MY PERSONAL PHILOSOPY OF EDUCATION AND ITS

APPLICATION TO THE TEACHING OF THE TECHNICAL

SUBJECTS

Thomas Leonard
G00322113

Submitted for Bachelor of Science in Design and Technology

Education
to
Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Letterfrack

Module Leader: Pauline Logue

Programme: Bachelor of Science in Education (Design Graphics and Construction)

Module Title: Education Studies

Date Submitted: 21/10/2016

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ABSTRACT
This essay holds an article of my personal philosophy statement which includes the
effects and impacts which philosophy, psychology and sociology theorists have had on
me as an educator in the study of their workings. A philosophy statement is a script
which holds a person’s perception of education and learning strategies. It can also
portray that you have been reflective and purposeful about your teaching.
(Advancement of teaching, 2016)

The main aim which I have set for my philosophy statement is to look at the way
philosophers which I have chosen to focus on such as Pestalozzi and Herbart and the
way they have shaped my views towards teaching. I will also discuss the how
psychologists such as Maslow and Vygotsky have influenced the world of education
and its influences on my personal teaching. Lastly, this statement will look at
sociologists such as Durkheim and Karl Marx and how their studies of social status
have influenced me.

In my personal philosophy statement, I will look at a range of books and online sources,
which cover philosophy, psychology and sociology, which will shape and back up my
knowledge of these various theorists. I will also use class notes and other information
which I have collected throughout my studies. These will allow me to find reliable
sources of how education has been shaped over the years to back up my writing.

Key Words: Philosophy, psychology, sociology, philosophy statement, influenced the

world of education

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 4

2 PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION ........................................................................ 5

2.1 Pestalozzi ............................................................................................................. 5

2.2 Herbart ................................................................................................................. 6

3 PSYCHOLOGY OF EDUCATION....................................................................... 8

3.1 Maslow ................................................................................................................ 8

3.2 Vygotsky ............................................................................................................. 9

4 SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION………………………………………………11

4.1 Durkheim………………………………………………………………………11

4.2 Karl Marx……………………………………………………………………..12

5 CONCLUSIONS.................................................................................................. 13

6 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................ 15

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1 INTRODUCTION

A personal philosophy statement in education is an educators’ personal viewpoint on

the main aspects of teaching. It also includes the methods used in learning in the
classroom. It is a highly detailed explanation of the particular way an educator teaches
and why they teach in such a particular type of way. This personal philosophy statement
is an essential document to have a good understanding of in-order to become a
successful educator.

This essay will discuss how theorists within the sectors of Philosophy, Psychology and
Sociology of education have shaped the world of teaching for us future educators. This
document will also show possible ways of which I will educate my students in the future
after studying these philosophers such as Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi’s work with
keeping an equilibrium in the classroom and also Johann Friedrich Herbarts working
with the mind and building on previous experiences with a student. As for
Psychologists, I will be discussing Abraham Maslow and his work with caring for
individuals in his Hierarchy of Needs. I will also be discussing Lev Vygotsky and the
influences which he has had on me with his development and use of Zone of Proximal
development. In my study of Sociology, I will be talking about my influence from Emile
Durkheim and his theme of the importance of sociology as an empirical science. I will
also be discussing Karl Marx and his workings as he discovered the result of capitalism
and class struggles.

The aim of this article is to look at how the people involved in the world of philosophy,
psychology and sociology of education down through the years have had an impact on
the way educators teach their classes in the present day and the teaching and learning
strategies which they have chosen to use in respect to these great philosophers in ways
which they have influenced me in my teaching of the technical subjects. This article is
also going to look at how a person’s social status could have an impact on the way they
can learn. This will be backed up by research on theorists within the world of education.
The article will also look at how philosophy, psychology and sociology has had such a
big impact on how education is shaped in the world today and how different people
paved the way to give us an insight into where education began. This article will include
in detail how these theories will be applied to my teaching of the technical subjects.

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 1. PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

In the world of education past and present, many great minds and thinkers have been
developed by the study of philosophy. Philosophy of education is the reason our schools
are successful in education. My personal philosophy has been greatly influenced by
Pestalozzi and Herbart. Each of these theorists have influenced my views toward
education in the classroom and led me to adapt my initial strategies to ways which I
have been influenced by these different theorists.

PESTALOZZI

Pestalozzi who was often referred to as 'the Father of Modern Education' lived from
1746-1827. He was influenced by Rousseau throughout his like. He believed that
children should be taught through the senses. He refined Rousseau’s approach called
the “Object Lesson”. He was also very concerned with Moral Education and felt that
all students should have a moral point.

I, myself was personally influenced by Pestalozzi. From my study of his work and
findings I began to relate this quite well to my own personal style of teaching. I admired
the idea of making use of the senses in teaching a subject as I had previously felt that it
leaves a lasting impact on a student and that it is not quite the basic or normal style of
teaching a subject. Pestalozzi “looked to balance, or keep in equilibrium, three elements
– hands, heart and head” (Smith, 2010). I feel that this style of teaching is very effective
in a Materials Technology classroom. Using simple things which we take for granted
in everyday life, such as our sense of sight and our sense of smell. I personally think
that this would be an excellent method to use when distinguishing between different
species of wood. I myself have been in such a situation in my previous school placement
where I had to teach differentiation of wood species. I feel if I was to teach the topic in
the future I would most definitely incorporate Pestalozzi’s theory of using the senses.

I appreciated the fact that Albert Einstein was educated by the use of the practice of
Pestalozzi and he also used the practice of Pestalozzi in his education and “One of the
little-known facts about Albert Einstein is that he attended a school that followed the
teaching methods of the Swiss educator Johann Pestalozzi” (Barnes, 2013). When he

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was there he came upon methods that worked with his visual learning style-maps, tools,
high-tech equipment, and objects of different kinds (Noddings, 1995). Einstein himself
believed that instead of using words for education, children should be thought through
activity and objects. This is what I plan on incorporating into my future lessons as I feel
that my students will therefore find it easier to learn and also enjoy the experience much
more than they would with the traditional chalk and blackboard. Using this theory, I
will also apply this to my teaching of my MTW class when I am on placement. I would
propose to create an activity where the students have to identify the various tree species
by looking and holding the actual leaves rather than viewing them on a screen. I believe
that this would be a very worthwhile activity for the students to experience as they
would actually be holding the object.

HERBART

Johann Herbart is known today mainly as a founding figure of modern psychology and
educational theory. He lived from 1776-1841. He built on Rousseau’s idea of the senses
playing an important role when it comes to educating students. He also worked on
building on previous experiences to learn new topics.

The main reason why I was interested in Herbart as a philosopher was because he
himself was influenced by Rousseau which Pestalozzi was also influenced by. I felt that
the work of Herbart was very interesting as he worked with and focused on the mind.
A concept called “Apperceptive Mass”, “was a collection of previous experiences that
could be called into play to understand a new percept or idea” (Noddings, Philosophy
of Education, 1995). He was very interested in using previous experiences and building
on them when trying to understand new concepts or ideas. He “regarded mental life as
the manifestation of elementary sensory units or “presentations” (Vorstellungen)”
(Editors, 2016). I personally admired the work of Herbart as he also believed in the
senses teaching.

Herbart also began a new five step concept for a lesson. These new concepts took hold
in Germany in the 1860’s and later spread to America. However, this new idea did not
last very long as it later degraded and was replaced by a new concept which John Dewey
had brought in. The main aspect of Herbart’s work which I appreciated the most was

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his ‘Apperceptive Masses’. With this method of teaching he understood that new
learning could take place where other information which already existed in the mind
linked to the new information which was attempted to be learned which therefore left
it easier to be taken in and studied. “By assimilation (or apperception) new ideas could
enter the mind through association with similar ideas” (Editor, 2010)

Personally, I feel that this method would be of great benefit to me in my future

classroom and when I go on school placement. I believe that I would teach the subjects
of ellipses and parabolas and related topics so it will leave for students to understand
the topic as best as they possibly can. In doing this I will be able to relate new learning
to information which was previously imbedded in their minds or which we have
previously focused on in class. I will begin my learning with the students with ellipses
and once that has been fully covered I will move onto parabolas with them as these two
types of constructions are closely related and I do believe that it will allow the students
to understand the topic much easier than it would if they were to go straight into it.

I will now be moving on from the philosophy of education and I will be discussing the
psychology of education and how it has influenced me in my study of education.

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 2. PSYCHOLOGY OF EDUCATION

Psychologists of education study how people learn and retain knowledge. They apply
psychological science to improve the learning process and promote educational success for all
students.(Educational Psychology Promotes Teaching and Learning, 2016). My study of the
psychology of education was greatly influenced be Abraham Maslow and Lev Vygotsky. Both
theorists have equally influenced my views towards education. Maslow himself struck me
greatly with his hierarchy of needs which led me to think greatly about what student’s
backgrounds are and how it may influence on their educational life. Vygotsky similarly struck
me. His workings of the zone of proximal development really made me think about what an
educator might need to take into consideration when taking on a class of students.

MASLOW

Abraham Maslow was widely known for his hierarchy of needs. He lived from 1908 to 1970.
His “hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of
human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid” (McLeod, 2016).

(McLeod, 2016)

One psychologist which greatly struck me was Maslow. Maslow himself was a humanist in
education. He demonstrated this through his development of the concept of The Hierarchy of
Needs. This showed that people are prompted to meet some basic needs in life before upgrading
to higher level needs. Maslow set the pyramid moving from basic needs to psychological needs
and lastly to self-fulfillment needs. These self-fulfillment needs consisted of a person achieving
one’s full potential which he called ‘Self-actualisation’. This shows that Maslow was very
interested in the caring of people and basic physiological matters. I, myself became very
interested in this concept as it struck me as a majorly important one in the world of education.

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I realized that the more basic needs in this pyramid are most important as they are a must to be
fulfilled before the more complex higher up aspects have been reached or even focused on.
“Maslow believes lower level needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can influence
behavior” (Peekperformance, n/d) I believe that if I ensure to apply this to my future education
it will work for the best.

I personally purpose that in my classroom I would use this hierarchy of needs in a way that I
would ensure that each student has respect for one another and that every student has the
fundamental qualities needed to participate in the learning environment. From my study of
Maslow, I noticed that he was very concerned about a human’s self-drive for their ‘self-
actualization’. After pondering on this for quite some time I noticed that this is a very essential
part of a human’s life and in this situation, a student’s education. “The goal of human existence
is self-actualisation. (Self-actualisation is to become all that we are capable of becoming)”
(Bentham, 2002). I came to the conclusion that this is a key factor in a student’s ability and
motivation to learn and take in new information. After discovering this I decided that it was
going to be key for me to ensure my future students and students in my classes which I will be
taking for placement are ticking all the boxes in the lower-down sections of Maslow’s hierarchy
of needs. Once I can ensure that the students have these aspects of the pyramid fulfilled I will
be happy and willing to move on to some new learning as I can rest assured that my students
will be willing to lean new information and will be somewhat motivated to learn.

VYGOTSKY
Another psychologist which I found very interesting was Lev Vygotsky. He was born in
Russia in 1896 and died in 1934. He held four great theories in his time. These were that
children created their own knowledge, development cannot be taken from its social context,
learning provokes lead development and that language has a role in development (Gallagher,
1999).
Vygotsky was a major social constructivist. This social constructivism is an emphasis on
learning in a collaborative manner. One of his aspects which he founded in his constructivism
which I found very fascinating was his zone of proximal development. From studying
Vygotsky, I noticed that his zone of proximal development was a key theory in which
learning took place. Vygotsky created this theory from gauging the distances between the
student’s ability to complete work with adult supervision and a student’s ability to complete

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the work without any supervision at all. I gathered that he believed that this zone of proximal
development boiled down to a student’s culture and their background.
Personally, I felt that this is a very import aspect to know when going out to work in a school.
I, myself will definitely use this to an advantage when I am going to placement. I feel because
there are going to be different cultures in every school it will be important to know which
students will be willing to learn and the rate of time that it takes a student to learn a certain
topic. It would also be useful for setting out homework as it would be very important to know
if the students are going to be able to complete the work which they have been assigned as part
of this. Overall, I think that I would use this concept in my technical graphics class and apply
it in such a way that by explaining to a child ways of completing a task on one day, he or she
will be able to complete the task by themselves on the following day. I propose that this would
be of great benefit with first year classes especially. “Vygotsky believed that there was a
difference between what an individual could achieve by themselves and what they could do
with help from a more skilled individual” (Bentham, Psychology and Education, 2002). With
the practice of using this type of theory, I believe a classroom could possibly become much
more successful in terms of completing homework and working on items alone in class time.

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 3. SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION

Sociology of education is a very wide ranged subfield that consists of theory and research
which is focused on the effects social structures have on education and learning. It also shows
how different social aspects shape the normal practices and outcomes of education. (Cole,
2016). Two great sociologists I have studied which I will be discussing are Emile Durkheim
and Karl Marx. Bother of these great theorists have many extremely valuable theories left
behind them which still play an extremely important role in the world of education in today’s
world. Each of these theorists have led me to look at education from a different perspective
than I formally would have after studying their workings.

DURKHEIM
Emile Durkheim was born in 1858 in Epinal, capital town of the department of Vosges, in
Lorraine. Durkheim was one of the founding members of Sociology at his time. Durkheim was
very interested in the importance of sociology as an empirical science and also the work of
Auguste Comte. He seemed to be inspired by Comte to an extent. He studied Comte and came
up with the idea that Sociology would have its own unique subject matter that could not be
taken place by any other aspect of study (Carls, n.d.). He began to work on the believes of
Comte as he felt that they were too uncertain or inconclusive.

Durkheim struck me as a very important thinker and his various theories left me to ponder on
how I might adapt these theories to my own education practices. He was interested in studying
social solidarity which I understand to be aspects of a person’s life that influences their peers
as humans. Once I had studied this and thought about it I noticed that it was a very interesting
statement as collaboration and co-operation tend to be extremely important in many aspects of
general life. An example of this would be where a farmer milks his cows to sell the milk to the
people who give him the money to feed and buy more cows to milk (Boundless, 2016).
Personally, I feel that this solidarity theory is key in not only everyday life but also in the world
of education. I myself find that using this as a general strategy in education works for the good
of the students. In my future teaching placement, I plan to use a strategy called each one teach
one. In this strategy, each of the students are given a different topic to find some information
on and build up knowledge on, the students must then share the information that they have with
as many other students as possible within the time frame. I strongly believe that this strategy
greatly resembles that of the farmer selling the milk.

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KARL MARX

Karl Marx was born in 1818 and died in 1883. Marx was seen as one of the three main founders
in the world of sociology. Marx worked on issues like capitalism, class struggle and social
change. Much of this work on social change was provoked mainly from the industrial
revolution. He was one of the first thinkers to recognize the sociological impact of economics
and class stratification (sociology, 2016).

In my opinion, Karl Marx was a strong believer in equal rights in societies. He demonstrated
this throughout his workings with class struggles and social change. Personally, I think that
this is very applicable to the education system in today’s world. Many schools today have
adapted the uniform concept. This in my opinion is a prime example of how to cut out this
social class aspect in education life. To take it further, students all have the same books, the
same homework, the same exams and the same projects. I feel that these aspects of education
are key do undefining who a person is or what sort of a social class or background they come
from.

Another extremely important aspect which I will come into contact with while on my school
placement is multicultural inclusion. In today’s Irish education system, we are faced with a
growing number of multicultural students. After studying the sociological work of Marx I now
feel stronger about this aspect than I would have before. I plan to introduce a multi-lingual
wordwall for all race of students to understand in the class. This aspect also led me to ponder
on introducing a new project in MTW which would be from a different culture and not just set
to the common, more basic project. With these and more similar steps taken, I personally
believe that it would leave for my class room to be a more welcoming and easy to learn
environment.

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CONCLUSIONS

Overall, this essay has opened my mind to the world of teaching and education strategies. On
completing this essay, I had to delve deep into the lives of these theorist which I have discussed
previously. I was fascinated by most as I found that they led very interesting lives, and they
have basically shaped what education is today. In my study of the Philosophy of Education I
worked on Pestalozzi and Herbart. Each of these great theorists showed me a whole new view
of education with Pestalozzis use of the senses teaching and Herbarts “Apperceptive Mass”.
Each gave me much to ponder on in relation to my teaching. As for my study of the world of
Psychology of Education, I studied Maslow and his theory of the Hierarchy of Needs and
Vygotsky with his theory of the zone of proximal development. Lastly, when it came to the
study of Sociology of Education, two theorists which impacted me the most were Durkheim
and Marx. Both theorists were of the main founders of sociology. Durkheim’s theory of
collaboration being key for success really got me thinking. Marx on the other hand led me to
ponder on other aspects of education with his theories on social change and class struggle. Most
of these theorists have picked theories from one another and been inspired by others, but I,
myself have now definitely been inspired in some way or another by these, both philosophers,
psychologists and sociologists.

I propose to adapt these theories which I have previously discussed to my own workings of
education. After studying theorists like Pestalozzi and Herbart, I will use the theory of
educating with the senses to my advantage in the woodwork room. I plan to have samples of
leaves of various species of trees available for the students to touch, smell and feel when I am
covering the wood identification chapter of the syllabus on my placement. I will use the theory
of Apperceptive Mass in my teaching of technical graphics. I believe this will work to my full
advantage when teaching the students about parabolas after we have studied ellipses as the two
constructions are widely related. Students will be able to relate different aspects of the parabola
chapter back to the ellipse one which they will already have fully understood. As for the
theories of Maslow and Vygotsky, I will also take great things to the classroom with me.
Maslows Hierarchy of needs has me very concerned about the fundamental needs of students
being reached in-order for each of them to learn in class. I plan to devise a strict set of rules for
my classroom ensuring all my students are happy and able to learn in the environment.
Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development also struck me as a theory which I would find very
applicable to my teaching of technical graphics. I will use this theory to judge the way I can

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lay out homework to students as which would be their ability to complete it unsupervised. In
my application of the sociological theories to my education I plan to work with the theories of
Durkheim and Marx. In my future teaching, I plan to use Durkheim’s theory of collaboration
and use the strategy called each one, teach one where each student helps the next in terms of
working on a topic. Karl Marx inspired me after studying his theory of class struggle and social
change being an important factor. I concluded that differences between students in a classroom
needs to be cut down as much as possible. I decided that I would include a multi-lingual
wordwall to account for all nationalities which I would be teaching. Another idea which I took
from Marx’ theories was that I could introduce a project from a different culture to include
other nationalities as much as possible.

These are just some of many great ideas which I have aspired from these great theorists. One
great psychologist which I felt very strongly about was Maslow. My study of these great
Philosophers, Psychologists and Sociologists will undoubtedly further deepen and broaden as
my time in education progresses.

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http://www.hb.org/einstein-visualization-and-your-career/

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http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

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