Schools of Philosophy

There are four well-known philosophies in the education world. The first, idealism, believes that concepts are most important. It focuses on the spiritual world and absolute truths. Idealists teach about ideas or great works that existed before our time since values have remained unchanged from that time. The teacher acts as a leader and role model for students and prefers lectures and discussion

The second philosophy is realism. Realism focuses on what is real, such as "matter." These teachers are rational and their curriculum is subject-centered. Testing and experimenting are common teaching methods of realist teachers and the teacher is expected to have a broad scope of knowledge in order to assist students in making connections.

Pragmatism is the third philosophy and it stresses change. Everything is changing. There are not set values or universal laws. Pragmatists focus on knowing and believe that students will learn best through experience. Teachers use interdisciplinary methods to teach and learn through problem solving and interacting with the environment. School is viewed as a community of learners and therefor group projects are encouraged.

Existentialism believes that "reality is nothing more than lived experience." Absolutes don't exist and we all are responsible for creating our own meaning. Existentialism encourages personal reflection and empasizes the individual. The process of learning focuses on the feelings of students and the ultimate goal is to search for oneself.

After reading this, I believe that I can identify most with the pragmatic philosophy. I applied each one to my ideal health class and pragmatism was the best fit for what I would want to teach. I believe that interdisciplinary lessons are the most effective because they prove that there is purpose for school and there is a connection to the real world. Many of my health lessons involve a group projects, create an interaction to the environment, and promote lifelong health knowledge.