Teaching Philosophy Inventory
Respond to all of the following statements with a number (1-5) representing one of the following:
1: Strongly disagree   2: Disagree   3: Neutral   4: Agree   5: Strongly agree
*In considering these statements, it is sometimes helpful to think specifically about one particular course that you might teach.*

Number	Statement	Response	
1	The curriculum should emphasize essential knowledge, not students’ personal interests.		
2	All learning results from rewards controlled by the external environment.		
3	Teachers should emphasize interdisciplinary subject matter that encourages project-oriented, democratic classrooms.		
4	Education should emphasize the search for personal meaning, not a set fixed body of knowledge.		
5	The ultimate aim of education is constant, absolute, and universal: to develop the rational person and cultivate the intellect.		
6	Educational institutions should actively involve students in social change to reform society.		
7	Educational institutions should teach basic skills, not humanistic ideals.		
8	Eventually, human behavior will be explained by scientific laws, proving there is no free will.		
9	Teachers should be facilitators and resources who guide student inquiry, not managers of behavior.		
10	The best teachers encourage personal responses and develop self-awareness of their students.		
11	The curriculum should be the same for everyone: the collective wisdom of Western culture delivered through lecture and discussion.		
12	Educational institutions should lead society toward radical social change, not transmit traditional values.		
13	The purpose of educational institutions is to ensure practical preparation for life and work, not to encourage personal development.		
14	Good teaching establishes an environment to control student behavior and to measure learning of prescribed objectives.		
15	Curriculum should emerge from students’ needs and interests; therefore, it should not be prescribed in advance.		
16	Helping students develop personal values is more important than transmitting traditional values.		
17	The best education consists primarily of exposure to great works in the humanities.		
18	It is more important for teachers to involve students in activities to criticize and transform society than to teach the Great Books.		
19	Educational institutions should emphasize discipline, hard work, and respect for authority, not encourage free choice.		
20	Human learning can be controlled: Anyone can be taught to be a scientist or a thief; therefore, personal choice is a myth.		
21	Education should enhance personal growth through problem solving in the present, not emphasize preparation for a distant future.		
22	Because we are born with an unformed personality, personal growth should be the focus of education.		
23	Human nature is constant–its most distinctive quality is the ability to reason; therefore, the intellect should be the focus of education.		
24	Educational institutions perpetuate racism and sexism camouflaged as traditional values.		
25	Teachers should efficiently transmit a common core of knowledge, not experiment with curriculum.		
26	Teaching is primarily management of student behavior to achieve the teacher’s objectives.		
27	Education should involve students in democratic activities and reflective thinking.		
28	Students should have significant involvement in choosing what and how they learn.		
29	Teachers should promote the permanency of the classics.		
30	Learning should lead students to involvement in social reform.		
31	On the whole, educational institutions should and must indoctrinate students with traditional values.		
32	If ideas cannot be proved by science, they should be ignored as superstition and nonsense.		
33	The major goal for teachers is to create an environment where students can learn on their own by guided reflection on their experiences.		
34	Teachers should create opportunities for students to make personal choices, not shape their behavior.		
35	The aim of education should be the same in every age and society; not differ from teacher to teacher.		
36	Education should lead society toward social betterment, not continue itself to essential skills.		

PHILOSOPHIC INVENTORY SCORE SHEET
In the space available, record the number you circled for each statement (1-36) from the inventory.  Total the number horizontally and record it in the space on the far right of the score sheet.  The highest total indicates your educational philosophy.
Essentialism 
Essentialism was a response to progressivism and advocates a conservative philosophic perspective.  The emphasis is on intellectual and moral standards that should be transmitted by the educational institution.  The core of the curriculum should be essential knowledge and skills.  Schooling should be practical and not influence social policy.  It is a back-to-basics movement that emphasizes facts.  Students should be taught discipline, hard work, and respect for authority.  Influential essentialists include William C. Bagley, Arthur Bestor, and E. D. Hirsch's Cultural Literacy.

Behaviorism
Behaviorism denies free will and maintains that behavior is the result of external forces that cause humans to behave in predictable ways.  It is linked with empiricism, which stresses scientific experiment and observation; behaviorists are skeptical about metaphysical claims.  Behaviorists look for laws governing human behavior the way natural scientists look for empirical laws governing natural events.  The role of the teacher is to identify behavioral goals and establish reinforcers to achieve goals.  Influential behaviorists include B. F. Skinner, Ivan Pavlov, J. B. Watson, and Benjamin Bloom.

Progressivism
Progressivism focuses on the child rather than the subject matter.  The students’ interests are important; integrating thinking, feeling, and doing is important.  Learners should be active and learn to solve problems by reflecting on their experience.  The educational institution should help students develop personal and social values.  Because society is always changing, new ideas are important to make the future better than the past.  Influential progressivists include John Dewey and Francis Parker.

Existentialism
Existentialism is a highly subjective philosophy that stresses the importance of the individual and emotional commitment to living authentically.  It emphasizes individual choice over the importance of rational theories.  Jean Paul Sartre, the French philosopher, claimed that “existence precedes essence.”  People are born, and each person must define him or herself through choices in life.  Influential existentialists include Jean Paul Sartre and Søren Kierkegaard.

Perennialism
The aim of education is to ensure that students acquire knowledge about the great ideas of Western culture.  Human beings are rational, and it is this capacity that needs to be developed.  Cultivation of the intellect is the highest priority of an education worth having.  The highest level of knowledge in each field should be the focus of curriculum.  Influential perennialists include Robert Maynard Hutchins, Mortimer Adler, and Allan Bloom. 

Reconstructionism
Reconstructionists advocate that educational institutions should take the lead to reconstruct society. Educational institutions have more than a responsibility to transmit knowledge; they have the mission to transform society as well.  Reconstructionists go beyond progressivists in advocating social activism.  Influential reconstructionists include Theodore Brameld, Paulo Freire, and George Counts.