A Detailed Report on Developing a Dynamic Philosophy of Education

This report presents a dynamic philosophy of education, integrating elements of constructivism, behaviourism, and the Hindu worldview. The introduction outlines the foundation of the author's educational philosophy, emphasizing the role of individual experiences and the construction of knowledge. The report then details the aims and objectives of this philosophy, focusing on active learning, value-based education, and the development of critical thinking skills. Recommended teaching methods, inspired by constructivism, include interactive and learner-centric approaches, such as activity-based learning and formative assessment. The theory section explores behaviourism, highlighting the importance of environmental influence, and constructivism, emphasizing the role of schemas and experiences in learning. The report also examines the roles of teachers as facilitators and motivators, and learners as active participants. The conclusion summarizes the key aspects of the author's personal philosophy, emphasizing its foundation in behaviourism, constructivism, and Hindu philosophy of education, and its implications for teaching practices.

Running head: Dynamic Philosophy Of Education
DYNAMIC PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

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Dynamic Philosophy Of Education
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Overview of philosophy..................................................................................................................3
Aim and objectives of education.....................................................................................................3
Teaching methods............................................................................................................................4
Theory of education.........................................................................................................................5
Behaviourism...............................................................................................................................5
Constructivism.............................................................................................................................5
Teacher’s role..................................................................................................................................5
Role of the learners..........................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Reference list...................................................................................................................................8

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Dynamic Philosophy Of Education
Introduction
Education is the basis of all learning and thus the teaching learning process need to be
based on one or multiple philosophy of education as its underlined guidelines. So, this study has
focused on one such philosophy of education as prepared by myself for the context of teaching
learners of secondary standard. Some well-known educational philosophies have been mentioned
in this study that has been my inspiration on my educational philosophy. Moreover, the study has
illuminated the overview of my personal educational philosophy apart from discussing the aim,
methods, roles of teachers and learners as per the philosophy recommended and prepared by me.
Overview of philosophy
In my educational philosophy, I tend to follow mainly the constructivist or behaviourist
educational philosophy. In this regard, I can add that I have enriched my personal educational
philosophy with the Hindu Worldview. So, learning has been perceived as the reflection of
individual experiences as per my understanding (Bada & Olusegun, 2015). This is because I
believe that each and every learner constructs their own meaning of the world where they live.
According to Constructivist philosophy of education, learning is the process of modifying the
mental models through which learners generate their meaning if the world. This modification is
supposed to be done through conditioning the behaviours of the learners using different kinds of
reinforcements.
On the other hand; education can be seen as the training session for the learners so that
the learners can learn essential skills in order to survive in this world. I borrowed this
philosophical perspective from the Hindu perspective on education or Shiksha. In this regard, the
mention of Sri Aurobindo is relevant who said that the education needs to be upgraded every
now and then so that it can mitigate the demands of the contemporary life (Bai et al. 2015). So,
my personal educational philosophy is driven by the fact that education is a process of delivering
the equipments for physical, psychological, moral and spiritual development of the learners.

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Aim and objectives of education
The main aim of this educational philosophy is to train the learners so that they can
construct their own understanding of the content of the curriculum. So, it can be said that active
learning is one of the objectives as per this educational philosophy. Another objective of
education here is to give value based learning so that learners can get higher moral sense while
dealing with the real world. On the other hand, the purpose of this educational philosophy is to
recognize the behaviour patterns of the learners in order to give subjective instruction to the
learners. According to Charmaz (2017), the main purpose of education should be to impart a
kind of teaching that can prepare the learners for either any specific field or for be competent
enough to pursue any career in the future. I think that the main objective of education as per my
personal educational philosophy is to train the learners and sharpen their skills so that they can
be ready for the future (Juvova et al. 2015). Moreover, the expected outcomes of this educational
process are to see whether the learners have become proper critical thinkers and problem solvers
or not.
Teaching methods
As mentioned above, this educational philosophy is mainly inspired by constructivism.
Thus, some of the recommended teaching methods include interactive teaching method, question
answer methods, learner centric methods. This implies that here the learners will be given the
space to learn on their own as much as possible. The reason behind this is that I think that
learners learn better when the content and teaching methods are modified according to their
needs and their pace of learning (Ertmer & Newby, 2013). For that reason, one of the chosen
teaching approach is activity based teaching approach. Here, the learners will be given activities
such as field trips, experimentation, projects and so on.
I think that those activities are a good way of not only teaching but also a good way of
assessing the performances of the learners. In this regard, I need to mention that I prefer
formative assessment to be the best assessment system for this educational process. The
education theory is structured keeping in mind that my target learners are secondary school
students. So, it is obvious that they are not yet ready for self learning processes. So, various

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teaching strategies can be used to enhance the learning of the learners such as coaching,
scaffolding, and modelling and so on (Kay & Kibble, 2016). The learning environment need to
be problem based where the learners will get enough opportunities to build up their problem
solving techniques on their own. Moreover, cooperative learning, interactive learning and inquiry
based learning can be used here as the teaching approaches.
Theory of education
Behaviourism
The psychological theory of Behaviourism is driven by the notion that human behaviour
can be conditioned. So, the main ground of this theory is that the skills and capabilities of the
learners are not genetic or prefixed. On the contrary, the skills and capabilities can be improved
with proper training and teaching. Environment takes a vital role in this theory of education.
According to Ertmer & Newby (2013), interaction with the surrounding environment enhances
the actions of human beings. So, this theory supports the idea that each and every learner can be
trained to be efficient regardless of what level of cognitive abilities or personality traits they
have.
Constructivism
Constructivism is somewhat synonymous to behaviourism. According to this theory,
human beings learn through their interaction between the inherent knowledge and the
experiences gained by individuals. In this regard, this can be added that every individual
develops in different way than others because of the different experiences they face in their lives.
Later, other constructivists focused on the idea that human beings learn on the basis of their
social and cultural environments (Amineh & Asl, 2015). As per this theory, experiences of the
learners are stored in separate mental models called schemas. Accommodation and assimilation
are considered to be the two ways of communicating with the surrounding environment.
Teacher’s role
The role of teachers, in my educational philosophy, needs to be that of a facilitator.
According to Nie et al. (2013), it is important for the teachers to understand the needs of the

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learners so that they can be taught according to their abilities. So, in this scenario, the teachers
are needed to facilitate the learning capacities of the learners in order to maximize their skills and
cognitive abilities. On the other hand, I think that the role of the teachers is not only to give heed
to cognitive development of the learners but also to their emotional, mental, physical, in other
words, to their holistic development. As mentioned earlier, lecture methods are not suited for my
education philosophy and thus I suggest that the teachers need to use interactive methods not
only to teach but also to build a relationship with the learners.
This is because I believe that a strong relation between the tutor and the learners is a
proof that the learning environment is appropriate for learning. On the other hand, another role of
the teachers, in my opinion, is that of a motivator who can encourage the learners so that they
can learn on their own. Teachers can also apply various kinds of positive reinforcements such as
praises and rewards so that the learners are motivated to maintain their good performances.
Moreover, I think that the teachers should collaborate with other teachers and the learners to
create an active learning atmosphere where the learners are at the centre of learning process.
Role of the learners
The main role of the learners is to take active part in the teaching learning process. This
educational philosophy is inspired by Constructivism and Hinduism because they tend to believe
that each and every learner is different and unique. Thus, the role of them is to contribute as per
their abilities to the learning process. In that case, some learners may need more guidance from
the teachers while some may need minimal guidance from the teachers (Sharma, 2013).
However, one role that each of them need to play is to be responsible towards their learning
process. This is because the passive learner role is not accepted in this philosophy. For that
reason, the environment needs to be made suitable for an active learning session so that the
learners can take active part in their own learning processes. Moreover, collaboration is another
role that learners are expected to follow where they learn collaboratively with other learners
through participating in various activity based learning situations.

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Conclusion
This study has revolved around exploring my personal philosophy of education. For this
reason, the study includes a brief overview of the educational philosophy. My philosophy of
education has been based on behaviourism, constructivism and Hindu philosophy of education.
Furthermore, the aim and objectives of education have been identified in my philosophy of
education. On the other hand, some teaching methods, approaches and strategies have been
illuminated that are suitable for this educational philosophy as per my opinion. Moreover, the
role of the teachers and learners has been explored in the area of this philosophy of education.

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Reference list
Amineh, R. J., & Asl, H. D. (2015). Review of constructivism and social constructivism. Journal
of Social Sciences, Literature and Languages, 1(1), 9-16. Retrieved on: 3rd June, 2019,
From:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3890/3f4a7255496f75124d639e14e9b810c17370.pdf
Bada, S. O., & Olusegun, S. (2015). Constructivism learning theory: A paradigm for teaching
and learning. Journal of Research & Method in Education, 5(6), 66-70. Retrieved on: 3rd
June, 2019, From:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1c75/083a05630a663371136310a30060a2afe4b1.pdf
Bai, H., Eppert, C., Scott, C., Tait, S., & Nguyen, T. (2015). Towards intercultural philosophy of
education. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 34(6), 635-649. Retrieved on: 3rd June,
2019, From: http://summit.sfu.ca/system/files/iritems1/15273/Towards%20Intercultural
%20Philosophy%20of%20Education_0.pdf
Charmaz, K. (2017). The power of constructivist grounded theory for critical inquiry. Qualitative
inquiry, 23(1), 34-45. Retrieved on: 3rd June, 2019, From:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1077800416657105
Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing
critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance improvement
quarterly, 26(2), 43-71. Retrieved on: 3rd June, 2019, From:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1a62/c7f26387cc0fb805e996b9e610e73a772052.pdf
Juvova, A., Chudy, S., Neumeister, P., Plischke, J., & Kvintova, J. (2015). Reflection of
constructivist theories in current educational practice. Universal Journal of Educational
Research, 3(5), 345-349. Retrieved on: 3rd June, 2019, From:
http://www.hrpub.org/download/20150510/UJER6-19503275.pdf

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Kay, D., & Kibble, J. (2016). Learning theories 101: application to everyday teaching and
scholarship. Advances in physiology education, 40(1), 17-25. Retrieved on: 3rd June,
2019, From: https://www.physiology.org/doi/pdf/10.1152/advan.00132.2015
Nie, Y., Tan, G. H., Liau, A. K., Lau, S., & Chua, B. L. (2013). The roles of teacher efficacy in
instructional innovation: Its predictive relations to constructivist and didactic instruction.
Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 12(1), 67-77. Retrieved on: 3rd June, 2019,
From:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Youyan_Nie/publication/257560819_The_roles_of_
teacher_efficacy_in_instructional_innovation_Its_predictive_relations_to_constructivist_
and_didactic_instruction/links/547bc1340cf205d16881c793/The-roles-of-teacher-
efficacy-in-instructional-innovation-Its-predictive-relations-to-constructivist-and-
didactic-instruction.pdf
Sharma, B. K. (2013). Hinduism and TESOL: Learning, Teaching and Student‐Teacher
Relationships Revisited. Language and Linguistics Compass, 7(2), 79-90. Retrieved on:
3rd June, 2019, From:
http://www.academia.edu/download/32327357/Hinduism_and_TESOL.pdf