Chapter 6: PHILOSOPHY ROOTS OF EDUCATION

Lecturers : Soeung Sopha

Presented by : Pha Rakim
: Yous Ponleu
: Sam Sreypech
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 Contents
1. Philosophies and Theories
2. Special Terminology
3. Idealism
4. Realism
5. Pragmatism
6. Existentialism
7. Postmodernism
8. Educational Theories
9. Essentialism
10. Perennialism
11. Progressivism
12. Critical Theory

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 1- Philosophies and Theories

Philosophies:
is a general worldview that includes
education.

Theories:
often derived from philosophies or arising
from practice focus more specifically on
education, school, curriculum, and teaching
and learning.
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 Differences between Philosophies and Theories
of education.
Philosophies
Wide-ranging, systematic
complete, global
Components related to
metaphysics, axiology,
epistemology, and logic.
Insights derived from the
general philosophical system
Theories
Focus on education; no
complete philosophical
system offered
Components related to
specifics of education, such
as curriculum, teaching and
learning
Insights derived from more
general philosophies or from
school contexts
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 2. Special Terminology

As its special terminology, the philosophy of education

uses the basic terms metaphysics, epistemology,
axiology, and logic.

Metaphysics examines the nature of ultimate reality.

Epistemology which deal with knowledge and knowing,

influence methods , of teaching and learning.

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 2. Special Terminology

Axiology which prescribes values- what

we should or should not do- as subdivided
into ethic and aesthetic.

Ethic examines moral values and

prescribes the standards of
ethical behavior.
Aesthetics addresses values in beauty and
art.

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 2. Special Terminology

Logic
Logic are subdivided in to two parts:

Deductive logic move from general

statements to particular instances and
applications.

Inductive logic moves from the particular

instance to tentative generalizations that are
subject to further verification and possible
revision.
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 Philosophys Relationships to Education
SUBDIVISION OF PHILOSOPHY RELATED EDUCATIONAL CONCERNS

Metaphysics: Knowledge of most worth:

What is real? The curriculum

Epistemology: How we teach and learn:

What is knowledge based on? Method of instruction

Axiology: Behavior, character,

What is moral and right?(ethics)
What is beautiful and
civility, and appreciation
good?(aesthetics) and expression

Logic: How we organize and structure

course, lessons and units
How can we reason ?
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 3. Idealism
Key Concepts

Metaphysics
Metaphysics idealists, believe that the spiritual,
nonmaterial world is ultimately real
Macrocosm and microcosm
Macrocosm refer to the universal mind, the first
cause, creator, or God.
Microcosm refer to the personal mind or spirit.
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 Key Concepts

Epistemology
The idealist believe that the
idea that make up reality have
always existed in the mind of
the Absolute, or God.

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 Key Concepts

Axiology
The ideal believe that truth, goodness, and
beauty exist in a universal and eternal order.
idealists prescribe value that are unchanging
and applicable to all people everywhere.
Logic
The ideal base on the whole-to-part
relationship between the absolute and
individual minds.
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 The Basic Questions
Knowledge of
universal
ideas

High Schooling: an
The Basic intellectual
standars Questions pursuit of
truth

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 Implications for Todays Classroom Teacher

Intellectual development, not vocational

training

Internet use

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 4. Realism
Key Concepts
Knowing as sensation, then abstraction
Metaphysics and Epistemology Realists believe
in a material world that is independent of and external
to the knowers mind.
Curriculum of organized subjects
Believe that a curriculum of organized, separate
subject provide the most accurate and efficient way to
learn about reality
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 Axiology
Axiology For realist, certain
rules should govern intelligent
rational behavior.
Deductive and inductive logic
Realist teachers may use logic
both deductively and inductively.
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 The basic Questions

Education via subject-

matter

The Basic Question

Knowledge concerns
objects

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 Implications for Todays Classroom Teacher

Classrooms for learning not therapy

Teachers as subject-matter experts

Example of a realist approach

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 5. Pragmatism
Key Concepts
Experience
Metaphysics and Epistemology Unlike the
idealist and realist philosophies that assert a
metaphysical foundation of universal and unchanging
reality, pragmatism dismisses metaphysics as
empirically unverifiable speculation.
Experience, defined as the interaction of the
person with the environment, is a key pragmatist
concept.
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 Reconstruction of person and environment
The environment are constantly changing, a
curriculum based on supposedly permanent realities or
universal truth is untenable.
Relativity of values
Axiology and Logic Pragmatic axiology is highly
situational and culturally relative.
Inductive logic
Following the scientific method, experimentalist
logic is inductive rather than deduced from first principles
as in idealism and realism.

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 Knowledge is
Cultural
tentative
diversity, but An experiment
shared learning process
processes

The Basic
Question

Transmitting Interdisciplinary
cultural approach
heritage School as
microcosm of
society

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 Application for Todays Classroom Teacher

Subject matter as instrumental

Applying the scientific method

Classroom as community

Teacher as risk takers

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 6. Existentialism

Existentialism is more a
process of philosophizing
than it is systematic
philosophy (like idealism
and realism).
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 Key concepts

Personal reflection
-The existentialist author Jean-Paul
Sartre stated that Existence precedes.
Creating ones essence through choices
-That we did not choose to be in and that
we did not make.

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 Existential angst
- This conception of a human being as the
creator of his or her own essence differs
substantially from the idealist and realist, who
see the person as an already-defined category
in a universal system.
Choosing self-determination
- We must also cope with the constant
threat that other person, institution, and
agencies pose to our choose making freedom.

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 The Basic Questions
Creating personal values

Awakening consciousness of human

condition

Some opportunities for all

Question and dialogue

Self-expression need
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 Implications for Todays Classroom Teacher

Teacher encourages awareness

External standards depersonalize

education

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 7. Postmodernism
Postmodernism

- Contends that the modern period of

history has ended and that we now live on
postmodern era.

Constructivism

- A psychology and a method of

education.
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 Key Concepts

Derrida and Foucault

- The French philosopher Michel Foucault, Jacques,
and Nietzsche, rejected the postmodern idealist and realist
claims that there are universal and unchanging truths.

Deconstruction
- Claiming that knowledge as a human construction
is expressed by language, Derrida developed
deconstruction as a method to trace the origin and the
meaning of texts or canons.

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 The Basic Questions

School reproduce status quo

Struggle over curriculum

Teaching as representation

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 Implications for Todays Classroom
Teacher

Teacher empowerment

Site-based philosophy

Postmodernists deconstruct
standards
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 8. Educational Theories

Educational Theories examine the role

and the functions of school, curriculum,
teaching, and learning.

In following sections, we examine four

educational theories: essentialism,
perennaislism, progressivism, and critical
theories 31
 9. Essentialism

Essentialism
- The achievements of human
civilization by transmitting them to
students as skills and subjects in a
carefully organized curriculum.

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 The Basic Questions
Role of school to teach basic

- Essentialist argue that schools and teachers must

be committed to their primary academic mission and not
be diverted into nonacademic areas.

Subject-matter boundaries

- Essentialist favor a subject-matter curriculum

that differentiates and organize subjects according to
their internal logical or chronological principle.
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 Suspicious of innovations

- Essentialists the students construct

their own knowledge in a collaborative
fashion, and of authentic assessment in
which students evaluate their own
progress.

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 Implications for Todays Classroom Teacher

Transmitting essential skills

An essentialist lesson

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 10. Perennialism
Perennialism : Shares many common features
with essentialism, such as using subject matter
to transmit the cultural heritage across
generations.

School cultivate
Perennia curiculum
Education develop the mind
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 The Paideia Proposal

An Educations Manifesto is
revival of perennialism.
Paideia a Greek word, refer to
a person complete education
and cultural formation
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 The basic questions
A general education

- Perennialists assert that in a democratic

society all students have the right to the same
high-quality intellectual education.

Against cultural relativism

-
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 The school primary role is to develop
students reasoning power.

Progressivism : originated as a general

reform movement in American society
and political.

prolonging childhood.
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 11. Progressivism

Progressivism

- Originated as a general reform

movement in American society and
political life in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries

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 Key concepts
Practices opposed by progressives

1. Authoritarian teachers
2. Exclusively book-based instruction
3. Passive memorization of factual
information
4. The isolation of schools from society
5. Using physical or pyschological
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 Practices favored by progressives

1. The child should be free to develop naturally

2. Interest, motivated by direct experience
3. The teacher should facilitate learning
4. Close cooperation needs to be encouraged between
the school and the home
5. The progressive school should be a laboratory for
experimentation.

Progressive reforms in schools

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 The basic questions

Readiness, interests, and needs

Constructing reality

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 Example of a progressive strategy

Pre-project preparation

Student initiative

On-site learning
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 12. Critical theory

Critical Theory is a
highly influential
contemporary theory
education.
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 Key concepts

Neo-Marxist influence

Powerful groups dominate

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 The basic questions
A new public philosophy
Social control
Teacher empowerment
Official curriculum
Hidden curriculum
Student life story
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 Implications for today classroom teacher

Teachers must empower themselves

1. Find out who their real friends are in struggle for
control of school.
2. Learn who their students are by helping them
explore their own self-identities.
3. Collaborate with local people for school and
community improvement.
4. Join with like-minded teachers in teacher-
controlled professional organizations that work for
genuine education reform
5. Participate in critical dialogues about political,
economic, and educational issues that confront
American society. 48
Thank you for your pay attention!

Q&A

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