Draft of Philosophy paper

The current state of our world is a downward spiraling rabbit hole. Our world and especially the media tell us what we should like, how much money we should have and have a philosophy of self-centeredness. The world should move in a direction to a place that is more selfless. A world that, cares about others, are honest, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and ethical. I want to live in a world where people take accountability for their actions and people that are striving for righteousness. Righteousness as led by the example of Jesus in the Bible, in a sense of being morally right, without sin. As humans we are not perfect therefore the world will probably never be perfect. Striving toward the betterment of society is a process where we do make mistakes and we will hurt others. This is because we are not perfect and recognizing our imperfectness makes all the difference. So striving for all of these qualities in the end will point people toward God, help us realize how imperfect we really are.
My purpose is to bring Glory to God in I all I do. Blaise Pascal gives a good explanation, he says "What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself." Although this is at the core of my belief system it is never my intention to force it on others nor do I expect everyone to have the same beliefs. My core values and morals just influence my teaching and my beliefs about the purpose of adult education.
The main purpose of adult education today should be to teach students how to think critically and how to correlate knowledge from one subject to another. Critical thinking skills are essential to being successful in most jobs. Correlating subject matters to make a meaning will help people in their jobs as well as in life.
Another purpose for education is to be up to date with the current technology and be able to educate adults about how the technology works. With the worlds rapidly changing technology it is essential to keep pace and have the technological skills. This is more of an underlying purpose but using the technology for assignments and exposing them is a great way to tie it in to whatever is being taught.
Lastly, teaching the learners the life tools to succeed in the world we live in. That could be teaching them about accountability, honesty, and ethics. It could be helping them mature and choose a career path that the have a passion in. Educators should help the learners prepare for the corporate world that is out there and teach them integrity. But also help them realize that sometimes it is hard to do the right thing.
In aviation specifically, educators should work within the bounds of the FAA while trying to take a more constructivist philosophy of teaching. At the same time the FAA should re-evaluate their 1960’s philosophies and techniques and update them to the 21st century. Lastly, educators should teach and recognize the “soft skills” and acceptable behaviors of their learners. Too often in aviation there are students that exhibit hazardous attitudes and “abnormal” behaviors but are never challenged and therefore cause accidents and incidents.
My purpose for education and aviation education ties into my vision for the world in that people need the basic Christian values in order to be successful in life. Being honest and taking accountability for one’s actions are real world concepts that are important. My core values play into this because I am trying to bring glory to God in everything I do. I strive to be an example of what the Bible describes as moral and hopefully my learners will see that. On example is I am a mentor to some of my flight instructors and I am fair and ethical in the way I treat them. I don’t have “favorites” which in the past has caused many problems in our department. I end up influencing my flight instructors as well as students. When thinking about the purpose of education and vision of the world there are also assumptions I hold about adult learners that influence how I teach. These assumptions have a direct correlation to the values I hold.
There are three main assumptions I have about adult learners. I assume they should come prepared, that they will take accountability for their actions and their learning, and that they should be respectful to me and their classmates. Coming prepared encompass’s many assumptions in itself. For example, students should come to class prepared. There are terms of “participation” I assume that if they have signed up for the class that they want to be there. This includes bringing the appropriate books, homework, and required assignments.
My second assumption is that adult learners will take accountability for their actions and for their learning. If a student is unprepared, they should admit that problem and make a change so it doesn’t happen again. This correlates with a student asking to be an exception to the rule because of their lack of accountability. They need suffer the consequences of there actions. If they admit their fault then there is an option to show them mercy depending on the situation. In addition, students should take accountability for their learning by making an effort in the class to study on their own and by trying to complete the assignments to the best of their ability. The adult learners should take have a self-directed learning philosophy.
My third assumption is that students should be respectful to me and to their classmates. They should do this by showing up on time, by not falling asleep in class, and by not complaining about activities or homework assignments. Showing up late disturbs the class. I assume that learning will be interrupted by students being late. When a student falls asleep I am offended that they are not interested in what I am trying to teach. I assume that they want to be there or they would not have shown up. Once people are aware of the assumptions they have about the learners it is important to address the issue of what counts as knowledge.
There is a lot of debate in the field of adult education in what counts as knowledge and what should be taught. Some people have an agenda of being respected as “field” and controlling who gets access. We are doing people a disservice if we restrict the information. Whether it is purposeful or planned, formal, informal, or non-formal, if there is learning it counts as knowledge.
Specifically in aviation, all programs should write their own training course outlines to fit their environment. In collegiate aviation there are prefabricated syllabi that can be bought and are already approved by the FAA for Part 141 in the regulations. This is very convenient for programs but may not be suitable for the type of airspace the school operates in or the type of aircraft they use. Writing a curriculum that focus’s on the program goals and in the case of Westminster College, something that works with operating in and out of Class B airspace is essential.
Another topic that is active in the Collegiate aviation industry is the Flight Industry Training Scenarios(FITS) program. Scenario based training is a very excellent teaching tool however, programs should have the option to choose to implement FITS. In addition, on all levels there needs to be some scenario based training. With the scenario based training and all aspects of teaching it is essential to choose the an appropriate method to teach or facilitate the information.
My beliefs about the pedagogy in teaching is centered around self-directed learning and the learner centered approach. Adults need to be self-directed in there learning. If there is only so much a teacher can do in the classroom to help the student learn. It goes back to the adult learner taking accountability for their learning. Adults can learn from other adults and want to have a say in what they are learning about.
The learner-centered approach is a challenge for me. I try my best to implement as many activities and methods that support the learner-centered approach. I truly believe that it is an effective approach to teaching. My challenge lies in overcoming the teacher- centered approach the FAA mandates. I try to work within the constraints of the FAA but at the same time implement learner-centered approach whenever possible. There is definitely a time for lecture especially when presenting a lot of new information in aviation. However, it is necessary to break out of the “norm,” be creative, and try new teaching techniques.
When deciding on an appropriate method for each teaching and learning session there are many factors that need to be considered depending on the content and type of learning that is going to be done. The general methods that are used in my context of aviation normally fall under 2 categories: interactive or experiential. Generally, class discussion, group discussion, group projects, and simulation are the most appropriate for the material being presented. Specific to flying the aircraft, we normally use a demonstration performance method as described in the Fundamentals of Instruction, by the FAA. In addition, we use the simulators to help with the law of intensity.
My personal philosophy about life and adult education fall back to the core biblical principles. I quit my cargo flying job because I felt as though I was wasting my life away flying boxes around and never interacting with people. I came back to aviation education because that is where my passion lies. Interacting with people and making a difference in someone’s life.

Journal #2

I have been thinking a lot lately about how to correlate my vision of the world to what I think the purpose of education is. I have been struggling because I don't want to sound too "preachy." I appreciate the feedback because I think Sam hit it on the head that I don't teach my students religion I try to model the behavior of Biblical principles. Hopefully, my students see that and want to be that way as well. Specifically, the Biblical principles of integrity, honesty, and fairness. If the students do adopt those principles into their own life it will definitely help them with life in general, as well as in their education.

When I was sitting down to write about my beliefs about pedagogy and my beliefs about adults in general I found it relatively easy because of the class from last spring. We pretty much discovered what we believe in those areas and they do tie together.

Core Vision, Values and Purpose of Education

The current state of our world is a downward spiraling rabbit hole. Our world and especially the media tell us what we should like, how much money we should have and have a philosophy of self-centeredness. The world should move in a direction to a place that is more selfless. A world that, cares about others, are meek, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and are striving for righteousness. As humans we are not perfect therefore the world will probably never be perfect. Striving toward the betterment of society is a process where we do make mistakes and we will hurt others. This is because we are not perfect and recognizing our imperfectness makes all the difference

My purpose is to bring Glory to God in I all I do. Blaise Pascal gives a good explanation, he says "What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself." Although this is at the core of my belief system it is never my intention to force it on others nor do I expect everyone to have the same beliefs. My core values and morals just influence my teaching.

The main purpose of adult education today should be to teach students how to think critically and how to correlate knowledge from one subject to another. As well as to be up to date with the current technology and be able to educate adults about how the technology works. Lastly, giving the learners the tools to succeed in the world we live in.

In aviation specifically, educators should work within the bounds of the FAA while trying to take a more constructivist philosophy of teaching. At the same time the FAA should re-evaluate their 1960’s philosophies and techniques and update them to the 21st century. Lastly, educators should teach and recognize the “soft skills” and acceptable behaviors of their learners. Too often in aviation there are students that exhibit hazardous attitudes and “abnormal” behaviors but are never challenged and therefore cause accidents and incidents.

Journal #1 Rethinking what we know

I was reading chapter 3 in the book Finding Freedom in the classroom: A Practical Introduction to Critical Theory and it brought up a few questions for me. Most aviation educators are put in an interesting situation if you hold a constructivist view toward education. We are bound by the FAA's rules and regulations on how we teach, how long we teach and what we teach. The FAA holds very much to a positivist view toward epistemology. The tests are standardized, they more or less decicde what is right and what the aviation student needs to know. They have "verified" the information.

That is where the problem lies. What if you want to hold to more of a constructivist philosophy?This is the situation I am in. In aviation terms the FAA wants us to teach students to a correlation level of knowledge as they have defined, yet they don't allow for the students to get there due to the rote level of knowledge in the way they test the students. Providing students with all the questions and answers hardly motivates them to ask why when they can just memorize the answers.

Times are changing and more and more people are adopting a postmodern philosophy which seems to fall more under the constructivist way of teaching. "Designing experiences that will give students an opportunity to develop their own understanding of the data at hand. In addition, it is irrelevant if all the students have the same experiences it is that every student's personal understanding is moved forward, " (pg47).

Most people are more likely to remember something if they go about discovering it on their own and coming to conclusions as opposed to someone just telling them the answers. We are able to do this to some degree in aviation by guiding students with questions so they figure out the answer on their own. These opportunities only present themselves when you are working with a student one-on-one. In the classroom setting due to the structure and constraints this doesn't happen.

Again my struggle lies in finding ways to incorporate more of a constructivist way of teaching into aviation while still complying with the demands of the FAA.

Synthesis and Purposes

It is clear after reading numerous articles on the purposes of education that different people have different ideas and opinions. So, it is important to do soul searching to figure out what the purpose is for you.

There were definitely some of the readings that resonated with me and there were others that didn’t really fit my purpose. For most people if you were to ask them what the purpose was for their life they probably couldn't’t tell you. Someone’s values and vision for their life is going to shine through and affect what they think the purpose of education is. There were 3 articles in particular that I looked at closely. Education as a Spiritual Formation by Parker J. Palmer articulated similar ideas I hold. Where as The Adult Educator and Social Responsibility by Cunningham I was indifferent. The Philosophies of Education by John Elias, and Sharan Meriam made me really think about my own philosophy.

“Life in a community is a continual testing and refining of the fruits of love in my life. Here, in relation to others, I can live out (or discover lacking) the peace and joy, the humility and servant hood by which spiritual growth is measured.” This quote by Palmer describes part of my purpose in adult education. Forcing my beliefs on others is never my intention and I am sensitive to it to the point of not talking about it unless I am asked. Living out and being an example will help me teach my students some of the basic principles that they will need in life. Ultimately make the world a better place.

Palmer also says, “My effort to develop a spirituality of education is not an imposed, it is an attempt to recall education to the forgotten roots and meanings of its routine practices.” Some of the adult learners I teach do not know what discipline, accountability, mercy, grace, work ethic, or hard work is. If I can lead by example and hold my students accountable hopefully this will teach them life lessons in which they can survive in the real world. This is not always true for older learners, but the age group I teach in has not had very many life lessons or experiences. Although I am still young I have had enough life lessons that taught me values that have helped me through my life thus far.

I flew cargo about 2 1/2 years ago and during this time it made me re-evaluate what I was doing with my life and career. I thought I was going to die on a daily basis for a bunch of boxes and these experiences ended up drawing me back to education. My experience motivated me to want to make a difference in peoples lives.

In Cunningham’s article about abut the social responsibility, I agree with his points about ethics and the power struggle with knowledge. The purpose knowledge and adult education should not be a power struggle. Those who have the motivation should have access to learn. In addition to ethical issues one’s philosophical theories have an impact on the overall purpose.
John Elias, and Sharan Meriam discuss different philosophical foundations of adult education they bring up the Postmodern Adult education philosophy that offers constructive criticism to the entire enterprise of adult education. This view point intrigues me and motivates me to look at how to reach these people. What is the best way to educate someone with a postmodern view point? Postmodernity has been around for a long time, however, until recently there has not been a huge shift to this way of thought. Trying to see things from a postmodern view point and realizing you will not be able to convince them with “logic” is a scary thought for a lot of people. This brings up another purpose for adult educators is to be flexible to change and to be open to new methodologies and question what their purpose is.

In the end, anyone that is an adult educator has to find out their own purpose.