Five Philosophies of Education

Leonardo Z. Camboja Jr.                                                             The Teaching Profession

BEE – 2                                                                                                 Olga C. Alonsabe, Ph.D.

December 3, 2012

Philosophies of Education

John Dewey - Progressivism

John Dewey (1859-1952) applied pragmatist philosophy in his progressive approaches. He believed that learners must adapt to each other and to their environment. Schools should emphasize the subject matter of social experience. All learning is dependent on the context of place, time, and circumstance. Different cultural and ethnic groups learn to work cooperatively and contribute to a democratic society. The ultimate purpose is the creation of a new social order. Character development is based on making group decisions in light of consequences.

For Pragmatists, teaching methods focus on hands-on problem solving, experimenting, and projects, often having students work in groups. Curriculum should bring the disciplines together to focus on solving problems in an interdisciplinary way. Rather than passing down organized bodies of knowledge to new learners, Pragmatists believe that learners should apply their knowledge to real situations through experimental inquiry. This prepares students for citizenship, daily living, and future careers.

John Dewey was its foremost proponent. One of his tenets was that the school should improve the way of life of our citizens through experiencing freedom and democracy in schools. Shared decision making, planning of teachers with students, student-selected topics are all aspects. Books are tools, rather than authority.

JohnB. Watson - Behaviorism

Watson coined the term "Behaviorism" in 1913. Behaviorism assumes that behavior is observable and can be correlated with other observable events. Thus, there are events that precede and follow behavior. Behaviorism's goal is to explain relationships between antecedent conditions (stimuli), behavior (responses), and consequences (reward, punishment, or neutral effect). His theory was more concerned with effects of stimuli. He derived much of his thinking from Pavlov's animal studies (classical conditioning). This is also referred to as "learning through stimulus substitution," a reference to the substitution of one stimulus for another. For example, the ringing of a bell eventually produced the same response as food for Pavlov's dogs.
Aspects of Watson's theory:
• He opposed mentalistic concepts
• He used contiguity to explain learning
• He considered emotion to be just another example of classical conditioning
• He rejected the notion of individual differences
• He thought complex behaviors came about through combinations of identifiable reflexes
• He was a chief proponent of "nurture" and believed that all human differences were the result of learning
• He believed that practice strengthens learning

Popularizing Behaviorism

John B. Watson is generally given credit for creating and popularizing the term behaviorism with the publication of his seminal 1913 article "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It." In the article, Watson argued that psychology had failed in its quest to become a natural science, largely due to a focus on consciousness and other unseen phenomena. Rather than study these unverifiable ideas, Watson urged the careful scientific study of observable behavior. His view of behaviorism was a reaction to introspection, where each researcher served as his or her own research subject, and the study of consciousness by Freud and others, which Watson believed to be highly subjective and unscientific.

William Bagley - Essentialism

The essentialists offered several basic educational principles. First, they recognized the right of an immature student to the guidance of a well-educated, caring, and cultured teacher. Second, they proposed that an effective democracy demanded a democratic culture in which teachers impart the ideals of community to each succeeding generation of children. Third, they called for a specific program of studies that required thoroughness, accuracy, persistence, and good workmanship on the part of pupils. Bagley's basic point with his role in the founding of essentialism was that the currently dominant theories of education were feeble and insufficient. He wanted these dominant theories complemented, and perhaps replaced, with a philosophy that was strong, virile, and positive. He did not, however, want to destroy completely the dominant theories that he was critiquing. Throughout his life, he supported both the academic disciplines and certain basic tenets of Progressive education.

Jean Paul Sartre - Existentialism

Sartre's 1946 lecture L'Existentialisme est un humanisme ("Existentialism is a Humanism") offers a convenient summary of his basic views. The most fundamental doctrine of existentialism is the claim that—for human beings at least—existence precedes essence. As an atheism, Sartre demands that we completely abandon the traditional notion of human beings as the carefully designed artifacts of a divine creator. There is no abstract nature that one is destined to fill. Instead, each of us simply is in the world; what we will be is then entirely up to us. Being human just means having the capacity to create one's own essence in time.

Robert Maynard Hutchins - Perennialism

An education which consisted of the liberal arts as understood through great books and of great books understood  through the liberal arts...It must follow that if we want to educate our students for freedom, we must educate them in the liberal arts and in the great books.

.   Hutchins believed in order to educate students for freedom, that they must be educated in the liberal arts.  This belief gave way to the Chicago College Plan which consisted of a strict liberal arts curriculum at the University of Chicago.  He viewed the liberal arts as indispensable for preparing for life.  To Hutchins, teaching everyone to think, and to think well, was the ultimate in democratic education.

.  His educational reform helped to define perennialism.  For it was Hutchins, the ultimate perennialist and idealist, who said, * Education implies teaching.  Teaching implies knowledge as truth.  The truth is everywhere the same.  Hence, education should be everywhere the same.