites on the Internet for constructivist lesson pla
ns then there are for teacher-
focused lesson plans. Does this mean that student-
focused approaches to teaching are more popular than teacher-
focused approaches in the nation’s schools? Or is this an idea th
at sounds excellent in theory but is difficult to put into practice

49. ? Visit http://www.interventioncentral.org for suggestions using
teacher-
focused strategies to increase student learning. Then go to http:/
/www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism to lear
n about teaching strategies in student-
focused classrooms. Is one type of lesson more appealing to you
than the other? What do you think that might be?
Source: Schug, M. C., Tarver, S. G., & Western, R. D. (2001).
Direct instruction and the teaching of early reading: Wisconsin’
s teacher-
led insurgency. Wisconsin Policy Research Institute Report, 14(
2). Retrieved from http://www.wpri.org/Reports/Volume14/v011
4n02.pdf
CONNECTING TO THE CLASSROOM
This chapter has provided information on some of the widely he
ld philosophical perspectives that influence attitudes about what
and how children are to learn and how teachers are to teach. It i
s likely that during your teaching career you will have firsthand
experience with more than one philosophical perspective. Below
are some ways to recognize and become familiar with different
philosophical perspectives in instruction and in interactions wit
h students, their families, and teacher colleagues.
1.
Keep a list of the questions teachers ask during instruction. Do t
he questions seem to ask for recall of facts or are the opinions o
f students considered? Are students often asked to make inferen
ces or does that teacher provide conclusive statements for the st
udents to record and remember? At what point do the students s
eem to be most engaged in answering the teachers questions?
2.
In a previous chapter, it has been suggested that you take part in
a parent-
teacher conference. You can learn much about the philosophical
perspective of teachers and parents when observing a parent-
teacher conference. Pay close attention to how the teacher cond

50. ucts the conference. In what ways does the teacher express his o
r her personal philosophy of teaching? Are the parents given eq
ual opportunity to express their attitudes about what their child
is learning in school?
3.
When teachers agree with one another and with their administrat
ors, the school climate is pleasant and productive. On the other
hand, when there are glaring differences among colleagues regar
ding content, conduct, and teaching strategies, discord may per
meate the school. What actions have you seen teachers and admi
nistrators take to alleviate the disagreement among colleagues t
hat stems from belief in the tenets of different schools of philos
ophy?
SUMMARY
Four major topics were covered in this chapter:
·
Developing a personal philosophy toward teaching and learning:
Knowing your beliefs and attitudes toward teaching and learnin
g is an important first step in understanding your influence on st
udent learning.
·
Student learning: There are a variety of ways students learn and
a variety of ways teachers can support student learning.
·
Recognizing the connection between educational psychology an
d student learning: When teachers understand the tenets of educ
ational psychology they have an improved chance of helping all
students learn.
·
Philosophical perspectives toward teaching and learning: Using
different approaches to teaching and learning is necessary to hel
p students with a variety of approaches to learning succeed in sc
hool.
CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1.

51. Experiences you have had as a student quite likely will shape yo
ur attitudes and beliefs as a teacher. Discuss one experience that
stands out from the rest. Refer to particular schools of philosop
hy to explain why this experience was so important to you.
2.
Describe stories from your experiences that have shaped your p
hilosophy of teaching. What critical events have given rise to st
rongly held opinions?
3.
In schools where teachers follow the same philosophical perspec
tive as their colleagues or students’ families, there is probably a
greement with the curriculum that is being taught and the instru
ctional methods that are used to teach it. What issues might aris
e, however, if many of the teachers followed the tenets of the pr
ogressive school of philosophy, while many of the families of th
e students followed the tenets of essentialism, and the administr
ation mainly expressed a perennialist’s point of view?
4.
Pick a philosophical perspective. What role might refection on s
tudent achievement play for a teacher from that perspective?
KEY TERMS
Axiology
Metaphysics
Pragmatism
Epistemology
Nihilism
Progressivism
Essentialism
Perennialism
Schools of philosophy
Existentialism
Pessimism
Socratic method
SELF-ASSESSMENT

52. WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT LEVEL OF UNDERSTANDING A
ND THINKING ABOUT DEVELOPING A PHILOSOPHY OF T
EACHING AND LEARNING?
One of the indicators of understanding is to examine how compl
ex your thinking is when asked questions that require you to use
the concepts and facts introduced in this chapter.
Answer the following questions as fully as you can. Then use th
e Complexity of Thinking rubric to self-
assess the degree to which you understand and can use the ideas
presented in this chapter.
1. What are three issues related to developing a personal philoso
phy of teaching and learning?
2. Why is it important for teachers to have a working knowledge
of educational psychology?
3. What are the common educational philosophies teachers shou
ld know?
4. Name three ways educational psychology perspectives and ed
ucational philosophies can be apparent in classrooms.
Complexity of Thinking Rubric
Parts & Pieces
Unidimensional
Organized
Integrated
Extensions
Indicators
Elements/concepts are talked about as isolated and
independent entities.
One or a few concepts are addressed, while
others are underdeveloped.
Deliberate and structured consideration of all key concepts/
elements.
All key concepts/ elements are included in a view that addresses
interconnections.
Integration of all elements and dimensions, with

53. extrapolation to new situations.
Relationships between educational psychology, educational
philosophy, and teaching and learning
Names a few educational psychology approaches
without mentioning relationship to schools of philosophy.
Describes only one or two approaches to teaching and learning.
Describes how educational psychology and philosophical
perspectives can result in specific teaching practices.
Learner can categorize educational psychology perspective with
educational philosophies to provide examples of
ways a teacher might plan, implement, and assess lessons.
Explains ways past knowledge and experiences
can influence the development of a personal philosophy of
teaching and learning.
STUDENT STUDY SITE
Visit the Student Study Site at www.sagepub.com/hall to access
links to the videos, audio clips, and Deeper Look reference mate
rials noted in this chapter, as well as additional study tools incl
uding eFlashcards, web quizzes, and more.
Field Guide
for Learning More About Developing a Philosophy of Teaching
and Learning
At this point in the text you should have quite a collection of art
ifacts to add to your personal field guide of learning to teach. R
efer back to Chapter 1 for a detailed description of what your fi
eld guide should contain and how it can provide opportunities f
or reflection on your professional growth.
Ask a Teacher or Principal
Ask two separate teachers to share with you their opinions of ho
w students learn. Ask how they know when their students have a
ctually learned the information being taught. Do they believe th
at learning one piece of information automatically leads to learn
ing a subsequent piece of information? In their opinion, is all le