Let review on philosophy of education

Philosophy begins with
wonder -Socrates

What is Philosophy?
- Philosophy means "love of wisdom."
- It is made up of two Greek words,
philo, meaning love, and sophos,
meaning wisdom.

- Philosophy helps teachers to reflect on
key issues and concepts in education,
usually through such questions as:
What is being educated?
What is the good life?
What is knowledge?
What is the nature of learning?
And What is teaching?

- Philosophers think about the
meaning of things and
interpretation of that meaning.
Even simple statements, such as
"What should be learned?
Or What is adolescence?"

Branch Metaphysics:
What is the nature of
reality?
Epistemology:
What is the nature of
knowledge? How do
we come to know?
Axiology:
What values should
one live by?
Educational
Examples
–Do you think
human beings
are basically
good or evil?
–What are
conservative or
liberal beliefs?
–How would an
anthropologist
look at this
classroom? A
political
scientist? A
biologist?
–How do we
know what a
child knows?
–Is morality
defined by our
actions, or by
what is in our
hearts?
–What values
should be taught
in character
education?

Sub-branches –Ontology
What issues are
related to nature,
existence, or
being? Is a child
inherently evil or
good? How might
your view
determine your
classroom
management?
Knowing based
on:
–Scientific
Inquiry
–Senses and
Feelings
–From authority
or divinity
–Empiricism
(experience)
–Intuition
–Reasoning or
Logic
–Ethics
What is good
and evil, right
and wrong?
Is it ever right to
take something
that does not
belong to you?

–Cosmology
What is the nature
and origin of the
cosmos or
universe?
Is the world and
universe orderly or
is it marked by
chaos?
What would one or
the other mean for
a classroom?
What reasoning
processes yield valid
conclusions?
Deductive: reasoning
from the general to
the particular All
children can learn.
Bret is a fifth grader.
He has a learning
disability. Can Bret
learn?
Inductive: reasoning
from the specific to
the general. After
experimenting with
plant growth under
varied conditions,
students conclude
plants need water and
light
–Aesthetics
What is beautiful?
How do we
recognize a great
piece of music?
Art?
Can there be
beauty in
destruction?

General or World Philosophies
Metaphysics
- literally means "beyond the physical."
- focuses on the nature of reality.
- attempts to find unity across the domains of
experience and thought.
- At the metaphysical level, there are four broad
philosophical schools of thought are idealism,
realism, pragmatism (sometimes called
experientialism), and existentialism.

* A fifth metaphysical school of thought, called
Scholasticism, is largely applied in Roman Catholic
schools in the educational philosophy called "Thomism."
It combines idealist and realist philosophies in a
framework that harmonized the ideas of Aristotle, the
realist, with idealist notions of truth. Thomas Aquinas,
1255-127, was the theologian who wrote "Summa
Theologica," formalizing church doctrine. The
Scholasticism movement encouraged the logical and
philosophical study of the beliefs of the church,
legitimizing scientific inquiry within a religious
framework.

Two of these general or world
philosophies, idealism and realism,
are derived from the ancient Greek
philosophers, Plato and Aristotle.
Two are more contemporary,
pragmatism and existentialism.

Idealism
- Central tenet that ideas are the only true
reality, the only thing worth knowing.
- In a search for truth, beauty, and justice
that is enduring and everlasting, the focus is
on conscious reasoning in the mind.

- Plato, father of Idealism, in his famous book, The
Republic believed that there are two worlds:
- the spiritual or mental world, which is
eternal, permanent, orderly, regular, and universal
- the world of appearance, the world
experienced through sight, touch, smell, taste, and
sound, that is changing, imperfect, and disorderly.

(duality of mind and body)
- as an ideal.
“Education to body and soul all the
beauty and perfection of which
they are capable"

- To understand truth, one must pursue
knowledge and identify with the Absolute
Mind.
- The soul is fully formed prior to birth and is
perfect and at one with the Universal Being.
- Education requires bringing latent ideas
(fully formed concepts) to consciousness.

Aim of education
- To discover and develop each individual's abilities and
full moral excellence in order to better serve society.
Curricular emphasis
- Subject matter of mind: literature, history, philosophy,
and religion.

Teaching methods
- lecture, discussion, and Socratic
dialogue (a method of teaching that
uses questioning to help students
discover and clarify knowledge).
Introspection, intuition, insight, and
whole-part logic

Character is developed through
imitating examples and heroes.

Realism
- Reality exists independent of the human mind.
- The ultimate reality is the world of physical
objects.
- The focus is on the body/objects. Truth is
objective-what can be observed.

- Aristotle, a student of Plato, is
called the father of both Realism
and the scientific method.
-The aim is to understand
objective reality through "the
diligent and unsparing scrutiny of
all observable data.

" Aristotle believed that to
understand an
object, its ultimate form had to be
understood, which does not
change.

- Aristotle also was the first to teach
logic as a formal discipline in order to
be able to reason about physical
events and aspects.
- The exercise of rational thought is
viewed as the ultimate purpose for
humankind.

Curriculum
- emphasizes the subject matter of the
physical world, particularly science
and mathematics. The teacher
organizes and presents content
systematically within a discipline,
demonstrating use of criteria in
making decisions.

Teaching methods
- mastery of facts and basic skills
through demonstration and
recitation.
- think critically and scientifically, using
observation and experimentation.

- Curriculum should be scientifically
approached, standardized, and
distinct-discipline based.
Character is developed through
training in the rules of conduct.

Pragmatism (Experientialism)
-only those things that are experienced or
observed are real.
- the focus is on the reality of experience.
- believe that reality is constantly changing
and that we learn best through applying our
experiences and thoughts to problems, as
they arise.

- The universe is dynamic and
evolving, a "becoming" view of
the world. There is no absolute
and unchanging truth, but
rather, truth is what works.

- is derived from the teaching of
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-
1914), who believed that thought
must produce action, rather than
linger in the mind and lead to
indecisiveness.

- John Dewey (1859-1952) applied
pragmatist philosophy in his
progressive approaches believed that
learners must adapt to each other and
to their environment.
- Character development is based on
making group decisions in light of
consequences.

- Pragmatists believe that learners
should apply their knowledge to real
situations through experimental
inquiry.
This prepares students for citizenship,
daily living, and future careers.

- Schools should emphasize the subject
matter of social experience.
- All learning is dependent on the
context of place, time, and
circumstance.
- The ultimate purpose is the creation of
a new social order.

Teaching methods
- focus on hands-on problem solving,
experimenting, and projects, often
having students work in groups.
Curriculum should bring the disciplines
together to focus on solving problems in
an interdisciplinary way.

Existentialism
- The nature of reality is subjective,
and lies within the individual.
Individual choice and individual
standards rather than external
standards are central.

Existence comes before any definition
of what we are. We define ourselves in
relationship to that existence by the
choices we make. We should not
accept anyone else's predetermined
philosophical system; rather, we must
take responsibility for deciding who we
are.

The focus is on freedom, the
development of authentic
individuals, as we make meaning of
our lives.

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), a Danish
minister and philosopher, is considered to
be the founder of existentialism.
A group of existentialists, largely European,
believes that we must recognize the
finiteness of our lives on this small and
fragile planet, rather than believing in
salvation through God.

- Our existence is not guaranteed in
an after life, so there is tension
about life and the certainty of death,
of hope or despair.
- American existentialists have
focused more on human potential
and the quest for personal
meaning.

- Values clarification is an outgrowth of this
movement.
- The French philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre,
suggested that for youth, the existential
moment arises when young persons realize
for the first time that choice is theirs, that
they are responsible for themselves. Their
question becomes "Who am I and what
should I do?

- The subject matter of existentialist
classrooms should be a matter of
personal choice.
- Character development emphasizes
individual responsibility for decisions.

individual, not from outside authority.
Examining life through authentic
thinking involves students in genuine
learning experiences.
- Existentialists want the educational
experience to focus on creating
opportunities for self-direction and
self actualization. They start with the
student, rather than on curriculum
content.

Think about It:
1. Which general or world view philosophy best
fits with your own views of reality? Why?
2. It is said that an image is worth a thousand
words. What might be your image metaphor for
each of these world or metaphysical
philosophies?

Epistemological Frame
- focuses on the nature of knowledge and how we
come to know.
- Four major educational philosophies are
Perennialism, Essentialism, Progressivism, and
Reconstructionism.
- These educational philosophies focus heavily on
WHAT we should teach, the curriculum aspect.

PERENNIALISM
- the aim of education is to ensure that students
acquire understandings about the great ideas
of Western civilization.
- The focus is to teach ideas that are everlasting,
to seek enduring truths which are constant, not
changing, as the natural and human worlds at
their most essential level, do not change.

- Humans are rational beings, and
their minds need to be developed.
Thus, cultivation of the intellect is
the highest priority in a worthwhile
education.

- Curriculum focuses on attaining cultural
literacy, stressing students' growth in
enduring disciplines.
- The loftiest accomplishments of
humankind are emphasized– the great
works of literature and art, the laws or
principles of science.

- Advocates of this educational
philosophy are Robert Maynard
Hutchins who developed a Great
Books program in 1963 and
Mortimer Adler, who further
developed this curriculum based
on 100 great books of western
civilization.

Essentialism
- believe that there is a common core of
knowledge that needs to be transmitted to
students in a systematic, disciplined way.
- The emphasis in this conservative
perspective is on intellectual and moral
standards that schools should teach.

- The core of the curriculum is
essential knowledge and skills and
academic rigor.

- Essentialists accept the idea that this
core curriculum may change.
Schooling should be practical,
preparing students to become
valuable members of society. It should
focus on facts-the objective reality
out there--and "the basics," training
students to read, write, speak, and
compute clearly and logically.

- Students should be taught hard work,
respect for authority, and discipline.
- Teachers are to help students keep
their non-productive instincts in check,
such as aggression or mindlessness.

- Proponents of Essentialism are:
William Bagley, James D. Koerner
(1959), H. G. Rickover (1959), Paul
Copperman (1978), and Theodore
Sizer (1985).

Progressivism
- believe that education should focus on the
whole child, rather than on the content or the
teacher.
-Students should test ideas by active
experimentation.
- Learning is rooted in the questions of learners
that arise through experiencing the world.

- It is active, not passive.
- The learner is a problem solver and thinker
who makes meaning through his or her
individual experience in the physical and
cultural context.
- Effective teachers provide experiences so
that students can learn by doing.
- Curriculum content is derived from student
interests and questions.

- The scientific method is used so that students
can study matter and events systematically and
first hand.
- The emphasis is on process-how one comes to
know.
- John Dewey was its foremost proponent. One
of his tenets was that the school should improve
the way of life of our citizens through
experiencing freedom and democracy in schools.

- Shared decision making, planning of
teachers with students, student-
selected topics are all aspects.
- Books are tools, rather than
authority.

Reconstructionism/Critical Theory
- Emphasizes the addressing of social
questions and a quest to create a better
society and worldwide democracy.
- Reconstructionist educators focus on a
curriculum that highlights social reform as
the aim of education.

- Theodore Brameld (1904-1987) was
the founder of social
reconstructionism. He recognized the
potential for either human annihilation
through technology and human cruelty
or the capacity to create a beneficent
society using technology and human
compassion.

- George Counts (1889-1974)
recognized that education was the
means of preparing people for
creating this new social order.

- Believe that systems must be
changed to overcome oppression and
improve human conditions.
Paulo Freire (1921-1997) believed that
humans must learn to resist
oppression and not become its victims,
nor oppress others.

- To do so requires dialog and
critical consciousness, the
development of awareness to
overcome domination and
oppression.

- Rather than "teaching as
banking," in which the educator
deposits information into students'
heads, Freire saw teaching and
learning as a process of inquiry in
which the child must invent and
reinvent the world.

Curriculum
- it focuses on student experience
and taking social action on real
problems, such as violence,
hunger, international terrorism,
inflation, and inequality.

Strategies
- dealing with controversial issues
(particularly in social studies and
literature), inquiry, dialogue, and
multiple perspectives are the focus.
Community-based learning and
bringing the world into the classroom
are also strategies.

Think about It:
1. Which of these educational philosophies
would you describe as authoritarian? Which as
non-authoritarian? Why?
2. Each of the educational philosophies relates
to one or more of the metaphysical world view
philosophies. What connections do you see?
3. Which educational philosophy is most
compatible with your beliefs? Why?

(Psychological Orientations of Learning)
- The focus is on how learning occurs.
- They provide structures for the
instructional aspects of teaching, suggesting
methods that are related to their
perspective on learning.

- These theoretical beliefs about learning are
concerned with the nature of learning.
- The first two theoretical approaches can be
thought of as transmissive, in that
information is given to learners.
The second two approaches are
constructivist, in that the learner has to make
meaning from experiences in the world.

Information Processing
- focus on the mind and how it works to explain
how learning occurs. The focus is on the
processing of a relatively fixed body of
knowledge and how it is attended to, received in
the mind, processed, stored, and retrieved from
memory.
- This model is derived from analogies between
how the brain works and computer processing.

- Information processing theorists
focus on the individual rather than
the social aspects of thinking and
learning. The mind is a symbolic
processor that stores information
in schemas or hierarchically
arranged structures.

- Knowledge may be general,
applicable to many situations; for
example, knowing how to type or
spell. Other knowledge is domain
specific, applicable to a specific subject
or task, such as vowel sounds in
Spanish.

- Knowledge is also Declarative (content, or knowing
that; for example, schools have students, teachers, and
administrators)
Procedural (knowing how to do things—the steps or
strategies; for example, to multiply mixed number,
change both sides to improper fractions, then multiply
numerators and denominators), or
Conditional (knowing when and why to apply the other
two types of knowledge; for example, when taking a
standardized multiple choice test, keep track of time, be
strategic, and don't get bogged down on hard problems).

- The intake and representation of
information is called encoding. It is sent
to the short term or working memory,
acted upon, and those pieces
determined as important are sent to
long term memory storage, where they
must be retrieved and sent back to the
working or short-term memory for use.

Short term memory has very limited
capacity, so it must be kept active to
be retained. Long term memory is
organized in structures, called
schemas, scripts, or propositional or
hierarchical networks. Something
learned can be retrieved by relating it
to other aspects, procedures, or
episodes.

- The teacher's job is to help
students to develop strategies for
thinking and remembering.

Behaviorism
- Believe that behavior is shaped deliberately
by forces in the environment and that the
type of person and actions desired can be the
product of design. In other words, behavior is
determined by others, rather than by our
own free will.

- By carefully shaping desirable
behavior, morality and information is
learned.
- Repetition of a meaningful
connection results in learning. If the
student is ready for the connection,
learning is enhanced; if not, learning is
inhibited.

- Motivation to learn is the
satisfying aftereffect, or
reinforcement.

Behaviorism is linked with empiricism,
which stresses scientific information and
observation, rather than subjective or
metaphysical realities.
- Change in behavior must be observable;
internal thought processes are not
considered.

- Learning occurs as a result of
responses to stimuli in the environment
that are reinforced by adults and others,
as well as from feedback from actions
on objects.

- The teacher can help students learn
by conditioning them through
identifying the desired behaviors in
measurable, observable terms,
recording these behaviors and their
frequencies, identifying appropriate
reinforcers for each desired behavior,
and providing the reinforcer as soon as
the student displays the behavior.

Cognitivism/Constructivism
- believe that the learner actively constructs
his or her own understandings of reality
through interaction with objects, events,
and people in the environment, and
reflecting on these interactions.

- Early perceptual psychologists
(Gestalt psychology) focused on the
making of wholes from bits and pieces
of objects and events in the world,
believing that meaning was the
construction in the brain of patterns
from these pieces.

- For learning to occur, an event,
object, or experience must conflict
with what the learner already knows.
Therefore, the learner's previous
experiences determine what can be
learned.

- Piaget described intelligent behavior as adaptation.
The learner organizes his or her understanding in
organized structures. At the simplest level, these are
called schemes. When something new is presented,
the learner must modify these structures in order to
deal with the new information. This process, called
equilibration, is the balancing between what is
assimilated (the new) and accommodation, the
change in structure. The child goes through four
distinct stages or levels in his or her understandings of
the world.

Some constructivists (particularly
Vygotsky) emphasize the shared, social
construction of knowledge, believing
that the particular social and cultural
context and the interactions of novices
with more expert thinkers (usually
adult) facilitate or scaffold the learning
process.

- The teacher mediates between
the new material to be learned and
the learner's level of readiness,
supporting the child's growth
through his or her "zone of
proximal development."

Humanism
- believed in the essential goodness of
children, that humans have free will, moral
conscience, the ability to reason, aesthetic
sensibility, and religious instinct.
- advocated that the young should be
treated kindly and that learning should not
be forced or rushed, as it proceeds in stages.

- Humanism was developed as an
educational philosophy by Rousseau
(1712-1778) and Pestalozzi, who
emphasized nature and the basic
goodness of humans, understanding
through the senses, and education as a
gradual and unhurried process in which
the development of human character
follows the unfolding of nature.

- believe that the learner should be in
control of his or her own destiny. Since
the learner should become a fully
autonomous person, personal
freedom, choice, and responsibility are
the focus.

- The learner is self-motivated to
achieve towards the highest level
possible. Motivation to learn is
intrinsic in humanism.

- Development of a healthy self-
concept, awareness of the
psychological needs, helping students
to strive to be all that they can are
important concepts, espoused in
theories of Abraham Maslow, Carl
Rogers, and Alfred Adler that are
found in classrooms today.

- Teachers emphasize freedom
from threat, emotional well-being,
learning processes, and self-
fulfillment.
*Some theorists call Rousseau's
philosophy naturalism and consider
this to be a world or metaphysical
level philosophy.

Think about It:
1. Which psychological orientations are
most compatible with which
educational philosophies? Explain.
2. Explain the differences in focus of
the educational philosophies and
psychological orientations. Are there
also similarities?

QUESTIONS FOR
PHILOSOPHY OF
EDUCATION

If a teacher focuses on students’
experiences what philosophy is he
adhering to?
A. Cognitivism
B. Constructivism
C. Idealism
D. Hedonism

If a teacher focuses on “reviving
the classics”, he is considered as
_______
A. essentialist
B. humanist
C. idealism
D. perennialism

If a teacher adheres to “decision-
making”, he is called a _______
A. existentialist
B.idealist
C. idealism
D. perennialism

If a teacher emphasizes on
“practice of own ways than
“copying from other’s ways” then
he adheres to _______
A. existentialist
B.pragmatism
C. idealism
D. perennialism

If a teacher adheres to “use in
society” what philosophy is he
adhering to?
A. Utilitarianism
B. Idealism
C. Realism
D. Pragmatism

On which philosophy is the
inclusion of the study of Rizal and
the other national heroes in the
school curriculum based?
A. Existentialism B. Realism
C. Pragmatism D. Idealism

Teacher X says “Perfection must be
real. While we cannot attain it here on
earth, we aspire for it. It must be real.
“Teacher X leans towards which
philosophy?
A. Idealism B. Philosophical
analysis
C. Realism D. Pragmatism

How do cognitive psychologists
see the learner?
A. With empty minds
B. Full of experiences
C. Uninterested to learn
D. Totally conditioned by
environment

Principal A tells his teachers to employ
more cooperative learning to help
students develop social virtues like
cooperation. Which philosophy
governs Principal A’s thinking?
A. Essentialism B. Perennialism
C. Existentialism D. Progressivism

Teacher A is convinced that she should
teach her students to appreciate
themselves for who they are and to
accept the responsibility for their
thoughts, feeling and actions. Which
philosophy governs Teacher A’s
thought?
A. Existentialism B. Realism
C. Perennialism D. Naturalism

Which group of philosophers has
opposite views from the
rationalists?
A. Empiricists
B. Existentialism
C. Naturalists
D. Idealists

If you help your children choose their
way of life. To which educational
philosophy do you adhere?
A. Reconstructionism
B. Progressivism
C. Existentialism
D. Realism

To arouse in them the spirit of
nationalism, Teacher F plays Philippine
folk music as pupils enter the
classrooms after flag ceremony. To
what theory does Teacher F adhere?
A. Gestalt psychology B. Humanistic
psychology
C. Behaviorism D. Psycholoanalysis

Teacher C observes cleanliness and
order in her classroom to create a
conducive atmosphere for learning. On
which theory is her practice based?
A. Psychoanalysis
B. Humanistic psychology
C. Gestalt psychology
D. Behaviorism

The emphasis on the scientific method
is backed up by which philosophy?
A. Idealism
B. Utilitarianism
C. Empiricism
D. Perennialism

On which theory is the logical
sequencing of curriculum based?
A. Perennialism
B. Reconstructionism
C. Progressivism
D. Essentialism

As a teacher, you must help children
confront their freedom. You assist
them in their personal life journey.
From whom does this advice come?
A. Reconstructionist B. Progressivist
C. Existentialist D. Idealist

On which philosophy is the practice of
engaging students in the process of
introspection anchored?
A. Idealism
B. Empiricism
C. Reconstructionism
D. Pragmatism

John Dewey has been associated with
all the following philosophies/theories
EXCEPT _____.
A. pragmatism
B. social reconstructionism
C. Idealism
D. progressivism

Let review on philosophy of education

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