Application: Developing Your Professional Philosophy of Teaching and Learning

Part 2: My Beliefs About Education and What I Hope to Accomplish

One of the goals of this course is to broaden and deepen your knowledge of education while encouraging you to reflect on and develop your own beliefs and define what you hope to accomplish in your work with children and families. To that end, consider the philosophers that you have read about this week—< /font>John Locke, Horace Mann, Jane Addams, and Paulo Freire.

For this section of your Professional Philosophy of Teaching and Learning:

1. Choose one of the philosophers that you studied this week and summarize some of the ways your beliefs about education and what you hope to accomplish in your future work agree with, or differ from, those of the philosopher that you chose.

2. Then, choose one of the philosophers that you studied this week whose work you find particularly inspiring. Delve into the person’s writings (i.e., the readings for this course and others that you find on the Internet), and choose two or three quotes by that person or about education and learning that exemplify your thinking and/or represent your aspirations. For this section of your Professional Philosophy of Teaching and Learning, record the quotes you chose (cite them appropriately), and explain the impact that each has on your beliefs as a future educator.

3. Summarize in one paragraph what you hope to accomplish in your career as an educator and/or in your work with children and families.

Assignment length: 1–2 pages