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10 Modern Philosophers and Their Contribution To Education: John Locke and The Tabula Rasa
10 Modern Philosophers and Their Contribution To Education: John Locke and The Tabula Rasa
10 Modern Philosophers and Their Contribution To Education: John Locke and The Tabula Rasa
Contribution to Education
John Locke and the Tabula Rasa
They never lived at the same time, but history always put Locke and Kant on a
dust up.
A famed German thinker, Kant (1724–1804) was anadvocate of public education and of learning by doing, a
process we call training. As he reasons that these are two vastly different things.
He postulated “Above all things, obedience is an essential feature in the character of a child…”. As opposed to
Locke, he surmises that children should always obey and learn the virtue of duty, because
children’s inclination to earn or do something is something unreliable. And transgressions should always be
dealt with punishment, thus enforcing obedience.
Also, he theorized that man, naturally, has a radical evil in their nature. And learning and duty can erase
this.
Plato said that each individual is born with skills appropriate to different castes,
or functions of society. ThoughRousseau (1712-1778), a Genevan intellect and writer, paid respects to the
ancient philosopher, he rejected this thinking. He believed that there was one developmental procedure
common to man; it was a built-in, natural process which the main behavioral manifestation is curiosity.
On his book, Emile, Rousseau outlines the process of an ideal education through a hypothetical boy of the
titular name, from twelve years of age to the time he marries a woman. Critics said this work of his
foreshadowed most modern system of education we have now.
The same goes for education. As teachers respond to the needs of students, they may design a
differentiated curriculum because as teachers work closely with students, they should respond to the
students’ different needs and interests. This response should not be based on a one time virtuous
decision but an ongoing interest in the student’s welfare.
TOPICS IN THE CHOSEN SUBJECT, THE TIME ALLOTMENT FOR EACH TOPIC, THE LABORATORY
WORK OR ISSUES THAT ARE BEST RESOLVED EITHER BY EDUCATIONISTS WITH DEPTH OF
EXPERIENCE WITH THE TARGET AGE GROUP OR BY EXPERTS IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF
LEARNING. THE VALIDITY OF THE JUSTIFICATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN GIVEN FOR INCLUDING
REALISM – BELIEVES THAT EDUCATION SHOULD TRANSMIT CULTURE, DEVELOP, HUMAN NATURE,
AND PROVIDE MAN WITH THE BASIC EDUCATION NEEDED FOR HIS SURVIVAL.
ARISTOTLE – IN HIS PHYSICS, HE STATED THE “NATURE IS THE STARTING POINT FOR
PHILOSOPHIZING AND DOES NOT NEED TO HAVE ITS OWN EXISTENCE PROVEN.”
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS – BELIEVED IN THE REALITY OF MATTER AS DESCRIBED IN HIS SUMMA
CONTRA GENTILES
THE PHYSICAL WORLD IS REAL.
JOHN AMOS COMENIUS – THE MIND OF MAN IS „LIKE A SPHERICAL MIRROR SUSPENDED IN AROOM
WHICH REFLECTS IMAGES OF ALL THINGS AROUND IT.”
BARUCH SPINOZA – THERE IS A SUBSTANCE WHICH EXISTS ETERNALLY AND INFINITELY, IS
ESTENDED IN TIME AND SPACE AND THERE IS NO THOUGHT APART FROM IT.
JOHN LOCKE - AT BIRTH,THE MIND MAY BE COMPARED TO A BLANK SHEET OF PAPER UPONEDS
TO WHICH THE WORLD THEN PROCEEDS TO WRITE ITS IMPRESSIONS (TABULA RASA)
IMMANUEL KANT – BELIEVED THAT OUR SENSORY EXPERIENCES AND PERCEPTIONS ARE
REPRESENTATIONS OF THE EXTERNAL WORLD AND NOT DIRECT PRESENTATIONS OF IT.
JOHANN FRIEDRICH HERBART – MIND IS NOT AN ACTIVE AGENT WHICH PRODUCES CHANGES IN
THE WORLD SURROUNDING IT.
WILLIAM JAMES – A PLURALIST, HE BELIEVED THAT THERE ARE ALL KINDS OF QUALITIES
SUBSTANCES OR ESSENCES WHICH EXIST IN TIME AND SPACE.
JOHN DEWEY – HIS PHILOSOPHY HAS BEEN LABELED PRAGMATIC BECAUSE IT S HOLDS THAT
THE CRITERION OF THE TRUTH AND GOODNESS OF A THING IS ITS WORKABILITY ACCORDING TO
A GIVEN PURPOSE.
EDUCATION IS LIFE
EDUCATION IS GROWTH
EDUCATION IS A SOCIAL PROCESS
EDUCATION IS A RECONSTRUCTION OF HUMAN EXPERIENCES.
FORMS OF NATURALISM
1. BIOLOGICAL NATURALISM
2. PSYCHOLOGICAL NATURALISM
3. SOCIOLOGICAL NATURALISM
4. ROMANTIC NATURALISM
PRAGMATISM
- MUST APPROACH EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL PHENOMENON.
PROGRESSIVISM
- IS AN EQUALLY NEW APPROACH TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION LIKE PRAGMATISM, IT
CLAIMS THAT THE CHILD‟S GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT AS AN INDIVIDUAL DEPEND ON HIS
EXPERIENCES AND SELF ACTIVITY.
1. EMERGENT CURRICULUM
2. HANDS ON, CONCRETE MANIPULATIVE
3. EXPERIMENTAL LEARNING
4. SPIRAL APPROACH
5. MULTIPLE APPROACH
6. CONSTRUCTIVIST APPROACH
7. DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROACH
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ntroduction
Many educationalists consider it a weak and woolly field, too far removed from
the practical applications of the real world to be useful. But philosophers dating back
to Plato and the Ancient Greeks have given the area much thought and emphasis, and
there is little doubt that their work has helped shape the practice of education over the
millennia.
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Ancient Era
Aristotle considered human nature, habit and reason to be equally important forces to
be cultivated in education, the ultimate aim of which should be to produce good and
virtuous citizens. He proposed that teachers lead their students systematically, and
that repetition be used as a key tool to develop good habits, unlike Socrates' emphasis
on questioning his listeners to bring out their own ideas. He emphasized the balancing
of the theoretical and practical aspects of subjects taught, among which he explicitly
mentions reading, writing, mathematics, music, physical education, literature, history,
and a wide range of sciences, as well as play, which he also considered important.
During the Medieval period, the idea of Perennialism was first formulated by St.
Thomas Aquinas in his work "De Magistro". Perennialism holds that one should teach
those things deemed to be of everlasting importance to all people everywhere,
namely principles and reasoning, not just facts (which are apt to change over time),
and that one should teach first aboutpeople, not machines or techniques. It was
originally religious in nature, and it was only much later that a theory of secular
perennialism developed.
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Modern Era
During the Renaissance, the French skeptic Michel de Montaigne (1533 - 1592) was
one of the first to critically look at education. Unusually for his time, Montaigne was
willing to question the conventional wisdom of the period, calling into question the
whole edifice of the educational system, and the implicit assumption that university-
educated philosophers were necessarily wiser than uneducated farm workers, for
example.
In the late 17th Century, John Locke produced his influential "Some Thoughts
Concerning Education", in which he claimed that a child's mind is a tabula rasa (or
"blank slate") and does not contain any innate ideas. According to Locke, the mind is to
be educated by a three-pronged approach: the development of a healthy body; the
formation of a virtuous character; and the choice of an appropriate academic
curriculum. He maintained that a person is to a large extent a product of his
education, and also pointed out that knowledge and attitudes acquired in a child's
early formative years are disproportionately influential and have important
and lasting consequences.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in the 18th Century, held that there is one developmental
process, common to all humans, driven by natural curiosity which drives the child to
learn and adapt to its surroundings. He believed that all children are born 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. To counter this, he
advocated removing the child from society during education. He also believed that
human nature could be infinitely developed through a well-thought pedagogy.
John Dewey was an important progressive educational reformer in the early part of
the 20th Century. For Dewey, it was vitally important that education should not be the
teaching of mere dead fact, but that the skills and knowledge which students learn
beintegrated fully into their lives as persons, citizens and human beings, hence his
advocacy of "learning-by-doing" and the incorporation of the student's past
experiences into the classroom.
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was another very influential educational reformer, and
his Waldorf Education model emphasizes a balance of developing the intellect (or
head), feeling and artistic life (or heart) and practical skills (or hands), with a view to
producing free individuals who would in turn bring about a new, freer social order.
Other important philosophers of education during the 20th Century include the
Italian Maria Montessori (1870 - 1952), the SwissJean Piaget (1896 - 1980) and the
American Neil Postman (1931 - 2003).