My Philosophy Of Education : Progressivism Essay

My Philosophy of Education: Progressivism I’ve always been one to think outside of the box, to experiment and to look for changes in the world around and find ways to adapt to them. My philosophy in the field of education follows the same suit. Among the four major philosophies, I most associate myself with the ideas found in Pragmatism which, as described in Ornstein’s Curriculum, focuses more on learning method than subject matter. (Ornstein, 2013, p. 32) Consequently, this school of thought spawned into Progressivism, an education philosophy focusing on allowing students to think critically, apply their own findings and eventually come to their own conclusions. The progressive philosophy translate into my own teaching and decision making style because working in a performance based classroom allows for students to find solutions to situations embedded in my assignments that require abstract and critical thinking. As an example, the Ornstein refers to problem solving and scientific methods specifically and learning “…how to think, not what to think” in Chapter 2 of Curriculum (Ornstein, 2013, p. 39). I feel that students should use experimentation and an organized process to find answers, allowing them to discover the easiest way to make decisions that is unique to the way they think. In regards to my own decision making style, I have a mental process that exists in steps to help me discover multiple solutions and imagine possible outcomes. While it is not scientific,…