My philosophy of education has evolved since the first time that I was ever given the assignment. I base my philosophy on four theorists, John Locke, B.F. Skinner, Jean Piaget and Vygotsky. John Locke states that every child is born with a blank slate and is able to be impression upon. B.F. Skinner stated that reinforcement is the way that many children learn. Piaget states that children must go through four stages of development. Vygotsky believes that complete cognitive development requires social interaction. I also agree with Jean Piaget that children must go through stages in order to mature. And develop. Every child has the ability to learn and should be given the right to an education. All teachers must be able to also enforce the No Child Left Behind Act.

            Who is John Locke? John Locke was a British philosopher, Oxford. He was one of the greatest philosophers in England. He believed that children up to the age of fourteen should be taught by teachers. The pupil should be brought to practice in the classroom so that they can learn the skill that is being taught with hands on experiences. Locke also believed in the tabula rasa theory. In this theory he stated that the minds of children were blank slates. These slates are to be evolved on by experiences that the children are apart of, either in the community or at school.

            Who is B.F. Skinner? Burrhus Frederic Skinner was the chairman of the Psychology Department at Indiana University. In addition he became one of the best psychological writers of his time. His entire theory was based on operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is an unconscious form of associative learning that is linked to a specific stimulus through the process of reinforcement. This stimulus has the effect of increasing the operant. There are four major techniques in his philosophy. They are: increasing the probability that a specific behavior will not occur in the future, decreasing the probability that the behavior will occur in the future, the types of stimuli that are used and that action that are taken once the stimulus has been removed.

Who is Jean Piaget? Jean Piaget is a Swiss psychologist known for his research in developmental psychology. He defined that children go through stages of development. The first stage is the sensorimotor stage during infancy. From birth to 2 children experience the world through movement and senses learn object performance. The preoperational stage occurs from 2 to 7. This is when children are in pre-school, when they learn acquisition of motor skills. The third stage is the concrete operational (childhood), from the age of seven to eleven; children begin to think logically about concrete events. The final stage is when children are adolescents. This is the formal operational stage from ages eleven and up when children develop abstract reasoning.

Who is Vygotsky? Vygotsky’s main theory was that full cognition development requires social interaction. All experiences happen socially, or with people, and then again later within the individual child themselves. Another theme of Vygostsky was that a child’s cognitive development is limited to their particular range. Vygotsky believed in zone of proximal development. He called the difference between what a child can do with help and what she can do with guidance.

No Child Left Behind requires that every child be taught and No Child Left Behind. Every teacher is required to teach the children regardless of their status or classification. Accountability and assessments are part of the No Child Left Behind. Adequate yearly progress is important for calculating participation rates. Adequate Yearly Progress is an individual’s state’s measure of progress toward the goal of 100 percent of students achieving to state academic standards in at least reading/language arts and math.

            Many parents may not understand just how important they are and can be a theorist themselves. The fact that they can help the children continue to learn and master many new objectives that may or may not have been introduced. Parents can mainly be the reinforcement that the teacher needs to make sure that they can continue to get an exceptional education. Parents sometimes know better ways to motivate their children. They also know what works best for them by working with them more than the teachers are able to. They can provide needed information to the teachers about others ways to teach and help not only their children but other students as well.

Their values have really helped me mold my philosophy in what I indeed believe that it should be. I still believe that everything that is taught in school must be reinforced once the child is at home if they are to retain any of the information. Now the belief is stronger than ever, especially since I have observed the difference between students who has parents that work with him or her as opposed to a student that does not have that luxury. This can also increase the self-confidence of children in the classroom because they will feel that their parents care and the more they go over the work the easier it will become. These methods of beliefs can only have positive outcomes on the students.