It's been an interesting discussion about philosophies of teaching and the various orientations, frames, and landscapes. In fact, your postings have been fabulous… and heartening for me. I hope you feel the same.
I'd like to put forth a few brief ideas about philosophies, etc.
- The notion of "philosophy" isn't so much one of the practices we engage, although philosophies can certainly affect them or which ones we choose to use. Rather, philosophy is more a sense of a guiding framework for what we hold as important and for how we make decisions, etc.
- The importance of a philosophy is that it can provide a certain consistency and cohesiveness to what we do and how we create classroom communities. Without a philosophy, we risk proceeding in more of a cookbook approach.
- Philosophies aren't necessarily static. They should provide for flexibility, while maintaining cohesiveness.
- We may have more subconscious, nebulous, and/or implicit philosophies without really being aware of their extent.
I've been at this profession for a long time (from my first days of teaching in 1974). I find that I'm still elaborating upon and tweaking my philosophy and trying to make it more explicit. If you read my "letter to my students," this was an attempt to make explicit many of the ideas I feel are important, especially for my undergrad students. So, while many of you feel you should change styles and approaches, this may not be a philosophical change, but just good pedagogy. I think philosophy goes very deep. On the other hand, it may take years to really begin developing an explicit and coherent philosophy.
Of course, the "institution of schooling" probably doesn't support the development of teaching philosophies. How can you control teachers if they have a coherent and extensive framework for how they should be teaching? :) That would be far too "professional."
It's interesting to compare to medical doctors. Most are trained to be rather distant and detached (this is changing in some cases). However, some doctors seem to have developed their own philosophies of patient care. Some of these philosophies seem to be on the "detached" side of the spectrum, while others are on the side of caring about and for patients. Some of these doctors give out cell phone numbers, email addresses, and otherwise bend over backwards to make a connection with their patients (we have had several doctors like this). So, what's the difference? How do their philosophies affect "you," the patient? How do the philosophies affect patient care and the outcomes of patient care?
