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Journal 3
Paige Ross
University of Cincinnati

According the the Foundations of American Education there are six major theories of
education. Those six major theories include Perennialism, progressivism, behaviorism,
essentialism, social constructionism, and postmodernism. Each theory is a composite of
systematic thinking or generalizing school. Perennialism theorist believe in eternal or perennial,

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permanence, order, rationality, and logic. Progressivism teachers believe in real world problem
solving activities in a democratic and cooperative learning environment. Behaviorism theorist
believe that humans can be explained in terms of responses to external stimuli. Essentially
started as a protest against perceived decline of intellectual rigor and moral standards in schools.
Social reconstructionism is a group of progressive educators that looked to schools for leadership
in creating new and more equitable society than what led up to the great depression.
Postmodernist theorist believe in a contemporary philosophy, ideology, movement and process.
I believe that schools should have an open environment. Schools should want to prepare
students for what the real world is like after highschool and college. Schools should resemble the
real world as much as possible. I think that academics are very important but things like social
skills and communication are also very important and should be incorporated into the everyday
classroom.The purpose of education is to help students prepare for when they are living on their
own and begin a career on their own. Teachers need to help the students and guide them along
the right path but let the children ultimately decide what they want to do in their life. The
children decide whether they want to attaint the information being taught or not. Not every
student learns the same either therefore it is the teacher's job to teach in a flexible way for all
students to understand. Parents should be the middleman in the education world. The parents
should be communicating with the students and the teachers making sure the students are doing
well in class.
The learning theory that goes along with my opinions on teaching the best is
progressivism. This is when teachers believe in real world problem solving activities in a
democratic and cooperative learning environment.The progressive teaching style is based on
helping students get prepared for the real world. In the classroom they would be doing a lot of

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activities together and there would be a lot of participation from the students. Although I agree
with most ideas in the progressivism theory, I also think that students should be more
independent in the classroom and not so much in a democratic and cooperative learning
environment. Students need to strive on their own every once in awhile and come up with their
own ideas. Although it is still important for students to learn how to work well with others,
group work is still a major factor in the classroom. This would mean the teacher would have to
balance out the classroom, making time for both individual work and group work.
The teaching theory least like the ones I agree with would be essentialism. Essentialism
teachers want to increase reinforcement in classrooms and expect certain behavior in the
classrooms. Essentialists want to train students with rigor academics. The classroom would
include a lot of instruction from the teacher. The students would listen to more lectures and
recitations. The whole classroom would look more uniform than other classrooms. The students
are taught to have good behavior and respect towards others at all times.
Overall I believe that students need a progressive type of classroom. Students should
want to come to school and learn. Teachers should be engaged with their students not just the
trainer of the students.

Webb, L. D., Metha, A., & Jordan, K. F. (2000). Foundations of American education(7th ed.).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.