Philosophy of Education Checklist

          From doing the Inventory of Philosophy of Education I learned what type of values I have as a future teacher. After doing the checklist I found that I agree most with Progressivism, followed by Social Reconstructionism. Both of these are student centered philosophies.  Through this activity I was able to learn what philosophers I agree with and learn what I value in the education field and in the classroom itself.
         The following are the three best statements from Progressivism that I agree with:

•  "The school curriculum should be designed by teachers to respond to the experiences and needs of the student."
• "The gap between the real world and schools should be bridged through field trips, internships and adult mentors."
• "Schools should prepare students for analyzing and solving the social problems they will face beyond the classroom."

I feel that I agree most with these points because I do not believe school should only be based on academics. A lot of the students that I will be teaching in the future will need to learn social problems and information about the real world before they enter it themselves. I think education should be student based and teachers should alter the curriculum with every new group of students they have. The same curriculum may not work for all of the same students.
         The philosophies that I had the least amount of points for were the perennialism and existensialism. I do not agree with a 100% teacher centered curriculum, as the teacher is not the focus of learning. The student is. I do not agree that students should only "absorb" information or learn from a Great Book of everything. I agree students need a base of knowledge to work off of but not get it all from one book and that is all.
         When I was doing this activity I began thinking about in school and when I am in school subbing what it would be like if the curriculum was teacher centered. I believe hands on activities, field trips, and adult mentors only add to the classroom and help create a better learning environment. In the future when I am a teacher my curriculum will be based on the individual needs of the student. I will allow for more social issues to be discussed and provide a hands-on learning type of environment. I think this checklist was a great idea to learn what I really value in the classroom.