Philosophies

Idealism is the search and value universal and absolute truths. In education the idea is actually more important than the subject being taught. They also emphasize great leaders to be used as role models. They emphasize questions that provoke thought. Realism is focused on scientific reasoning and metaphysics. They also emphasize the importance of scientific development and research. Pragmatism is the belief that everything changes and is evolving. There are no unchanging ideas and they place a great deal of emphasis on what it means to actually know something. They also believe that it is best to learn through experience like realism. Pragmatism also stresses the application of knowledge and using ideas for problem solving. Existentialism believes that there is nothing absolute and that there isn't any ultimate principal or reasoning. The individuals are responsible for the creation of their own meaning or essence. They accept scientific knowledge but consider it to be limited it. Most significant knowledge is personal and nonscientific. Existentialism feel that standardized testing, tracking, measurement, and standardization do not create opportunities for personal choice and direction.

I do not think that I fall into one or two particular categories. There is a little bit of all of them that I agree with. The one that I relate to the most is Realism just because of my interest in science. Really believe that in order to be a successful you have to use thought provoking questions and have to use your own knowledge and ideas to problem solve which is a part of idealism. I also really agree that standardization limits the amount of choices and creativity that students are able to have.