ESSENTIALISM

ESSENTIALISM

• Extremely important or necessary

• Basic
• What is needed
Essentialism
• A belief that something is
necessary
Essentialist:
• Common and essential ideas and skills, as well as traditional
moral values and virtues, belonging to a certain culture should
be taught to all at the same level especially primary school
level, for equal and well-balanced citizens
• Master a set body of information and basic techniques for
their grade level before they are promoted to the next higher
grade
• Authority is emphasized and the subject matter is the
center of the curriculum, based on traditional
disciplines such as math, nat sci, history, foreign
language and literature
• Assigns the school the task of conserving the heritage
and transmitting knowledge of the physical world
• Students gain deeper knowledge when exposed to
fewer core subjects
• Subject outside these areas are perceived to weaken
academic rigor and thoughts to destroy school
KEY PROPONENTS

• William C. Bagley
• E.D. Horsh, Jr
• Theodore Sizer
William C. Bagley
• An education reformist (1938)
• Identified the ff components:
o Teachers are knowledgeable and well educated in the core
curriculum
o Customs of the American culture as common foundation
o All students had to held a higher standard on the essential
(Standardized Tests)
E.D Horsch, Jr

• Cultural Literacy
• His provocative book became a manifesto for “back to
the basic movements”
• To identify 5000 specific names, dates, facts and
concepts for the field of art, religion, science and culture
Theodore Sizer
• Developed school reform movement known as Essential School
Movement, common core of information and skills
• Ask school to identify which consider as common core
elements of their curriculum, and to focus on this core
Teacher’s Role
• Teacher-centered
• Serve as an intellectual and moral role model for students
• Decision maker with little regard to the interests
• Accountable for student learning
• Ultimate authority
• Ruler
Students’ Role
• Accountable for interests in all subject
• Work completion
• Work hard
• Sit in rows and be taught in masses
Teaching Strategies
• Regular assignment/homeworks
• Recitation and testing
• Lecture-based
• Discussion
• Written and Oral Communication
• Exam
• Field Trips
• Audiovisual materials
• Providing instruction geared toward organized learning
through textbooks
Advantages/Strengths
• Students of essentialist classrooms are provided with strong academic
foundations with which they can build basic skills, such as reading,
writing, history, math and science.
• Teachers in essentialist classrooms do not stand for unproductive
behaviors or unmotivated atittudes. Students must always be working
hard.
• As such, discipline is a large component of the essentialist classroom,
which benefits the learning environment
Disadvantages/Weaknesses
• Students are not free to explore, question and test academic material the
way that other philosophies permit
• Does not knowledge the importance of extra-curricular or non-academic
subjects such as music, drama and sports, etc
• Students may miss out on developing skills in other areas
PROGRESSIVISM
• “Learning by Doing”
• believes in hands on, action oriented learning to achieve results
•  focused on providing students with the skills and knowledge necessary
not only to survive but also to succeed, to be a thriving member of the
society
• Developing the whole child rather than just the intellect. Self-expression
and creativity
• Human experience as the basis for knowledge
• Educational focus is on engaging students in real world problem solving
activities in a democratic and cooperative learning environment
• Providing students with real world experiences that are meaningful and
relevant to them
• Emphasis on growth, action centered, process and changed centered
• Values the empirical method of education, enabling individuals to have
their own opinions and encourages student engagement to be valuable to
the learning process
• Understanding of their place in the society
• Its emphasis is on social justice, concern for human welfare, interest
providing leaning opportunities outside the school building, and support
individual differences
John Dewey

• American philosopher, psychologist and educational

reformer
• Father of Progressive Education
• Believe that all aspects of study, need to be linked to
materials based on students’ everyday life experience
• Education should be based on students’ need and that it should be
participatory
• An authoritarian way of teaching did not give people a chance to look
deep within themselves
Teacher’s Role
• Facilitator
• Direct student learning but voice is just as important as the students’
• Guide helping students finding their own voice “learning how to learn”
• To act as collaborative partner
• Help students make decisions, construct skills they need to understand and
to process content
Students’ Role
• Student-centered
• Active participants in their own learning process rather than passive
recipients of information
Teaching Strategies
• Discovery and self-directing learning for students
• Group work
• Project-based
• Scientific method
Advantages
• learning that is directed by the interests and active involvement of the
students
• when students are both more involved with the process or learning and
with the outcome of their own learning the lessons will be considerably
more effective and deep set.
Disadvantages
• catering to student whims and fancies may ultimately damage the overall
curriculum
• educational progress lags due to classes that seem to coddle student
feelings rather than focusing on content knowledge
NATURALISM
•  a philosophy with the belief that nature alone represents the entire reality.
There is nothing beyond behind, or other than nature. human life is the part of
the scheme of nature. It gives emphasis to matter, the physical world. It does
not believe in spirituality and supernaturalism.
• Regards scientific knowledge as the highest value.
• Knowledge is comprehended through senses
• Laws of nature are unchangeable and the whole universe is governed by them
In education:
• In naturalism, maximum freedom and central position is given to the
child. education should be according to the nature of child. It advocates
creation of natural conditions in which natural development of child can
take place
• Curriculum based on psychology and inborn instinct of child.
• There is no place for moral religious and spiritual education
• Does not believe in a rigid and fixed curriculum
• Believes in inborn ability and instincts of the child.
• Child learns best in a natural setting
• Self-expression
• Struggle for existence
• Development of individuality
• Education should develop the child into a joyous, rational, and mature
child.
• Sensors are the gateway to knowledge. The child should be trained to
function his senses effectively
 Teacher’s Role
• Facilitator
• observer in a naturalistic education scheme
• to understand the child and help in the growth and development
• stage setter
Students’ Role
• Student-centered
• Active participants in their own learning process rather than passive
recipients of information
 Teaching Strategies
• It rejects
• rigid teaching methods
• uniform
• traditional methods of teaching
• It does not favor classroom teaching
•  children should be encouraged to discover things on their own
• joyous, creative, and spontaneous activity.
• observation and experiments in the laboratory should be important factors
of teaching methodology
 Advantages
• It provides presents a refreshing and humanistic attitude towards teaching
and learning.
• Here children are treated as equals by adults. Their personality and
individuality is respected.
• Discipline comes in the self-imposed form rather than by constant
correction or harsh attitudes by adult interference.
• Children share freedom as well as the responsibility with adults.
• It aims to make teaching real, interesting, and meaningful
• It also does good to society by rejecting superstitions
Disadvantages
• It ignores the spiritual and moral side of human nature.
• Its tents are applicable to all the children irrespective of their individual
differences. Sometimes it is not practical to apply principles of the
naturalistic approach to education in practical situations.
• This approach is not suitable for a vast amount of learning which is
needed in a short span of time. Sometimes it is not practical to approach
learning at a leisurely pace through experience and unaided by books.
• It tends to ignore the ideals and purpose of life
• It brings everything to materialism and gives no place to spiritual values
THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING ☺