Personal Philosophy of Higher Education - Essay Example

 Personal Philosophy of Higher Education Since centuries, education has remained an essential and imperative component of human societies, and in the result, a huge number of historians and philosophers have endeavored to propose their accounts and philosophies of education. In specific, this effort is part of such endeavors that will focus primarily on personal philosophy of higher education of the author. It is an observation that education and learning stands in distinction with each other; however, various experts and educators seem to combine them that has been major flaw in the current higher education system. In particular, learning is an evolutionary process that enables the humans to survive naturally under this phenomenon, and individuals lacking in such natural skill are dead. On the other hand, education is a wider concept existing in contrast with the phenomenon of learning, as it includes different aspects that are absent in learning, such as teaching, knowledge, discipline, and procedural proficiency (Daniels, 1996). In other words, education involves intellectual, ethical, and artistic development of individuals, and thus is a process of creating hierarchy among people, families, societies based on certain principles. In this regard, it is very imperative that educators and scholars should put some efforts to distinguish the two different notions that might enable them to improve and enhance the effectiveness of current higher education system. Besides, in the past, higher education system had no requirement of global perspective; however, it is an understanding that after huge advancements in the field of science and information technology, it has now become essential to include a global perspective in the philosophy of higher education. In addition, until today, higher education institutions, particular universities are still enjoying the status of stable bodies, although there might be an alteration in their forms, however, higher education institutions will always enjoy their importance and demand in the human society. One of the reasons of such significance will be their crucial role in providing extensive interpretation of a number of things that do not make sense in the world. However, as the world is changing its form, the term stable itself has become unstable, and constancy is now becoming a short-term phenomenon. In the result, there has been a constant alteration in personal philosophy of higher education since the day one until today that is something very constructive, and it is an understanding that this process of change should be present in an educator’s or teacher’s understanding of education, or higher education (Cole, 2007). In other words, educators should continue to endeavor to notify and update themselves about advancements in the methodology and pedagogy of learning in the educational system. In the context of higher education in the United States, a number of philosophical energies have contributed in its evolution. For instance, Western Europe has been significant in introducing prototypes and practices of higher education, and alternatively, virtual learning environments in the higher education are the products of Native American philosophies and efforts (Gross & Schlatter, 2003). In addition, democratic developments in the country have been a factor of great influence on the philosophy of higher education in the United States. Unfortunately, analysis of the philosophies (Brubacher, 1977) has indicated that in current era, higher education system has been overlooking its philosophy of advocating learning while emphasizing on the creation of huge workforce for various industries regionally, as well as globally. In the result, there has been downward shift in the objectives of students that have changed from learning to getting ready for an efficient career. In addition, analysis has pointed out that the status of education or learning as a goal has begun to diminish in the current higher education philosophy. In this regard, the objective of education is now not about artistic, ethical, and intellectual development of the individuals, but the transforming of a nonprofessional into a skillful product ready for specific tasks in a field (Hutchins, 1995). This is evident in the increment of business and economics programs that allow the individuals to acquire a proficient career easily, whereas, arts and aesthetics programs are diminishing from the higher education system that indicates the pessimistic moderation in the philosophy of higher education globally. According to personal understanding, every individual encompasses competence to achieve any objective that lies in front as long as moderators put efforts to deepen the connection of student with the content that is under learning. In other words, connection between content and the students play a crucial role, as absence of such a link always results in lack of learning, and acquisition of less-important objectives. According to the theory of development and learning (Rider & Sigelman, 2008)), creation of cognitive arrangements is one of the common indications of a growing individual, and such creation involves building networks of existing knowledge of the individual and relating/updating it with new experiences and knowledge that is the emphasis of personal philosophy of higher education. Such arrangements enable the students to implement the learning into their own environments that is another way of developing understanding of the students. In specific, elementary and secondary schools put efforts to enable the students to begin building such structures, and thus, it is the responsibility of higher education platform to facilitate students in sophisticating such structures cognitively, rather than emphasizing on their career related objectives. Besides considering the theory of development and learning, scrutiny of available literature related to higher education enabled the writer to incline towards the theory of constructivism of Jerome Bruner (Weiten, 2008). According to the theory, selection and transformation of information becomes the responsibility of the student, followed by provision of platform to the students by the teachers to build their theories and premises, and subsequently, enabling them to create their own policies and decisions. In this regard, my personal philosophy of higher education advocates the abovementioned theoretical philosophy that emphasizes the construction of knowledge by learner themselves, rather than dictation of knowledge by the teachers or educators in the higher education learning (Weiten, 2008). In other words, personal philosophy of higher education promotes the construction of knowledge by learning based on their particular experiences, as well as their connections of previous and new knowledge. In this regard, higher education institutions should motivate students to become learners rather than only candidates for a proficient career, and persuade them to create their own principles that can be possible by having discussions and deliberations, and two-way interactions rather than traditional classes that usually involve dictations and notations by the teachers and educators (Tubbs, 2004). Additionally, personal philosophy requires teachers to alter the knowledge according to level of learning of the students, and not according to educators’ personal level that is one of the major factors of failure of current higher education societies globally. Curriculum is an essential component in the education; however, unfortunately, a number of philosophers and scholars have been overlooking its significance in the process of learning. On contrary, my personal philosophy of higher education gives significant importance to curriculum that exists in a spiral way that indicates its constant alteration based on learning level of the learners. Moreover, the curriculum should be very flexible to allow any modification in the pedagogy and teaching methodologies that may motivate learners to involve in analysis, interpretation, and forecasting process of knowledge and information during the learning process (Tubbs, 2004). In this regard, my personal philosophy of education promotes educators’ focus on the students and their learning, rather than other focuses. In detail, changing perception of the students, their expectations, their experiences, their responses, etc should be the major components of higher education philosophy. In this regard, my personal philosophy of higher education considers students as growing plants with a dream to become trees giving shadow to others. In other words, higher education should identify and focus on goals, ambitions, capacities, and desires of the individuals, and at same time, should put efforts to resolve issues and eliminate flaws in their personalities. In addition, at the higher education level, students begin to take the driving seat in the car, whereas, teachers take the backseat, or play the role of rear mirror to guide the students throughout the driving (learning) process that is beauty of the higher education learning contrary to secondary education levels where teachers dominate the whole process (Smart, 2005). In this regard, it is very imperative that teachers should acknowledge such an alteration, as discouragement of such a change often results in failures. In other words, purpose of the higher education should be the fulfillment of students’ lives rather than a successful place in the labor market. In the personal philosophy, students have some responsibilities that include expression of self-motivation, maintenance of emphasis on the goal, recognition of flaws, and ambition to eliminate them. Although these tasks seem very difficult, however, their accomplishment should be the major purpose of higher education learning. On the other hand, my personal philosophy provides a greater responsibility of the shoulders of teachers that is to look forward to students’ success and achievements based on learning, and not based on their market position (Smart, 2005). From other perspective, communication between teacher and the students plays a crucial role in the success of learning process, and presence of the notion of care is very important for such relationship of effective communication. Therefore, besides observing and evaluating students based on the curriculum, there should be a deeper relationship involving respect, honesty, personal growth, and ethical values. In the higher education philosophy, curriculum is another aspect that needs significant importance, and thus, will be part of this discussion. It is an observation that nowadays, higher educational institutes are developing curriculum based on specific fields, and thus, curriculum usually involves teaching of skills related to the field (Rider & Sigelman, 2008). However, besides development of students’ skills related to a career, it is very imperative that educators and scholars should put considerable efforts in determining and developing other aspects of students that will be valuable in fulfilling goals and objectives of a human life, rather than an employee’s life. In a broader term, curriculum should focus on the success in life, and not success in the career. However, determination of the notion of success is once again a difficult process, and can continue to alter throughout the life. Thus, curriculum of the higher education should be flexible in a way to cater alterations in the goals and ambition of the students. In conclusion, this discussion acknowledges the persuasion of constructivist theorists that played a significant role in development of personal philosophy of higher education. In addition, the deliberations regarding the higher education learning were outcomes of Vygotsky’s (Daniels, 1996) influence as well that facilitate in enhancing understanding of the distinction between learning and the education. Evidently, human physiology plays an important role in learning process, and thus, social and aesthetic aspects of human experiences are very significant to the success of effective development of individuals at the higher education level (Cole, 2007). In addition, one of the theorists that influenced this discussion on higher educational philosophy is Robert Gagne (Keller & Gagne, 2005) that enriched the paper with his Theory of Instruction involves emotional outcomes of Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson, 2001). Moreover, it is an understanding that every educational philosophy should entail and emphasize on a fundamental value, and thus, my personal philosophy of higher education focused on the notion of learning while advocating the role of educators and teachers as facilitators of learners, and students as learners rather than candidates for the labor market. Aldous Huxley (1950) is a famous scholar whose prophecy astonished many in the past; however, it seems valid and occurring in today’s era. In specific, he prophesied that there would be no grounds of banning books in the future as there will not be individuals interested in reading them. Analysis and discussion has indicated that his prophecy has now become a part of today’s society. Although there are still huge number of book lovers and readers, however, the objective of book reading has now altered from seeking knowledge and facts but creating groups, promoting rumor, etc. In addition, introduction and success of virtual universities have begun to alter the perspective and forms of higher education learning and it will continue to change in the coming years where virtual learning will be the common way of acquiring learning. As the world is advancing, there has been a creation of global culture, rather than different cultures, and thus, it will result in cultural devolution that will require educators and scholars to alter their educational philosophies constantly, in order to avoid any failures. Finally, the paper has analyzed and discussed some of the significant aspects of my personal philosophy of higher education. In addition, it included identification and scrutiny of different theories and philosophies related to the educational philosophy, and it is expectation that future researches in this regard will provide a more effective platform to acquire a comprehensive and efficient understanding of the higher education. It is anticipation that the paper will be valuable for students, educators, and non-professionals in better understanding of the topic. References Anderson, L. W. (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing. California: Longman. Brubacher, J. S. (1977). On the Philosophy of Higher Education. Michigan: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Cole, M. (2007). The Cambridge Companion to Vygotsky. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Daniels, H. (1996). An Introduction to Vygotsky. London: Routledge. Gross, M. W., Schlatter, R. (2003). Philosophy, Science, and Higher Education. New York: Transaction Publishers. Hutchins, R. M. (1995). The Higher Learning in America. New York: Transaction Publishers. Huxley, A. (1950). Brave New World. Michigan: Harper. Keller, J. M., Gagne, R. M. (2005). Principles of Instructional Design. California: Thomson/Wadsworth. Rider, E. A., Sigelman, C. K. (2008). Life-Span Human Development. New York: Cengage Learning. Smart, J. C. (2005). Higher Education. Los Angeles: Springer. Tubbs, N. (2004). Philosophy’s Higher Education. New York: Springer. Weiten, W. (2008). Psychology. New York: Cengage Learning. Read More