From this weeks readings the three things I learned are Perennialism, Essentialism, and Conservatism. All three are philosophies of education. Perennialism is the oldest style, it says that human nature is unchanging and has always been the same, that education goes back to the source. Essentialism is education which goes back to the basics. Which goes back to checks and balances, and emphasizes basics skills and subjects. Conservatism is more of a political ideology, then an education philosophy. A conservative resists rapid change and supports basic skill learning, and testing to uphold academic standards.
The first connection I made to this reading was with the conservatism. When I was going through high school there was a new curriculum for maths and sciences brought into the school, as I was in the middle of it. I was for the changes because it gave students more choices in what classes and ideas they wanted to explore. However many people were in opposition to the integration of new curriculums made many people very angry, as it was new. That they were not open to change. The second connection I made was to the Essentialism, going back to the basics. I feel that there are many new ideas and things coming into schools which are really good for students and teachers, however there are some things which can be left as is. An example of this would be technology in the classroom. In high school I had two math teachers for all four years of high school. One had a blog posted all of her notes and used a memeo to teacher her lessons, and the other one only used a chalkboard to write notes. The one was very helpful for students who missed class, but more times then not the projector and memeo would not work. Living us sitting idilly in class doing nothing, while writting notes from a chalkboard helped me focus and learn better.
What is the best approach to take for teaching students?
Elizabeth Dornstauder's ePortfolio 