An educational philosophy consists of the beliefs and principles that guide your pedagogical practice.
Traditionally philosophy addresses fundamental questions regarding metaphysics, epistemology, logic, axiology. In education this also tends to include ethics and aesthetics. While epistemology tends to be the main focus for teachers, the other elements can be equally important.

What is your educational philosophy?

Here are some critical dimensions:

• What is knowledge and understanding?
• What is worth knowing?
• What does it means to learn?
• How do you know that learning has taken place?
• What should be the role of a teacher?
• What should be the role of the student?
• What is the ultimate purpose of education?
• What are your core educational values?

There are at least 7 major modern philosophical orientations:

Progressivism
- The goal is to help each student think rationally. Student-centered approach. Project and problem-based learning. E.g. John Dewey

Essentialism
- Education is a means of passing on essential knowledge. Back to basics approach. Didactic Instruction. E.g.
W. Bagely, W. Bennett.

Perennialism
- Goal is to provide students with the foundational knowledge of unchanging principles and ideas. Great books approach. Socratic dialogue. E.g. R.
Hutchins, M. Adler

Existentialism - Focus is on helping the students understand and appreciate themselves as unique individuals. Creative self-directed choices. Discovery learning. E.g. A.S. Neil

Behaviorism - Free will is an illusion, students' behavior is shaped in order to reinforce proper learning and behavior. Drill and practice. B.F. Skinner

Social Reconstructivism - Focus is on providing students the critical tools to be agents of social change. Students explore controversial issues, analyze world events. E.g. P. Freire.

Post Modernism
- Focus on helping students recognize that here are no universal truths, and the traditional narratives of the dominant culture must be deconstructed. Deconstruction through dialogue. Critical pedagogy. E.g. M. Foucault.

These philosophical orientations provide the foundation for our pedagogical beliefs and thus our classroom practices.

One of the fundamental dichotomies in educational philosophical thinking is between objectivism and constructivism.

Objectivism - Knowledge and truth exist as absolutes outside of the mind or the individual and are therefore objective. "Reality exists as an objective absolute — facts are facts, independent of man's feelings, wishes, hopes or fears" (Ayn Rand)

Constructivism is a philosophy of learning based on the concept that when individuals learn they do not passively acquire or absorb a new understanding. Instead, new information is actively assimilated into existing cognitive structures while simultaneously altering these structures. Therefore what individuals learn is always framed within the context of what they already know; each of us generates our own models and our own individual understanding of the world (See David Elkind).

Traditionally educational institutions have been established based on an objectivist philosophical orientation.

From this perspective culture and knowledge can be transmitted from the knower to the learner. Learning means being able to acquire a set of facts or information base. You can verify a learners knowledge by comparing their knowledge base to an accepted canon, generally through some form of testing based on absolute standards. The role of the teacher is to pass on the knowledge they have, and the students' role is to acquire the same knowledge that the teacher has. This is sometimes referred to as Instructionism.

It is my belief that the adoption and diffusion of educational technologies has been slow to occur because empowering users through the use of these tools challenges the dominant instructionist paradigm.