Education Studies Assignment: Academic Essay Dr Pauline

Logue

Module: Education Studies

CA1 ASSIGNMENT: ACADEMIC ESSAY

An Exploration of My Personal Philosophy of Education and its Application to

the Technical Classroom

Jack Curran G00381500

Lecturer: Dr Pauline Logue

Education Studies Assignment: Academic Essay Dr Pauline
Logue

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Student Name & ID: Jack Curran G00381500

Programme: Education Studies
Assignment Title: Philosophy Statement Essay
Due Date:

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Signed: ……………………………

Date: 21/11/2022
Education Studies Assignment: Academic Essay Dr Pauline
Logue

1. INTRODUCTION

In this essay I will be discussing the topic of “My Personal Philosophy of Education and its
Application to the Technical Classroom”. As a teacher your philosophy is an important aspect
of how you will be as a teacher. It will state your values and beliefs and your core ideas of
how you effectively discipline and set out your classroom teaching and learning. Tesar and
Locke (1973) states that “Philosophy of education is the philosophical study of education,
often understood as a field of applied philosophy that draws from established branches of
philosophy in epistemology, ethics, axiology, and politics to raise and address questions of
educational aims, methods, and problems, and of educational policy, pedagogy, and
curriculum.”. This furthermore backs up the link of philosophy within the domain of
education.

As a 3rd year student teacher studying within the degree of Bachelor of Science (Honours) in
Education (Design, Graphics and Construction) my philosophy of teaching so far in my
educational career is to provide an environment that harbours the students interests and skills
within the technical classroom.

The main aim of this essay is to further explore my personal philosophy of education. I will
break this essay down into the following key topics: my values and beliefs in teaching and
learning, the sociocultural theory of Lev Vygotsky, Socrates & The Socratic Method and
finally a short conclusion.

2. VALUES AND BELIEFS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING

As a teacher there are many standards which apply and must be adhered to. These standards
are set out by the Teaching Council in the 2 nd edition 2016 of the Code of Professional
Conduct for Teachers.
Education Studies Assignment: Academic Essay Dr Pauline
Logue

Although I believe as a teacher you should have many values and beliefs, one key value
which I will always follow throughout my career as a teacher is to “acknowledge and respect
the uniqueness, individuality and specific needs of pupils/students and promote their holistic
development” (The Teaching Council, 2016). From my previous placement I have learnt that
no students are the same. Each student may have a different learning method which suits
them as an individual. E.g., Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing and Kinesthetic. A teacher
must tailor their lessons taking this into account for their students.

Similar to Vygotsky’s theory of sociocultural and John Dewey’s credo, I believe that “the
social life of the child is the basis of concentration, or correlation, in all his training or
growth”. (Dewey, 1897). Vygotsky’s theory and John Dewey illustrates that a child is
vulnerable to their surroundings and up bringing, this will impact the level of their learning
development. From my previous placement I have developed an understanding of how the
pupil/student’s social life may impact the students learning. I think that the social interactions
Education Studies Assignment: Academic Essay Dr Pauline
Logue

that which the child is exposed to shapes who they become. Having developed my values and
beliefs, I will now explore the educational theory and application.

3. EDUCATIONAL THEORY & APPLICATION

Within this section, I will be discussing the sociocultural theory of Lev Vygotsky whilst
looking at its application to the classroom and I will also discuss Socrates and the Socratic
method keeping its application to the classroom in mind.

As a technical subject teacher, it is vital to approach all students with a positive outlook on
their education thus promoting equality and inclusion throughout every lesson. The
environment the teacher creates within his/her classroom is the pillar for a student’s level of
engagement. Within my lessons I will incorporate Socrates method by creating a fun and
enjoyable lesson using questioning to make the students critically analyse their own
knowledge on a topic. Although I find the Socrates method valuable as a teaching
methodology, the students can often go off topic. It may be hard to keep the students attention
for a period of time when they are critiquing themselves.

3.1 THE SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY OF LEV VYGOTSKY

Following my investigation of Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, I have discovered that he

illustrates the impact of social and cultural interactions on children’s development. Children
and teenagers can be easily influenced, this can have both a positive and negative impact on
the child/teenager’s personality, therefore as an educator, I believe it is my responsibility to
ensure I am a positive role model for my students.

Within Vygotsky’s work, it is clear that the zone of proximal development plays an important
role. According to Daniels (2003, p. 227), Vygotsky explained the zone of proximal
development as “the difference between the level of solved tasks that can be performed with
adult guidance and help, and the level of independently solved tasks is the zone of proximal
development.” In this context the term ‘proximal’ refers to the abilities the learners are on the
verge of comprehending and the capabilities that are within their grasp but require some
Education Studies Assignment: Academic Essay Dr Pauline
Logue

guidance to fully grasp. Within a classroom environment, a more educated student may act as
a peer helping another student with a minor task.

Although ‘scaffolding’ is not a term used by Vygotsky, I think it is vivid throughout his
work. The term ‘scaffolding’ is defined by Margolis (2020) as “(t)he professional activities of
a teacher aimed at assisting students in the process of solving learning problems”. Scaffolding
in a classroom setting includes things like modelling a skill, providing hints or signals, and
modifying material or activities. I believe Vygotsky used scaffolding as a strategy to develop
a student’s zone of proximal development. Having examined Vygotsky’s theory of
sociocultural I now turn to an exploration of Socrates and the Socratic method.

3.2 SOCRATES & THE SOCRATIC METHOD

Following my investigation of Socrates and The Socratic Method, it is clear that he taught
through informal dialogue, and his method of using cross questioning. According to (Schiller,
2008) the Socratic method is defined as “Accordingly he asked questions, letting the other
man do most of the talking, but keeping the course of conversation under his control”. From
this I have gathered that Socrates was clever in how he approached and let the other person
express their opinion but still stay under control of the conversation. Socrates method allows
students to be given a question that allows them to think more deeply about the answer. I
believe this method of teaching could be used and adapted within a classroom to encourage
the students to expand their own thinking around their knowledge.

According to Delic and Senad (2016) “the teacher is an observer, a helper, guide but not the
purveyor of knowledge” (p.512). From this I have gathered that the main characteristic of the
Socratic method is not teaching with an outcome being one right answer but rather allowing
the students to delve into their prior knowledge, expand their own thinking on what they
believe the answer may be. The students may think they do not know this but will be
surprised what small guidance can do. Using the Socratic method allows teachers to engage
the students in critical thinking exercises, this allows the students to develop their critical
thinking skills. These are skills which cannot be taught directly.

4. CONCLUSION
Education Studies Assignment: Academic Essay Dr Pauline
Logue

The main aim of this essay was to further explore my personal philosophy of education.
Throughout this essay I have touched on the values and beliefs set out by the Teaching
council. From researching this I have found many values and beliefs that mirror my practice,
e.g., as a teacher you should acknowledge that each student is unique and may require
additional needs, and you should have the students’ best interests in mind. One main point I
took away from conducting research on Lev Vygotsky’s theory was the influence of social
and cultural interactions on a child’s cognitive development. The Socratic method shocked
me as I found Socrates allowed the other person to do most of the talking whilst he steered
the conversation as he wanted. I have also found that in order for the students to surpass their
capabilities the teacher must acknowledge that each students’ capabilities and their method of
learning is a unique characteristic to each student. There are numerous different strategies
that could be used to implement these theories to a lesson, such as peer work, mentoring,
scaffolding, collaborative learning and setting a nice classroom environment. The inclusion
of these strategies during a lesson are vital to enhance the students learning.

5. LIST OF REFERENCES

Daniels, H., 2003. An Introduction to Vygotsky. London: London : Taylor & Francis Routledge. 2003.

Delić, H., & Bećirović, S. (2016). Socratic method as an approach to teaching. European Researcher.

Series A, (10), 511-517.

Dewey, J. (1897). My Pedagogic Creed, 54, 77–80.

English, M. (2021) Theory of Teaching and Learning Module. Letterfrack, GMIT: Galway, Ireland.

Margolis, A. A. (2020). Zone of Proximal Development, Scaffolding and Teaching

Pauline, L. (2022) Education Studies Module. Wellpark Road, ATU: Galway, Ireland.

Schiller, N. (2008). Finding a Socratic method for information literacy instruction. College &

undergraduate libraries, 15(1-2), 39-56.

Tesar, M., & Locke, K. (1973). The philosophy of education (pp. 2-4). R. S. Peters (Ed.). Oxford:

Oxford University Press.

Education Studies Assignment: Academic Essay Dr Pauline
Logue

The Teaching Council. (2016, July). Fitness to teach. Fitness to Teach. Retrieved November 21,
2022, from https://www.teachingcouncil.ie/en/publications/fitness-to-teach/