Sunday, April 3, 2011

Philosophy of Education

If we assume for a second that the traditional philosophy of education is where a student does an assignment, gets a grade, does another assignment gets another grade, has a test, gets a grade and so on and so on until the end of the semester where their final grade is determined by combining all these grades together. My philosophy of education is similar to learning how to drive. Ideally when you learn to drive you start out practicing with a parent in a parking lot or somewhere away from town, then you get a learners permit where you are allowed to drive with a parent wherever, then comes drivers ed, and once you pass drivers ed you are allowed to drive alone to school. Finally, you take a written test when you turn sixteen and if you pass you are able to drive. This is how I think education should work, we shouldn't grade students on their first experience with a subject or concept. They should have practice mastering a concept while we make value judgments of their improvement along the way. If they aren't improving we come along beside and provide more support and if they are, we challenge them more. This philosophy also uses a combination of both authentic and traditional assessment. A students grade is based more on how much they learned than what they know.

1 comment:

  1. Interesting philosophy, I think you are right about a lot of things!

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