Contemporary

Educational
Philosophies
Contemporary
Contemporary Educational
Educational
Philosophies
Philosophies

What does the

Quote imply?
 Contemporary Educational
Philosophies
CONTENT

• JOHN DEWEY

• EXPERIMENTALISM

• PRAGMATISM
Contemporary Educational
Philosophies
John Dewey
• Born on October 20,1859 in
Burlington, Vermont.
• Major Dewey’s educational theories
were presented in these writings
• The school and Society (1900),
• The child and the curriculum
(1902)
• Democracy and education(1916)
• Experience and education (1938)
Contemporary Educational
Philosophies
John Dewey
• Father of Modern Experimental
Education
• He put forward most of the
educational theories and philosophy
• Concept of experience and thinking
• Experiment is action performed
• He believed that if a student learned
to solve then he would be better fit
for living.
Contemporary Educational
Philosophies

So what is...
Experimentalism?
 Contemporary Educational
Philosophies
John Dewey and the Idea of Experimentalism
• A philosophical belief that the way to truth is through
experiments.

• It is associated with a very broad but shallow curriculum .Many

electives but few subjects are required.

• A friendly education research and many new ideas come from it.

• Questions during experiments -WHAT? -HOW ? -WHEN? -HOW

COME?
 Contemporary Educational
Philosophies
• Education should be a study of social problems and how it
is solved.
• Experiment anything to learn from it.
• Students shouldn’t be taught what to think, but HOW to
think.
- process
- problem solving
• It is exploratory critical thinking rather than explanatory.
• Gives important to action
 Contemporary Educational
Philosophies
• Experimentalism has been practiced in every field, from
music to film and from literature to theatre.
• It makes use of the empirical data often gathered through
surveys which probe the intuitions of ordinary people
• Development of skills.
• Life is a laboratory all individuals are experimenting
• Teachers reflective and inquiry skills gives students the
opportunity to draw their own conclusions after gathering
all available evidence.
 Contemporary Educational
Philosophies
What Experiments would Teach in the
Curriculum
• Everything that had any relation to students possible
futures.
• Problem solving
• Can be related to the interests of the students
• Activity centered curriculum
• Selection of appropriate books and topics for a proper
research including their content.
 Contemporary Educational
Philosophies
Methods of Teaching
• Brain storming methods
• Innovatory methods
• Basic research
• Learn by doing
• Project method
• Critical thinking
• Scientific methods
Contemporary Educational
Philosophies

So what is...
Pragmatism?
 Contemporary Educational
Philosophies
Pragmatism
• Derived from Greek word ‘pragma’ which means work,
practice, action or activity.

• It is the philosophy of practical experience.

• It is a typical American Philosophy practical in approach.

 Contemporary Educational
Philosophies
Basic Principles
• Gives importance to action.
• Gives importance to experience.
• Believes in change.
• No belief in permanent values.
• Gives emphasis on experimentation.
• Believe that growth and development takes place through
interaction and environment.
• Emphasis on means not on ‘end’.
 Contemporary Educational
Philosophies
Pragmatism and Educative Process
• “Education is living through a continuous reconstruction of
experiences. It is the development of all those capacities in
the individual which will enable him to control his emotion
and fulfil his possibilities.” - John Dewey
• It aims at developing efficiency of the pupil through
activities and experience.
• The only aim is more and more growth and creation of
new values. One can create values through activities and
experience.
 Contemporary Educational
Philosophies
• According to John Dewey : “School is the embryo of
community.” “School is a miniature society.” “An instrument
of transmission and transformation of the culture.”
• Recognizes that an individual should be socially efficient
and productive, the curriculum duly takes note of it.
• Another important principal given by pragmatism is the
principle of integration.
• Helps to realise the value of today’s life.
• Saves child from the burden of education which is too
much centred on books.
 Contemporary Educational
Philosophies
Pragmatism is characteristic of current educational
thought and it is representative of progressive trends in
education. Progressive education lays emphasis on
learning by doing, and involving the child actively in the
learning process. Too much restrain will retard the natural
growth of children. The child must be given educative
freedom to express and develop himself. In the knowledge
gaining process, observation and experimentation are the
basic tools and knowledge is of the nature of a hypothesis.