Educational philosophies

EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHIES
The term metaphysics literally means "beyond the physical." This area of
philosophy focuses on the nature of reality. Metaphysics attempts to find
unity across the domains of experience and thought. At the metaphysical
level, there are four* broad philosophical schools of thought that apply to
education today. They are idealism, realism, pragmatism (sometimes
called experientialism), and existentialism. Each will be explained
shortly. These four general frameworks provide the root or base from
which the various educational philosophies are derived.
* 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. However, educators
who share one of these distinct sets of beliefs about the nature of reality
presently apply each of these world philosophies in successful
classrooms. Let us explore each of these metaphysical schools of thought.
IDEALISM
Idealism is a philosophical approach that has as its 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, espoused this
view about 400 years BC, in his famous book, The Republic. Plato
believed that there are two worlds. The first is the spiritual or mental
world, which is eternal, permanent, orderly, regular, and universal. There
is also the world of appearance, the world experienced through sight,
touch, smell, taste, and sound, that is changing, imperfect, and disorderly.
This division is often referred to as the duality of mind and body.
Reacting against what he perceived as too much of a focus on the
immediacy of the physical and sensory world, Plato described a utopian
society in which "education to body and soul all the beauty and perfection
of which they are capable" as an ideal. In his allegory of the cave, the
shadows of the sensory world must be overcome with the light of reason
or universal truth. To understand truth, one must pursue knowledge and
identify with the Absolute Mind. Plato also believed that the soul is fully
formed prior to birth and is perfect and at one with the Universal Being.
The birth process checks this perfection, so education requires bringing
latent ideas (fully formed concepts) to consciousness.

not change. For example, a rose exists whether or not a person is aware of
it. A rose can exist in the mind without being physically present, but
ultimately, the rose shares properties with all other roses and flowers (its
form), although one rose may be red and another peach colored. 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. The Realist
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 focus on mastery of facts and basic
skills through demonstration and recitation. Students must also
demonstrate the ability to 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)
For pragmatists, only those things that are experienced or observed are
real. In this late 19th century American philosophy, the focus is on the
reality of experience. Unlike the Realists and Rationalists, Pragmatists
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.
Pragmatism 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. He believed that learners must adapt to each
other and to their environment. Schools should emphasize the subject
matter of social experience. All learning is dependent on the context of
place, time, and circumstance. Different cultural and ethnic groups learn
to work cooperatively and contribute to a democratic society. The
ultimate purpose is the creation of a new social order. Character
development is based on making group decisions in light of
consequences.
For Pragmatists, 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. Rather than passing down
organized bodies of knowledge to new learners, Pragmatists believe that
learners should apply their knowledge to real situations through
experimental inquiry. This prepares students for citizenship, daily living,
and future careers.

In idealism, the aim of education is to discover and develop each
individual's abilities and full moral excellence in order to better serve
society. The curricular emphasis is subject matter of mind: literature,
history, philosophy, and religion. Teaching methods focus on handling
ideas through 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 are
used to bring to consciousness the forms or concepts which are latent in
the mind. Character is developed through imitating examples and heroes.

EXISTENTIALISM
The nature of reality for Existentialists is subjective, and lies within the
individual. The physical world has no inherent meaning outside of human
existence. 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.

REALISM
Realists believe that 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 who broke with his mentor's idealist philosophy, is called
the father of both Realism and the scientific method. In this metaphysical
view, 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

There are several different orientations within the existentialist
philosophy. Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), a Danish minister and
philosopher, is considered to be the founder of existentialism. His was a
Christian orientation. Another 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. Unlike the more austere
European approaches where the universe is seen as meaningless when

1

faced with the certainty of the end of existence, American existentialists
have focused more on human potential and the quest for personal
meaning. Values clarification is an outgrowth of this movement.
Following the bleak period of World War II, 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?
Related to education, the subject matter of existentialist classrooms
should be a matter of personal choice. Teachers view the individual as an
entity within a social context in which the learner must confront others'
views to clarify his or her own. Character development emphasizes
individual responsibility for decisions. Real answers come from within
the individual, not from outside authority. Examining life through
authentic thinking involves students in genuine learning experiences.
Existentialists are opposed to thinking about students as objects to be
measured, tracked, or standardized. Such educators 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.
Within the epistemological frame that focuses on the nature of knowledge
and how we come to know, there are four major educational philosophies,
each related to one or more of the general or world philosophies just
discussed. These educational philosophical approaches are currently used
in classrooms the world over. They are Perennialism, Essentialism,
Progressivism, and Reconstructionism. These educational philosophies
focus heavily on WHAT we should teach, the curriculum aspect.
PERENNIALISM
For Perennialists, the aim of education is to ensure that students acquire
understandings about the great ideas of Western civilization. These ideas
have the potential for solving problems in any era. 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. Teaching these unchanging principles is critical. Humans
are rational beings, and their minds need to be developed. Thus,
cultivation of the intellect is the highest priority in a worthwhile
education. The demanding 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
Essentialists 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. Although this
educational philosophy is similar in some ways to Perennialism,
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. Schools should not try to set or influence
policies. 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. This approach was
in reaction to progressivist approaches prevalent in the 1920s and 30s.
William Bagley, took progressivist approaches to task in the journal he
formed in 1934. Other proponents of Essentialism are: James D. Koerner

(1959), H. G. Rickover (1959), Paul Copperman (1978), and Theodore
Sizer (1985).
PROGRESSIVISM
Progressivists believe that education should focus on the whole child,
rather than on the content or the teacher. This educational philosophy
stresses that 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 by progressivist educators so that students can study matter and
events systematically and first hand. The emphasis is on process-how one
comes to know. The Progressive education philosophy was established in
America from the mid 1920s through the mid 1950s. 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
Social reconstructionism is a philosophy that 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, in reaction
against the realities of World War II. 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.
Critical theorists, like social reconstructionists, believe that systems must
be changed to overcome oppression and improve human conditions.
Paulo Freire (1921-1997) was a Brazilian whose experiences living in
poverty led him to champion education and literacy as the vehicle for
social change. In his view, 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.
For social reconstructionists and critical theorists, curriculum focuses on
student experience and taking social action on real problems, such as
violence, hunger, international terrorism, inflation, and inequality.
Strategies for 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.
Information
Processing
Information Processing theorists 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,

2

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).

which triggers a quest to restore the equilibrium. 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.

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. There are many strategies that can help
in both getting information into long term memory and retrieving it from
memory. The teacher's job is to help students to develop strategies for
thinking and remembering.

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."

BEHAVIORISM
Behaviorist theorists 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. Learners will acquire and
remember responses that lead to satisfying aftereffects. 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. Behaviorists search for laws that govern human behavior, like
scientists who look for pattern sin empirical events. Change in behavior
must be observable; internal thought processes are not considered.
Ivan Pavlov's research on using the reinforcement of a bell sound when
food was presented to a dog and finding the sound alone would make a
dog salivate after several presentations of the conditioned stimulus, was
the beginning of behaviorist approaches. 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. For example, if children are supposed to raise hands to get
called on, we might reinforce a child who raises his hand by using praise,
"Thank you for raising your hand." Other influential behaviorists include
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) and James B. Watson (1878-1958).
COGNITIVISM/CONSTRUCTIVISM
Cognitivists or Constructivists 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. Motivation to learn is
experiencing conflict with what one knows, which causes an imbalance,

HUMANISM
The roots of humanism are found in the thinking of Erasmus (14661536), who attacked the religious teaching and thought prevalent in his
time to focus on free inquiry and rediscovery of the classical roots from
Greece and Rome. Erasmus believed in the essential goodness of
children, that humans have free will, moral conscience, the ability to
reason, aesthetic sensibility, and religious instinct. He 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. Humanists 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.
Recent applications of humanist philosophy focus on the social and
emotional well-being of the child, as well as the cognitive. 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.
PHILOSOPHERS OF EDUCATION
Socrates (c. 469 BC – 399 BC) Socrates' important contribution to
Western thought is his dialectic method of inquiry, known as the Socratic
method or method of "elenchus", first described by Plato in the Socratic
Dialogues. To solve a problem, it would be broken down into a series of
questions, the answers to which gradually distill the answer a person
would seek. The influence of this approach is most strongly felt today in
the use of the scientific method, in which hypothesis is the first stage. The
development and practice of this method is one of Socrates' most
enduring contributions.
Plato (424/423 BCE - 348/347 BCE) Plato's educational philosophy was
grounded in his vision of the ideal Republic, wherein the individual was
best served by being subordinated to a just society. He advocated
removing children from their mothers' care and raising them as wards of
the state, with great care being taken to differentiate children suitable to
the various castes, the highest receiving the most education, so that they
could act as guardians of the city and care for the less able. Education
would be holistic, including facts, skills, physical discipline, and music
and art, which he considered the highest form of endeavor.

3

Plato believed that talent was distributed non-genetically and thus must
be found in children born in any social class. He builds on this by
insisting that those suitably gifted are to be trained by the state so that
they may be qualified to assume the role of a ruling class. What this
establishes is essentially a system of selective public education premised
on the assumption that an educated minority of the population are, by
virtue of their education (and inborn educability), sufficient for healthy
governance.
Plato's writings contain some of the following ideas: Elementary
education would be confined to the guardian class till the age of 18,
followed by two years of compulsory military training and then by higher
education for those who qualified. While elementary education made the
soul responsive to the environment, higher education helped the soul to
search for truth which illuminated it. Both boys and girls receive the same
kind of education. Elementary education consisted of music and
gymnastics, designed to train and blend gentle and fierce qualities in the
individual and create a harmonious person.
At the age of 20, a selection was made. The best students would take an
advanced course in mathematics, geometry, astronomy and harmonics.
The first course in the scheme of higher education would last for ten
years. It would be for those who had a flair for science. At the age of 30
there would be another selection; those who qualified would study
dialectics and metaphysics, logic and philosophy for the next five years.
After accepting junior positions in the army for 15 years, a man would
have completed his theoretical and practical education by the age of 50.
Aristotle (384 BCE - 322 BCE) Only fragments of Aristotle's treatise
On Education are still in existence. We thus know of his philosophy of
education primarily through brief passages in other works. Aristotle
considered human nature, habit and reason to be equally important forces
to be cultivated in education. [14] Thus, for example, he considered
repetition to be a key tool to develop good habits. The teacher was to lead
the student systematically; this differs, for example, from Socrates'
emphasis on questioning his listeners to bring out their own ideas (though
the comparison is perhaps incongruous since Socrates was dealing with
adults).
Aristotle placed great emphasis on balancing the theoretical and practical
aspects of subjects taught. Subjects he explicitly mentions as being
important included reading, writing and mathematics; music; physical
education; literature and history; and a wide range of sciences. He also
mentioned the importance of play.
One of education's primary missions for Aristotle, perhaps its most
important, was to produce good and virtuous citizens for the polis. All
who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been
convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth. [15]
Avicenna (980 - 1037)In the medieval Islamic world, an elementary
school was known as a maktab, which dates back to at least the 10th
century. Like madrasahs (which referred to higher education), a maktab
was often attached to a mosque. In the 11th century, Ibn Sina (known as
Avicenna in the West), wrote a chapter dealing with the maktab entitled
"The Role of the Teacher in the Training and Upbringing of Children", as
a guide to teachers working at maktab schools. He wrote that children can
learn better if taught in classes instead of individual tuition from private
tutors, and he gave a number of reasons for why this is the case, citing the
value of competition and emulation among pupils as well as the
usefulness of group discussions and debates. Ibn Sina described the
curriculum of a maktab school in some detail, describing the curricula for
two stages of education in a maktab school.[16]
Ibn Sina wrote that children should be sent to a maktab school from the
age of 6 and be taught primary education until they reach the age of 14.
During which time, he wrote that they should be taught the Qur'an,

Islamic metaphysics, language, literature, Islamic ethics, and manual
skills (which could refer to a variety of practical skills). [16]
Ibn Sina refers to the secondary education stage of maktab schooling as
the period of specialization, when pupils should begin to acquire manual
skills, regardless of their social status. He writes that children after the
age of 14 should be given a choice to choose and specialize in subjects
they have an interest in, whether it was reading, manual skills, literature,
preaching, medicine, geometry, trade and commerce, craftsmanship, or
any other subject or profession they would be interested in pursuing for a
future career. He wrote that this was a transitional stage and that there
needs to be flexibility regarding the age in which pupils graduate, as the
student's emotional development and chosen subjects need to be taken
into account.[17]
The empiricist theory of 'tabula rasa' was also developed by Ibn Sina. He
argued that the "human intellect at birth is rather like a tabula rasa, a pure
potentiality that is actualized through education and comes to know" and
that knowledge is attained through "empirical familiarity with objects in
this world from which one abstracts universal concepts" which is
developed through a "syllogistic method of reasoning; observations lead
to prepositional statements, which when compounded lead to further
abstract concepts." He further argued that the intellect itself "possesses
levels of development from the material intellect (al-‘aql al-hayulani),
that potentiality that can acquire knowledge to the active intellect (al-‘aql
al-fa‘il), the state of the human intellect in conjunction with the perfect
source of knowledge." [18]
Ibn Tufail (c. 1105 - 1185) In the 12th century, the Andalusian-Arabian
philosopher and novelist Ibn Tufail (known as "Abubacer" or "Ebn
Tophail" in the West) demonstrated the empiricist theory of 'tabula rasa'
as a thought experiment through his Arabic philosophical novel, Hayy ibn
Yaqzan, in which he depicted the development of the mind of a feral child
"from a tabula rasa to that of an adult, in complete isolation from society"
on a desert island, through experience alone. The Latin translation of his
philosophical novel, Philosophus Autodidactus, published by Edward
Pococke the Younger in 1671, had an influence on John Locke's
formulation of tabula rasa in "An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding".[19]
John Locke (1632-1704) Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education
is an outline on how to educate the mind: he expresses the belief that
education maketh the man, or, more fundamentally, that the mind is an
"empty cabinet", with the statement, "I think I may say that of all the men
we meet with, nine parts of ten are what they are, good or evil, useful or
not, by their education."
Locke also wrote that "the little and almost insensible impressions on our
tender infancies have very important and lasting consequences." He
argued that the "associations of ideas" that one makes when young are
more important than those made later because they are the foundation of
the self: they are, put differently, what first mark the tabula rasa. In his
Essay, in which is introduced both of these concepts, Locke warns
against, for example, letting "a foolish maid" convince a child that
"goblins and sprites" are associated with the night for "darkness shall ever
afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas, and they shall be so joined,
that he can no more bear the one than the other." [22]
"Associationism", as this theory would come to be called, exerted a
powerful influence over eighteenth-century thought, particularly
educational theory, as nearly every educational writer warned parents not
to allow their children to develop negative associations. It also led to the
development of psychology and other new disciplines with David
Hartley's attempt to discover a biological mechanism for associationism
in his Observations on Man (1749).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) Rousseau, though he paid his
respects to Plato's philosophy, rejected it as impractical due to the

4

decayed state of society. Rousseau also had a different theory of human
development; where Plato held that people are born with skills
appropriate to different castes (though he did not regard these skills as
being inherited), Rousseau held that there was one developmental process
common to all humans. This was an intrinsic, natural process, of which
the primary behavioral manifestation was curiosity. This differed from
Locke's 'tabula rasa' in that it was an active process deriving from the
child's nature, which drove the child to learn and adapt to its
surroundings.
Rousseau wrote in his book Emile that all children are perfectly designed
organisms, ready to learn from their surroundings so as to grow into
virtuous adults, but due to the malign influence of corrupt society, they
often fail to do so. Rousseau advocated an educational method which
consisted of removing the child from society—for example, to a country
home—and alternately conditioning him through changes to his
environment and setting traps and puzzles for him to solve or overcome.
Rousseau was unusual in that he recognized and addressed the potential
of a problem of legitimation for teaching. He advocated that adults
always be truthful with children, and in particular that they never hide the
fact that the basis for their authority in teaching was purely one of
physical coercion: "I'm bigger than you." Once children reached the age
of reason, at about 12, they would be engaged as free individuals in the
ongoing process of their own.
He once said that a child should grow up without adult interference and
that the child must be guided to suffer from the experience of the natural
consequences of his own acts or behaviour. When he experiences the
consequences of his own acts, he advises himself.
"Rousseau divides development into five stages (a book is devoted to
each). Education in the first two stages seeks to the senses: only when
Émile is about 12 does the tutor begin to work to develop his mind. Later,
in Book 5, Rousseau examines the education of Sophie (whom Émile is
to marry). Here he sets out what he sees as the essential differences that
flow from sex. 'The man should be strong and active; the woman should
be weak and passive' (Everyman edn: 322). From this difference comes a
contrasting education. They are not to be brought up in ignorance and
kept to housework: Nature means them to think, to will, to love to
cultivate their minds as well as their persons; she puts these weapons in
their hands to make up for their lack of strength and to enable them to
direct the strength of men. They should learn many things, but only such
things as suitable' (Everyman edn.: 327)." Émile
Étienne Bonnot de Condillac (1715 – 1780) Étienne Bonnot de
Condillac was a French philosopher and epistemologist who studied in
such areas as psychology and the philosophy of the mind. Condillac's
collected works were published in 1798 (23 vols.) and two or three times
subsequently; the last edition (1822) has an introductory dissertation by
A. F. Théry. The Encyclopédie méthodique has a very long article on
Condillac by Naigeon. Biographical details and criticism of the Traité des
systèmes in J. P. Damiron's Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire de to
philosophie au dixhuitieme siècle, tome iii.; a full criticism in V Cousin's
Cours de l'histoire de la philosophie moderne, ser. i. tome iii. Consult
also F Rethoré, Condillac ou l'empirisme et le rationalisme (1864); L
Dewaule, Condillac et la psychologie anglaise contemporaine (1891);
histories of philosophy.
Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776 – 1841) Considered the founder of
pedagogy as an academic discipline, Herbart established a system of
pedagogy built on the preparation and then presentation of engaging
material (for example, using genuine works of literature rather than
school readers), analysis with the class, review of the material, and
drawing conclusions relevant to larger contexts. He strongly influenced
the development of pedagogy throughout Europe and beyond, an
influence which is still felt to this day.

Charlotte Mason (1842-1923) Mason was a British educator who
invested her life in improving the quality of children's education. Her
ideas led to a method used by some homeschoolers. Mason's philosophy
of education is probably best summarized by the principles given at the
beginning of each of her books. Two key mottos taken from those
principles are "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life" and
"Education is the science of relations." She believed that children were
born persons and should be respected as such; they should also be taught
the Way of the Will and the Way of Reason. Her motto for students was
"I am, I can, I ought, I will." Charlotte Mason believed that children
should be introduced to subjects through living books, not through the use
of "compendiums, abstracts, or selections." She used abridged books only
when the content was deemed inappropriate for children. She preferred
that parents or teachers read aloud those texts (such as Plutarch and the
Old Testament), making omissions only where necessary.
John Dewey (1859-1952) In Democracy and Education: An Introduction
to the Philosophy of Education, Dewey stated that education, in its
broadest sense, is the means of the "social continuity of life" given the
"primary ineluctable facts of the birth and death of each one of the
constituent members in a social group". Education is therefore a
necessity, for "the life of the group goes on." [23] Dewey was a proponent
of Educational Progressivism and was a relentless campaigner for reform
of education, pointing out that the authoritarian, strict, pre-ordained
knowledge approach of modern traditional education was too concerned
with delivering knowledge, and not enough with understanding students'
actual experiences.[24]
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) Steiner founded a holistic educational
impulse on the basis of his spiritual philosophy (anthroposophy). Now
known as Steiner or Waldorf education, his pedagogy emphasizes a
balanced development of cognitive, affective/artistic, and practical skills
(head, heart, and hands).
Steiner's theory of child development divides education into three discrete
developmental stages predating but with close similarities to the stages of
development described by Piaget. Early childhood education occurs
through imitation; teachers provide practical activities and a healthy
environment. Steiner believed that young children should meet only
goodness. Elementary education is strongly arts-based, centered on the
teacher's creative authority; the elementary school-age child should meet
beauty. Secondary education seeks to develop the judgment, intellect, and
practical idealism; the adolescent should meet truth. In all stages of
schooling, learning is interdisciplinary, integrating practical, artistic, and
cognitive elements and emphasizing the role of the imagination in
learning. Schools and teachers are given considerable freedom to define
curricula and instructional methods within collegial structures.
Maria Montessori(1870-1952) The Montessori method arose from Dr.
Maria Montessori's discovery of what she referred to as "the child's true
normal nature" in 1907,[25] which happened in the process of her
experimental observation of young children given freedom in an
environment prepared with materials designed for their self-directed
learning activity.[26] The method itself aims to duplicate this experimental
observation of children to bring about, sustain and support their true
natural way of being. [27]
William Heard Kilpatrick (1871-1965) William Heard Kilpatrick was a
US American philosopher of education and a colleague and a successor
of John Dewey. He was a major figure in the progressive education
movement of the early 20th century. Kilpatrick developed the Project
Method for early childhood education, which was a form of Progressive
Education organized curriculum and classroom activities around a
subject's central theme. He believed that the role of a teacher should be
that of a "guide" as opposed to an authoritarian figure. Kilpatrick believed
that children should direct their own learning according to their interests
and should be allowed to explore their environment, experiencing their
learning through the natural senses. [28] Proponents of Progressive
Education and the Project Method reject traditional schooling that focuses

5

on memorization, rote learning, strictly organized classrooms (desks in
rows; students always seated), and typical forms of assessment.
A. S. Neill (1883-1973) Neill founded the Summerhill School, the oldest
existing democratic school in Suffolk, England in 1921. He wrote a
number of books that now define much of contemporary democratic
education philosophy. Neill believed that the happiness of the child
should be the paramount consideration in decisions about the child's
upbringing, and that this happiness grew from a sense of personal
freedom. He felt that deprivation of this sense of freedom during
childhood, and the consequent unhappiness experienced by the repressed
child, was responsible for many of the psychological disorders of
adulthood.
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) Heidegger's philosophizing about
education was primarily related to higher education. He believed that
teaching and research in the university should be unified and aim towards
testing and interrogating the "ontological assumptions and
presuppositions which implicitly guide research in each domain of
knowledge."
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Jean Piaget was a Swiss developmental
psychologist known for his studies of how children progressively develop
knowledge of the world, studies that eventually described the genesis of
an exceptionally wide spectrum of human understanding. His theory of
cognitive development, called genetic epistemology, productively linked
the philosophical study of knowledge formation and the psychological
study of child development. He described himself as an epistemologist
interested in the qualitative development of knowledge.
Piaget placed great importance on the education of children. As Director
of the International Bureau of Education, he declared in 1934 that "only
education is capable of saving our societies from possible collapse,
whether violent, or gradual." [30] Piaget created the International Centre for
Genetic Epistemology in Geneva in 1955 and directed it until 1980.
According to Ernst von Glasersfeld, Jean Piaget is "the great pioneer of
the constructivist theory of knowing."

Aspects of the Freirian philosophy have been highly influential in
academic debates over "participatory development" and development
more generally. Freire's emphasis on what he describes as "emancipation"
through interactive participation has been used as a rationale for the
participatory focus of development, as it is held that 'participation' in any
form can lead to empowerment of poor or marginalised groups. Freire
was a proponent of critical pedagogy. "He participated in the import of
European doctrines and ideas into Brazil, assimilated them to the needs of
a specific socio-economic situation, and thus expanded and refocused
them in a thought-provoking way" [32]
Nel Noddings (1929– ) Noddings' first sole-authored book Caring: A
Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education (1984) followed close
on the 1982 publication of Carol Gilligan’s ground-breaking work in the
ethics of care In a Different Voice. While her work on ethics continued,
with the publication of Women and Evil (1989) and later works on moral
education, most of her later publications have been on the philosophy of
education and educational theory. Her most significant works in these
areas have been Educating for Intelligent Belief or Unbelief (1993) and
Philosophy of Education (1995).
John Holt (1923-1985)[edit]
In 1964 Holt published his first book, How Children Fail, asserting that
the academic failure of schoolchildren was not despite the efforts of the
schools, but actually because of the schools. Not surprisingly, How
Children Fail ignited a firestorm of controversy. Holt was catapulted into
the American national consciousness to the extent that he made
appearances on major TV talk shows, wrote book reviews for Life
magazine, and was a guest on the To Tell The Truth TV game show.[33] In
his follow-up work, How Children Learn, published in 1967, Holt tried to
elucidate the learning process of children and why he believed school
short circuits that process.

Jerome Bruner (1915- ) Bruner's The Process of Education and Toward
a Theory of Instruction are landmarks in conceptualizing learning and
curriculum development. A major contributor to the inquiry method in
education, Bruner argued that any subject can be taught in some
intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development. This
notion underpinned his concept of the spiral curriculum, positing that a
curriculum should revisit basic ideas, building on them until the student
had grasped the full formal concept. He emphasized intuition as a
neglected but essential feature of productive thinking. He felt that interest
in the material being learned was the best stimulus for learning, rather
than external motivations such as grades. Bruner developed the concept
of discovery learning which promoted learning as a process of
constructing new ideas based on current or past knowledge; students are
encouraged to discover facts and relationships and continually build on
what they already know.
Paulo Freire (1921-1997) A Brazilian committed to the cause of
educating the impoverished peasants of his nation and collaborating with
them in the pursuit of their liberation from what he regarded as
"oppression," Freire is best known for his attack on what he called the
"banking concept of education," in which the student was viewed as an
empty account to be filled by the teacher. Freire also suggests that a deep
reciprocity be inserted into our notions of teacher and student; he comes
close to suggesting that the teacher-student dichotomy be completely
abolished, instead promoting the roles of the participants in the classroom
as the teacher-student (a teacher who learns) and the student-teacher (a
learner who teaches). In its early, strong form this kind of classroom has
sometimes been criticized on the grounds that it can mask rather than
overcome the teacher's authority.

6

Educational philosophies

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (19)

Similaire à Educational philosophies

Similaire à Educational philosophies (20)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

Educational philosophies