Reflection

The theory of education that I found to be consistent with my worldview was progressivism. I say that with some reservations because there are parts of the theory that I do not agree with, but it is the most consistent with my worldview. The parts that I do agree with are the focus on the student, the active learning, and opposing isolation of schools. The focus should be on the students and developing the knowledge in order for the successful transfer of that knowledge. Memorization of facts does not help students to know how, or when to use the information they memorized. The focus on the students is developing their cognitive skills in order for successful transfer of knowledge. For this to occur students need to be active participants in their education, which means instead of lecturing, the instructor should utilize project based learning to help refine the student’s knowledge for successful transfer. I also agree with not having schools isolated from the rest of the community, as the community is an important part of the learning process. The community has to support the school in developing the students, if they do not they will hurt the academic process. I do not agree, however, with the view of discipline in the classroom. Discipline teaches basic skills that students will use in everyday life and these skills need to be developed in the classroom. For the most part, however, this theory is consistent with my worldview.

            The one theory that would make me uncomfortable would be Perennialism and that is based on where truth is found, also that the truth is universal and unchanging.  The theory states that truth is found in the great work of civilizations, which they do have a place in education but should not be what we base our educational system on.  Truth is unchanging based on this theory meaning that what was true in 2000 BCE is the same today. This depends on how one is defining the term truth. Truth as laws of how the world works is unchanging and universal, but what about philosophy, education, religion, and politics they are not universal and unchanging. If this were the theory that was applied, to our education system it would make me uncomfortable in how students would perceive others who held different truths and the actions that would come about based on those differences.

            The assignment and the discussion that we had, helped develop a deeper understanding of technology and media. Our definition centered on a process or idea that accomplishes a goal. This is definition is different from the idea that technology as an advancement in computers, phones, or tablets.  Technology is a way in which the knowledge is applied in order to complete a task. Technology was harder to define, as technology has a broad definition, causing you to really think about what constitutes as technology. Media was much easier to define as media was something that stores and transmits communication. Our discussion did a couple things, it helped us understand what technology and media was, but it also set us up for our next discussion on if technology is neutral or not. This discussion should be interesting to see how others perceive technology and would also be interesting to see if thoughts changed based on how we defined technology.