Erin's Philosophy

This blog began as an assignment for a class at Old Dominion University. The class was "Teaching College Composition." We were supposed to create a group project allow us to better understand "composition history, theory, scholarship and praxis," and to work together to create more together than we could do alone. Kerstin suggested a pamphlet to help beginning teachers form their philosophies. I suggested a blog, instead, to make it interactive for users and to allow the product to change as we change. Now, at the suggestion of our classmates, our product has changed again, and we've created a new branch at philisophicalteacher.ning.com.

Believe it or not, we've gotten a bit addicted to this project, and we intend to keep going after the class ends. So far, "Teacher's Turn" has been more about reflection than anything. We, the blog's creators, have looked at how we became teachers and how our philosophies formed. We posted a philosophic inventory to help teachers discover what their philosophies might be. In the future, we'll five more specific advice on how to create a formal philosophy statement. I know some of our readers would have preferred such a prescriptive take, but there is value here. Exploration is important. It's easy to create a formal statement of philosophy, but it's not worth the paper it's printed on if it doesn't match your life, your ideals and your teaching.

Here's the jargon-filled version of my philosophy: According to my philosophic inventory, I'm a progressivist (child-centered and active). Existentialism (emphasis on the importance of individuality and living authentically) and reconstructivism (focus on social justice and service learning) round out my top three philosophies. According to the survey created by our colleagues, my axiology is mostly rhetorical, my epistomology is largely transactional, my pedagogy is expressivist, and my process is social. That means I believe good writing meets the reader's needs; knowledge is "generated through language," and agreed on by the discourse community; my methods focus on imagination; and I have my writers work with other writers. At first, the different categories didn't seem to jive, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. I think writing is often communication, and a way to share your thoughts and feelings with others. Thus it makes sense that I think readers should create together, thinking about each other's needs.

What I've really learned from creating The Teacher's Turn, though, is that my philosophy makes the most sense in context. I grew up in a family with lots of teachers, caring men and women devoted to helping people learn. I had been applying to the Peace Corps when a friend told me about the Teaching Fellows, a program that places inexperienced teachers in "high needs" (inner city) schools in exchange for highly subsidized master's degrees. My mom warned me not to be a teacher the same way many parents would warn their children not to join a rock band. She didn't want bureaucracy and administration to break my heart.

That's pretty much what happened. The people running my school claimed to be child-centered, but their actions showed that they were truly behaviorist. They wanted quiet classrooms. They wanted me to use test-prep books constantly to raise scores. I wanted to focus on my students' needs. I am so lucky I had great professors at Fordham University who forced me to discover my educational philosophy. Many of us grumbled about it at the time. We only had six weeks of training to prepare us to enter our first classrooms, and we wanted to spend every minute on "practical" training. However, my philosophy was an anchor. It kept me connected to who I wanted to be as a teacher. Without it, I might easily have been swept away by those more focused on No Child Left Behind than on actual children. I only hope this sight can help someone else the same way.

Robin's Philosophy

Teaching philosophies are not something that we just “have” or that we “get”, teaching philosophies are ideas and values that are developed over a period of time. I’ve only started teaching a few months ago, and really had no idea of what I wanted to convey to my students other than the knowledge of how to write well. It did not occur to me that I would need a philosophy of teaching to inform what I was going to do in the classroom. I believe that it might be a little different for me as a graduating graduate student, just embarking on this new career, than it might be for a traditionally aged student who has received their Master’s degree and is off and teaching. I have already had a twenty year career under my belt, and I bring with me the philosophy I have developed in respect to that field, which is human services. As I have reflected this semester, I have noticed that my approach to life in general, my approach to working in particular, is not all that different from the philosophy I see developing as an emerging pedagogue.

My philosophy of how knowledge is created is transactional. I believe that knowledge is created through language. How do we convey what we know? Through language, of course. It is the same for our thoughts, ideas, values, norms, mores, etc. Everything that we experience is done linguistically. Think about it, how do we create new knowledge? With words that others can understand. Recently, a friend of mine had a little girl. These proud parents often wonder what their daughter is thinking. My contention is that she doesn’t think, as she has not mastered language yet. She is merely behavioral, associatively and reactive.

My axiology is definitely Rhetoricist, or as James A. Berlin framed it, Social Epistemic. I believe that writing is a social act, and that as a writer, or as a communicator, we should strive to have our voice understood. It means nothing if you are writing and your message is unclear. I know that I am an audience centered writer, and that is what I convey to my students. How I convey this is through my pedagogical approach. My classroom is structured in such a way that peer workshops are paramount, and discussions of the writing process abound. There are times when a rhetorical pedagogy takes over and I approach the students in a manner that addresses the relationship between the writer and the audience. As my teaching is in its infant stages, I am still trying to find what pedagogical processes work best for me.

I suspect that my approaches may become more defined, or change altogether as I continue my journey in teaching. I will encounter individuals who will challenge, and ultimately change how I feel or how I approach ideas. My philosophy of life is dialectical. We do not experience or live life in a vacuum, we live life with others, engaging, interacting, learning, experiencing, as well as loving.

Philosophic Inventory

Well, here it is, fellow teachers! This philosophic inventory is the quiz that first helped me to form a philosophy of education. After two years of teaching, I got to take the quiz again and see how my philosophy had changed. Robert Leahy prepared the quiz for Becoming a Teacher: Accepting the Challenge of a Profession, 3d ed. 1995. Not only is the quiz great, but Leahy's scoring guide gives an overview of six major schools of educational philosophy, and major figures in each school. Take the quiz! (Print it out or jot down your answers on a sheet of paper.)

Professional Reflection

Using a Philosophic Inventory

(Prepared by Robert Leahy for Becoming a Teacher: Accepting the Challenge of a Profession, 3d ed. 1995)

The following inventory is to help identify your educational philosophy. Respond to the statements on the scale from 5 “Strongly Agree” to 1 “Strongly Disagree” by circling the number that most closely fits your perspective.

Strongly Strongly agree disagree
5 4 3 2 1	1. The Curriculum should emphasize essential knowledge, NOT students' personal interests.
5 4 3 2 1	2. All learning results from rewards controlled by external environment.
5 4 3 2 1	3. Teachers should emphasize interdisciplinary subject matter that encourages project-oriented, democratic classrooms.
5 4 3 2 1	4. Education should emphasize the search for personal meaning, NOT a fixed body of knowledge.
5 4 3 2 1	5. The ultimate aim of education in constant, absolute, and universal: to develop the rational person and cultivate the intellect.
5 4 3 2 1	6. Schools should actively involve students in social change to reform society.
5 4 3 2 1	7. Schools should teach basic skills, NOT humanistic ideals.
5 4 3 2 1	8. Eventually human behavior will be explained by scientific laws, proving there is no free will.
5 4 3 2 1	9. Teachers should be facilitators and resources who guide student inquiry, NOT managers of behavior.
5 4 3 2 1	10. The best teachers encourage personal responses and develop self-awareness in their students.
5 4 3 2 1	11. The curriculum should be the same for everyone: the collective wisdom of Western culture delivered through lecture and discussion.
5 4 3 2 1	12. Schools should lead society toward radical social change, NOT transmit traditional values.
5 4 3 2 1	13. The purpose of schools is to ensure practical preparation for life and work, NOT to encourage personal development.
5 4 3 2 1	14. Good teaching establishes an environment to control student behavior and to measure learning of prescribed objectives.
5 4 3 2 1	15. Curriculum should emerge from students' needs and interests; therefore, it should NOT be prescribed in advance.
5 4 3 2 1	16. Helping students develop personal values is more important than transmitting traditional values.
5 4 3 2 1	17. The best education consists primarily of exposure to great works in the humanities.
5 4 3 2 1	18. It is more important for teachers to involve students in activities to transform society than to teach the Great Books.
5 4 3 2 1	19. Schools should emphasize discipline, hard work, and respect for authority and NOT encourage free choice.
5 4 3 2 1	20. Human learning can be controlled: anyone can be taught to be a scientist or a thief; therefore, personal choice is a myth.
5 4 3 2 1	21. Education should enhance personal growth through problem solving in the present, NOT emphasize preparation for a distant future.
5 4 3 2 1	22. Because we are born with an unformed personality, personal growth should be the focus of education.
5 4 3 2 1	23. Human nature is constant - its most distinctive quality is the ability to reason; therefore, the intellect should be the focus of education.
5 4 3 2 1	24. Schools perpetuate racism and sexism camouflaged as traditional values.
5 4 3 2 1	25. Teachers should efficiently transmit a common core of knowledge, NOT experiment with curriculum.
5 4 3 2 1	26. Teaching is primarily management of student behavior to achieve the teacher's objectives.
5 4 3 2 1	27. Educators should involve students in democratic activities and reflective thinking.
5 4 3 2 1	28. Students should have significant involvement in choosing how they learn.
5 4 3 2 1	29. Teachers should promote the permanency of the classics.
5 4 3 2 1	30. Learning should lead student to involvement in social reform.
5 4 3 2 1	31. On the whole, schools should and must indoctrinate students with traditional values.
5 4 3 2 1	32. If ideas cannot be proven by science, they should be ignored as superstition and nonsense.
5 4 3 2 1	33. The major goal for teachers is to create an environment where students can learn on their own by guided reflection on their experiences.
5 4 3 2 1	34. Teachers should create opportunities for students to make personal choices, not shape their behavior.
5 4 3 2 1	35. The aim of education should be the same in every age and society, NOT differ from teacher to teacher.
5 4 3 2 1	36. Education should lead society toward social betterment, not confine itself to essential skills.

Philosophic Inventory Score Sheet

In the space available, record the number you circled for each statement (1-36) from the inventory. Total the number horizontally and record it in the space on the far right of the score sheet. The highest total indicates your educational philosophy.

Essentialism

Essentialism was a response to progressivism and advocates a conservative philosophic perspective. The emphasis is on intellectual and moral standards that should be transmitted by the schools. The core of the curriculum should be essential knowledge and skills. Schooling should be practical and not influence social policy. It is a back-to-basics movement that emphasizes facts. Students should be taught discipline, hard work and respect for authority. Influential essentialists include William C. Bagley, H.G. Rickover, Arthur Bestor, and William Bennett; E.D. Hirsch’s Cultural Literacy could fit this category.

_____ + _____ + _____ + _____ + _____ + _____ = _______

1 + 7 + 13 + 19 + 25 + 31 = Total

Behaviorism

Behaviorism denies free will and maintains that behavior is the result of external forces that cause humans to behave in predictable ways. It is linked with empiricism, which stresses scientific Experiment and observation; behaviorists are skeptical about metaphysical claims. Behaviorists look for laws governing human behavior the way natural scientists look for empirical laws governing natural events. The role of the teacher is to identify behavioral goals and establish reinforcers to achieve goals. Influential behaviorists include B.F. Skinner, Ivan Pavlov, J.B. Watson and Benjamin Bloom.

_____ + _____ + _____ + _____ + _____ + _____ = _______

2 + 8 + 14 + 20 + 26 + 32 = Total

Progressivism

Progressivism focuses on the child rather than the subject matter. The students’ interests are important; integrated thinking, feeling and doing is important. Learners should be active and learn to solve problems by reflecting on their experience. The school should help students develop personal and social values. Because society is always changing, new ideas are important to make the future better than the past. Influential progressivists include John Dewey and Francis Parker.

_____ + _____ + _____ + _____ + _____ + _____ = _______

3 + 9 + 15 + 21 + 27 + 33 = Total

Existentialism

Existentialism is a highly subjective philosophy that stresses the importance of the individual and emotional commitment to living authentically. It emphasizes individual choice over the importance of rational theories. Jean Paul Sarte, the French Philosopher, claimed that “existence precedes essence.” People are born, and each person must define himself or herself through choices in life. Influential existentialists include Jean Paul Sartre, Soren Keirkegaard, Martin Heidegger, Gabriel Marcel, Albert Camus, Carl Rogers, A.S. Neill, and Maxine Greene.

_____ + _____ + _____ + _____ + _____ + _____ = _______

4 + 10 + 16 + 22 + 28 + 34 = Total

Perennialism

The aim of education is to ensure that students acquire knowledge about the great ideas of western culture. Human beings are rational, and it is this capacity that needs to be developed. Cultivation of the intellect is the highest priority of an education worth having. The highest level of knowledge in each field should be the focus of curriculum. Influential perennialists include Robert Maynard Hutchins, Mortimer Adler, and Allan Bloom.

_____ + _____ + _____ + _____ + _____ + _____ = _______

5 + 11 + 17 + 23 + 29 + 35 = Total

Reconstructionism

Resconstructionists advocate that schools should take the lead to reconstruct society. Schools have more than a responsibility to transmit knowledge, they have the mission to transform society as well. Reconstructionists go beyond progressivists in advocating social activism. Influential reconstructionists include Theodore Brameld, Paulo Friere, and Henre Giroux.

_____ + _____ + _____ + _____ + _____ + _____ = _______

6 + 12 + 18 + 24 + 30 + 36 = Total

(Prepared by Robert Leahy for Becoming a Teacher: Accepting the Challenge of a Profession, 3d ed. 1995)

James A. Berlin

James Berlin posits that ideology is at the center of any writing classroom in his essay that appears in T.R. Johnson’s Teaching Composition: Background Readings. His philosophical predilections are definitely Marxist, as he outlines his theories based on works by Ray Williams, Jorge Lorain, Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, and Goran Therborn. Berlin discusses Cognitive Rhetoric, Expressionistic Rhetoric, and Social-Epistemic Rhetoric and their particular political, social, and cultural implication within the writing classroom. I have listed some additional articles written by Berlin below…

“Cultural Studies." Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition. Ed. Theresa Enos. NY: Garland, 1996. 154-56.
“Composition Studies and Cultural Studies: Collapsing Boundaries." Into the Field: Sites of Composition Studies. Ed. Anne Ruggles Gere. NY: MLA,1993. 99-116.
"Composition and Cultural Studies." Composition and Resistance. Eds. Hurlbert, C. Mark and Michael Blitz. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1991.

William G. Perry, Jr. & Marcia B. Baxter

William G. Perry, Jr. and Marcia B. Baxter Magolda are developmental psychologists whose theories build upon the ideas of Jean Piaget. Unlike Piaget, however, Perry and Magolda explore the cognitive processes of humans older than fifteen. Perry defines four levels of cognitive development: dualism, multiplicity, relativism, and commitment to critical evaluation. Magolda defines the four ways of knowing: absolute, transitional, independent, and contextual. For more information about these stages please references: A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers by Erika Lindemann.

Basically, Perry and Magolda theorize college students, ages seventeen to nineteen, are more absolute in their world beliefs. To these students there exists a state of right or wrong. Hence, teachers should not expect students in this age set to challenge ideas or explore new ways of looking at concepts. During their later college years students gradually begin to question authority and come to see that not everything before them is black and white.

Teachers implementing the philosophies of Piaget, Perry, and Baxter set expectations based on cognitive ability.

Resources for Perry and Magolda:

Teachers who implement, or are interested in the Kegan model may find “A Developmental Model of Intercultural Maturity” by Patricia King and Marcia Magolda an interesting read. It can be found in the Journal of College Student Development, Nov/Dec 2005. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3752/is_200511/ai_n15847497

Image: http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/05.27/mm.perry.html (accessed 11/20/07) This is an article commemorating the life of William Graves Perry Jr. He died of pneumonia on January 12, 1998.

http://gsi.berkeley.edu/textonly/resources/learning/perry.html (accessed 11/22/07) This is a great link that elaborates on Perry’s four levels of development. Also, at the bottom of the page, you can find hyperlinks to: Theories of Learning and Teaching Resources.

http://findarticles.com/p/search?tb=art&qt=%22Magolda%2C+Marcia+B+Baxter%22 (accessed 11/22/07) This site contains links to nine articles by Magola.

Texts by Perry:

Perry, William G., Jr. Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the

College Years: A Scheme. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1970.

Perry, William G., Jr. "Cognitive and Ethical Growth: The Making of Meaning,”

in Arthur W. Chickering and Associates, The Modern American College. San

Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1981.

Text by Magolda:

Magolda, Marcia B. Baxter. Making Their Own Way: Narratives for Transforming

Higher Education to Promote Self-Development. Virginia: Stylus Publishing, 2001.

Peter Elbow

Peter Elbow is currently a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He’s published many books including: Landmark Essays on Voice and Writing (Hermagoras Press, 1995), Writing with Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process (Oxford UP,1998), and Everyone Can Write: Essays Toward a Hopeful Theory of Writing and Teaching Writing (Oxford UP,2000).

A pedagogical philosophy based on Elbow’s theories would be student-centered and include activities such as freewriting, keeping journals, and ignoring audience. The teacher will focus on a students’ creative efforts and finding their unique voice. Two excellent texts that highlight Elbow’s theories are A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers 4^th ed. by Erika Lindemann and Teaching Composition 2^nd ed. by T. R. Johnson.

Sources:
http://works.bepress.com/peter_elbow/
http://wrt-howard.syr.edu/Bibs/Elbow.htm
http://www.iupui.edu/~sharrin/5365/huang.htm

Kirsten's Philosophy

Richard Fulkerson says composition theory should address four issues: What is good writing (axiology)? How are texts creating (process)? How should writing be taught (pedagogy)? and What constitutes knowledge in the field of composition studies (epistemology)? To create a strong teaching philosophy one should spend a good deal of time answering these questions. Moreover, as teachers encourage their students to be life long learners, they should as well; thus, as teachers expand their knowledge, keeping current on new ideas and theories, their teaching philosophy should be revisited and updated regularly.

Linda Flower and Peter Elbow are two teachers and writers I look to for ideas to use in my teaching. As Linda Flower would agree, recursive writing is a must. Students should be allowed to revisit their ideas and work many times before completing a piece. Students must not be left to their own devises to do this. The teacher can motivate students by showing them multiple drafts of perhaps one of her pieces. Students will see for themselves the benefits of revision. They must be given guidelines on how to revisit old pre-writes and rough drafts. Guidelines for each writing project can grow and change as the project does yet, the teacher must always be clear about her expectations. Students, peers, and the teacher can work together at every stage.

I’m definitely a proponent of Peter Elbow’s pedagogical theories regarding felt sense and the role of audience. These two ideas should be considered early on in the writing process. Gaining a felt sense in one’s writing can help students find a genuine connection with their topic. Removing the idea of audience, in the beginning, will help ideas flow and assist students in getting as much on paper at the onset as possible. To begin a writing project with too much information, too many ideas, can be a good thing. Ideas can be whittled down, molded; not having enough to work with often results in a thin, piece meal product.

My teaching philosophy is most definitely student-centered. I tote a believe in expressivism however the red pen does have a tendency to come out of no where and break bad. My ultimate goal is to consistently work toward creating a community of learners within the classroom.