Program Planning Models Educational Philosophy:

Program Planning Models

Educational philosophy: Progressivism

The institution with which I am currently involved embraces a program model founded upon a progressive philosophy of education. Progressivism demands that an institution uses the student's current base of knowledge and builds upon the student's experiences. It requires that the educator relates the concepts of the classroom to society, and encourage the learner's independence, willingness to learn something new, and desire to listen to other students as well as the teacher. I am currently teaching a course entitled New Methods in Teaching Adults that focuses on learning for adults through self-directed inquiry.

My institution's philosophy of progressivism recently motivated me to begin an environmentalist club, to connect what was learned in the classroom to real-life dilemmas. Meetings are filled with a spirit of optimism but the agenda of the organization is devoted to meeting practical challenges. Decisions making is undertaken cooperatively between teachers and students.

After seven years as an educator, I became a science coordinator and consultant for sixteen teachers at my school. I seek to take the educational principles used in my own classroom and work with instructors to bring a progressive philosophy into the classrooms in a more systematic fashion. I try to broaden the capacity of the teachers to think as progressives, as well as help them develop more motivational instructional tools. I believe in empowering students by empowering teachers. I have worked with the Board of Education at my school on a project entitled "To End E-Learning" with the Swedish Institution in Stockholm, as a way of encouraging my school to take a more international perspective.

Partially from my experiences working with the Swedish Institution, I have begun integrating computers into my teacher training, as I know that it is essential that our science curriculum keeps pace with the times: I do not want teachers to be 'left behind,' technologically, as students are coming to class more fluent in new technology than ever before. I was able to find funding to send some teachers abroad for training courses and have used technology to connect with educators abroad over the Internet. I have organized workshops to clarify the aims and strategy of the program to teachers, to encourage them to get 'on board' and believe in the curriculum changes.

A child's education must entail more than memorization or even passing standardized exams. Education must open a student's mind, and the teacher is the key to unlock the mystery of a student's inherent gifts. Teachers must guide a child's life and foster every child's innate passion for learning, before the child learns that school is not supposed to be 'cool' or fun. As an instructor of science teachers, I stress that all children are innate experimenters and lovers of science, until the children learn they 'should be' otherwise: it is the mission of every science teacher to keep the flame of the love of science alive, so that no student ever thinks that he or she is not good at science.