THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

The birthplace of philosophy was the seaport town of Miletus, located across the sea from Athens,
on the western part of Iona in Asia Minor, and for this reason, the first philosophers were called
Milesians or Ionians. It is wealth that made possible the leisure, without which the life of art and
philosophy could hardly develop, and the broadmindedness and inquisitiveness of its people
created a congenial atmosphere for the intellectual activity that was to become philosophy.

Four Areas of Philosophy

• Metaphysics – concerns with the fundamentals of existence and reality

• Epistemology – refers to the theory of knowledge that has something to do with
approaches to teaching and learning.
• Logic – focuses on the formal structure of truthful arguments
• Axiology – sets the values desirable to live by at any given time or place.

Two Divisions of Axiology

• Ethics – refers to the moral values and right conduct

• Aesthetics – refers to the value of beauty and art

OUTSTANDING EXPONENT OF THE DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHIES

REALISM

Realism believes in the world as it is. It is based on the view that reality is what we observe. It
believes that the truth is what we sense and observe and that goodness is found in the order of
the laws of nature. As a result, schools exist to reveal the order of the world and universe.
Students are taught factual information.

The Nature of Realism

• Advocates that values are dependent upon the attitudes of the sentiment beings
experiencing them.
• Believe that investigating and reasoning are important in any effective adjustment to the
real world in the control of experiences.

Assumption
• The primary qualities of experience exist in the physical world.
• Mind is like a mirror receiving images from the physical world
• The mind of a child at birth is similar to a blank sheet of paper upon which the world
proceeds to write its impression.
• Nature is a primary self-evident reality, a starting point in philosophizing.
• Consciousness is not a substance, it is an awareness of experience and experience is a
medium in which objects and organism are related.

Educational Aim
• Gives direction and form to individual’s basic potentialities.
• Determines the direction of the individual’s inherited tendencies.
• Provide an education that could produce a good individual and a good society by
meeting 4 principal needs of an individual:
 1. Aptitude needs
2. Self-determination needs
3. Self-realization needs
4. Self-integration needs

Curricular Emphasis

Combination of subject matter and problem-centered concepts or real problems towards

acquisition of desirable habits:
1. Study habits
2. Research skills
3. Library skills
4. Evaluation
5. Observation
6. Experimentation
7. Analytical and critical thinking
8. Application of principles
9. Effective use of words
10. Habit of enjoyment

Subject Areas:
1. Natural Science
2. Social Science
3. Arts
4. Poetry
5. Literature
6. Biography

Teaching Methods

Scientific Method
Steps:
1. Defining problems
2. Observing factors related to the problem
3. Hypothesizing
4. Testing the hypothesis

Character Development
• Training in rules of conduct

Role of Teachers
• Help the students realize irresistible necessity of earth’s physical forces
• Help develop initiative and ability to control their experiences
• Help realize that they can enter into the meaning of their experiences
• The students would be taught factual information for mastery

Role of School
• Further develop discipline
• Utilize pupil activity through instruction
 • Speak with authority
• Regard the pupil as more superior than other objects
• Change in the school would be perceived as a natural evolution toward perfection of
order

IDEALISM

Idealism is a system of thought that emphasizes the importance of mind, soul, or spirit. Truth is
to be found in consistency of ideas. Goodness is an ideal state, something to be strived for.

Idealism believes in refined wisdom. It is based on the view that reality is a world within a
person’s mind. It believes that truth is in the consistency of ideas and that goodness is an ideal
state to strive to attain.

Nature
• One of the oldest schools of thought with its origin traced back to Plato’s ideas.
• Stresses the mental, moral and spiritual nature of an individual and his universe.
• Advocates that education is both a basic need and a basic right of man.

Assumption
• God is the absolute ideal and all positive values are full realized and enjoyed through
Him.
• Every individual is born good, and is capable to sense, perceive, and think.
• The self is the ultimate reality of individual experiences
• The individual self has all the freedom for self-determination.
• One’s perception of the world is rooted in his existence.
• Values depend on how individual persons pass and enjoy them in their experiences.
• Social values are realized when an individual recognizes that he is part of the total
society.

Educational Aim
• To develop the individual spiritually, mentally, and morally.

Curricular Emphasis

Subject matter of the mind:

1. Literature
2. History
3. Philosophy
4. Religion
5. Mathematics
6. Arts

Teaching Methods
• Lecture-Discussion Method
• Excursion
• Question Method
• Project Method

Character Development
Imitating examples of heroes

Roles of Teachers

• Chief source of inspiration

• Creator of educational environment

Role of School

• An agency of the society

• Thinking institution

PRAGMATISM / EXPERIMENTALISM

Pragmatism is primarily an American philosophy, although its roots go back to Greek thinking.
Pragmatism is primarily conceived with the knowledge process, the relationship of ideas to
action. Basically, this concerns with the method of reflective thinking.

Experimentalism believes that things are constantly changing. It is based on the view that
reality is what you experience. It believes that truth is what works right now and that goodness
comes from group decisions.

As a result, schools, exist to discover and expand the society we live in. Students study social
experiences and solve problems.

Nature

• Encourages people to find processes that work in order to attain desired goals.
• The doctrine that practical consequences are the criteria of knowledge, meaning and
value.
• Conservative

Assumption

• The world is uncertain and incomplete. It allows room for improvement.

• Past is a potential instrumentality for dealing with the future.
• Experience is not primarily an affair in knowing but is incidental in the process of acting,
doing and living.
• Sensation is not merely a gateway but the avenue of active relation with the world.

Educational Aim

• For social efficiency

• Train the students to continuously and actively quest for information and production of
new ideas needed to adjust to an ever-changing society.

Curricular Emphasis
• Creation of new social order
 • Integrated and based on the problem of the society
• Subjects are interdisciplinary
• Academic and vocational disciplines
1. Mathematics
2. Science
3. History
4. Reading
5. Music
6. Arts or metal works

Teaching Methods
• Experimental Methods
Steps:
1. Statement of the problem
2. Hypothesizing
3. Investigating or Data gathering
4. Testing hypothesis
5. Forming conclusions
• Other methods
1. Creative and constructive projects
2. Field trips
3. Laboratory work
4. Library work
• Activity-centered
• Pupil-centered
• Opportunity to practice democratic ideals

Character Development
• Making group decisions in light of consequences

Role of Teachers
• Keeps order in the class
• Facilitates group work
• Encourages and offers suggestions, questions, and help in planning
• Curriculum planner

Role of School
• A miniature society
• Gives child balance and genuine experience in preparation for democratic living
• Place where ideas are tested, implemented and restructured

PERENNIALISM

Perennialism is the most conservative, traditional, or flexible philosophy. The distinguishing

characteristic of humans is the ability to reason. Education should focus on developing
rationality. Education is preparation for life, and the students should be taught the world’s
permanencies through structured studies.

Perennialists believe that one should teach the things that they believe are of everlasting
importance to all people everywhere.
Nature

• Views truth as constant and universal

• Education is good if it enables the student to acquire knowledge of unchanging
principles
• Great ideas have the potential to solve problem in any area.

Assumption

• Education should promote continuing search for truth since truth is universal and
timeless
• Education should cultivate human’s rational mind
• Education should stimulate humans to think critically and thoughtfully.

Educational Aim
• To develop power of thought, internalize truths that are universal and constant.

Curricular Emphasis
• Great ideas or universal principles.
• Focused on arts and sciences are areas such as History, Language, Mathematics,
Science, logic, Literature, and Humanities.

Teaching Methods
• Subject centered
• Methods of disciplining the mind through reading and discussion.

Character Development
• Develop the intellect of all learners and prepare them for life.

Role of Teachers
• A known master of discipline

Role of School
• Produce intellectually elite individuals to become intellectual

PROGRESSIVISM

Progressivism emphasizes the concept of progress which asserts that human beings are
capable of improving and perfecting their environment.

Nature

• Exactly the opposite of perennialism

• Stresses the child’s needs and therefore child-centered

Assumption
• The curriculum should be derived from the needs and interests of the students.
• Effective methods of teaching must consider interests and needs of the students.
 • Effective teachers provide experiences that will make students active than passive
• Effective education is one that provides the learners with a future better than the past.

Educational Aim
• To provide the pupil the necessary skills to be able to interact with his ever changing
environment.

Curricular Emphasis
• Activity and experienced centered on life functions

Teaching Methods
• Cooperative Learning Strategies
• Reflective Strategies
• Problem Solving Strategies

Character Development
• Improvement and reform in the human condition

Role of Teachers
• Act as resource person
• Guide or facilitate
• Teaches students how to learn and become active problem solvers

Role of School
• Develop personal and social values
• Set up classroom environment along the lines of democracy

ESSENTIALISM

Essentialism is often called traditionalism or conservatism. It assumes that the values of men
are embedded in the universe, waiting to be discovered and understood. In education, there are
some things the child must learn which end the curriculum relatively static. There is a core of
essential and traditional subjects; certain literary classic, language, religion, mathematics,
science and history, and other materials.

Nature

Emphasis is on race experience or the social heritage.

Assumption

The study of knowledge and skills for the individual are imperative for him to become a
productive member of the society.

Educational Aim

• Education provides sound training of the fundamental skills

• Education develops individuals to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously.

Curricular Emphasis
 • Emphasis on the essential skills (3Rs) and essential subject such as English, Math, and
Foreign Language.
• Hard Sciences and vocation courses

Teaching Methods
• Deductive Method
• Drill Method
• Recitation
• Giving assignments or homework
• Testing and evaluating
• Systematic analysis and synthesis

Character Development
• Values of discipline, hard work, and respect for authority.

Role of Teachers
• Provide stimulating activities for learning
• Prepare well-organized lesson to prove he is an authority of instruction.

Role of School
• Ensure master of essential skills
• Prepare students for real life situations
• Teach students to communicate clearly and logically

EXISTENTIALISM

Man has no fixed nature and he shapes his being as he lives. The existentialist sees the world as
personal subjectivity, where goodness, truth and reality are individually defined. Reality is a world
of things, truth subjectivity chosen, and goodness, a matter of freedom.
Nature

• Focuses on the experiences of the individuals.

• Offers individuals a way of thinking about the meaning of life.

Assumption

• Existence precedes essence

Educational Aim

• To train individual for significant and meaningful existence

Curricular Emphasis

• Subject-centered
• Literature
• History
• Arts for Aesthetic expression
 • Humanities for ethical values

Teaching Methods

• Inquiry Approach
• Question-Answer Method

Character Development

• Individual responsibility for decisions and preferences

Role of Teachers

• Good provider of experience

• Effective questioner
• Mental disciplinarian

Role of School

• Create an atmosphere for active interaction

• Plan better solutions to their everyday problems
• Discuss the different situations based by an individual

RECONSTRUCTIONALISM

The belief that man to a significant degree plan and control his society, that in a democratic society
this should be done in the public interest, and that the school have a significant part to play in the
process.

Nature

• Social change
• Schools should have initiative in reconstructing the present social
• Believes that educational philosophies are based on one’s culture

Assumption

• We live in a period of great crisis, as is most evident in the fact that humans now have the
capability of destroying civilization overnight.
• Mankind has the intellectual technological and moral potential to create a world civilization
of abundance, health and human capacity.

Educational Aim

• Education enlivens the students’ awareness of different societal problems

• Education based on the quest for a better society

Curricular Emphasis
 • Stresses learning that enables the individual to live in a global milieu
• Controversial national and international issues
• Emphasis on social sciences and social research methods; examination of social
economics and political problems; focus on present and future trends.

Teaching Methods

• Community-based projects
• Problem-oriented method

Character Development

• Provide vision for better world

Role of Teachers

• Lead the young in designing programs for social, educational, practical and economic
change.

Role of School

• Primary agent of social change

• Critical examination of cultural heritage
• Center of controversy where students discuss controversial issues, political and
educational.