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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 challenges involved in educating young people, participating actively in classroom discourse, and communicating one’s reflections upon these matters and one’s professional experience and goals for professional development 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 course “portfolio” is not a “term paper,” although students oftentimes mistakenly believe the terms are synonymous. Be clear: the terms are not synonymous. A “portfolio” is a “work in process,” one that is 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 that is judged solely on the basis of its merits as students present these to a professor. 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 term influences how students will approach developing one’s portfolio, in general, and each of its five exercises, in particular. Former students have also misunderstood the scope of this course portfolio. Upon reviewing this protocol, 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. While the implicit purpose of the portfolio is that students will develop their power of insight to engage in their profession in more principled ways, the explicit purpose of the portfolio is to engage students in thinking through and writing a provisional 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. By completing this portfolio successfully, students will have identified the philosophies of education evidencing themselves in the five major challenges that educators typically confront in practice. Students will also have evaluated what others assert is the best way to resolve these challenges against their own developing philosophy of education. Lastly, students will have envisioned a short- and near- term program for their professional development. Students should be alert to a trap that has ensnared some of their more unwitting predecessors. It is important that a student 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 a student, through what one is reading/studying/debating/evaluating (in this class or in other classes, for that matter) to unearth new insights into and to clarify one's provisional philosophy of education; that is, as a consequence of one’s study and research in this course, to understand all of what education is in perhaps 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. Why? So that each student will revise one’s provisional philosophy of education in light of these new truths discovered and engage in one's profession in more insightful and principled ways.
While all of this provides background understanding about how students should approach this course portfolio, students are interested in more concrete and practical matters. In response to these interests, students should know that five written exercises comprise the course portfolio. Taken individually and collectively, these exercises will assist students to define and to defend their thoughts concerning the five perennial challenges involved with educating young people. In addition, the five exercises will engage students in conversation with others who have thought deeply and penetratingly about these five perennial challenges. And, when the students have completed these five exercises, they will have explicated a clear and comprehensive educational philosophy that can serve as a sound foundation for their personal and professional educational decision making. That is, each student's decisions will be ethical, as Aristotle (1958) 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) are interested in reading. 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 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 the 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. But, this is necessary for two reasons: 1) for students to communicate their ideas with their peers in the way that someone who has "mastery" (after all, students are seeking their "Masters" degree!) should be capable of communicating; and 2) to become a better speaker as well as critic of others' writing (after all, educators should correct their students' writing and know how to do so!). 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 a grade received for an element of the course portfolio (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 is not helpful if students get mired down in trying to figure out what to do for fear of a low grade instead of learning from one’s writing 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 revise Exercise #1 in light on the commentary received on Exercise #1. When writing each of the exercises included in this portfolio, students should focus, first, upon attending to clarity of expression and, second, the details of citing and referencing resources. Students have been taught the former and should be capable of implementing these into their writing, 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 five exercises that comprise this portfolio and revising their written work for future submissions. By the end of the course when students submit Exercise #5, they normally demonstrate tremendous growth as writers of this particular genre.
Understanding the "big picture" as well as some of the practicalities involved in approaching the course portfolio, it is time to consider the five exercises that comprise the course portfolio. In Exercises #1-#4, the students will be inquiring into and responding to five questions by using the course texts and discussion as well as the students’ professional experience. These five questions 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 short- and near- term program for professional development based upon one’s provisional philosophy of education. Taken individually and collectively, these five exercises will enable students to develop a principled 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). Furthermore, 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 Exercises #1-4 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 project. If you have any questions, please email them to: richard.jacobs@villanova.edu.
The first exercise requires students to think about and to describe their provisional philosophy of education. Perhaps many have never considered these important matters, so the intent, at this early point in the course, is simply for each student to state clearly what one believes about the five perennial challenges confronting educators, and to state those beliefs concisely using appropriate scholarly conventions. Exercise #1 also provides students a diagnostic assessment of their current writing skills and baseline to measure improvement in this regard. Using only 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.). If students need to “brush up” their grammar skills, on-line help is immediately available (http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index2.htm). Exercise #1, which counts for 10% of the course portfolio’s final grade, will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
If a student
does
not achieve the grade that one desires on Exercise #1, this 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.
Exercises #2-4:
To specify the focal
challenges of philosophy of education in light of the The second, third, and fourth exercises require students to think about and to describe the purpose of education, how human beings learn, 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 challenges. In Exercise #2-4, however, students will need to consider how they will respond to the five questions in light of the conflicting and contradictory principles argued by the authors of the two texts read for each era. The intention is that the each student state each author’s theoretical ideas clearly and concisely, as if the philosophers were responding to the question posed. The challenge in Exercises #2-#4, then, is to compare and contrast 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, third, and fourth divisions. In addition, students should update their References 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 course portfolio’s final grade) and Exercise #4 counts for 20% of the course portfolio’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 philosophers that students are reading for this class. When Exercises #2-4 are returned, it would be wise for the students to begin the process of revising Exercises #1-4 as well as to begin integrating the authors' ideas in preparation for Exercise #5.
The fifth exercise is the culminating exercise of this course portfolio and requires students to reflect upon all they have learned about philosophy of education. The purpose for this exercise is for students to specify their provisional philosophy of education (a substantive revision of Exercise #1 in light of Exercises #2‑#4) and, then, to translate their provisional 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 they will assess and evaluate success in translating their provisional philosophy of education into professional practice. The challenges Exercise #5 presents students are: 1) to state their provisional philosophy of education; 2) to think about planning for their professional growth and development having, as a focus, a well‑articulated, intelligent, and comprehensive philosophy of education; and, 3) to identify a standard for assessing and evaluating successful implementation of their provisional philosophies of educations. In particular, students will revise Exercise #1 in light of their more sophisticated insights into the five perennial challenges confronting educators, but now students will do so in conversation with those six philosophers spanning the centuries who have considered these challenges. 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 challenges, especially in light of Exercises #2‑#4. Exercise #5, then, requires 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 provisionally 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 References section. In addition, students should place the final 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 40% of the course portfolio’s final grade, will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
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