This assignment will critically appraise my philosophy of education. It will also detail previous conceptions of education, outline the values and beliefs of different philosophies surrounding education, and discuss how past experiences has influenced my present thinking.
I believe education should be about empowerment and allowing children to reach their potential, but I believe the child should be at the centre of education. Children should not be forced to learn off the syllabus just so they get adequate grades thus reflecting well on the teacher, just because a class achieves remarkable grades that does not mean that the teacher has fulfilled their job as an educator, it is only a small part of the occupation, being an educator is about
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There are conflicting arguments between traditional and progressive education. Traditional education advocates imposing knowledge, teachers assuming power and dominating the education of the youth through teaching isolated skills and techniques. This approach involves conforming youth as “schooling is the advertising agency which makes you believe that you need society as it is” (Illich, 1971). Contrastingly, progressive education supports the cultivation of individuality from learning through experience. Individual experience is interwoven with education, and it is artificial to divorce one from the other. This philosophy of education liberates minds instead of confining them to certain standards and thinking. Using this approach, one is supporting a changing …show more content…
In the current economic climate, a progressive education approach would be both difficult to establish and maintain due to increasing class sizes. This poses as a limitation for acquiring skills and knowledge through experience and allow individual thinking as it is unviable to view each student as an individual and support each student to learn through experience. Progressive education promotes and develops autonomous learning, as learning occurs throughout the life cycle and is not confined to the school environment. It is the role of the teacher to scaffold each experience of a child to support the continuity that each experience shapes a person and their future understanding of their experiences. This approach supports W.B Yeats’ theory of education ‘that it is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a