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EDU
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Formulating
One's Philosophy of Education: The course portfolio for Philosophy of Education involves reading the texts, engaging in conversation with authors who have thought deeply and penetratingly about the significant issues involved in educating youth, participating actively in classroom discourse, and communicating one’s reflections upon these matters and one’s professional experience in a style conversant with scholarly standards. A (gentle) word of warning: as former students in Philosophy of Education have discovered, it is important to watch one’s language...words do possess meaning! Specifically, this “portfolio” is not a “term paper,” although for many students the terms are synonymous. Be clear: the terms are not synonymous. A “portfolio” is a “work in process,” one subject to revision and change as an individual works with various elements of the portfolio, receives feedback about them, revises, and thinks differently about the portfolio as the course and its materials as well as one’s professional practice influence one’s thoughts. A “term paper” is a final project judged solely on the basis of its merits as these are presented to a professor by a student. Students should understand that the EDU 8673 portfolio is more “fluid” than “static.” The percentages assigned to each exercise (as one component of the overall portfolio) reflect how each exercise builds upon what has preceded. The goal is that the final portfolio will reflect the best scholarship that bridges theory and practice as best as each student knows how bridge them...at this point in one’s academic and professional careers. Please understand that it is the mindset implied by the words “portfolio” and “term paper” that students need to be clear about, because the mindset implicit in each influences how students will approach developing one’s portfolio, in general, and each of its five exercises, in particular. Upon reviewing this protocol for the portfolio, students may be tempted to expand each of the five exercises into a much larger, more onerous undertaking than it is intended to be. Remember: the portfolio is not a thesis. The explicit purpose of the portfolio is to engage students in thinking through and writing a philosophy of education that utilizes both the philosophical perspectives studied in the course which accounts not only for the strengths and weaknesses of each perspective but also one’s experience as a professional educator. The implicit purpose of the portfolio is that students will develop their intellectual powers. By completing this portfolio successfully, students will have identified the philosophies of education evidencing themselves in the four major issues that educators typically confront in practice. Students will also have evaluated what others assert is the best way to resolve these issues against their own developing philosophy of education. Students should be alert to a trap that has ensnared some of their unwitting predecessors. Students should not use a unitary philosophy of education or, even, several philosophies of education, and to relate it (or them) to one’s ideas about professional practice. No, the purpose for this portfolio is for students, through what they are reading/studying/debating/evaluating (in this class or in other classes, for that matter) to unearth new insights into and to clarify one’s philosophy of education; that is, as a consequence of one’s study and research in this course, to understand all of this perhaps in quite new or different ways. Thus, the process of completing this portfolio opens each student's mind to the possibilities of the mysterious and unknown, the unforeseen, as well as the unanticipated so that each student is able to revise one’s philosophy of education in light of these new truths.
Five written exercises comprise this project. Taken individually and collectively, these exercises will assist students to define and to defend their thoughts concerning the four perennial issues involved with educating youth. In addition, the exercises will engage students in conversation with others who have thought deeply and penetratingly about these four issues. And, when the students have completed these five exercises, they will have explicated a clear and comprehensive educational philosophy that will serve as a sound foundation for their personal and professional educational decision making. That is, each student's decisions will be ethical, as Aristotle used that term in his Nicomachean Ethics. In these five exercises, students should not worry so much about writing what they believe others (like the professor) want to read. Students should worry more about what they want to state and how to state it in the most efficient and effective way possible. In this sense, students should be guided by two phrases, namely, “less is more” and “simple is elegant.” For many (if not, most) students, the portfolio will be one of their first experiences with professional writing. At first, students will experience writing in this way as somewhat artificial, especially until one learns how to express one’s voice in the most forcible and compelling way possible as this is identified by the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.) (2009). Students should remember that developing proficiency in professional writing involves trial and error, editing, and rewriting/revising. That is, students will learn to write better by confronting the fact that they do not write quite as well as they might believe! Learning to write professionally also involves learning to read more critically (i.e., among other matters, appreciating how authors express themselves for better or worse). Lastly, professional writing also demands a personal commitment to inculcate the self-disciplines required to write well. What this means experientially, however, is that students typically experience frustration when they discover that they do not know how to write as well as they believe they do. APA style is formal and structured, following conventions required of those who write for the social sciences. Students tend to write in an informal style, following the conventions associated with conversation. Frustration, then, emerges as students begin to make the transition from informal to formal style and from conversation to scholarly writing. Some students also become embarrassed when they discover that they do not know how to write as well as they believe they do, at least in so far as this is reflected in the grade received (typically on Exercise #1). They wonder what the professor must think about them and their professional practice as educators. While this reaction is understandable, it may not be helpful if students get mired down in trying to figure out what to do and fear of a low grade instead of learning from one’s errors, developing the disciplines associated with APA style, revising one’s work, and correcting for those earlier errors in future writing. The grade received on an assignment does not reflect a professor’s judgment of students as human beings; instead, the grade reflects the quality of student writing as measured by the professor against the criterion of excellence in scholarship and style. To promote learning to write in APA style, students are provided the opportunity to edit Exercise #1 in light on the commentary received on Exercises #1. When writing each of the exercises included in this portfolio, students should focus upon attending to clarity of expression more than the details of citing and referencing resources. Students have been taught the former and should be capable of doing well, especially considering the fact that they have already completed their undergraduate degree programs. Students will learn the latter through the experience of not citing and referencing correctly in the portfolio and revising their written work for future submissions.
Five written exercises comprise this portfolio. In Exercises #1-#4, the students will be inquiring into and responding to five questions using the course texts and the students’ professional experience. These include: 1. For what purpose does society educate its youth? 2. How do human beings learn? 3. What constitutes and is the nature of the curriculum? 4. What is the function of the teacher? 5. What is the role of the student? Exercise #5 is a self-evaluation wherein each student retrospectively considers one’s accomplishments and prospectively identifies a program for professional development based upon one’s philosophy of education. Taken individually and collectively, these five exercises will enable students to develop a relevant philosophy of education for professional practice, one that will serve as a sound foundation for future professional decision making and development. And, students will be capable of making ethical decisions, as Aristotle used that term in the Nicomachean Ethics (1958). In addition, these five exercises will also challenge students to develop their skills in professional writing. Exercises #1-#4 will be corrected and critiqued for textual, logical, and style errors. Students may revise Exercise #1 in light of this feedback (earning at most 85% of the points assigned to Exercise #1). Furthermore, in light of the feedback that students receive in Exercises #1-#4, when they submit Exercise #5, they will also resubmit Exercise #1 which will represent a quality, polished presentation of each student’s philosophy of education. Students should note the following requirements when preparing this portfolio:
For any additional or updated information concerning the EDU 8673 portfolio, go to the course webpage: (http://www.homepage.villanova.edu/richard.jacobs). Click on the “EDU 8673” button and navigate your way to the portfolio. If you have any questions, please email them to: richard.jacobs@villanova.edu.
The first written exercise requires students to think about and to describe their philosophy of education. The intent, at this early point in the course, is simply for each student to state what one believes about the five perennial issues confronting educators, and to state those beliefs concisely using appropriate scholarly conventions (i.e., APA). Using their background and experiences as resources, students should respond to the following question: 1. For what purpose does society educate its youth? (Section Focus: Purpose of Education) Then, in light of this response, students should: 2. Detail how human beings learn. (Section Focus: Learning) 3. Specify the content and the nature of the curriculum. (Section Focus: The Curriculum) 4. Define the function of the teacher. (Section Focus: The Teacher) 5. Identify the role of the student. (Section Focus: The Student) The response to each question should be no longer than two pages in length (standard 8½” x 11” paper) and comply with the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Guidelines are available on-line (http://webster.commnet.edu/apa/apa_format.htm). If students need to “brush up” their grammar skills, help is immediately available on-line (http://www.csulb.edu/~linguist/luann/). To present Exercise #1, use a standard D-ring binder (about a 2” ring should suffice) with six dividers (one for each exercise and references). Exercise #1, which counts for 10% of the project’s final grade, will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
If a student has not achieved the grade one desires on Exercise #1, a student can resubmit the revised version by date specified on the syllabus. The most points a student can earn on this revision is 85% of the total points assigned to Exercise #1.
The second, third, and fourth written exercises require students to think about and to describe the purpose of education, the content and nature of the curriculum, the function of the teacher, as well as the role of the student, as philosophers in the classical, modern, and contemporary eras have considered these issues. The intention is that the each student state each author’s theoretical ideas clearly and concisely, as if the philosopher was responding to the question posed. The challenge in Exercises #2-#4, then, is to state these matters using appropriate scholarly conventions (i.e., APA). Having read texts of philosophers from the classical, modern, and contemporary eras, respond to the following question: 1. For what purpose does society educate its youth? (Section Focus: Purpose of Education) Then, in light of the response: 2. Detail how human beings learn. (Section Focus: Learning) 3. Specify the content and the nature of the curriculum. (Section Focus: The Curriculum) 4. Define the function of the teacher. (Section Focus: The Teacher) 5. Identify the role of the student. (Section Focus: The Student) Each response should consist of no longer than two pages (standard 8½” x 11” paper) and comply with the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.) (2009). Place these responses in the binder’s second division. In addition, students should update their Reference section to reflect the authors and texts cited in Exercise #2. Place the revised references on top of the previous list of references. Exercises #2 and #3 count 15% each (or for 30% of the project’s final grade) and Exercise #4 counts for 40% of the project’s final grade. Each exercise will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
Students will note that many of the ideas they have stated in Exercise #1 have already been contemplated, discussed, and anticipated by the classical philosophers. When Exercise #2 is returned, it would be wise for the students to begin the process of incorporating and revising Exercise #1 in light of what they have learned about the classical philosophers.
The fifth written exercise is the culminating exercise of this project and requires students to reflect upon all they have learned about philosophy of education. The purpose for this exercise is that students specify their educational philosophy (a revision of Exercise #1 in light of Exercises #2‑#4) and, then, to translate their philosophy of education into actual educational practice, that is, to identify some of the professional challenges one’s philosophy presents, to set some goals for dealing with these challenges, and to specify how one will assess and evaluate success in translating one’s educational philosophy into professional practice. The challenge of Exercise #5 is for students to state their philosophy of education as well as to think about planning for their professional growth and development having, as a focus, a well‑articulated, intelligent, and comprehensive philosophy of education. In particular, students will revise Exercise #1 in light of their sophisticated insights into the four perennial issues confronting educators, as philosophers spanning centuries have considered these issues. The intention is for students to consider rather carefully how the theoretical ideas they have studied during the semester now challenge students to reconsider and to redact their previous assertions in Exercise #1 about these perennial issues, especially in light of Exercises #2‑#4. The challenge is for students to engage these authors in scholarly discourse with their own ideas and to report their conclusions using appropriate scholarly conventions (i.e., APA). Then, reflecting on one’s philosophy of education as it has been articulated in Exercise #1, students also will:
Place each challenge, related behavior, and method of accountability (that is, #1-#3) on one page (i.e., a total of three pages). Follow these with your response to #4, which should consist of no more than two pages (standard 8½” x 11” paper) and comply with the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Place Exercise #5 in the binder’s fifth division, i.e., following Exercise #4 and before the reference section. In addition, students should place the revision of Exercise #1 in the first division of the binder (i.e., on top of the previous Exercise #1 and, where applicable, its revision). Exercise #5, which counts for 20% of the project’s final grade, will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
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