Educational Philosophers

Plato (427 – 347 BC) Idealism

• Education should produce people with a sense of morality.
The main purpose was to make an ideal society with an ideal
person.
• A curriculum to develop deep mental thinking was introduced
• For Basic Education – Music, Physical education
• For secondary – Science, Maths, Logic
• Child was enlisted to an education system of 55 years
• Formal education was started at the age of six years
• Introduced teaching methodologies that developed mental
thinking abilities.
• Play method, imitation, music, story telling and drama
 Principles of education according to Idealism
• Lifelong education
• Child-centered education
• Moral education
• Family based community education
• Equal education for both sexes
• Compulsory education
• Responsibility of Education in the State
• Spiritual development
• Character development
• Self-realization
Jean Jaques Rousseau (1712 – 1778)
“Naturalism”

•A child should grow according to the nature.

•Nature wants children to be children before they are men.
•Childhood has ways of seeing, thinking and feeling peculiar to
itself and nothing can be more foolish than to substitute our
ways to them.
•A child is not a small adult.
•Education consists of four stages.
1. Infancy - from birth to 2 years
2. Childhood - from 2 years to 12 years
3. Pre-adolescence – from 12 years ton15 years
4. Adulthood - Over 20 years
•Child-centered education
•Introduced alternative teachers so as not to depend on the
teacher.
(various media, observation, exploration, travelling)
•Designed curricular based on student interests, desires and skills
•Competency based learning
•Dissuade corporal punishment
•More attention for individual learning
•Nature alone is the source of knowledge
•Learning through experience
Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) “Marxism”

•Education should be a responsibility of the State

•Religious influence on education should be avoided
•Compulsory education
•Education should not depend on class differences
•Education should be integrated with the world of work.
9 – 12 years - should work for 2 hours
13 – 14 years - should work for 4 hours
15 – 17 years - should work for 6 hours

• Education should produce a fully developed individual

• Equal educational opportunities should be given for everyone
• Separate education from the Church
• Complete development of body-mind
• Every child should participate in the production of goods
• Man must be saved - from dehumanization
John Dewey (1859 – 1952) “Utilitarianism”
The child is the starting point, the center and at the end. His development, his
growth is the ideal. It alone is standard.

• There are no pre- determined aims in education. It is a continuous process.

Education is a progression forwarded by reconstructing the previous
experiences.
• Education is not preparing for life but for living.
• Education should be child-centered.
• Education should be based on activities.
• Project method encourages group learning.
Continued…
• Introduced learning methods such as:
• Activity method – teach things rather than words.
• Exploration method
• Problem solving method and
• Group learning
• Education should be competency- based. (a competency is a concept of which knowledge,
skills, attitude and practice from the components)
• Transformation teacher role should be more powerful than transmission role.
• Providing learning opportunities outside the school is more important than opportunities
inside the school.
Mahathma Gandhi (1869 – 1948)

•Education consist of three main principles

1. Intellectual training
2. spiritual training Developing the head+heart+hand
3. Physical training
Main aims of education

1. Primary education is compulsory for all

2. Education should be based on a handicraft
3. Self-discipline should be internalized by education
4. Education should be given in the mother tongue
5. Education should not be given by force