LESSON 1

PHILOSOPICAL THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION

TOPICS1in
Thoughts of the Educational Philosophers: of Curriculum
1. John Locke: The Empiricist Educator
2. Herbert Spencer: The Utilitarian Education
3. John Dewey: Learning through Experience
4. George Counts: Building a New Social Order
5. Theodore Brameld: Social Reconstructionism
6. Paulo Freire: Critical Pedagogy

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to discuss the six
philosophical thoughts on education.

TOPIC 1. JOHN LOCKE: THE EMPIRICIST EDUCATOR

John Locke (1632-1704) was among the most famous

philosophers and political theorists of the 17 th century. He is
often regarded as the founder of a school of thought known as
British Empiricism, and he made foundational contributions to
modern theories of limited, liberal government. He was also
influential in the areas of theology, religious toleration, and
educational theory. In his most important work, the Essay Concerning Human Understanding,
Locke set out to offer an analysis of the human mind and its acquisition of knowledge. He
offered an empiricist theory according to which we acquire ideas through our experience of the
world. The mind is then able to examine, compare, and combine these ideas in numerous
different ways.
Philosophical Thoughts of John Locke:
 Acquire knowledge about the world through the
senses-learning doing and by interacting with the
environment
 Simple ideas become more complex through
comparison, reflection and generalization – the inductive
method
 Questioned the long traditional view that knowledge came exclusively from
literary sources, particularly the Greek and Latin classics
 Opposed he “divine right of kings” theory which held that the monarch had the
right to be an unquestioned and absolute ruler over his subjects
  Political order should be based upon a contract between the people and the
government
 Political order should be based upon a contract between the people and the
government
 Aristocrats are not destined by birth to be rulers. People were to establish their
own government and select their own political leaders from among themselves;
civic education is necessary
 People should be educated to govern themselves intelligently and responsibly
(Ornstein, 1984)

Comments:
 For John Locke education is not acquisition of knowledge contained in the Great
Books. It is learners interaction with concrete experience, comparing and
reflecting on the same concrete experience, comparing. The learner is an active
not a passive agent of his/her own learning.
 From the social dimension, education is seeing citizens participate actively and
intelligently in establishing their government and in choosing who will govern
them from among themselves because they are convinced that no one person is
destined to be ruler forever.

Activity
Task/Activity
A. Below are some empiricism philosophies, do you agree or not? Explain your answer by
providing educational situations on the space provided.

Empiricism Philosophy Explanation

1. Knowledge is based on
experience and
experimentation.
2. Experimental science is
the paradigm of
knowledge.
3. Experience and
experiment rarely, if
ever produce certainty.
4. Some empiricist believe
that mathematics can
be certain.

TOPIC 2. HERBERT SPENCER: THE UTILITARIAN EDUCATION

Herbert Spencer, (born April 27, 1820, Derby, Derbyshire, England—

died December 8, 1903, Brighton, Sussex), English sociologist and
philosopher, an early advocate of the theory of evolution, who achieved
an influential synthesis of knowledge, advocating the pre-eminence of
the individual over society and of science over religion. His magnum
opus was The Synthetic Philosophy (1896), a comprehensive work
containing volumes on the principles of biology, psychology, morality, and sociology. He is best
remembered for his doctrine of social Darwinism, according to which the principles of evolution,
including natural selection, apply to human societies, social classes, and individuals as well as
to biological species developing over geologic time. In Spencer’s day social Darwinism
was invoked to justify laissez-faire economics and the minimal state, which were thought to
best promote unfettered competition between individuals and the gradual improvement of
society through the “survival of the fittest,” a term that Spencer himself introduced.

Philosophical Thoughts of Herbert Spencer:

 Spencer’s concept of ‘survival of the fittest” means that human development had
gone through an evolutionary series of stages from the simple to the complex
and from the uniform to the more specialized kind of activity.
 Social development had taken place according to an evolutionary process by
which simple homogeneous societies had evolved to more complex societal
systems characterized with humanistic and classical education.
 Industrialized society require vocational and professional education based on
scientific and practical (utilitarian) objectives rather than on the very general
educational goals associated with humanistic and classical education.
 Curriculum should emphasize the practical, utilitarian and scientific subjects that
helped human master the environment.
 Was not inclined to rote learning; schooling must be related to life and to the
activities needed to earn a living.
 Curriculum must be arranged according to their contribution to human survival
and progress.
 Science and other subjects that sustained human life and prosperity should have
curricular priority since it aids in the performance of life activities.
 Individual competition leads to social progress. He who is fittest survives.
(Ornstein, 1984).

Comments:
Specialized Education of Spencer vs. General Education
 To survive in a complex society, Spencer favors specialized education over that
of general education. We are in need of social engineers who can combine
harmoniously the findings of specialized knowledge. This is particularly true in
the field of medicine.
 The expert who concentrates on a limited field is useful. But if he loses sight of
the interdependence of things he becomes a man who knows more and more
about less and less. We must be warned of the deadly peril of over specialism.
Of course we do not prefer the other extreme, the superficial person who knows
less and less about more and more.

Spencer’s Survival of the Fittest

 He who fittest survives. Individual competition leads to social progress. The
competition in class is what advocates of whole-child approach and Socio-
economical Learning (SEL) atmosphere negate. The whole child approach a
powerful tool for SELF-focused schools has as tenets – “each student learns in an
environment that is physically and emotionally safe for students and adults” and
“each student has access to personalized learning and is supported by qualified
and caring adults…” (Frey, 2019).
Task/Activity
A. Explain the famous educational quotes from Philosopher Herbert Spencer. Submit
your written answers online.
1. “The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action.”
2. “Education has for its object the formation of character.”
3. “When a man's knowledge is not in order, the more of it he has, the greater will be
his confusion.”

TOPIC 3. JOHN DEWEY: LEARNING THROUGH EXPERIENCE

John Dewey, (born Oct. 20, 1859, Burlington, Vt., U.S.—died June 1,
1952, New York, N.Y.), American philosopher and educator who was a founder
of the philosophical movement known as pragmatism, a pioneer
in functional psychology, and a leader of the progressive movement
in education in the United States. Dewey graduated with a bachelor’s degree
from the University of Vermont in 1879. After receiving a doctorate in
philosophy from Johns Hopkins University in 1884, he began
teaching philosophy and psychology at the University of Michigan. There his interests gradually
shifted from the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel to the new experimental
psychology being advanced in the United States by G. Stanley Hall and the pragmatist
philosopher and psychologist William James. Further study of child psychology prompted
Dewey to develop a philosophy of education that would meet the needs of a changing
democratic society. His subsequent writing, which included articles in popular periodicals,
treated topics in aesthetics, politics, and religion. The common theme underlying Dewey’s
philosophy was his belief that a democratic society of informed and engaged inquirers was the
best means of promoting human interests.

Philosophical Thoughts of John Dewy:

 Education is a social process and so school is intimately related to the society
that it serves.
 Children are socially active human beings who want to explore their environment
and gain control over it.
 Education is a social process by which the immature members of the group,
especially the children, are brought to participate in the society.
 The school is a special environment established by members of the society, for
the purpose of simplifying, purifying and integrating the social experience of the
group so that it can be understood, examined and used by its children.
 The sole purpose of education is to contribute to the personal and social growth
of individuals.
 The steps of the scientific or reflective method which are extremely important
in Dewey’s educational theory are as follows:
  The learner has a “genuine situation of experience” –
involvement in an activity in which he/she is interested.
 Within this experience the learner has a “genuine
problem” that stimulate thinking.
 The learner possesses the information or does research
to acquire the information needed to solve the
problem.
 The learner develops possible and tentative solutions
that may solve the problem.
 The learner tests the solutions by applying them to the
problem. In this one way one discovers their validity for
oneself.
 The fund of knowledge of the human race-past ideas, discoveries and inventions
was to be used as the material for dealing with problems. This accumulated
wisdom of cultural heritage has to be tested. If it served human purposes, it
becomes part of a reconstructed experience.
 The school is social, scientific and democratic. The school introduces children to
society and their heritage. The school as a miniature society is a means of
bringing children into social participation.
 The school is scientific in the sense that it is a social laboratory in which children
and youth could test their ideas and values. In here, the learner acquires the
disposition and procedures associated with scientific or reflective thinking and
acting.
 The school is democratic because the learner is free to test all ideas, beliefs and
values. Cultural heritage, customs and institutions are all subject to critical
inquiry, investigation and reconstruction.
 School should be used by all, it being a democratic institution. No barrier of
custom or prejudice segregate people. People ought to work together to solve
common problems.
 The authoritarian or coercive style of administration and teaching is out of place
because they block genuine inquiry and dialogue.
 Education is a social activity and the school is a social agency that helps shape
human character and behavior.
 Values are relative but sharing, cooperation, and democracy are significant
human values that should be encouraged by schools. (Ornstein, 1984)

Comments:
The Fund of Knowledge of the Human Race
 Dewey does not disregard the accumulated wisdom of the past. These past ideas,
discoveries and inventions, our cultural heritage, will be used as the material for
dealing with problems and so will be tested. If they are of help, they become part
of a reconstructed experience. If they are not totally accurate, they will still be
part of a reconstructed experience. This means that the ideal learner for Dewey
is not just one who can learn by doing e.g., conduct an experiment but one who
can connect accumulated wisdom of the past to the present.
 School are For the People and By the People
 Schools are democratic institutions where everyone regardless of age, ethnicity,
social status is welcome and is encouraged to participate in the democratic
process of decision-making. Learners and stakeholders practice and experience
democracy in schools.

Task/Activity
A. Brainstorming Activity: In a group of four, discuss the Educational Theories of
John Dewey that significantly affects the learning of students. Present
consolidated output in the google class.

TOPIC 4. GEORGE COUNTS: BUILDING A NEW SOCIAL ORDER

George Sylvester Counts was born on December 9, 1889 in Baldwin City,
Kansas. He received his A.B. degree in 1911 and his Ph.D. degree from the
University of Chicago in 1916. He began his professional career in 1916 at the
University of Delaware as Head of the Department of Education and Director
of summer school. Between 1918 and 1926, he also taught at Harris College
in Missouri, the University of Washington, Yale University and the University
of Chicago. He spent the major portion of his professional career at Teachers College, Columbia
University, from 1927 to 1956. After retirement from Teachers College, he served as a visiting
professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Michigan State University and Southern Illinois
University.
Philosophical Thoughts of George Counts:
 Education is not based on eternal truths but is relative to a particular society
living at a given time and place.
 By allying themselves with groups that want to change society, schools should
cope with social change that arises from technology.
 There is a cultural lag between material progress and social institutions and
ethical values.
 Instruction should incorporate a content of a socially useful nature and a
problem-solving methodology. Students are encouraged to work on problems
that have social significance.
 Schools become instrument for social improvement rather than an agency for
preserving the status quo.
 Teachers are called on to make important choices in the controversial areas of
economics, politics and morality because if they failed to do so, others would
make the decisions for them.
 Schools ought to provide an education that afford equal learning opportunities
to all students. (Ornstein, A. 1984)

Comments:
Schools and Teachers as Agents of Change
 For George Counts, schools and teachers should be agents of change. Schools
are considered instruments for social improvement rather than as agencies for
preserving the status quo. Whatever change we work for should always be
change for the better not just change for the sake of change.
  Teachers are called to make decisions on controversial issues.
Not to make a decision is to actually making a decision.
 Like Dewey, problem solving, should be the dominant method for instruction.

Lag Between Material Progress and Ethical Values

Counts asserts that “there is a cultural lag between material progress and social
institutions and ethical values.” Material progress of humankind is very evident
but moral and ethical development seem to have lagged behind. A friend once
wrote: “The Egyptians had their horses. Modern man has his jets but today it is
still the same moral problems that plague humankind.” Indeed with science and
technology, we have become very powerful and yet powerless. We have
conquered a number of diseases and even postponed death for many, we have
conquered aging, the planets, the seas but we have not conquered ourselves.

TOPIC 5. THEODORE BRAMELD: SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTIONISM

Theodore Burghard Hurt Brameld (1904-1987) was a leading

educational philosopher of the 20th century. 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 (Philosophical
Perspectives). Brameld dedicated his efforts to employing schools as
agents for social change. Brameld’s works include: Ends and Means in Education (1950),
Patterns of Educational Philosophy (1955), Philosophies of Education in Cultural Perspective
(1955), Toward a Reconstructed Philosophy of Education (1956), Cultural Foundations of
Education (1957), Education and the Emerging Age (1961), Education as Power (1965), The Use
of Explosive Ideas in Education (1965), The Climactic Decades (1970), Patterns of Educational
Philosophy (1971), The Teacher as World Citizen (1976), and Tourism as Cultural Learning
(1977).

Philosophical Thoughts of Theodore Brameld:

 As the name implies, social reconstructionism is a philosophy that emphasizes
the reformation of society. The social reconstructionists contend that:
….humankind has moved from an agricultural and rural society to an urban and
technological society… there is a serious lag in cultural adaptation to the realities of a
technological society. Humankind has yet to reconstruct its values in order to catch up
with the changes in the technological order, and organized education has a major role
to play in reducing the gap between the values of the culture and technology. (Ornstein,
1984)
 So the social reconstructionist asserts that schools should: critically examine
present culture and resolve inconsistencies, controversies and conflicts to build
a new society not just change society… do more than reform the social and
educational status quo. It should seek to create a new society… Humankind is in
a state of profound cultural crisis. If schools reflect the dominant social values…
then organized education will merely transmit the social ills that are symptoms
of the pervasive problems and afflictions that beset humankind… The only
 legitimate goal of a truly human education is to create a world order in which
people are in control of their own destiny. In an era of nuclear weapons, the
social reconstructionists see an urgent need for society to reconstruct itself
before it destroys itself. (Ornstein, A. 1984)
 Technological era is an era of interdependence and so education must be
international is scope for global citizenship.
 For the social reconstructionists, education is designed “to awaken students’
consciousness about social problems and to engage them actively in problem
solving”. (Ornstein, 1984)
 Social reconstructionists are firmly committed to equality or equity in both
society and education. Barrier of socio-economic class and racial discrimination
should be eradicated.
 They also emphasize the idea of an interdependent world. The quality of life
needs to be considered and enhance on a global basis. (Ornstein. A. 1983)

Comments:
 Like John Dewey and George Counts, social reconstructionist Brameld believe in
active problem- solving as the method of teaching and learning.
 Social reconstructionists are convinced that education is not a privilege of the
few but a right to be enjoyed by all.
 Education is a right that all citizens regardless of race and social status must
enjoy.

Task/Activity

A. Examine the statement of Theodore Brameld, analyze how this affects the
adaptation of school system into technological era.
“I have never been comfortable in the inner sanctums of pure scholarship for
too long a period. The air is not sufficiently saturated with the oxygen of
everyday human life. So all the way through my professional years, I have
found time both to study philosophy and to relate theory to practice.”

TOPIC 6. PAULO FREIRE: CRITICAL PEDAGOGY

Paulo Freire was born in 1921 in Recife, Brazil. In 1947 he began work with adult illiterates in
North-East Brazil and gradually evolved a method of work with which the
word conscientization has been associated. Until 1964 he was Professor
of History and Philosophy of Education in the University of Recife and in
the 1960s he was involved with a popular education movement to deal
with massive illiteracy. From 1962 there were widespread experiments
with his method and the movement was extended under the patronage of the federal
government. In 1963-4 there were courses for co-ordinators in all Brazilian states and a plan
was drawn up for the establishment of 2000 cultural circles to reach 2,000,000 illiterates. Freire
was imprisoned following the 1964 coup d’etat for what the new regime considered to be
subversive elements in his teaching. He next appeared in exile in Chile where his method was
used and the UN School of Political Sciences held seminars on his work. In 1969-70 he was
Visiting Professor at the Centre for the Study of Development and Social Change at Harvard
University.

Paulo Freire was one of the most influential philosophers of education of the twentieth
century. He worked wholeheartedly to help people both through his philosophy and his practice
of critical pedagogy. A native of Brazil, Freire’s goal was to eradicate illiteracy among people
from previously colonized countries and continents. His insights were rooted in the social and
political realities of the children and grandchildren of former slaves. His ideas, life, and work
served to ameliorate the living conditions of oppressed people.

Critical Pedagogy and Dialogue vs. the Banking Model of Education

 Paulo Freire, a critical theorist, like social reconstructionists, believed that
systems must be changed to overcome oppression and improve human
conditions.
 Education and literacy are the vehicle for social change. In his view, humans must
learn to resist oppression and not become its victims, nor oppress others. To do
so requires dialogue and critical consciousness, the development of awareness
to overcome domination and oppression.
 Rather than “teaching as banking “in which the educator deposits information
into students” heads, Freire saw teaching and learning as a process of inquiry in
which the child must invent and reinvent the world.
 Teachers must not see themselves as the sole possessors of knowledge and their
students as empty receptacles. He calls this pedagogy approach the “banking
method” of education.
 A democratic relationship between the teacher and her students is necessary in
order for the conscientization process to take place.
 Freire’s critical pedagogy is problem-posting education.
 A central element of Freire’s pedagogy is dialogue. It is love and respect that
allow us to engage people in dialogue and to discover ourselves in the process
and learn from one another. By its nature, dialogue is characterized by respect
of the parties involved toward one another. We develop a tolerant sensibility
during the dialogue process, and it is only when we come to tolerate the points
of view and ways of being of others that we might be able to learn from them
and about ourselves in the process. Dialogue means the presence of equality,
mutual recognition, affirmation of people, a sense of solidarity with people, and
remaining open to questions.
 Dialogue is the basis for critical and problem-posing pedagogy, as opposed to
banking education, where there is no discussion, only the imposition of the
teacher’s ideas on the students (Ornstein, 1984)

Comment:
 All of these education philosophers, point to the need of interacting with others
and of creating a “community of inquiry” as Charles Sander Peirce put it. The
community of inquiry is “a group of persons involved in inquiry, investigating
more or less the same question or problem, and developing through their
exchanges a better understanding both of the question as well as the probable
solution.” (Lee, 2010) A community of inquiry will engage learners in active
problem solving.
Task/Activity
A. Reflect on the readings of Paulo Freire in Moacir Gadotti’s book, “I didn’t
understand anything because of my hunger. I wasn’t dumb. It wasn’t lack of
interest. My social condition didn’t allow me to have an education. Experience
showed me once again the relationship between social class and knowledge”.