Philosophical Foundations of Education

The most remarkable thing about

philosophy…is that the questions raised
never seem to get answered.

Idealism
- The most significant philosophy…most of the world’s religions are based on
idealism
- Idealism as idea-ism
- Plato—the Academy opened in 397 B.C., believed that material things are of little
consequence…the everyday world of things and objects is a shadowy copy of the true
idea which the soul carries within itself from heaven, reason is rooted in a spiritual
soul

Idealist philosophers
- Plato, Descartes, Kant, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hegel, Schopenhauer
- Students are encouraged to stretch themselves through higher-level thinking to
become
truth seekers
- The teacher will devote considerable time and energy to the one who goes astray

Idealism
- No discipline problems, because the teacher knows the content well, likes to teach,
and
knows the students
- The idealist philosophy views the school as representing the community

Realism
- Objects exist regardless of how we perceive them
- Focuses on the scientific method and personal experience
- The crux of realism is science—empirical, objective, and experimental…with
precise
measurements

Realist philosophers
- Aristotle, Comenius, Pestalozzi, Herbart, Montessori, Hobbes, Bacon, Locke
- Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann embraced realism
- Accountability in the schools is an outgrowth of realism

Existentialism
- Focuses on the individual
- Not a logical theory, but one that can be felt as an attitude or mood
- Awareness, anxiety, choice take on special meaning
- Revolt against the traditional philosophical stance
- A way of life which involves one’s total self in complete seriousness about the self

Choice
- I make the choice. Even no choice is a choice.
- I must consider the alternatives.
- I must be aware of what the alternatives can do or lead to because I am responsible
for
my choice.
- I must make the choice as though it were for all humankind.

Existentialist philosophers
- Kierkegaard, Sartre, Nietzsche
- Kierkegaard—themes of passionate choice, absolute freedom, total responsibility
- Life must be understood backward, but lived forward
- The theory focuses on value questions

Thoreau
- “Let me forever go in search of myself; never for a moment think I have found
myself;
be as a stranger to myself, never a familiar seeking acquaintance still.”

Pragmatism
- Pragmatism evolved as a philosophical expression of the westward movement in
America, followed by scientific and technological advances, a new frontier of sorts
- Charles Peirce, William James, John Dewey
- Social reconstruction theory and progressive education also based on pragmatist
philosophy

Theories of Education
- Experimentalism—through John Dewey’s emphasis on testing of ideas through
experimentation…developed the progressive education theory
- Curricula emphasize experience and child-centered activities in which the process is
stressed over any final product

George Herbert Meade

- Science courses need to have an important role in schools.
- Compartmentalization of curricular offerings is not desirable, because relationship of
things to each other needs to be presented.
- Play has an essential role.
- Subject matter should relate to students’ problems and experiences.
- Education is a dialogue.

George Herbert Meade

- The teacher is the most significant factor in instruction.
- Broad fields of learning should be emphasized.
- “The whole is more concrete than the part.”
- The research method can be used in many different classes.

Progressivism
- Followers looked to Jean-Jacques
- Rousseau, author of Emile who believed in natural education without coercion
- Pestalozzi, Rousseau’s follower, believed that education should involve the entire
child—body, emotions, and intellect
- William Heard Kilpatrick—advanced cooperative learning, intrinsic rewards, liberal
classroom discipline…”project method”

Kilpatrick’s projects
- The creative project
- The enjoyment project
- The problem project
- The specific learning project
- Progressive educators more concerned with child’s needs and interests than with
academic subject matter

Social Reconstructionism
- Culture is always changing. Human beings are capable of resculpting culture so that
human growth and development are promoted.
- Technology advancement occurred at a rate beyond what society and culture were
prepared to adjust to and accept.

Perennialism
- Based on the philosophy of realism
- Traditional and conservative, follows the beliefs of Aristotle
- Robert Maynard Hutchins, president of the University of Chicago…human nature is
rational and constant and can be predicted to do things in certain ways, therefore
education should be based unchanging, absolute, and universal truths

Perennialists
- Humanities are works that provide insights into the good, the true, and the beautiful
- The Great Books are works considered to be classic, should be a part of everyone’s
general, liberal, and humanistic education
- Precision is important. The universe is understood through quantitative terms.
- Three primary approaches to learning: didactic teaching of concepts, coaching of
skills,
seminars using the Socratic method

Essentialism
- Very traditional and conservative, in direct opposition to progressive education
- Teach elementary children to read, write, and compute mathematically, teach
secondary students to have higher order thinking skills
- Resurfaced as “back to basics”

Philosophical Terms
- Philosophy: philo means love, and sophos means wisdom—love of wisdom
- Metaphysics is the study of the nature of reality, of what is real, draw back the
nonessentials and examine what remains…an idealist sees reality as nonmaterial,
realist
sees an objective order, independent of humans

Philosophical Terms
- Epistemology…the theory of knowing and of knowledge, deals with the nature of
learning itself—idealist teacher may use the Socratic method to bring out latent ideas,
Realists believe knowledge begin in the sensations we get from objects in the
environment

Axiology
- Concerned with value, divided into two areas, ethics and aesthetics
- Ethics deals with moral values and appropriate conduct.
- Aesthetics considers values in beauty and art.
- The good, the true, and the beautiful

Logic
- Addresses the rules of correct and valid thinking and considers the rules of inference
that we use to frame propositions and arguments
- Deductive logic moves from general statements to particular instances and
applications
- Inductive logic moves from particular instances and applications to generalizations