Write a 500-750 word statement of your educational philosophy using the results of your “Professional Dispositions Self_Assessment Survey.” Your philosophy may be grounded in a theory or theories that you have studied in this course,…
A philosophy of education is a statement regarding your beliefs and values about education. This statement is often required as part of the application process in gaining employment as a teacher.
Write a 500-750 word statement of your educational philosophy using the results of your “Professional Dispositions Self-Assessment Survey.” Your philosophy may be grounded in a theory or theories that you have studied in this course, or informed by your study of historical and sociological influences on education.
In your statement, include your beliefs and values in each of the following areas:
The purpose of education
Vision of a commitment to collaboration in promoting the growth and development of young children
The role of the teacher as a leader and advocate according to some of the ethical frameworks that you have examined
The process of self-reflecting on teaching practices and education policy in order to utilize research, ethical practice, and other resources to advance the profession
Include three scholarly references to support your philosophy of education.
Introduction
It is very important for all educators and teacher education candidates to possess
(1) in-depth content knowledge of the discipline they teach, (2) a thorough understanding
of pedagogical content knowledge so that they can teach the content in an effective, clear,
and challenging way integrating technology appropriately, and (3) professional
knowledge to enable them to reflect upon the teaching-learning process and to consider
the context in which this process is embedded. Besides these types of knowledge and
skills, a candidate must also possess appropriate dispositions (attitudes, beliefs, and
values) toward children and education, and display professional behaviors that
characterize professional, effective, and successful educators.
The CUA Education faculty have identified in its Conceptual Framework
dispositions that are essential for CUA Teacher Education candidates and graduates to
possess. As a program requirement, CUA Teacher Education candidates must, at a
minimum, meet or exceed all disposition expectations to be accepted into the program
and then to move to the subsequent transition point(s) in their program and to graduate.
CUA’s reflective practitioners critically examine their own actions and the context of
these actions for the purpose of a more deliberative mode of professional activity (Berlak
and Berlak, 1981). CUA candidates become self-directed teachers who use professional
knowledge to actively, persistently and carefully confront the moral dilemmas in
education in order to improve their practice in a global and diverse world.
CUA candidates need to have the dispositions identified by CUA’s vision as core values and
further identified as being service-oriented, patient, passionate about teaching,
compassionate, open minded, accepting, caring, flexible, fair, motivated, motivating,
moral/ethical, respectful, easily approachable, and willing to function as change agents in
a diverse, globally changing, challenging, and interdependent world.
Disposition Assessment Forms are available at advising sessions and also in the
Education Office (218 O’Boyle). All candidates receive a copy of this Disposition
Assessment document upon acceptance into the TE program to be aware of the
expectations throughout their course of study at CUA.
Candidates must sign the form to
indicate understanding and acceptance of terms and policies in the document. The
dispositions identified in this document apply to the university setting, courses, practicum
experiences, and the supervised student teaching experience and are assessed at different
points during the Teacher Education program.
Failure to demonstrate one or more of the
dispositions may lead to an individualized plan for improvement and, in extreme cases,
could lead to removal from the Teacher Education program.
The list of dispositions in
this document is not exhaustive. In some situations there could be other dispositions and
professional dispositions that might be relevant to becoming a professional educator and
thus need to be documented.
Concerns in coursework or field-based experiences need to
be identified early, and the dispositional concerns must be resolved as soon as possible.
The information in this document is kept confidential, however, this information (without
candidate name) will be available to accreditation visiting teams.