F.L.

Vargas College
College of Teacher Education
The Teaching Profession

NOTE: Do the exercise first and be serious with it so that you can have a clear idea of your philosophies. You will
interpret your own rating using the interpretation guides below, and the result of this is going to be your basis in
writing down your own philosophy.

Exercise 1: Determining your Educational Philosophy. Find out to which philosophy you adhere. To what extent does
each statement apply to you? Rate yourself 4 if you agree with the statement ALWAYS, 3 if you agree but NOT
ALWAYS, 2 if you agree SOMETIMES, and 1 if you DON’T AGREE at all.

1. There is no substitute for concrete experience in learning

2. The focus of education should be the ideas that are as relevant as today when they were first conceived.
3. Teachers must not force their students to learn the subject matter if it does not interest them.
4. Schools must develop student’s capacity to reason by stressing on the humanities.
5. In the classroom, students must be encouraged to interact with one another to develop social virtues such as
cooperation and respect.
6. Students should read and analyze the Great Books, the creative work of history’s finest thinkers and writers.
7. Teachers must help students expand their knowledge by helping them apply their previous experiences in
solving new problems.
8. Our course of study should be general, not specialized; liberal, not vocational; humanistic, not technical.
9. There is no universal inborn human nature. We are born and exist and then we ourselves freely determine
our essence.
10. Human beings are shaped by their environment.
11. Schools should stress on the teaching of skills.
12. Change of environment can change a person.
13. Curriculum should emphasize on the traditional disciplines such as Math, natural science, history, grammar
and literature.
14. A teacher cannot expose meaning; students make meaning of what they are taught.
15. Schools should help individuals accept themselves as unique individuals and accept responsibility for their
thoughts, feelings and actions.
16. Learners produce knowledge based on their experiences
17. For the learner to acquire the basic skills, he or she must go through the rigor and discipline of serious study.
18. The teacher and the school head must prescribe what is most important for the students to learn.
19. The truth shines in an atmosphere of genuine dialogue.
20. A learner must be allowed to learn at his or her own pace.
21. The learner is not a blank slate but brings past experiences and cultural factors to the learning situation.
22. The classroom is not a place where teachers pour knowledge into empty minds of students.
23. The learner must be taught how to communicate his ideas and feelings.
24. To understand the message from his/her students, the teacher must listen not only to what his/her students
are saying but also to what they are not saying.
25. An individual is what he/she chooses to become not dictated by his or her environment.

Interpreting your Scores: If you have 2 answers of 2/4 in numbers:

1,3,5,7 --you are more of progressivist
2,4,6,8 --you are more of a perennialist
9,15,20,25 --you are more of an existentialist
10, 12 --you are more of a behaviorist
11, 13, 17, 18 --you are more of an essentialist
14, 16, 21, 22 -- you are ore of a constructivist
19, 23, 24 -- you are more of a linguistic philosopher

If you have two scores of 4 in several of the 7 clusters, you have an eclectic philosophy which means you put
the philosophies together. If your scores are less than 4, this means that you are not very definite in your
philosophy. Or if your scores are less than 3 in most of the items, this means your philosophy is quite vague.
ANSWERS.

4 – Always
3 – Not Always
2 – Sometimes
1 – Don’t Agree

1. 3 (you can also by hearing it from their experiences)

2. 3 (if it was not experienced in the earlier time, it will not be relevant today)
3. 1 (be creative and make a way for them to be interested)
4. 4
5. 4
6. 4 (learning the history is part of the human responsibility)
7. 4 (impartation)
8. 3
9. 4
10. 4
11. 3
12. 4
13. 4
14. 3
15. 4
16. 4
17. 4
18. 4
19. 4
20. 3
21. 4
22. 3
23. 4
24. 4
25. 4