Educational Philosophies: Inputs for 21st Century College Science Teaching Initiatives in the New Normal

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the educational philosophies adhered by College Science teachers. A descriptive survey method was used, and an adopted research instrument was used to gather data from 18 Science teacher-participants. Findings revealed that Science teachers have high adherence to the philosophies with progressivism ranked first followed by behaviorism, existentialism, essentialism and perennialism, respectively. This implies that teachers espoused more on student – centered teaching beliefs than on teacher-centered beliefs. At 0.05 p-level of significance, a test of difference and Tukey HSD post hoc revealed that all profile variables considered such as sex (0.04), age (0.03), educational attainment (0.01), academic rank (0.01) and years in service (0.05) indicate significant differences on the educational philosophy orientations of the Science teachers. Progressivism, along with behaviorism and existentialism as contemporary educational philosophies are the most preferred educational philosophies by the male science teachers, young adult science educators and having academic ranks of assistant professors to professors. Findings of the study serve as inputs for 21st century College Science teaching and learning initiatives, taking into consideration their implications for teaching, and learning processes and considerations during the ‘new normal’.