Personal Philosophy Paper

Personal Philosophy Paper

Introduction

Philosophy of education is a statement or set of statements that identifies beliefs, values and understandings that a group of people in the society have concerning school. It gives knowledge and opinion about education as it is both conceptualized and practiced. Philosophy of education is a branch of philosophy that is mainly concerned about the aims of education and its nature.

Moreover, this kind of philosophy is critical in defining and providing a direction about the purpose, objective and focus of education to an individual and the society. Philosophy of education can serve as a tool to inspire and direct educational programs, planning and process in any setting. Additionally, the philosophy of education can influence the subjects to be taught and how they are taught. This paper will identify beliefs, values, and personal insights about why education is essential and the impacts and values it should instill on learners.

Philosophy of Schools and Learning

Impacts That Schools and Learning Should have on Individuals

Indira Gandhi, the former and only Indian female Prime Minister, stated, “Education is a liberating force and in our age is a democratizing force, cutting across the barriers of caste and class, smoothing out inequalities imposed by birth and other circumstances.” This way, education is regarded as the only tool that an individual can attain to raise the social class ladder, even if one was not born from a noble family. According to Javad, Salma & Khan (2016) argues that education enriches people’s understanding of themselves and the world. In this sense, people’s productivity, creativity, technological advancements and entrepreneurship are promoted through education, which in turn leads to better lives. Learning and schools should improve an individual’s living conditions because knowledge and having attended a school equips the learner with the necessary skills to solve everyday problems to improve the living standard. For instance, it is in schools that people are taught necessary prevention measures of some illnesses such as waterborne diseases. Therefore, in such cases, a person who has been to school should be able to observe some of the necessary hygiene measures that are paramount in preventing themselves from these diseases and improve their living conditions.

An individual who has been to school is taught different means to create opportunities from scarce resources to make wealth logically. According to Javad et al. (2016), education involves gathering knowledge in whatever the aspects of life, the economic aspect being one of them. Therefore, learning and schools should have the capacity to equip learners with the knowledge of making use of scarce resources and create wealth from it. In other words, education should help learners with ways through which they can alleviate poverty on individual levels.

Additionally, in a study carried out in German High School Reform, it was noted that education and the school have a significant impact on the personality of students (Dahmann & Anger, 2014). Dahmann & Anger (2014) argue that a body of literature has emerged on the importance and association of personality traits as a determinant of individual economic and social outcomes. Some personalities such as emotional stability are highly rewarded in the lab our market, while others such as agreeableness may be penalized with lower wages. The same way can some personalities make an individual interactive in society while others limit socialization of those who possess them. Therefore, nature can determine an individual’s success in any aspect of life, including economic, social and political. In the study carried out in German High School Reform, it was noted that shortening the high school track, associated with compression of the curriculum, caused the students who participated in the study to be more extroverted and were less emotionally stable (Dahmann & Anger, 2014). This observation showed that the more the students spent their time in school, the more they became emotionally stable and hence socially and economically empowered. Therefore, learning and schools should instill personality on learners to make them more useful socially and economically since personality determines a person’s social and economic outcome.

Lastly, learning and schools improve decision-making abilities, which results in individual staying out of trouble and live long and healthy lives. This is because education equips learners with effective decision making in situations that are likely to lead to danger or are a threat to life. Individuals who have been to school are expected to stay away from a dangerous situation such as that involving drug abuse, violence, accidents and many others. There, learning and schools should provide the students with effective decision-making abilities, which will help the learners make the best decisions in their lives and stay away from trouble or dangers.

Impacts That Schools and Learning Should have on Society

According to Mitra (2017), most learned Americans who are employed have access to better health since their employers provide them with health insurance. Additionally, when people who are learned land in stable employment, life stressors are greatly reduced together with risk factors that affect health negatively, such as narcotics. Therefore, education and schools help to boost the health condition of the society and hence longer and healthier lives. Learning and schools should be one of the promoters of heath in the society and help to reduce the government’s burden on providing healthcare services to the public. This is because people are covered with health insurance and are not at risk of developing some lifestyle stressors that are associated with joblessness or poverty.

Secondly, education and schools should be seen as a tool that can be used to prevent criminal activities in the society. According to Mitra (2017), education and school nurture the learners with knowledge and skills, which make them employable or empower them to start their ventures. Criminal activities in a society whose inhabitants are employed or running their stable ventures are infrequent. Therefore, education and schools should help minimize cases of criminal activities in the society and help the government reduce budgets allocated for crime prevention programs in the society.

Lastly, education is one of the best tools to reduce income inequalities and stimulate economic growth in society (Mitra, 2017). When education is provided equally to all members of society, income inequality is reduced, and hence economic development is realized. This is because people will gainfully secure employment opportunities or start their innovative ventures such as industries and government budget on welfare programs will be significantly reduced. Thus, learning and schools should be the critical tool to enhance economic equality and stimulate economic development in the society.

Instructional Practice

How the Learners Learn/What Causes Learning to Occur

Contemporary learning theory emphasizes that learning occurs through reinforcement and practice, which are critical in the development of ideas and skills (Hammond, Austin, Orcutt  & Rosso,2001). Skills and knowledge of a particular subject repeated over a long period with rewards or punishments to those who have managed to master the topic and those who fail to learn the subject, respectively (Hammond et al., 2001). However, researchers have further found that learners, especially children, interpret and construct knowledge given to them based on their experiences. Therefore, learner’s backgrounds and environment play a significant role in learning.

What to Implement in Classroom and Pedagogical Practices to use

I would implement a student-centred learning approach in class. The pedagogical practice I would use most of the time is constructivism. This is because most of the learners, especially small children, like to work with things physically so that they can have a deeper understanding of the topic. The approach is also individualized, and every student is given his/her attention according to their pace.

Teacher-Learner Relationship

The teacher-student relationship should be positive, and the teacher should be friendly to the student. The teacher should be ready to listen to the problems that the learner has and try to help as much as they can. The learner, on the other hand, should obey and respect the teacher for a positive relationship to last.

Diversity

The teacher should take into account the cultural and environmental background of the learner. This is because many learners will understand and interpret instructions given based on their cultural and environmental background. The teacher should take into account this diversity as they impact understanding differently among different learners.

Conclusion

Learning has many impacts on both the individual learner and the wider society. At the personal level, economic empowerment, personality building and many others are some of the effects that education should have on the learners. On the other hand, learning should produce significant and notable outcomes in society, such as stimulate economic development and promote health, among others. To offer quality education, the teacher should carefully consider what approach to use and in what context because different students in different situations understand subjects differently. Most importantly, it is paramount for a teacher and the learner to have a positive relationship for active learning to take place.