Chapter 1

This chapter explains the philosophy of education and the nature of teaching in the Philippines.

THE TEACHER’S PHILOSOPHICAL AND VALUE FORMATION

Teaching is the highest form of understanding.

- Aristotle

Introduction

Philosophy is the search for general understanding of values and reality primarily by the
speculative means instead of mere observation. Western philosophy focuses on the man’s quest for
truth, while Hindu philosophy is intensely spiritual and has always emphasized the need for practical
realization. Since human beings have a natural and necessary desire to know themselves and the world
they live in, philosophy guides people into understanding in the reality, and helps the, decide how they
will live and treat others.

Philosophy is one of the oldest disciplines, and is considered as the mother of all the sciences.
Since philosophy is at the root of all knowledge, education is greatly influenced by it, and has drawn its
material from different philosophical bases.

In order to understand the concept of philosophy of education, it is necessary to understand the

meaning of these terms first.

The Concept of Philosophy and Education

Etymologically, philosophy comes from the Greek words philo and Sophia, which means love of
wisdom. In other words, philosophy is the “search of meaning.” Man examines all his dimensions as a
person- as an existent being in the world-in relation to God and others, as well as in birth in and death,
sorrow, and joy. Man searches for the meaning and the truth of life-its importance, significance, value,
and relevance.

Love of wisdom is the essence for any investigation, the very origin of philosophy.

On the other hand, educations is derived from the Latin word educare, which means “bring up”,
and is related to educere (“bring out”, “bring forth what is within”, “bring out potential”) and ducere
(“to lead”). Education, in the most general sense, is any act or experience that has a formative effect on
the mind, character, or physical ability of an individual.

Philosophers and thinkers, from Socrates to John Dewey in West and a host of Indian
philosophers, have attempted to give a more definite meaning for education. However, since the ter,
has a wide connotation, it is difficult to pinpoint a single definition for it. Redden states that “education
can be understood as deliberate and systematic influence exerted by a mature person upon the
immature, through instruction, discipline and harmonious development of physical, social, intellectual,
aesthetic and spiritual powers of the human being.” In the historical development of man, education has
been the right of a privileged few. It is only in recent centuries that education has come to be recognized
as a human right. All have equal right to be educated as education has become sine qua non of
civilization.

The educational institution is composed of the school, teachers, curriculum, and the students.
Each aspect is working side by side to support the other aspects accurately. School plays a significant
role in the education process. It is considered as an instrument to reshape community and build a good
society, to produce quality people by means of shaping the learner’s attitude and behaviour influenced
by the teacher. It is the school that fulfils the social responsibility of preparing the individual for the
future by (a) fitting him in the society that he lives in (adjustive function) and (b) enabling him to use his
knowledge and creative powers to improve this society (constructive function).

The effectiveness of the teaching is measured by the extent to which teachers are successful in
producing desirable changes in the attitudes and behaviours of the students. To pursue these objectives,
the teacher needs a satisfactory philosophy of education which incorporates in teaching to influence the
student attitudes and behaviour to become a better person. In other words, the teacher plays an
important role in the desired transformation and improvement of the people. Curriculum represents a
set of desired goals or values that is activated through a development process and culminates in
successful learning experiences for students (Wiles and Bondi, 2007). The curriculum also defines
specific knowledge, behaviour, and attitudes needed to create a healthy and educational environment
for the student, who is considered a fundamental factor to build the future. Finally, the role of the
students in the educative process is the knowledge he acquires in the classroom, which he can use to
influence other people in the community and transform the society into building a better nation. The
quest for quality education is the basis of all the society to achieve stability, progress, and prosperity.

The Teacher’s Philosophical Heritage: The Philosophy of Education

A philosophy of education is a statement of point-of-view, a generalized theory of education

which is recognized by teachers, parents, and learners. It evolves from the understanding of one’s being.
The philosophy of education is defined in the 1987 Constitution, Article XIV:

Section 1. The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all
levels and shall take appropriate steps to make education accessible to all.

Section 2. The State shall”

1) Establish, maintain, and support a complete, adequate and integrated system of education
relevant to the needs of the people of society;
2) Establish and maintain a system of free public education in the elementary and high school
levels. Without limiting the national right of parents to rear their children, elementary education
is compulsory for all children of school age;
3) Establish and maintain a system of scholarship grants, student loan programs, subsides, and
other incentives which shall be available to deserving students in both public and private
schools, especially to the unprivileged;
 4) Encourage non-formal, informal, and indigenous learning systems, as well as self-learning,
independent, and out-of-school study programs particularly those that respond to community
needs; and
5) Provide adult citizens, the disabled, the out-of-school youths with training in critic, vocational
efficiency, and other skills.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the general assembly of the United
Nations, is also a fertile source of educational direction. The part directly concerned with education is
Article 26, which is quoted as follows;

1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the
elementary and this fundamental stage shall be compulsory. Technical and
professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall
be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to
the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall
promote understanding, tolerance, and friendship among nations, racial or religious
groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of
peace.
3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to the
children.

On the other hand, the objectives of UNESCO are stated in the four pillars of education: (1)
learning to know, (2) learning to, (3) learning to live together, and (4) learning to be. “Learning to know”
is combining a sufficiently broad, general knowledge with the opportunity to work in-depth on a small
number of subjects. This also means learning to learn, so as to benefit from the opportunities that
education provides throughout life. In “learning to do”, one acquires not only an occupational skill but
also the competence to deal with many situations and work in teams. It also means learning to do in the
context of young people’s various social and work experiences, which may be informal-as result of the
local or national context-or formal-involving courses, alternating study and work. One “learns to live
together” by developing an understanding of other people and an appreciation of interdependence,
carrying out joint projects and learning to manage conflicts in a spirit of respect for the values of
pluralism, mutual understanding, and peace. One “learns to be” so as to better develop one’s
personality and be able to act with ever greater autonomy, judgement, and personal responsibility. In
this connection, education must not disregard any aspect of enhancing the qualities of the individual:
memory, reasoning, aesthetic sense, physical capacities, and communication skills.

Based on the four pillars of education, what is important is the holistic growth of the learner-
intellectual, emotional, social, physical, and spiritual-for him to be able to transform into a useful
member of society, one who not only understands the alphabet but also knows how to be a good,
peace-loving, law-abiding citizen, and a patriotic Filipino. Traditionally, early schooling aims to each a
student how to read and write a-b-c and how to count 1-2-3. But one must note that the most
important goal of education is that of enabling the learner to live a full life, just as how God, the Creator
of life, means it to be.
 Among the personnel designated by society to enable the schools to carry out its education
function, the teacher takes on a primarily role. Teachers are responsible in educating the youth, as
stated in the 1987 Constitution, Article XIV:

1. Second parents. Teachers may influence the behaviour and character of students, as they are
second to none in doing the noble service of rearing good citizens and future leaders of our
nation. To a great extent, the quality of education depends on the ability of the teacher and the
standard of teaching he or she uses.
2. Heart of the educational system. The teacher is the key of the learning process as they have the
biggest impact on student learning and performance. A school may have the best facilities and
excellent learning tools but if its teachers are inefficient and incompetent, its whole educational
program would collapse.

With the foregoing statements, it must be noted that the Philippine educational
philosophy emphasizes on the development of the Filipino to become productive citizens in
society. It is also stated in the provisions of the 1987 Constitution that education is one of the
highest priorities of the national government, because through education people will obtain
better physical and intellectual training that will enable them to achieve greater dignity and
progress.

The Teacher as a Person

The teacher is the representative of the content and the school. How a teacher presents himself
makes in the impression on administrators, colleagues, parents, and students. Often a student links the
preference to a particular subject to a teacher and the way the subject was taught. A teacher who show
enthusiasm and competence for a content area may transfer those feelings to the students. The
teacher’s personality is one of the first sets of characteristics to look for in an effective teacher. Many
aspects of effective teaching can be cultivated, but it is difficult to effect change in an individual’s
personality.

Attributes to an effective teacher

Several studies have been made of the abilities and attributes of an effective teachers and the relative
desirability of various traits for success in teaching. The following are some of the abilities which the
teacher must have. (Lipson, Joseph 1973)

a. Teacher should be an intellectual model for students.

b. The teacher should have attitudes, opinions and emotions which help, rather than inhibit,
the student’s learning.
c. The teacher should be able to determine the appropriateness of student behaviour, and
arrange proper contingencies for various behaviours.
d. The teacher should be able to employ a complex and varied system of allocating resources.
e. The teacher should be a selective knowledge source both of knowledge regarding
instructional strategies and information of direct use to the student.
f. The teacher must be able to collect, organize and interpret data, using the data as bases for
decision-making.
 g. The teacher should be able to plan an educational program which will assist each student’s
career development.
A. The Teacher as Intellectual Model
1. The teacher should display as interest in learnings, and scholarly abilities of research,
analysis and application of information processing decisions.
2. The teacher should behave as a mature adult. This requires behaviour such as suppressing
immediate impulses to advance some lone- range purpose, identifying problems, and
developing and carrying out plans for solving problems.
3. The teacher should plan and execute the educational program on the basis of the best
estimates of the conditions which the student will face in the future. These include changing
requirements for continuing in various kinds of academic programs, changing job
requirements, and changing relationships among peoples and institutions.
B. The Effect of the Teacher’s affective Make up
1. The teacher should learn to adjust her opinion or evaluation of a student as the student’s
performance interest change.
2. The teacher should have positive expectations for each student which she is responsible for.
This does not mean that the teacher needs to be disconnected from reality. On the contrary,
a realistic assessment of the student’s current abilities should be the basis of a constant
search for a better learning plan for each student.
3. The teacher should have a previously established plan for responding to a student’s learning
problem. It might take the form of using a combination of a student’s profile, a case history
discussion with the other teachers and observation of the student’s immediate behaviour in
order to arrive at a strategy for helping a student in the classroom.
4. The teacher should give each student a sense of individual worth and importance by
attention to events which the student considers important, by noticing the things which the
student does best, by positive references to the student as a student, and by developing
realistic self – evaluation based upon evidence of change and growth.
5. The teacher should keep relaxed, professional manner even when there multiple demands
upon her time and attention. The teacher should be sensitive to sign from the children.
6. The teacher should be able to change her behaviour quickly in response to new information
about a student. She should be able to notice small sign of change in the student to which
she can attribute her acts.
C. The Teacher as an Observer and Responder to Student Behaviour
1. The teacher should be able to classify student responses (e.g., reciting a verbal chain) in
order to determine whether they are appropriate for the learning objective.
2. The teacher should be able to write or select performance objectives whish can represent
the curriculum.
3. The teacher should be able to classify her activities on a priority scale from essential to
nonessential and to focus her efforts upon the essential activities where there is a shortage
of time.
4. The teacher should be able to classify student behaviour according to the degree that it
contributes to learning objectives, (this is especially important for the child who is not
confident student). The teacher should take some care to reinforce productive activity, and
to avoid reinforcing non-productive activity.
 5. The teacher should avoid using punishment (e.g. shaming or angry criticism) for incorrect
responses during instruction.
6. The teacher should use rewards and reinforcement which are appropriate for the task, and
appropriate to the individual students.
D. The teacher’s task of employing as systematic approach to resource allocation and decision
making
1. The teacher should learn to allow the student to make as many decisions as possible. This
requires that she be able to make an accurate determination of the student’s decision
making ability.
2. The teacher should arrange instructional materials so that they will be maximally accessible
to the students – preferably without the intervention or attention of an adult.
3. The teacher should use or develop procedures, forms and schedules for media management
and information handling which will aid analysis of learning and decision making for learning
activities.
E. The teacher as a knowledge source
1. The teacher should be able to make a competent instructional response to the unique
learning problem of each group of students, who maybe working on activities which snap
years of the curriculum. This will probably require specific training, using microteaching and
critical accidental techniques.
2. The teacher should answer student’s question in such a way as to promote learning by the
student. No fixed rule can be stated, saying that questions should be answered. Sometimes
a question should be answered simply so that the student can get on with what he is doing.
At other times a question should be answered by a question, and still other times the
student should be referred to a reference source. In general, responding to student
questions can be one of the most rewarding parts of the life of a teacher. When the student
takes the initiative by asking a question, it is an important sign of intellectual activity.
F. The teacher’s task in data collection and use
1. The teacher should assess the entering behaviour of the students – their mastery of
prerequisite knowledge and abilities.
2. The teacher should assess what the student learns outside the school, and she should
assume that much relevant learning does take place outside the school.
3. The teacher should observe (and if possible measure) the latency of student responses, and
develop tactics for dealing with either very long latencies or impulsive responses.
4. The teacher should develop guidelines (with expert assistance) as to when a student can be
expected to make creative responses as opposes to a limited or closely guided response.
G. The teacher’s task in the student’s career development
1. The teacher should use examples and instances in the instructional process which are
motivating because they relate to the student’s career goals.
2. The teacher should provide instruction directly related to the saleable skills required,
needed, or wanted by an individual student.
3. The teacher should use the activities in technical, vocational, and arts and crafts programs to
promote motivation for learning academics skills which are related to the student’s possible
career choices.