The philosophy of education assignment was intended to get us thinking about our own personal beliefs and views on education. It's important for teachers to reflect on why they are entering the profession and why they think education matters, and the ways that this will impact their instruction.
My philosophy of education derives heavily from my own personal experiences from education. My teachers, particularly my social studies teachers, helped inform my perspective. The best teachers I had were much more interested in the why of education than the what. They wanted to shape young people into good citizens and good human beings, and instruction was just a means to an end towards achieving those results.
My philosophy is also heavily impacted by the constructivist approach to education, rather than the directed approach. I think social studies education gets a bad rap because it too frequently relying on rote memorization and busybody work. To me history is about considering what it means to be a human and thinking about humanity's place in the world. It should be about so much more than just memorizing terms.
I also feel that there's a tremendous need to emphasize digital citizenship and digital literacy as part of the social studies curriculum. We need to make students capable of being informed, engaged citizens. That starts by ensuring students know how to do high quality research, writing and thinking.
To reiterate, the assignment was designed to get us to start to consider the significance of our personal perspective on education and teaching and its potential impact on our instruction. I feel that it has been pretty productive and successful in that regard.
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