Our Educational Philosophy- Influenced by Rogerian View

Building Our Educational Philosophy- Influenced 

by Rogerian View

🤔Why is education important and how does it affect one’s future?

🤔Why do we educate people? How should we educate people?

🤔Why do schools exist in society? What purpose do they serve?

🤔Why philosophy of teaching is of worth? What is our educational philosophy? What teaching and learning principles should be implemented?’’ What qualities should good teachers possess?

              Actually and before the Classroom Management course, these questions twirled continuously

 in our minds. Propitiously, we now realize that these questions are substructures of educational

 philosophy. Throughout this course, we were fortunate enough to examine various educational theories,

 theoretical frameworks, and classroom models which illuminated our ideologies and shaped our

 philosophies. Fortunately, throughout structuring the educational blog and exploring the humanistic

 theories and perspectives and especially Carl Rogers' views and contributions to this approach, we got

 influenced by Rogerian view thus helping us in shaping our personal educational philosophy and

 teaching principles.

   Purpose of Education:

     

 Personally, from teaching experience and acquired

 

knowledge, we think that there is no agreement   

among teachers, psychologists, politicians, and

 

philosophers as to the purpose of education, nor is

there any agreement as to what constitutes

education. Nevertheless, we believe that purpose of education is the preservation and enhancement of knowledge and the development of character within our given form of society, which will best prepare the individual for the conditions of extreme modernity the near future is bringing. In other words, it seems to us that education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and society: the one is utility and the other is culture. In a way, education must enable a man to become more efficient and achieve the legitimate goals of his life with increasing facility. Education must also train one for purposeful, resolute, and critical thinking. In our opinion, intelligence is not enough; intelligence plus character is the goal of true education. In a way, education should be responsible for the development of spiritual consciousness among children and fulfilling the needs and aspirations of the nation. One of the main objectives of education is to encourage children and give them opportunities to develop new social patterns and creative schemes. Therefore, the broad education will transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living.

What are Schools for?

       

From our standpoint, we believe that schools in the

 

twenty-first-century do not foster the best type of 

education, in a sense of a purposeful, universal education that addresses the mind, body, and spirit of all children. (Sanchez, 2011, p. 2)This implies developing children physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. This is based on the concept that education is a process of growth and development, yet growth is the product of the interaction of a child with the environment. Most importantly the school must be a warm and healthy place where effective communication is practiced, teachers’ and students’ needs are satisfied, and reasonable rules are formed together. We believe that schools, instead of being ‘listening schools’, should prepare their students for life and embed virtues such as integrity, resilience, and perseverance to help them reach their potential and develop into men who are compassionate, ambitious, and capable of reflection and leadership.

       

Furthermore, we assume that schools must engage their students in extracurricular activities, democratic processes, social activities, and community services. For example, by designing programs that provide students with the opportunity to apply what they learn through performing community service linked to the formal curriculum and classroom instruction. In addition, through participation in simulations of democratic processes such as formal debates, voting, or mock trials. Moreover, schools are responsible for making children aware of the specific and basic elements of their society’s culture and they are expected to reflect this culture in their behavior. To not forget an important objective behind schools which is vocational development so that to create children with personal styles, technical and administrative skills, and theoretical understanding necessary to work. Furthermore, schools can help students learn responsibility by giving them a voice in the management of their schools and classrooms. Ultimately, schools should train students to be active, honest, and ethical citizens rather than just highly skilled intelligent individuals. In this way, schools can encourage students’ self-definition, uniqueness, and self-esteem. 

Teaching-Learning Process:

       

We both agree that the most important point in evaluating the educational process is not what teachers try to teach, but what learners succeed in learning. Consequently, we are under the influence of humanistic educational philosophy, and we consider a learner-centered style to be more effective today. Therefore, we assume that the child should be at the center of our classrooms. Undoubtedly, we are certain that the learner’s experience is of great importance and that the learner is responsible for his/her actions. Thus, the outcomes are measured by self-evaluation, which should be followed by constructive feedback from the teacher and other learners. On this account, we believe that our children, with their needs and goals, self-concepts, energy and motivation, and cognitive and experiential characteristics, play an important role in the teaching-learning exchange process. Accordingly, in our classrooms, we intend to maximize learning-by-doing through experimentation, hands-on activities, and experience. 

We believe that significant-experiential learning is learning which makes a difference in students' behaviors, attitudes, and personalities. It is learning which leads to the individual becoming a more fully functioning person. Such learning relates to the Rogerian theory. Such learning is facilitated by the students' experiential involvement with practical and real problems, with the students' participating actively and responsibly in the learning process. This is self-initiated learning, involving the whole person of the learner. Ultimately, we believe that self-initiated learning, together with self-evaluation and self-criticism, leads to independence, self-reliance, creativity, and learning how to learn.  

Role of Teacher:

       After discussing and setting our learning and teaching principles, we come to an agreement that our role as teachers is to serve as facilitators rather than transmitters of knowledge. In a way to give our students increasing responsibility for the learning process and provide an optimal amount of structure without being overly directive, thus encouraging students’ participation and empowering students by sharing power. As a result, our role is to facilitate and guide the teaching-learning process, promote self-learning, and help our students to develop critical learning and thinking skills. Our mission is to create learning plans and classes that require students to explore and discover the course content in creative and original ways, foster their social and emotional growth as well as intellectual growth by creating a supportive and positive environment, and also help them develop metacognitive skills. Definitely, in this way, our students will be actively engaged and motivated in our classes and take ownership of their learning.

Tc      👍Teach students how to learn. In humanistic learning theory, good teachers help students develop learning skills. Because students are in charge of their own learning, assisting them in understanding the best ways to learn is critical to their success.

2.          👍 Motivate students to complete tasks in the classroom. Because humanistic learning emphasizes engagement, teachers must provide motivation and engaging activities to help students feel enthusiastic about their studies.

3.        👍  Give students options when it comes to task/subject selection. Because choice is so important in humanistic learning, teachers can assist students in making decisions about what to learn. They may provide alternatives, assist students in evaluating their interests, and more.

4.         👍 Create opportunities for peer collaboration. Teachers create group opportunities for students to explore, observe, and self-evaluate. They will be able to do this more effectively if they interact with other students.

       Overall, we should be a good model for our students as it is often believed that values are caught and not taught. This implies that students learn everything from the examples of behaviors that we perform in our classrooms. Thus, every teacher should try to develop a warm, healthy, and well-structured classroom considering all possible factors and visible strategies including appropriate teaching and learning materials to stimulate their student’s capacity and thirst for learning. Notably, diversity in the classroom is rising, including students of different religions, economic statuses, gender identity, and language backgrounds. Thus, teachers should be aware of various models and philosophies to deal effectively with different cases. Keep in mind, students are human beings they have needs, social-emotional problems, and future goals.