Philosophy of education

PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
Student`s Name
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Introduction
Philosophy of education can be used to refer to either the academic field of applied philosophy or to any of the educational philosophies that promote a specific type or vision of education (Gutek, 2009). There are various view points than can be adopted for different teaching environment depending on the students being handled and their cultural, social and religious affiliations. Universal design of learning is one of the best ways of imparting knowledge to a wider selection of students especially the students in the lower classes. In this section, universal design was used for level 4 students and the results were quite encouraging. The universal design of teaching makes the course concepts more accessible and also helps in making the skills more attainable regardless of the learning style, the physical and the sensory abilities of the students (Burgstahler, 2011). This process can also assist the teacher to meet most of the needs of diverse learners through the removal of various barriers in the learning process as it provides alternatives that allow the students to access and engage in learning. This teaching philosophy has also been applauded by the proponents of both John Dewey and Lev Vygotsky. The two philosophers were for the opinion that learning should be friendly and that students should be given time to develop their minds in a free and favorable environment. This section covers an insight overview of the two philosophers and how their proposals are related to the universal design of teaching.
John Dewey believed that learning was not being done in the appropriate way. According to him, he considered the learning process unnecessarily long and restrictive. In his arguments, he stated that children went to school to do things and live in a community which provided them with some real guided experiences which took note of their capacity to contribute to the society. He therefore concluded that students should be involved in real life challenges and tasks that can have some beneficial implications in their lives. His educational philosophy helped to forward the progressive education movement and spawned the development of the experiential education programs and experiments (Dewey, 2009). John Dewey can be considered as the father of experiential education as the success of experiential education is bestowed upon him.
Lev Vygotsky also proposed a very important method of dealing with education from a sociological and cultural point of view. He actually accorded a very important role to culture and social interaction to the process of complex thinking. He stated that sociology and cultural perspectives are very important to any setting in the learning environment (Vygotsky, 1998). This was the description of cultural signs and symbols as psychological tools, which he defined as instruments of cognitive development. The importance of these proposals were that human beings at early statges created signs which are simple psychological tools and then these signs are used for initiating the learning process. The signs are created based on a person`s cultural affiliation. Different cultures have different signs that they use to represent different actions and processes. Vygotsky also considered the cognitive functioning of a human mind, the development of a particular behavior and a person`s internal processes as equivalent (Bodrova and Leong, 2006). He therefore concluded that there is direct relationship between the processes. Therefore students should be given a free learning environment so that they can form a sense of identity and be able to accustom themselves with different processes taking place across their learning environment. Vygotsky also emphasizes on the importance of dynamics in development. He states that development should not be concentrated on one section only but should be all round. This plays a very important role towards ensuring that they students are all round in their knowledge quest. Therefore employing the open sharing teaching method helps in achieving this initiative and ensuring proper development of the students.
Characteristics of the Universal design of teaching
There are several characteristics of this particular teaching philosophy that necessitated its application. Some the characteristics of this teaching philosophy includes: the application of creativity to promote growth, stressing the importance of education and providing freedom to the students so that they can be able to think and discover knowledge (Karger, 2005).
This universal design applies creativity in order to promote growth. It encourages students to be more creative during the learning process. Creativity helps in the proper development of the mind and makes the students to be open to various challenges in life (Roberts, Park, Hye, Brown & Cook, 2011). The application of creativity also helps the students to find solutions to their problems whenever they are faced with various challenges.
Apart from applying creativity, this method also stresses on the importance of education to the students. The universal design ensures that during a classroom setting, the students are provided with maximum knowledge and participation is mandatory. All students in the classroom have to participate in various learning processes and whenever an assignment is given; all the students have to attend to the assignment as required Schelly, Davies, Patricia & Spooner, 2011).
This method also ensures that there is provision of freedom to the students so that they can think and discover knowledge. Giving the students an opportunity to think is very instrumental towards ensuring that the learning environment is all inclusive and enjoyable. Therefore it is necessary to provide freedom. John Dewy also stressed on this provision adding that it helps the students to develop a sense of belonging in the learning process and also helps in ensuring maximum grasping of new ideas.
The universal design is very instrumental towards teaching the students of the selected grade. This is attributed to the fact that the teaching method helps to ensure professionalism like the demonstration of good leadership skills to the students while at the same time, it helps the students to explore various available opportunities that can be used to utilize the authentic resources around the given environment.
Benchmark 1: Curriculum
Grade 4 students should be well trained not only on the academic skills but also should get training on how to effectively and successfully coexist. The curriculum should therefore involve aspects of co curricular activities and at the same time improve on the students` oratory skills. When designing the lesson plan, oratory testing exercises and writing testing exercises should be included at the end of every studying session to ensure that the students grasp the knowledge imparted to them by the teachers. Research has shown that if the students are well equipped with sufficient oratory and writing skills at this level, then they are likely to depict tremendous improvements in later stages of the learning process (Scott, Leach & Bucholz, 2008).
Benchmark 2: knowledge of the students
The universal design of teaching also plays a very important role towards offering the students customized opportunities that can meet all their needs during the learning process. It also emphasizes on the recognition of all the students and adequate understanding of all the students (Shaw, 2006). This will play a very important role towards ensuring that all the special needs of all the students are sufficiently met.
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Benchmark 3: learning environment
Classroom environment is very essential for any teaching process to take place. The teacher has to take proper note of the type of teaching environment in order to optimize the teaching process and ensure that the students get the best type of knowledge from the teacher. The type of teaching environment created by the teacher also helps in encouraging the students during the teaching process. It can either increase or decrease the student`s ability to learn or feel comfortable as a member of a given classroom setting. The classroom environment should do much to ensure that there is cooperation and acceptance of the teaching process and methods that a given teacher uses (Pollack and Sundermann, 2008). This section describes a number of teaching environments that was created to implement the educational teaching philosophy that was created. The following organization structures were used to help in the application of the teaching philosophy and make the students to develop a sense of belonging to various teaching environments.
Classroom design
This philosophy incorporates the use of a warm and a well decorated classroom. This involves organizing, arranging and decorating the classroom. The physical arrangement of a classroom and the presentability of a classroom help in encouraging the students to be identified with the class or the school from which they are learning. Children are often very sensitive to the atmosphere that is created in a classroom. If the class is not warm and not welcoming, then the students will shy off from such environments thus depicting a dislike for the school or the environment. This can also affect their concentration while in the classroom (Scott, Leach, & Bucholz, 2008). When the class is well decorated, some form of warmth will be promoted amongst the student. Color choices is also very important as some colors like red and orange may make children more nervous. Dark colors are also known to make students become drowsy and listless. The class should also be well arranged for the students. This not only make the students to become responsible people in life but also helps in making the teaching environment attractive and help the students to develop a sense of belonging thus feeling more encouraged to come go to school. The parents also have to encourage their children to observe cleanliness while at home. This will make it easier for the teachers to implement a presentable classroom design that takes note of a clean and presentable environment.
Benchmark 5: Planning and Instruction
Classroom procedures
There is need to have specific procedures in a given classroom setting so that the students are well aware of the things that they should be doing at all times. A special tradition needs to be created for every particular class. This will help in guiding the students so that they know what is expected of them at all times. Traditions also help the students to develop some positive feelings for their class while at the same time it will help the students to bond with their class and form a sense of identity with a particular class. There should be some activities developed that the students can practice to help them with the identification of a particular class. Some of the activities can include creating a picture or having a recapitulation of what the students may have learned on a particular day. This can help the students to develop a routine of practicing the recaps on a daily basis and eventually becoming well acquainted with everyday`s lessons. The parents need to ensure that their children master what they may have learnt in school. This can be achieved through asking them what they were taught in sc...