MODULE I

PHILOSOPHY AND EDUCATION

I. INTRODUCTION:

Philosophy and Education are interrelated. Education is only as

strong, if it is firmly rooted in a solid philosophical foundation.
Future teachers like you should be able to develop your own sound
philosophy so you can guide your students to become more productive
citizens.

In this chapter, you will be reading varied philosophical

thoughts and ideas on education. You will also be given activities to
help you remember and understand how these philosophies
contributed to the development of education.

II. LEARNING OUTCOMES:

 Determine the relationship between philosophy and education.

 Identify the influence and contribution of the different
philosophies in the field of education.
 Compare and contrast the given educational philosophies
 Appreciate the contribution of these philosophies by writing a
reflection paper.

III. LEARNING ACTIVITIES:

Activity 1: Unlocking Difficulties

Directions: Arrange the jumbled letters to identify the word that

goes with each definition.

1. LOPHYSOPHI
Answer: _____________________________
It refers to the branch of knowledge or academic study
devoted to the systematic examination of basic concepts
such as truth, existence, reality, causality, and freedom.

2. CADUTIONE
Answer: _____________________________
It is the process of imparting and acquiring of knowledge
through teaching and learning, especially at a school or
similar institution.
 3. UESVAL
Answer: _____________________________
These are the accepted principles or standards of a person or
a group.

4. PLESCIPRIN
Answer: _____________________________
These are standards of moral or ethical decision-making.

Activity 2: Warm Up

Directions: Write any word or phrase that you associate with the
key concepts below.
Use the chart to write your answers.

Philosophy Education
Activity 3: Connecting Ideas

Directions: Is philosophy interrelated to philosophy? Write your

answer in the space provided.

Perhaps on some instances I could say yes but for me

philosophy was an abstract it is not easy for me to
Philosophy or to use philosophy in my life due to I
believe in the way of living life to as a good Christian
Activity 4: Reading the Text

Directions: Read the each philosophy below. Then answer the

questions that follow.

1. Empiricism
It is the theory that the origin of all knowledge is sense
experience. It emphasizes the role of experience and
evidence, especially sensory perception, in the formation of
ideas, and argues that the only knowledge humans can have
is a posteriori (i.e. based on experience).

In order to build a more complex body of knowledge from

these direct observations, induction or inductive reasoning
(making generalizations based on individual instances) must
be used. This kind of knowledge is therefore also known as
indirect empirical knowledge.

The term "empirical" (rather than "empiricism") also refers to

the method of observation and experiment used in the
natural and social sciences. It is a fundamental requirement
of the scientific method that all hypotheses and theories
must be tested against observations of the natural world,
rather than resting solely on a priori reasoning, intuition or
revelation. Hence, science is considered to be
methodologically empirical in nature.

The concept of a "tabula rasa" (or "clean slate") had been

developed as early as the 11th Century by the Persian
philosopher Avicenna, who further argued that knowledge is
attained through empirical familiarity with objects in this
world, from which one abstracts universal concepts, which
can then be further developed through a syllogistic method of
reasoning.

Sir Francis Bacon can be considered an early Empiricist,

through his popularization of an inductive methodology for
scientific inquiry, which has since become known as the
scientific method.

The doctrine of Empiricism was first explicitly formulated by

the British philosopher John Locke in the late 17th
Century. Locke argued in his "An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding" of 1690 that the mind is a tabula rasa on
 which experiences leave their marks, and therefore denied
that humans have innate ideas or that anything is knowable
without reference to experience. However, he also held that
some knowledge (e.g. knowledge of God's existence) could be
arrived at through intuition and reasoning alone.
Source: https://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_empiricism.html

Activity 4.1.
Directions: Answer the questions that follow. Write your
answers in the space provided.
Question: My Notes:

What do you think about _______________________________________________

Empiricism? Do you agree that
the only knowledge humans
can have is a posteriori (i.e.
based on experience)?
_______________________________________________
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2. Herbert Spencer and Utilitarianism

The theory that the rightness or wrongness of an action is
determined by its usefulness in bringing about the most
happiness of all those affected by it. Utilitarianism is a form
of consequentialism, which advocates that those actions are
right which bring about the best overall.
Principles of Teaching and Learning
He believed that people in an industrialized society needed a
utilitarian education in order to learn useful scientific skills
and subjects.
  Learning should be a sensory experience where a
student interacts within his/her environment; a slow,
gradual, and inductive process.
 Children should be encouraged to explore and discover
which would allow them to acquire knowledge
naturally.
 A student should only engage in those activities that
would allow him/her to survive in society.
Spencer identified five types of activities in the curriculum; 1.
Self-preservation 2. Indirect Self-preservation 3. Rearing of
Offspring 4. Citizenship 5. Leisure of Life
 Self-preservation (feelings which warn people or
animals to protect themselves from difficulties or
dangers)
 Indirect Self-preservation - Activities pertaining to
indirect self-preservation are those which help one to
make a successful living. We require the help of
mathematics in various activities pertaining to our
daily life.
 Rearing of Offspring (To help someone to grow up.)
Spencer wants to give the knowledge of rearing of
offspring to children in the school because it is
difficult for them to rear their children properly.
Therefore, parents should be prepared for bringing up
children.
 Citizenship - Spencer desires that the child should be
a worthy citizen. He thinks that history cannot be
used properly without the knowledge of science.
 Leisure of Life - Spencer has a very liberal (general)
outlook of life. For this he wants to teach painting,
music, sculpture, literature and poetry to the child.
But for the study of these arts, Spencer thinks that
the child must study the science first, because the
various sciences are at the root of all these fine arts.
Source:
https://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/religion/philosophy/concepts/
utilitarianism
https://www.slideshare.net/aslan102/herbert-spencercompleted
 Activity 4.2.
Directions: Answer the questions that follow. Write your
answers in the space provided.
Question: My Notes:

_______________________________________________
What do you think about
_______________________________________________
Spencer’s idea? Do you think
_______________________________________________
we should apply this in our
_______________________________________________
education system? What do
_______________________________________________
you think about his five
_______________________________________________
curriculum activities?
_______________________________________________
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3. John Dewey and Experiential Education

John Dewey’s impact on education earned him the name 'The

Modern Father of Experiential Education.'

Dewey's Theory of Education

Dewey believed that traditional education was too strict and

progressive education too spontaneous. He believed that traditional
education left little regard for the learner's interests and progressive
education was too individualized.

Dewey stated that human experiences- past, present, and future-

influence the capacity to learn. He once said that: 'Education is a
social process. Education is growth. Education is, not a preparation
for life; education is life itself.'

Dewey's Progressive Outlook

Dewey believed that traditional education, in its rigid requirements

of standards and conduct, encourages learners to be docile and
obedient, producing an environment where learners are encouraged
to listen and learn but not necessarily to think for themselves. He
valued the opportunity progressive education provides learners to
think and grow but believed that progressivism forced younger
generations to enact adult standards, producing an environment
where learners would be encouraged to think on their own without
understanding the reasoning behind their thinking.

Recognizing that not all experiences were educational, Dewey

challenged educators to begin providing learners with experiences
that resulted in growth and learning, believing that these
experiences would someday result in growth and creativity in
learners' future experiences. In other words, a good experience now
would impact future decisions and experiences. This is what Dewey
called the continuity of experience.

The Concept of Experiential Education

Experiential education is an education philosophy based on the

idea that learning occurs through experience and requires hands-on
activities that directly relate to the learner's life. In experiential
education, learning occurs through actually doing something and
then reflecting on- and learning from- the process. It combines
active learning with concrete experience and reflection. Service
learning, adventure learning and workplace internships are all
examples of experiential education.
Source: https://study.com/academy/lesson/john-dewey-on-education-theory-philosophy-
quiz.html

Activity 4.3.
Directions: Answer the questions that follow. Write your
answers in the space provided.
Question: My Notes:

_______________________________________________
What do you think about
_______________________________________________
Dewey’s ideas? What do you
_______________________________________________
think about experiential
_______________________________________________
education?
_______________________________________________
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4. George S. Counts (1889–1974)

Progressive educator, sociologist, and political activist, George S.

Counts challenged teachers and teacher educators to use school as
a means for critiquing and transforming the social order. His work
on schooling and society continue to have relevance to
contemporary dilemmas in education.

Sociology and Education

Counts saw in sociology the opportunity to examine and reshape

schools by considering the impact of social forces and varied
political and social interests on educational practice.

His educational philosophy was also an outgrowth of John Dewey's

philosophy. Both men believed in the enormous potential of
education to improve society and that schools should reflect life
rather than be isolated from it. Much of his writing suggests a plan
of action in the use of schools to fashion a new social order.

Social Reform

Counts was accordingly critical of the child-centered Progressives

for their failure to articulate any conception of a good society. He
chided their preoccupation with individual growth at the expense of
democratic solidarity and social justice.

Contribution

His contributions to the evolving discourse on democracy and

education are evident in a great deal of his writing, specifically in
his conviction that schools could be the lever of radical social
change. Highly critical of economic and social norms of selfishness,
individualism, and inattention to human suffering, Counts wanted
educators to "engage in the positive task of creating a new tradition
in American life". He wanted teachers to go beyond abstract,
philosophical conceptions of democracy and teach explicitly about
power and injustice. He wanted teachers and students to count
among their primary goals the building of a better social order.

Source:
https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1891/Counts-
George-S-1889-1974.html
 Activity 4.4.
Directions: Answer the questions that follow. Write your
answers in the space provided.

Question: My Notes:

Counts wanted educators

_______________________________________________
to teach explicitly about
_______________________________________________
power and injustice. He
_______________________________________________
wanted teachers and
_______________________________________________
students to count among
_______________________________________________
their primary goals the
_______________________________________________
building of a better social
_______________________________________________
order. As future educator,
_______________________________________________
how will you do this?
_______________________________________________
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\

5. Theodore Burghard Hurt Brameld (1904-1987)

As an American educator and educational philosopher, Brameld

was best known as the founder of Social Reconstructionism. In
reaction to the realities of World War II, he recognized the potential
for either human annihilation through technology and human
cruelty or the capacity to create a beneficent society using
technology and human compassion.

Brameld advocated that schools be a driving force for social and

political change. He founded the educational philosophy of Social
Reconstructionism which emphasized the addressing of social
questions and a quest to create a better society and worldwide
democracy (Philosophical Perspectives). Reconstructionist
educators focus on a curriculum that emphasizes social reform as
the aim of education.

Features of Social Reconstructionism

  He believed in a commitment to building a new culture in
which the common people would emerge as the leaders of
society.
 He felt that the working people should control all principal
institutions and resources if the world is to become
genuinely democratic. The structure, goals, and policies of
the new order must be approved and enacted with public
support.
 Brameld believed that the school should help the individual,
not only to develop socially, but to learn how to participate in
social planning as well.
 He believed learners must be convinced of the validity and
urgency of change but must adhere to democratic
procedures.

Brameld believed the creation of a new social order through

education would fulfill the basic values of society and harmonize
with the underlying social and economic forces of the modern
world. The child, the school, and education would be conditioned
by social and cultural forces. The teacher’s role was to convince his
or her students of the validity and urgency of the Reconstructionist
solution.

Brameld’s Curriculum Structure

He proposed a curriculum structure which included the following:

1) a nursery school for ages 2-5 which emphasized guidance and
personal development, 2) a lower elementary for ages 6-11 which
emphasized social development and related personal qualities, 3)
an upper elementary for ages 12-16 which emphasized activities
and learning, and 4) a secondary school for ages 17-21 which
would be equal to present day high school and 2 years of college
(Brameld). Many of his proposals such as a longer school day; a
year round school calendar; and open facilities to facilitate adult
education, recreation, and counseling are widely accepted as
means of improving the education system of today.
Source:
http://www2.southeastern.edu/Academics/Faculty/nadams/educ692/Brameld.html
 Activity 4.5.
Directions: Answer the questions that follow. Write your
answers in the space provided.

Question: My Notes:

_______________________________________________
What can you say about his
_______________________________________________
proposed curriculum
_______________________________________________
structure? Do you adhere to
_______________________________________________
the ideas of Social
_______________________________________________
Reconstructionism?
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6. Paulo Freire (1921–1997)

Freire's revolutionary pedagogy starts from a deep love for, and

humility before, poor and oppressed people and a respect for their
"common sense," which constitutes a knowledge no less important
than the scientific knowledge of the professional. This humility
makes possible a condition of reciprocal trust and communication
between the educator, who also learns, and the student, who also
teaches.

Freire conceived of authentic teaching as enacting a clear authority,

rather than being authoritarian. Freire urged both students and
teachers to unlearn their race, class, and gender privileges and to
engage in a dialogue with those whose experiences are very different
from their own.

Banking education
 Freire criticized prevailing forms of education as reducing students
to the status of passive objects to be acted upon by the teacher. In
this traditional form of education it is the job of the teacher to
deposit in the minds of the students, considered to be empty in an
absolute ignorance, the bits of information that constitute
knowledge. Freire called this banking education.

Freire uses the banking concept of education to discuss how

education is used by those in the position of power to continue a
structure that ensures their own control. In Freire's work, The
Pedagogy of the Oppressed, he suggests that teachers and
administrators who wish to maintain power and control over their
children treat instruction as if learning is like a bank. In this
metaphor, the teacher "deposits" information into the students, who
are passive objects in the learning process. Like all good accounts,
students collect the "information" and simply absorb that which is
deposited. There is no questioning and there is nothing reciprocal
in this process. The teacher "banks" the information in the student
by depositing it in them.

Problem-posing method

Against the banking model, Freire proposed a dialogical problem-

posing method of education. In this model, the teacher and student
become co-investigators of knowledge and of the world. Freire's
problem-posing education invites the oppressed to explore their
reality as a "problem" to be transformed. It is not the task of the
educator to provide the answer to the problems that these
situations present, but to help students to achieve a form of critical
thinking that will make possible an awareness of society as
potentially open to transformation.

Culture circle

The concrete basis for Freire's dialogical system of education is the

culture circle, in which students and coordinator together discuss
generative themes that have significance within the context of
students' lives. These themes, which are related to nature, culture,
work, and relationships, are discovered through the cooperative
research of educators and students.

For Freire, authentic education is always a "practice of freedom"

rather than an alienating inculcation of skills.
Philosophy of Education

He insisted that revolutionary change takes place precisely through

the consistency of a critical commitment in both word and deed.
This is expressed in his formulation, "To speak a true word is to
transform the world".

The transformation of social conditions involves a rethinking of the

world as a particular world, capable of being changed. But the
reframing proposed here depends upon the power of the
imagination to see outside, beyond, and against what is. More than
a cognitive or emotional potential, the human imagination, in
Freire's view, is capable of a radical and productive envisioning that
exceeds the limits of the given. It is in this capacity that everyone's
humanity consists, and for this reason it can never be the gift of the
teacher to the student. Rather, educator-student and student-
educator work together to mobilize the imagination in the service of
creating a vision of a new society.

Freire's work continues to be indispensable for liberatory education,

and his insights remain of value to all who are committed to the
struggle against oppression.
Source: https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1998/Freire-Paulo-1921-1997.html
https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-banking-concept-education-420074

Activity 4.6.
Directions: Answer the questions that follow. Write your
answers in the space provided.

Question: My Notes:

Freire is against the

banking model. What can
you say about this? What
can you contribute for the
transformation of the
current social conditions
here in the Philippines?
Activity 4: Completing the Chart

Directions: Complete the chart below by writing the names of

the philosophers and their contributions to the field of
education.

Philosopher His Philosophy His contributions

Activity 5: Writing Your Reflection

Directions: Write a short reflection by answering the questions

below. Use the space provided.

What did you learn from the 6 different philosophies?

How can these philosophies help you become a better
teacher?

___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
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I

I IV. ASSESSMENT:

I For Module 1
I Name:_________________________________ Year and Sec._____________
I Instructor: ______________________________Date: ____________________

I
Directions: Write the name of the philosopher or the philosophy
I
that is referred to in each of the given statements. Write
I your answer before each number.
I 1. It is the theory that the origin of all knowledge is sense
experience.
I 2. It means making generalizations based on individual
I instances.
3. He said the mind is a tabula rasa on which
I
experiences leave their marks, and therefore denied
I that humans have innate ideas or that anything is
I knowable without reference to experience.
4. He popularized the methodology for scientific inquiry,
I
which has since become known as the scientific
I method.
5. It is a form of consequentialism, which advocates that
I
those actions are right which bring about the best
I overall.
I 6. He believed that people in an industrialized society
needed a utilitarian education in order to learn useful
I
scientific skills and subjects.
I 7. He is 'The Modern Father of Experiential Education.'
I 8. For Dewey, it is a social process and is not a
preparation for life but life itself.
I 9. He challenged teachers and teacher educators to use
I school as a means for critiquing and transforming the
social order.
I
10. It emphasized the addressing of social questions and
I a quest to create a better society and worldwide
I democracy
11. He urged both students and teachers to unlearn their
I race, class, and gender privileges and to engage in a
I dialogue with those whose experiences are very
different from their own.
I

I
12. In this traditional form of education it is the job of the
teacher to deposit in the minds of the students,
considered to be empty
13. In this model, the teacher and student become co-
investigators of knowledge and of the world.
14. He believes that educator-student and student-
educator work together to mobilize the imagination in
the service of creating a vision of a new society.
15. It is an education philosophy based on the idea that
learning occurs through experience and requires
hands-on activities that directly relate to the learner's
life.