Joan Koster

Students: please call me..... Joan

Education - B.A. Adelphi University, Art education K-12, M.A. Temple University, Elementary education N-6
Predoctoral student, School of Education, Binghamton University

For my dissertation topic I am researching the ways white teachers address racism in predominantly white schools.

Work Experience - At BCC I teach ECE 120 Curriculum Development and ECE 145 Arts for Young Children. This is my 34th year of teaching. My first teaching job was working with three year olds at Sands Point Academy. After that I taught elementary art for 17 years - 6 years in Neshaminy, Pennsylvania and the rest here at Maine-Endwell. In Neshaminy I taught in a school that was entirely special education where I worked with children who had severe disabilities. In 1994 I became a 3rd grade teacher in an inclusive elementary classroom at Maine Memorial School. For the last 6 years I have been the Talent Development teacher at Homer Brink School where I work with EK to 5th grade developing the academic talents of all students through a variety of programs including learning centers, independent study, and cross-disciplinary curriculum projects.

Statement of philosophy of education - I agree with John Dewey that the purpose of education is the growth and development of citizens who think freely, imaginatively, and critically so they can work together from their different cultural perspectives to solve problems, and that it is through education that social reform and progress happen. Based on the learning theories of Piaget and Vygotsky and current research on how our brain works, I believe that in order to accomplish this, children must construct their own knowledge of how the world works based on real experiences, and that this is best accomplished when teachers create developmentally appropriate, cognitively challenging, anti-bias environments in which they model critical thinking and question finding. This empowers children so they can find the answers to their own questions and become lifelong learners. In addition, Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences has broadened our view of human potential and supports interdisciplinary curriculum design with a high level of arts integration.