ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING

INSTITUTE
(In affiliation with University of Education, Winneba)

1-YEAR CERTIFICATE IN BASIC EDUCATION

COURSE CODE: EDU 111

COURSE TITLE: PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS OF

TEACHING AND LEARNING

COURSE HANDOUT

LECTURER: EMMANUEL ANYIDOHO

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 ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING INSTITUTE
(In affiliation with University of Education, Winneba)

PROGRAMME: CERTIFICATE IN BASIC EDUCATION

COURSE TITLE: EDU 111 PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
LEVEL: 100
SEMESTER 1
LECTURER: EMMANUEL ANYIDOHO
MOBILE NO.: 0242264761/0249253503
E-MAIL: [email protected]

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND AIMS

By the end of the course, students should be able to: explain the concepts involved in philosophy
and education; explain the rationale for the study of the philosophy of education; and discuss the
various systems of education. The course is made up of topics designed to give students the
philosophical basis of education. It includes the study of the great philosophers and the analysis
of various philosophical schools of thoughts and how to apply them in the classroom. The course
is made up of the definition of philosophy, structure of philosophy, definition and scope of
philosophy of education, systems of philosophy, education and democracy, punishment and
education, freedom and authority in education and moral education.

COURSE OUTLINE

MEANING, SCOPE & FUNCTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

 Meaning of the Philosophy and Education
 Concept of Philosophy of Education
 Scope of Philosophy of Education
 Nature of Philosophy of Education Modes of Philosophical Inquiry
 Functions of Philosophy of Education
 Relationship between Philosophy of Teaching and Teaching Styles

PHILOSOPHY OF BASIC EDUCATION

 The Concept of Education Aims, Goals and Objectives
 Specific Philosophical Aims and Objectives of Education in Ghana Basic Education

MEANING, SCOPE AND FUNCTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY

 The Meaning of Philosophy

 A Scope of Philosophy
 The Functions of Philosophy
 Analytical Function
 Speculative and Normative
 Inspirational Function

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  Prescriptive Function
 Co-ordination Function
 Philosophy as a Guide to Curriculum Design
 Implication of Philosophy for Teaching

PHILOSOPHY AND EDUCATION

 Relationship between Philosophy and Education
 Conceptions of Philosophy of Education
 Philosophy as an Application
 Broad Based Approach
 Historical Approach
 Philosophical Approach
 Analytical Approach

THE PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF PRIMARY EDUCATION

 The Scope of Philosophical Foundation of Childhood Education

 The Influence of Education on the Perception of Realities
 The Concept of the Great Personality
 The Fundamental Responsibility of Parents to the Child and the Needs of the Child
 The Child’s Readiness for Basic Education
 The Child’s Interest in Basic Education

THE ROLE EXPECTED OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER

 Concept of Basic School Teacher

 Qualities of Basic School Teacher
 Roles Expectation of Basic School Teacher, Implication for Effective Teaching
 Teacher Having Special Interest in Children
 Possession of Sound Professional Knowledge
 Teacher as a Model to the Children
 The Relationship between Teacher and the Pupil

CHARACTERISTICS OF BASIC SCHOOL CHILDREN

 Physical Characteristics of Basic School Children

 Educational Implication of Physical Characteristics for Effective Teaching in Basic
School
 Social Characteristics of Basic School Children
 Educational Implication of Social Characteristic of Basic School Children to Learning
 Emotional Characteristics of Basic School Children
 Educational Implication of Emotional Characteristics to Effective Teaching and Learning
 Cognitive Characteristics of Basic School Children
 Educational Implications of Cognitive Characteristics of Basic School Children

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THE MEANING AND PURPOSE OF BASIC EDUCATION

 Meaning of Basic Education

 Purpose of Basic Education
 Factors that affect purpose are
 Purposes of Purposes of Basic Education Change with Time
 Purposes of Basic Education are not universal
 Purposes of Basic Education should be Child- Centered
 The Educated Person
 The Purpose of Basic Education During the Missionary Era
 The Purpose of Basic Education of Regional Governments
 The Purpose of the Universal Basic Education

LEADING PHILOSOPHERS OF EDUCATION

 Contribution of Plato to Basic Education

 Contribution of Jean. Jaeques Rouseau and John Amos Commenius to Basic Education
 Contribution of John Heinrich Petalozzi and Maria Montessori Contribution of John
Dewey to Basic Education etc.
 Relevance of Philosophy of Education to the Basic School Teacher

RELEVANCE OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION TO THE BASIC SCHOOL

TEACHER

 The Importance of Philosophy to Basic School Teacher

 Facts about the Importance of Philosophy of Education
 Philosophical Roles in Teacher Effectiveness

DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION

PUNISHMENT AND EDUCATION
FREEDOM AND AUTHORITY IN EDUCATION
MORAL EDUCATION

ASSESSMENT PROCEDURE:

1. CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT 40%

a. Mid-Semester Exams 20%

b. Class work 10%
c. Attendance and Class Participation 10%

2. END OF SEMESTER EXAMINATION 60%

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MEANING, SCOPE & FUNCTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lecture all students will be able to:

• discuss the meaning of philosophy of education,

• explain the unlimited scope of philosophy of education.
• enumerate the various functions of philosophy of education. State the various methods of
Philosophical inquiry.
• describe the relationship between philosophy of teaching and teaching styles.

Meaning of Philosophy
Meaning of Philosophy. The word philosophy literally means love of wisdom. It is derived from
two Greek words i.e. 'phileo' (love) and 'Sophia' (wisdom).

Field of Philosophy Relative to Teaching

Four branches of philosophy relative to teaching:

 Axiology
 Epistemology
 Logic
 Metaphysics

Axiology is the branch of philosophy that considers aesthetics and ethics.

• What is more important to you – your friends and family or your things? Is it stealing if
you take something that no one else wanted? Would you run a stop sign if no one was
looking? What about a stop light? These questions speak to your core system of values –
what you believe to be right and wrong, also known as ethics.
• What is beauty? What do you consider to be beautiful? Aesthetics are things of beauty or
that are pleasing to the eye.

Epistemology

 Theories of knowledge
 Knowing the limits or validity of knowing

It is a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods and limits of human
knowledge.
Why do we, as a human race, know more than we did a hundred years ago? Why do we not have
a better understanding of how the brain works? Or, since we have learned so much about the
brain, why can’t we be smarter? Will there be a time when we will know everything that there is
to know, and the human mind can’t learn anything else? Will our brains explode if we think
about it too much?

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Logic

 Reasoning
 Increases with each stage of cognitive development

Does logical thought inhibit or enhance creativity? How much is 2 + 2? How did you know that?
Don’t say that you just did, because you did not know it on the day that you were born. Logic is
the branch of philosophy that considers reasoning to arrive at legitimate conclusions. It includes
mathematical logic. Logic is responsible for all reasoning. We are taught logic early in life. Think
back to the psychologist Jean Piaget who we discussed earlier in the year. You may recall that he
observed that our ability to think logically – to reason – increases with each stage of cognitive
development.
Metaphysics
 Meta ta physika
 Basic causes and nature of things

• Have you ever wondered what is on the edge of the universe?

Metaphysics is derived from the Greek meta ta physika, meaning after the things of nature. It is
the branch of philosophy that strives to explain the basic causes and nature of things.
The 12 Metaphysical Questions

1. Does God exist?

2. Is it possible to know the truth about God?
3. Will science and religion ever become one?
4. Is the Bible divinely inspired, or merely myths?
5. Would morality exist without religions?
6. Why are we here?
7. Are there really miracles, or can they all be explained scientifically?
8. What part of us continues after death?
9. Is the universe eternal or not eternal?
10. Is the universe finite or infinite?
11. Are the body and the "self" the same?
12. After death, do we continue to exist or not exist?

Meaning of Education
Etymologically, the word education is derived from educare (Latin) "bring up", which is related
to educere "bring out", "bring forth what is within", "bring out potential" and ducere, "to lead".
Education in the largest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind,
character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process by
which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one
generation to another. Webster defines education as the process of educating or teaching (now

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that's really useful, isn't it?) Educate is further defined as "to develop the knowledge, skill, or
character of..."

Thus, from these definitions, we might assume that the purpose of education is to develop the
knowledge, skill, or character of students. In ancient Greece, Socrates argued that education was
about drawing out what was already within the student. (As many of you know, the word
education comes from the Latin e-ducere meaning "to lead out.") At the same time, the Sophists,
a group of itinerant teachers, promised to give students the necessary knowledge and skills to
gain positions with the city-state. Thus we see that there are different views and understandings
of the meaning of the term education. In the modern times it has acquired two different shades of
meaning namely: (1) an institutional instruction, given to students in school colleges formally;
and (2) a pedagogical science, studied by the student of education.

CONCEPT OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

Philosophy of education is a process of solving problems related to education through critical

evaluation and systematic reflection on general theories. Thus, philosophy of education are of
various kinds, such as, perennialism, essentialism, progressivism, behaviourism, and
reconstructionism. Behind every philosophy lie theories that support it, to provide validity, order,
and integration of the inherent beliefs.

The philosophy of education can be defined as the study of the purposes, processes, nature and
ideals of education.

On the other hand, educational philosophy is a branch of general philosophy, which deals with
pedagogy, curriculum, learning theory, method of teaching, role of a teacher, discipline,
assessments, and so on.

For instance, every teacher follows a philosophy of education, which affects the decisions he/she
takes as a teacher. For example, whether he/she views students as 'empty vessels' to be filled with
knowledge or as co-constructors of knowledge; whether he/she places more emphasis on critical-
thinking skills as the building blocks of knowledge or views creativity as fundamental to all
learning, and so on.

SCOPE OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

The scope of philosophy of education is confined to the field of education. Thus, it is philosophy
in the field of education. The scope of philosophy of education is concerned with the problems of
education. These problems mainly include –

 interpretation of human nature, the world and the universe and their relation with man,
 interpretation of aims and ideals of education,
 the relationship of various components of the system of education,
 relationship of education and various areas of national life economic system, political
order, social progress, cultural reconstructions etc.

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  educational values,
 theory of knowledge and its relationship to education.

The above mentioned problems constitute the scope of philosophy of education and explain its
nature. Thus, the scope of philosophy of education includes following.
i. Aims and Ideals of Education Philosophy Education critically evaluates the different
aims and ideals of education. These aims and ideals have been prorogated by various
philosophers in different times. They are character building, man making, harmonious
human development, preparation for adult life, -development of citizenship,
-utilization of leisure, training for civic life, training for international living, achieving
social and national integration, scientific and technological development, education
for all, equalizing educational opportunities, strengthening democratic political order
and human source development.
ii. Interpretation of Human Nature:- A philosophical picture of human nature is a result
of the synthesis of the facts borrowed from all the human science with the values
discussed in different normative, sciences. The philosophical picture, therefore, is
more broad as compared to the picture of man drawn by biology, sociology,
psychology, economics and anthropology and other human science.
iii. Educational Values:- Value is typically a philosophical subject since it is more
abstract, integral and universal. Philosophy-of education not only critically evaluates
the values but also systematizes them in a hierarchy. Educational values are'
determined by philosophical values. Educational values propagated by different
philosophers have been derived from their own world, view and their outlook on the
purpose of human life. Therefore, a scrutiny of the world views, outlook, beliefs is the
specific function of philosophy and it is necessary for the philosophical treatment of
the values.
iv. Theory of Knowledge:- Education is related to knowledge. It is determined by the
source, limits, criteria and means of knowledge. The discussion of all these falls
within the jurisdiction of epistemology, one of the branches of philosophy, therefore,
an important area of the functioning of philosophy of education is related to theory of
knowledge. e] Relationship of education and various area of national life and various
components of the system of education.

One of the most important contributions of the philosophy of education to the cause
of education is the provision of criteria for deciding the relationship of state and
education, economic system and education, curriculum, school organization and
management, discipline etc. These problems have led to the evaluation of different
philosophies of education. The criteria of judgment everywhere are determined by
philosophy, therefore, philosophy of education provides the criteria for critical
evaluation and judgment in these fields.

Nature of Philosophy of Education

Philosophy of education is one of the areas of applied philosophy. There are three
branches of philosophy namely 'metaphysics, epistemology and axiology.

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FUNCTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
Philosophy of education performs various functions. They area discussed below:

i. Determining the aims of education Philosophy of education provides original ideas

regarding all aspects of education particularly educational aims. It is said that educational
philosophy gives different views, but this situation is not harmful, rather it helps in
providing education according to the need of society. The difference in view of
philosophy of education reflects the multiplicity and diversities of human life. Philosophy
of education guides the process of education by suggesting suitable aims from the
diversities of life and selecting the means accordingly.
ii. Harmonizing old and new traditions in the field of education- In the process of social
development the old traditions become outdated for the people. They are replaced by the
new traditions. But this process of replacement is not always smooth. It is faced with lots
of opposition from certain orthodox sections of the society. At the same time it must be
kept in mind that every 'old' is not outdated and every 'new' is not perfect Therefore, there
is a need of co-coordinating the two in order to maintain the harmony between both. This
function can be performed by philosophy of education.
iii. Providing the educational planners, administrators and educators with the progressive
vision to achieve educational development. Spencer has rightly pointed that only a true
philosopher can give a practical shape to education. Philosophy of education provides the
educational planners, administrators and educators with the right vision which guides
them to attain the educational goals efficiently.
iv. Preparing the young generation to face the challenges of the modern time: - Social
commentators have given many labels to the present period of history for some it is the
information age and for others it is post modernity, later modernity, high modernity or
even the age of uncertainty. One more addition to this list may be that 'present age is an
age of Globalization as a phenomenon arrived on the economic scene in the 1990 in
India. This watchword has had its implications in the social political, economic fabric of
the country of which education is a part. Philosophy of education is a guiding, steering
and liberating force that helps young people to and society at large to face the challenges
of the modern time.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING AND TEACHING

STYLES

Philosophy guides the process of education in different ways. A teacher approaching education
philosophically needs to answer four basic questions that guide the teaching learning process.
They are:
i. What is the nature of the learner?
ii. What is the nature of subject matter?
iii. How should one use the subject matter to guide students towards meaningful learning
activities?
iv. What behavior trend should one exhibit in order to carry out one‘s philosophical
position?

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The answers to these questions only will help the teacher to identify a series of preferences, as
opposed to a set of behavior that belong to mutually exclusive categories for the following
questions. An attempt to answer these questions is nothing but philosophy of teaching.
Philosophy and various philosophical viewpoints inform us that each of these questions have
different philosophical perspectives that can be considered as extremes in a continuum.

Nature of the Learner

For the question about the nature of Learner, It will be defined in terms of extremes of the
continuum by using the terms ―Lockean (passive) and ―Platonic (active).

―Lockean is a position because it was John Locke, in his Essay Concerning Human
Understanding, who first wrote about mind, is a tabula rasa. He envisioned the operation of the
mind as similar to a blank wax tablet on which data taken in through the senses would make
―impressions. Sensory data which a learner absorbed formed the true source of knowledge. Any
complex mental operations involving association, interpretation, or evaluation of secondary data
led to the formulation of increasingly complex knowledge.
Tabula rasa according to Wikipedia refers to the epistemological idea that individuals are born
without built-in mental content and that therefore all knowledge comes from experience or
perception.

Philosophers have been arguing that babies are born with minds that are essentially blank slates
since the days of Aristotle. (Later, some psychologists took up the case as well.) English speakers
have called that initial state of mental blankness tabula rasa (a term taken from a Latin phrase
that translates as "smooth or erased tablet") since the 16th century, but it wasn't until British
philosopher John Locke championed the concept in his Essay Concerning Human
Understanding in 1690 that the term gained widespread popularity in our language. In later
years, a figurative sense of the term emerged, referring to something that exists in its original
state and that has yet to be altered by outside forces.

Or
Tabula rasa, ( Latin: “scraped tablet”—i.e., “clean slate”) in epistemology (theory of
knowledge) and psychology, a supposed condition that empiricists attribute to the human mind
before ideas have been imprinted on it by the reaction of the senses to the external world of
objects.

―Platonic Image is that of a teacher who has so much respect for what the learner can
contribute to the learning environment that he or she definitely does not want them to ―absorb
prescribed subject matter, as the teacher sees the subject matter. Under such circumstances
learners are viewed as the most important ingredient of the classroom environment because they
teach each other and their teacher about problems which are meaningful to them. It is almost that
learners have the knowledge which is locked inside them which is released through interaction.
Platonic concept believes in the doctrine of Reminiscence.

Nature of Subject Matter

The terms ―Amorphous or ―Structured are used to delineate extremes on the continuum of
teacher‘s view on the nature of subject matter. The term amorphous label has been reserved for

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rote learning, which emphasizes that each item to be learned is equal in importance to every
other item to be learned; hence youngsters are not encouraged to find relationships among items
to be learned and no item is seen to be more important than the other. The other extreme
―structured we may expect to find a position represented by those who have a quite realistic
view of what the subject matter can never accomplish. The term ―Structured as used in this
context, is from Bruner‘s understanding that any subject matter should be viewed as having a
natural structure which can help to explain relationships among its components and which can be
used to find new information.
The role of structure in learning – “The teaching and learning of structure, rather than simply the
mastery of facts and techniques, is at the center of the problem of transfer” (J. S. Bruner, 1964)

Jerome Brunner's Educational Theory

Bruner describes the general learning process in the following manner. First the child finds in his
manipulation of the materials regularities that correspond with intuitive regularities it has already
come to understand. According to Bruner the child finds some sort of match between what it is
doing in the outside world and some models or templates that it has already grasped
intellectually. For Bruner it is seldom something outside the learner that is discovered. Instead,
the discovery involves an internal reorganisation of previously known ideas in order to establish
a better fit between those ideas and regularities of an encounter to which the learner has had to
accommodate.
His approach was characterised by three stages which he calls enactive, iconic and symbolic and
are solidly based on the developmental psychology of Jean Piaget. The first, the enactive level, is
where the child manipulate materials directly. Then he proceed to the iconic level, where he deals
with mental images of objects but does not manipulate them directly. At last he moves to the
symbolic level, where he is strictly manipulating symbols and no longer mental images or
objects. The optimum learning process should according to Bruner go through these stages.

1. Enactive mode. When dealing with the enactive mode, one is using some known aspects of
reality without using words or imagination. Therefore, it involves representing the past events
through making motor responses. It involves manly in knowing how to do something; it involves
series of actions that are right for achieving some result e.g. Driving a car, skiing, tying a knot.

2. Iconic Mode. This mode deals with the internal imagery, were the knowledge is characterised
by a set of images that stand for the concept. The iconic representation depends on visual or
other sensory association and is principally defined by perceptual organisation and techniques for
economically transforming perceptions into meaning for the individual.

3. Symbolic mode. Through life one is always adding to the resources to the symbolic mode of
representation of thought. This representation is based upon an abstract, discretionary and
flexible thought. It allows one to deal with what might be and what might not, and is a major tool
in reflective thinking. This mode is illustrative of a person’s competence to consider propositions

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rather than objects, to give ideas a hierarchical structure and to consider alternative possibilities
in a combinatorial fashion, (Spencer.K.,1991, p.185-187).

How should Subject matter guide students learning activities?

The two end points of the continuum is ―cognitive and ―affective. These concepts are not
mutually exclusive categories, but rather matters of emphasis and preferences. In order to
illuminate factors involved in any teacher‘s decision to emphasize cognitive or affective learning
activities it is useful to consider the following addendum.
 Cognitive Domain – fact, concept and generalization
 Affective Domain- belief and value/

Evidence abounds that students bring into the classroom attitudes which influence the way they
perceive facts, concepts and generalizations. Sometimes teachers are fortunate to have students
who bring with them positive attitudes towards the subject matter at hand. Most often we have
students who bring with them not very positive attitudes. In such situations the teachers‘role will
be to help students think critically by transforming generalization, beliefs and values into
hypotheses that can be tested. Then the teacher resorts to the affective domain.

Behaviour trend in order to carry out one‘s Philosophical Position

The terms authoritarian and non-authoritarian are two extremes of the continuum, but should be
understood as not merely being strict ‘or permissive‘. These words should go beyond the aspect
of classroom management as it is more inclusive approach to classroom management. It is an
over view of the student and the subject matter which this indicator has been designed to
examine. For instance, suppose some teachers encourage students to view subject matter only as
experts in that field might view it; hence these teachers habitually accept for each major question
under examination only one right answer which all students are excepted to adopt and
understand. We can thus say that these teachers are said to encourage convergent thinking and
hence in this context we can term them as authoritarian ‘teachers. The converse can be said of
non-authoritarian teachers‘ Teacher need to be aware of the Philosophical Positions‘ that they
take and have taken while they enter into classrooms or plan to enter into classrooms
Philosophical positions affect the way they interact with students and facilitate learning in
learners individually or collectively.

Thus we see that the way we answer the questions of nature of learner, subject matter etc.
definitely affects our teaching style. Whether a teacher is authoritative or non-authoritarian,
whether teaching methods are constructivist or lecture method are influenced based on the
philosophical position that they hold. Background for approaching the educational problems
effectively. Therefore, it is essential for the educators to have the deep insight into the philosophy
of education.

PRACTICE QUESTIONS
1. What is the meaning of the tem philosophy?
2. Discuss and elucidate, "All educational questions are ultimately questions of philosophy"
3. Why should a teacher study philosophy of education?

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 4. Define education in your own words based on the various definitions of educational
thinkers.
5. The scope of philosophy of education is unlimited. Critically evaluate this statement.
6. Discuss the relationship between Philosophy of teaching and teaching styles.

PHILOSOPHY OF BASIC EDUCATION

Learning Objectives
By the end of this lecture, students should be able to:
 explain the concept of education;
 define education;
 list the aims of education;
 list the specific philosophical aims and objectives of education in Ghana; and
 explain the National Policy of Education.

Meaning and Definition of Education

One view derives “education” from the Latin word “educere” which means, “to lead out” or “to
form” “to train”.
A.N. Whitehead defines education as the process by which people acquire the art of utilizing
knowledge. It is guidance towards a comprehension of the art of life. To John Dewey, education
is the process of living, not a preparation for further life. It is a continuous process of growth. Its
purpose is the development of the intelligence in such a way that the experience one gets at one
time can be carried to a subsequent experience and used in solving one’s life problems.

Moreover, education is meant to develop both the individual and the capacity for social living. R.
S. Peter’s in his contribution defined education, as a process of socializing, enculturation and
transmission of what is worthwhile to those who are committed to it, be they children or adults.

In view of all these, we can define education as a process of developing knowledge ability in
learners in such a way that they use this knowledge to improve themselves and their society.

The first teacher a child ever has is his parent, and the learning process starts as soon as he enters
the world. Since the teaching-learning process starts with the child’s parents, the mother in
particular, the background of the learner matters a lot. If for instance, the mother of the child is
an educated lady with a good means of livelihood, that is, a good earning capacity one can be
sure that the child will be fed and taught a lot of things that another child from a less enlightened
family is not likely to have.

A child growing up in a home where both parents can find time to teach and interact with him
certainly has some advantages in terms of education. This is even more so when there are such
things as books, newspaper, magazines, radio and television to stimulate his learning in the home
to increase his development in education. As you can see, education begins at home with parents
leading the way. At the school, the teacher continues the process of educating the child. You
should understand that the teacher does not take over the education of the child. The teacher and

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the child’s parents are partners in progress as far as the child’s education is concerned. At the
school level also, the responsibility of educating the child is shared by all the agencies of
education, which ensure that adequate facilities, including books, furniture, materials and
qualified staff are provided. It is also government’s responsibility to ensure the safety and health
of the child through its various agencies.

The process of education therefore, involves different activities on the part of the parents,
teachers, the community, the government and the child. The goal is to help him acquire
knowledge, skills and morals. These components of education are essential to the making of the
person. The educated person is one who can apply his knowledge and skills in such a way as to
find solution to whatever problems that may confront him. Education indeed, is the practical way
of attaining individual and social fulfillment.

The Meaning of Educational Aim

We can define educational aim as a statement of what we hope to do in order to achieve our goals
of education.

Some Aims of Education. The aims of education are as follows:

1. The Minimum Skill

Education should provide men and women with a minimum of the skills necessary for them:
a) To take their place in society and
b) To seek further knowledge

This is the least controversial of the listed aims. It is essential that everyone in our society should
know how to read and write and calculate sufficiently to go through their ordinary daily business.
You should know that it is irrelevant what a person is. He needs the skills in order to do his work
well.

2. Vocational Training
At every stage in our adult life we should be able to use not only our heads but our hands as well.
We cannot all be medical doctors, engineers, lawyers or teachers; some of us must be plumbers,
carpenters, electricians and auto mechanics. No matter what vocation you have learnt, you
should take interest in areas outside your own in order to be able to help yourself when you are
in need. Our education should aim at making us useful not only to ourselves but to the society at
large.

3. Stimulating the Desire for Knowledge

Our educational system wrongly emphasises the acquisition of knowledge as a means to an end.
While no one would quarrel over using acquired knowledge as a means to earning our living;
quest for knowledge can be for its own sake. Education has an intrinsic value, that is, it does not
have to be seen as something that must always bring material reward. For instance, when you
read novels for your own personal enjoyment and not for the sake of passing any examination, it
does not only give you some satisfaction but also builds up your vocabulary. Such will also
improve your outlook in many ways. Our education should therefore, promote our quest for

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knowledge at all times because it is not only good for the individual but for the entire nation as
well.

4. Developing a Critical Outlook

This aim of education is a very controversial one. Government officials and private proprietors of
schools or employers in general do not always appreciate people who are critical of their actions.
But criticism is essential in a democratic system. Our education must enable us read in between
lines to detect possible areas of conflicts and point them out before it is too late. Although some
people may be uncomfortable whenever such is done, it may prevent a lot of problems in the
long run.
Constructive criticism is usually better especially when the issue is a very sensitive one. Sound
education therefore, develops in us a critical mind to enable us to detect flaws and disagree with
even those we respect most. Being critical is a sign of being an educated person.

Democracies as an Aim of Education

When you take a close look at our educational system, you will see how traditional and
authoritarian our schools have remained. The average child does not see going to school as
enjoyable. For many children, schooling is a painful experience that they must live with. But
does it have to be that way? What makes it that way? Who is responsible for fear of school
despotism?

Somehow, the traditional teacher sees himself as a person who knows everything and has every
right to inculcate knowledge and moral in every child who chooses this path. How he does it
must not and cannot be challenged by anyone including the child’s parents. He sees it as his God
given right to mould and shape “the child according to his own will”. As far as the teacher is
concerned, what he teaches in class is not as important as how he teaches it. The old lesson note
that he has been reciting to every group of children that comes along must never be touched or
altered. He uses it for every generation that passes through the school. He probably taught the
child’s father years ago with the same materials that he is using now. If you suggest a change of
material, he dismisses you with a wave of hand. All these show that the process of education
relies too much on dictating what should be done, whereas it should be democratic.

Although the picture painted above still exists in most primary schools in Ghana, there have been
some efforts or moves towards democratization. Our teacher education programmes at different
levels have started to emphasize the need to educate instead of training. An educated teacher is
more humane than a trained teacher. The educated teacher does not lack self-confidence, he is
always innovative and willing to learn in order to be more useful to his student. He is also ready
to learn from his students. If our aim is to make education less painful to our pupils, teachers in
the system need to be more democratic. Given that an aim of education emphasizes self-
realization, he must pay as much attention to the processes of education as well as content of
work and teaching method.

The child centered educator would ensure that the child’s feeling and interest are accommodated
in a given programme of study. Individual self-realization emphasizes the importance of learning
by individual experience and discovery and the importance of a principle of actions in a
curriculum. In other words, children should be given an opportunity to choose from a given set
of subjects in a curriculum. Teachers should be willing to accommodate this as much as possible.

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When this is being done, the teacher is democratic. This lays the foundation for the development
of democratic principle as a national goal.

SPECIFIC PHILOSOPHICAL AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF EDUCATION IN GHANA

Ghana has since independence made significant strides in its education system. The education
landscape in Ghana today is the result of major policy initiatives in education adopted by past
governments as well as the present one. Some of the laws, policy documents and reports, which
have helped in meeting the educational needs and aspirations of the people are:

The Education Act of 1961

The Dzobo Report of 1973 (Recommended the JSS Concept)
The New Structure and Content of Education 1974
The Education Commission Report on Basic and Secondary Education 1987/88.
The Education Reform Programme 1987/88
The University Relationalization Committee Report 1988
The Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education Programme, 1996. (1992 Constitution)
The FCUBE Policy Document and Programme of Operations,1996
The Ghana Education Trust Fund - GET Fund Act 2000.(Act 581)

Indeed these initiatives have not only helped in structurally transforming the education system
but also improved considerably access, quality teaching and learning, infrastructure delivery as
well as management efficiency.

BASIC EDUCATION
The Education Reform Programme introduced in 1987/88 and the free Compulsory Universal
Basic Education (FCUBE) 1996 programme, have contributed immensely to the structure of
Basic Education that we have today and the achievements so far made. Basic Education now
consists of 6 years Primary Education followed by 3 years Junior Secondary.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF EDUCATION REFORM PROGRAMME

Reduction in the length of pre-tertiary education from 17 to 12 years. Increasing access to
education at all levels particularly at Basic and Secondary pre-vocational training and general
skill training. Enhance sector management and budgeting procedures.

The Education Reform Programme succeeded in solving some of the problems confronting the
sector, including the reduction of the duration of pre-tertiary education from 12-17 years and
expanding access to education. However, the sector was still beset with a number of problems.
These included the following:

 Poor quality teaching and learning.

 Weak management capacity at all levels to the educational system.
 Inadequate access to education.

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FCUBE PROGRAMME
The FCUBE launched in October 1996 is being implemented for a twenty-seven year period
(1996-2017) in fulfillment of the Fourth Republican Constitutions mandate which states in
Chapter 6/Section 38 Sub-section 2: “The Government shall within two years after Parliament
first meets after the coming into force of this Constitution draw up the programme for
implementation within the following ten years for the provision of Free Compulsory Universal
Basic Education). It was designed to address some of the shortcomings of the educational
reforms. The main objectives are:

 Expand access to good quality basic education.

 Promote efficient teaching and learning.
 Improve teacher moral and motivation through incentive programmes.
 Ensure adequate and timely supply of teaching and learning to schools.
 Improve teacher community relations.

To facilitate the attainment of these objectives, a number of programmes and interventions are
being implemented as part of holistic approach to promote expanded access a positive building
of effective assessment of pupils, the mobilization of community resources for school
development and healthy school/community relations. Some of these interventions are:

QUALITY IMPROVEMENT IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS (QUIPS)

The QUIPS Programme supported by USAID among other things helps to produce competent
teachers, train education managers and planners and promote a supportive learning environment.
A Mid-Term Assessment of The QUIPS Programme indicates that the programme is impacting
positively on teaching and learning outcomes in primary schools. Currently QUIPS is being
implemented in 429 schools throughout the country.

CHILD SCHOOL COMMUNITY PROGRESS IN EDUCATION (Child Scope)

Child Scope is a UNICEF sponsored programme, which is helping to improve children’s reading,
writing and numeracy skills in primary schools.

PERFORMANCE MONITORING TEST (PMT)/ SCHOOL PERFORMANCE

APPRAISAL MEETING
The PMT/SPAM, which were introduced in 1998, have proved to be effective tools in
monitoring, teaching and learning outcomes in Basic Schools. The PMT is a test in English and
Mathematics administered to 25%-50% of pupils in Public Schools. The results are discussed at
School Performance Appraisal Meeting (SPAM) where parents have the opportunity to analyse
the performance of their children and map out strategies for improving their performance and
school achieving set targets.

DISTRICT TEACHER SUPPORT TEAM (DTST)

The District Teacher Support Team (DSTS) provide an anchor for improving the quality of
teaching and learning at the district level. It provides support to schools in the area of good
practices in literacy, numeracy and problem solving.

WHOLE SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT (WSD) PROGRAMME

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The WSD programme is a GES strategy for mainstreaming all interventions for the achievements
of the FCUBE objectives. Zonal Co-coordinators have been appointed to serve as a link between
pre-service and in-service programmes. They also link District and Regional management
personnel to Teacher Training Colleges.

Practice Questions
1. Who is an educated person?
2. What is education?
3. Mention two aims of education?

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 MEANING SCOPE AND FUNCTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY

Introduction
In the last lecture, you studied the concept of education, the aims of education and the
philosophical aims of education. In this lecture, you will learn about the definition and meaning
of philosophy, the functions of philosophy and the implication of philosophy to education.

Objectives
By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:
 state the meaning of Philosophy;
 define what philosophy is;
 explain who is a Philosopher;
 describe the functions of Philosophy; and
 state the implications of Philosophy for Teaching.

MAIN CONTENT

The Meaning of Philosophy

People think of philosophy in different ways because of their differences in viewing the world.
The various ways people see things have accounted for the argument about the way things and
how man fits into the universal scheme.

The word philosophy came from the Greek words, ‘Philo’ and ‘Sophia’. These Greek words are
interpreted as follows – ‘Philo’ refers to friendliness, affection or love. The ‘Sophia’ on the other
hand, refers to the highest intellectual, especially philosophical excellence which the human
mind is capable of and which is the result of studying nature for its own sake. The two concepts
would combine to form philosophy, which is literally translated as ‘love of wisdom’.

Philosophy
Although, contemporary philosophers do not parade themselves as ‘wise men’ wisdom is
certainly an attribute of philosophy. But who is a wise man? What would make us refer to a
person as wise in African society? To refer to a person as a wise man in Africa, the person must
know the traditional practices and customs of his people. Such a person must also think critically
and deeply about the world around him. It is only when a person has these qualities that you can
refer to him as a wise man or a philosopher. In order words, how much schooling or paper
qualification a man has does not account for his becoming a philosopher. Now, let us look at
some definitions of philosophy.

Philosophy has been defined as:

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 a) A mental attitude between science and religion. Like science, it is concerned
about factual evidence about the world. Like religion, philosophy is never
definite about anything said about the nature of God or man.
b) A way of simplifying complex ideas and statements about our experiences in
life in order to make us understand them fully.
c) A study, which examines the nature of the world and the reasons behind many
things or events happening in it.

A sum total of what a person accepts as guiding principles to act in a particular way at different
times, places and circumstances.

The Scope of Philosophical Inquiries

Understand that philosophical inquiry is about the following areas of study:
i. A comprehensive explanation of why man occupies a particular position in the world.
ii. An explanation of the nature of knowledge and its relevance to human life.
iii. A study of theories and principles which guide social behavior which we call ‘Good’ or
‘bad’, ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.

Philosophy as subject examines the question, which affects human existence and the existence of
other objects in the world. The subject also examines the question of the existence of God and
other divine forces. The subject also examines and clarifies important topics like life, happiness
and time, predestination, immorality among others. When we study such topics, we study an area
of philosophy called metaphysics. A teacher should study this subject because it would help him
to understand human nature better and, therefore, be better able to develop the knowledge of his
learner. This is why you need to study it well.

Philosophy is also concerned with studying the nature of knowledge. Philosophers try to define
knowledge. They try to identify the qualities of knowledge. They try to trace the origin and
source of knowledge. While some philosophers believe that knowledge comes from reasoning,
others believe that it comes from senses. Again, others believe that knowledge is determined by
the person looking for it. The branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge is called
epistemology. It is important to education because to be able to educate, we must have
knowledge. Again, the process of education is the process of making people acquire knowledge.
As you read through, you are acquiring knowledge.

Philosophy is also concerned with the principles guiding our social actions. This is called ethics
or moral philosophy. Again, philosophy interprets ‘good’, ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in many ways. This
again depends on their background experience. To a person who is brought up in a period of war,
the good life may be the life of peace. To those who suffer from ignorance, knowledge to them is
good. Philosophers do not only try to define the good life, they also prescribe ways of attaining
it.

As an educator, you should know the ways of life that are valued to your people so that you can
prepare your learner for good social relations. Over the years, philosophy has assumed a more
moderate role by confining itself to analyzing and clarifying concepts and statements. It also tries
to resolve issues in human life. This is done in order to improve our understanding of the subject
matter of life in general and discipline as well.

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The Functions of Philosophy
The functions of philosophy are the uses of the subject to us as individuals and as members of a
society. Some contemporary thinkers called the Analytic philosophers see philosophy as a study
that essentially simplifies and analyses issues and statements pertaining to other subject in order
to enable us understand them better.

The functions of philosophy are explained as follows:

Analytical Function
This has to do with the analysis and clarification of ideas, issues, and statements to enable us
understand the subject matters of other disciplines. This analytical function is considered to be
the primary function of philosophy.

Speculative and Normative Function

The mind is a very essential instrument for doing philosophy. The mind is one gift to man, which
enables him to think about himself, the people around him and the world in general. With it he
can speculate about things he is not sure of; he can imagine things that are possible and even
those that are not possible. It is to be noted however, that, when we think about things or
speculate on issues it is done within the context of our social and cultural environment.

Inspirational Function
The educational process is constantly inspired by philosophers. Such works, as Plato’s Republic
and other like it have become the reference book for many educators because they obtain a lot of
insight from these books to guide their activities. For one thing, every society has its ideal and
thus, strives to attain it. Plato’s ideal in the Republic is one in which education serves as an
important criterion for assigning social positions and responsibilities. It is therefore, believed
that, people should be educated in order to enable them achieve self-fulfillment. Even though
Plato’s society does not pretend to strive for equality of all people, it is still a model to inspire the
Ghanaian educator in his effort to bring about a measure of equality in society.

Prescriptive Function
Every nation has its problems, which call for solution. It is expected that everyone would
contribute to the best of his ability. Although philosophy has a lot to contribute, philosophers are
sometimes excluded from the decision-making process. This appears to have made the situation
worse. For example, before adopting a new educational or social policy in the country, one
would expect that philosophers would be included in the planning. Such contributions would
benefit all concerned.

Some educational philosophers in the country hold the view that the poverty of Ghana’s
philosophical base is responsible for our technological under-development. They also blame the
country’s social political instability on the weakness of its philosophical foundation.
Philosophical prescription is therefore, made to help to overcome these difficulties. Indeed every
society expects some guidance from its philosopher, especially in education. It is on this score
that philosophy is made compulsory in all Teacher Education and Law Programmes.

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Co-ordinating Function
Since it is well known that all other disciplines are generated from philosophy, philosophy
cannot be seen as competing with its offspring. In view of the fact that these disciplines have
established their knowledge base solidly, philosophy has mapped out for itself other
responsibilities. The fact that there exist at present such area as philosophy of science,
philosophy of social science, philosophy of law and philosophy of education among others,
shows the contribution that philosophy still makes to learning. Consequently, the coordinating
role of philosophy in articulating the knowledge base of these disciplines should not leave
anyone in doubt about the prescriptive function of philosophy.

Philosophy as a Guide to Curriculum Design

The educational process relies on curriculum for guidance while philosophy constitutes the base
of curriculum design. Curriculum design is the fruitful ordering of subject matter designed to
produce knowledge, skills and attitude in our children. If the products of curriculum design are
so important to the educational process, we should expect philosophy to play an important part in
the shaping of education for one thing; knowledge and social outlook are key components of
philosophy. In fact the skills referred to are basically intellectual because thinking is involved.

Whether curriculum is seen as the total interaction between the teacher and his pupil or as the
general name for school subject, like mathematics, language, arts, health and physical education
among others, curriculum is based on philosophy because of the inspiration it derives from
philosophy.

Implication of Philosophy for Teaching

From the foregoing, you must have seen that it is apparent that philosophy has great implication
for teaching. If we accept the main task of teacher as to impart knowledge skills and moral, and
these elements are grounded in philosophy. The use of the mind as an effective instrument for
thinking one’s way out of problem is very important. The teacher who acts before he has the
opportunity to reflect can certainly not be an effective one. Philosophy therefore, makes teachers
able to think and this process is encouraged in his learners.

As one whose activities are guided by an inspired curriculum, the teacher must see himself as a
nation builder in the strictest sense of the word. The country depends on him to teach in such a
way that the manpower needed to man the different areas of responsibility is efficient and
effective. Therefore, philosophy helps the teacher to understand his work better.

Philosophy also helps the teacher to understand the national and educational goals of his country.
It is therefore, essential for the teacher to relate the functions of philosophy to education so that
he can use knowledge to produce the educated and skill Nigeria needed to develop the nation.

Conclusion
Over the years, philosophy has assumed a more moderate role by confining itself to analyzing
and classifying concepts and statements. It also tries to resolve issues in human life, in order to
improve our understanding of the subject matter of life in general.

Summary
In this lecture, we have learnt about:

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  The meaning and definition of philosophy
 The functions of philosophy
 Philosophy as a guide to curriculum design
 Implication of philosophy for teaching

ASSIGNMENT
1. List the scope of philosophical inquiries.
2. List the functions of philosophy and explain one.
3. List the function of philosophy.
4. Explain the analytic function of philosophy.

PHILOSOPHY AND EDUCATION

Introduction
In the last unit, you read through important definitions in philosophy of education, philosophical
inquiries the functions of philosophy and implication of philosophy of Education. In this unit,
you are going to study the relationship between philosophy and education and concept of
philosophy of education.

Objectives
By the end of the unit, you should be able to:
 explain the relationship between philosophy and education;
 discuss the Concepts of Philosophy of Education; and
 describe the philosophical approaches to education

Relationship between Philosophy and Education

You should know that the philosophical orientation apparent in the idea of making men “critical”
is to make the teacher or the educator to be “self-critical”. This is to illustrate the passion for
certainty which is perhaps innate in all humans.” This fact brings philosophy into close
relationship with education. Which seeks to impart knowledge through an acceptable manner to
the people. The critical attitude developed as a result enhances human knowledge and creates an
avenue for the building of principles of relational beliefs. It creates open mindedness in
educational practices by practioners (teachers and the educators) who allows their belief decision
to be subjected to further study and examination.

Philosophers look at theories, assumption, postulation, statements and value judgment critically
as to justify them. The logicalities and consistence of any claim in education in the process
become clarified. Philosophy equips the teacher to deal with educational problems by obtaining
self-reflection, criticism and analysis. He reasons and assesses critically the validity of
principles. Dewey (1966) describes the relationship as very close and remarks:

Philosophy of education is not an external application of ready-made Ideas to a system of

practice having a radically different origin and purpose. It is only an explicit formation of right
mental and moral habit in aspect to the difficulties of contemporary social life. The most
penetrating definition of philosophy, which can be giving is, then that it is the theory of
education in its most general phases. Nweke (1995:25) was of the view that “philosophy gives

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education the thought and education gives it an outlet in practice”. This means that Philosophy
and education are complementary disciplines to each other and they are mutually re-constructive.
They are not only a process but also a product in terms of the child’s maturation, moral and
intellectual development. Brus and Brauner (1976) maintain that: “Philosophical activities serve
pedagogical purposes as analytic, evaluative, speculative and integrative process”. Finally,
Philosophy and education work for the harmonization of education policies, theories and
practices” evaluation of possibilities in educational practices and benefit to the recipients.
Philosophy and education have a common mode of thought and action that is thinking and acting
strategies in educational context.

Conceptions of Philosophy of Education

Philosophy of education is referred to as the use of philosophical tools, theories method, and
principles for the explanation and solution of educational problems. It is an applied philosophy.
However, many philosophers see it in different ways.

Philosophy as an Application
Newsome (1962) accepts the application of the problems of education and suggests: Philosophy
might also be applied to education by utilizing the methods, tasks, techniques of philosophy in
investigation problems of formal schooling.

This view of application appears most acceptable to majority of educational philosophers. It

should be seen too that philosophy of education benefits from the various method of analysis in
clarification of concepts and issues of national interest. Philosophy of education makes positive
suggestions and recommendations about how educational theories and practice might be
improved upon and is more effective in their functions. To John Dewey (1966) philosophy is the
theory of education. In its most general phases.

Broad Based Approach

Philosophy of education considers the broad based statement of principles, which projects the
goals of the society. Sometimes the goals of an ideal society are mapped out and used in any less
developed society.

Akinpelu (1981) holds that, it is “a projection of the social, economic, political and cultural life
of any community to education formulated after considering the ideal society would prefer to
live in, in a way, educational philosophy means the national policy on education, which is
government’s process of achieving its national objectives that can be achieved using education as
a tool. It is a broad statement of aims with well-articulated general principles of education. This
would later be interpreted for easy application at the several levels of educational theories and
practices.

Historical Approach
We ought to understand that the philosophical views and thought and ideals of the great Aristotle,
Rene Descartes and others, are studied in that order their approaches and solutions are carefully
applied to present day educational problems. The fact is that, certain problems have being
existing from the onset with the possible approach of problem solving. It will be a waste of time
and effort to postulate new theories for such similar problems instead of using well recognized
solutions. However, because of the dynamic nature of the society and its peculiar problems,

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emphasis should be laid on the development of critical abilities needed for tackling
contemporary problems of education.

Philosophical Approach
We wish to understand here that the philosophical ideals of important schools of thought are
superimposed or applied to educational ideals. Such schools of thought among others are
realism, Idealism, Humanism, existentialist, pragmatism, and Naturalism. The major deficiency
here is that the schools are not originally concerned with educational issues. “No system of
education corresponds to them in a strait jacket, logically derives” according to Akinpelu (1974).
The application might be difficulty and sometimes attract unnecessary and unhealthy human
manipulation.

Analytical Approach
Philosophy of education is seen as an “eye opener” to the teacher. It gives the teacher a
professional training by developing and cultivating in him a critical attitude and rational way of
examining issues. This analytical approach is the most recent and the one that brightens the
teacher professional outlook. Analysis identifies and clarifies ambiguities and inconsistencies
inherent in some words, concepts and issues in both philosophy and education. It makes people
feel that philosophy of education is basically to criticize and analyze words, concept, theories
identifying proper usages, clarifying ambiguities, inconsistencies and absurdities ethical issues
such as justification for punishment in Ghanaian school, by analyzing punishment and critically
looking into problems arising from the implementation of national policy like “provision of
equal educational opportunity” and so on.

Conclusion
Philosophy of education is the use of philosophical tools, theories, methods, principles for the
explanation and solutions of educational problems.

Summary
In this lecture, we have learnt about:
 Relationship between philosophy and education.
 Conceptions of education
 The philosophical approaches to education

EXERCISE
a. Discuss the historical approach of the philosophy of education
b. What do you understand as the philosophical approach of philosophy of
education?
c. List four areas of relationship between Philosophy and education.
d. What are Dewey’s opinions concerning the relationship between Philosophy and
education?
e. List four areas of relationship between philosophy and education.

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THE PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF BASIC EDUCATION

Introduction
In the last lecture, you studied the concept of education, the aims of education, the philosophical
aims of education and the concept of childhood education. In this lecture, you will learn about
the philosophical foundation of childhood education.

Objectives
By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

 enumerate the bases of philosophical foundation of childhood education;

 say the responsibilities of parents to the child;
 explain the needs of the child;
 explain the child’s readiness for primary education; and
 describe the nature of the child.

The Scope of Philosophical Foundation of Basic Education

In considering the philosophical foundations of basic education, you have to understand that
there cannot be a universal educational system for all humanity. Every society designs its own
educational system based on its own realities. The philosophical foundations of basic education
in any society are based on certain solid ideas, beliefs or principles arising from the realities of
that society. The reality of a society includes its problem and prospects. The problems are the sad
experiences that regularly manifest themselves in the living conditions of most members of the
society. They affect their mental, physical and affective well-being. The problems include those
inhibiting experiences that affect the personality of most people in a society. The aspirations may
include those worthwhile intentions, which could abate or eliminate most of the problems that
confront the people. The methods of achieving the aspirations have to be defined. Education is
one of the methods.

As you have known that in discussing the philosophical foundations of basic education in a given
society, there have to be some reflections on the realities of that society, which, of course are the
same realities, surrounding the child. How those realities influence the education of the child-his
intellectual, physical, emotional and attitudinal development.
Other considerations have to do with aspirations for the child, which has to be reflected on.
They include:
a) The theoretical model envisaged for the child, that is, the ideal man which education
should stimulate the child to approximate;
b) Formulation of an appropriate curriculum that can lead the child’s intellectual growth
towards the ideal man.

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 c) Adequate implementation of the curriculum requires the production of teachers who
share the qualities of the ideal man and are adequately equipped with different methods
of teaching that can approximately stimulate the child;
d) Critical appraisal of the curriculum, the teacher and the primary school pupils towards
knowing the extent of success or failure in the educational enterprise in developing the
ideal man as a product of the educational enterprise.

The Influence of Education on the Perception of Reality

You have to understand that the type of educational system traditional or formal, to which
individual members of a society are exposed influences their thought pattern, particularly, their
perception of reality, their perception of problem or lack of them, even their proposals for
problem solving.

Given the influences of an educational system on the thought pattern of those exposed to it, it is
pertinent to think of realities of a child in a society in which the parents are illiterate and poverty
stricken. They live in a rural area. The child is poorly fed, poorly housed and poorly clad.

The environmental stimulation of the child is poor. Some of the sources of mental stimulation
include fairy tales, stories about witches, mermaid, spirits and religious indoctrination. The
traditional African custom demands the total submission of the child to the will of the parents
and elders. The child is to be seen and not heard. He is made to show total respect and obedience
to the elders even those who may not deserve any respect whatsoever, because of their hypocrisy,
pretensions and scandalous corrupt life.

Think of the perception of the child in that same society in which most of the adults shy away
from those positions of responsibilities that their selfish interest is not protected. A society in
which most adult members have the attitude of shifting blames and looking for scapegoat. Think
about the child in the society where crooks, dropouts, never-do-wells, and sycophants seize, or
are bequeathed positions of responsibility and they gamble with the society at their pleasure. The
critic is tortured, humiliated and disgraced. Think of the realities of the child in the society in
which education is fiddled with, material acquisition is elevated as the highest value, where the
educated working class is ridiculed and humiliated because their members are subjected to poor
financial embarrassment. The primary school teacher is frustrated and poorly motivated and
popular method of teaching is the chalk-talk-method. Most of the teachers manage to stay onto
etch out a living.

Given the above realities of a society, what philosophy of primary education can be evolved for
that society in order to lay foundation for the possible humanization of its members? The belief
is that society can be humanized if the child in it is introduced to a well-designed, humane
educational system which should raise the consciousness of the child to appreciate and adopt
humane behaviours. These desirable qualities are perceived as some of the attributes of the ideal
man. It is conceived that the child in a dehumanized society has to be introduced to a humane
educational system as the pupil of a primary school. The pupil is to be introduced to an
appropriate curriculum whose educational activities include effective psychomotor and cognitive
dimensions. The effective dimension is initiated at home and sustained at school by the primary
school teacher. The psychomotor dimension is formally introduced by engaging the pupil in
effective communication, writing and reading. The pupil is exposed to the cognitive dimension in

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order to stimulate his intellectual ability. He is exposed to some subjects, which include primary
mathematics, science and social studies.

The philosophical basis of each educational activity is made explicit by analyzing the concept or
idea involved, explaining what is done, how it is to be done and why it is done the way
suggested. Once the pupil is introduced to an appropriate curriculum designed for the humane
educational system, and implemented by a well-oriented and committed teacher, the foundation
for the growth of the pupil to approximate the Great personality has been laid. But how is the
idea of the theoretical model, the Great personality sharing some attributes of the IDEAL MAN,
derived?

The theoretical model envisaged for the pupil in the given society is synthesized from the
contradictions arising from the realities of that society. The realities surrounding the child in the
given society have already been highlighted.

They include the following: that

a) Most adult members of that society are bedeviled by illiteracy, poverty, ignorance and are
therefore inadequate models for the child.
b) Many adult responsibilities are characterized by selfishness, greed and lack of personality
projection, lack of commitment to duty,
c) Poor tolerance of criticism and lukewarm attitude to formal education is inhibitive
d) The initiation of the child into adult status quo-to think and behave like him does not
help.

Given the above condition prevalent in the society, the primary school education should
encourage the child to look up to the model conceived as the great personality, who is:

a) Human, intellectually sound, hardworking and highly responsible;

b) Open minded- interested in dialogue and tolerant of critics;
c) A learner, reflective having freedom of thought, a man of conscience; the man of truth.

The Concept of the Great Personality

The Great personality as a model has certain qualities that mark him out as a great character-a
person of substance. Qualities which mark him out as a personality include his rationality and
conscious action. But it is not just the self-determined action alone that marks out a personality.
In addition, the acting agent must accept responsibility for the outcome of his action-success,
misdemeanor or failure. Responsibility is an exercise of freedom. It is marked by a personal
judgment passed by a person on himself for an action he has taken, or for the liability of the
outcome of an event he may cause, the failure resulting from an event he has caused. Thus, a
person is held responsible for his belief, intension, reason, and action and so on, to which he was
in no way coerced into. And once a person willfully and rationally accepts liability for all these,
and then he is considered responsible.

The Great personality is not one who boasts of his numerous experiences but one who is
conscious of his capabilities, potentialities and limitations of the discovered inaction and social
interaction. Socrates latter accepted the prediction of the oracle of Delphi that he was the wisest
man on earth because he did not claim to know what he did not know. Besides, the great
personality is open-minded. To say that the great character is open-minded does not mean that he

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does not make up his mind on issues of serious consequences. He does, but not finally and
irrevocably. He is prepared to reconsider issues in the light of cogent reasons and substantive
evidences. His open-mindedness is directed as the desired to reduce his errors in reasoning and
actions. He is, therefore, prepared to withdraw or reconstruct any aspects of his ideas and actions
that cannot stand the test of time. Of course, he is determined to consolidate and defend his ideas
and actions that have survived many encounters both from loved ones and those who have no
allegiance or shared interest with the great personality. He engages in dialogue in which he is
very eager to tap the valuable contributions and opinion of others.

Importantly, the great character accepts the fact that man is fallible and therefore embraces the
critic as a part of the dialectics of life. The critic as an active agent helps to detect and eliminate
errors. Popper confirms “we can hope to detect and eliminate error by criticizing the theories or
guesses of others”. He calls that “critical rationalism”. Instead of the Great personality fighting to
protect his belief, claims and assertions, he ask for experimental test that can refuse them, or
cogent reasons that are more relevant. He is always prepared to learn: quite reflective, a man of
conscience, a man of truth.

The Great personality is not that educated man whose mind is stuffed with facts, skills and
principles, which he can neither apply nor transform. He is not educated man, the final product
who is overwhelmed by what he thinks he knows and which he shows by his polished speeches.
The Great personality is a leaner whose mind is not finally made up by what he knows. He is an
experimenter who is always testing his experiences, and those of others made available to him to
see how they work in action. Besides, he is interested in what contributions he can make towards
improving the experiences he comes across. This is because he compares knowledge with living
phenomenon, which is always growing, regenerating and transforming.

By reflection, he examines and re-examines an experience to see what new meaning can be made
out of it or to what use it can be put. The intelligent suggestion he comes up with is put to test to
see how it works out in action. He learns from his errors and is prepared for amendment. But he
is not content with his success; he looks forward to more and better successes.

The Great personality is a man of conscience. He is one whose “inner voice” cautions on what to
do and what not to do. The caution is based on his previous environmental and experimental
exposures. There is an intellectual dimension, which considers the caution of the “inner voice”,
examines the reasons for acting or not acting in a particular way and passing judgment on what
ought to be done in a given situation

The Fundamental Responsibility of Parents to the Child and the Need of the Child
You know very well that parents have tremendous influence in the upbringing of the child. The
parents of the child must get acquainted with the child welfare orientation programme. They
have to allow the child to develop interest in primary school education, since the parents are
aware of their role, which they must play before the child can benefit from the primary school
curriculum then begin to play roles. The parents must meet the needs of the child. There must be
a conductive atmosphere in the family to enable the child grows in experience, and at the
appropriate time, show his readiness to benefit from primary school education. Importantly, he
should have a sustained interest to gain from the designed primary school curriculum.
And the needs of the child as you know include parental love and security, and the initiation of
the child to good personal relationship.

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The child needs love from the parents and members of the family. That love is initiated by a
loving mother through her attachment to the child right from birth. The attachment is initiated
through mother’s breast feeding, fondling, stroking, eye appeal, talking to him, taking care of
him after toileting, carrying him, sleeping with him, giving him warmth and so on.

Mother’s very close relationship with the child is the most needed by the child during the first
three years of birth. A child who loses his mother during this period and has no adequate
substitute may become emotionally upset, mentally unhealthy and may become maladjusted in
later life. Other members of the family add to mother’s love. The father protects the child from
external aggression. He provides security for the child, talks to encourage to initial good
relationship with his peers. If the needs - love, security and good personal relationship are
provided for the child before the age of six, the child has high chances of becoming emotionally
stable, well-adjusted and may indicate his readiness for primary school before or by the sixth
year of birth. You have to know that the value of the parent’s actions in initiating the child’s
readiness for the primary education cannot be over emphasized.

The Child Readiness for Primary Education

There are some parents who are very anxious for their children to commence schooling without
minding whether the child is ready or not. Some parents who want to escape from some of their
responsibilities to their children who are not yet ready for school. In many society of the world
there are specific ages at which the child is considered to be “mature enough” to commence
primary education. In Ghana, the six year old is considered to be developed enough to benefit
from primary education. In Britain five years is considered adequate.

Many children of those ages express their interest to begin primary school, to appear in school
uniform, to learn how to read and write, and so on. Before that age, the children have the
impulses to engage in many self-organized plays. For instance, two or more children who engage
in hide-and-seek game laugh hilariously when one discovers the other. At the personal level, the
child builds out of sand constructs with materials readily available. Those are necessary aspects
of the child’s expression of himself. They are important attributes of the child’s development
before the primary school education. Froebel, a 17-century (1826) educationist, noted for his
contribution to kindergarten education, considered play as a “self-active representation of the
inner-from inner necessity and impulse”. The child expresses his inner feelings in creative
activities and plays. “Making his inner outer”. Again, he has the anxiety to ‘discover’ certain
issues and events that battle him. For instance, he imagines that “there are heads that live and
talk in the radio and television.” He wonders what is inside the ball that makes it jump, what
makes the “hands” of the clock move, and so on. In the attempt to destruction of property, but
which to the child, according to Froebel, is a case of making outer inner’.

John Dewey cautioned that adults should not expect that what children find valuable in their
experiences should agree with adult values. According to Dewey, once the child improves his
experiences and enjoys it growth is manifested. Hence, to him, the aim of education is to
advance growth. For the primary school child to grow in the experiences provided by the school
the pre-primary stage must lay adequate foundation for his growth. In the absence of a well-
equipped kindergarten school with qualified nursery school teachers, or wherewithal for such
education, the child should be allowed the freedom to play and build on his own experiences and
personal autonomy at home. He not only chooses his play, he decides on his and interacts with,

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and gradually builds his own confidence in himself and others. He accepts responsibilities for his
actions. But let it not be supposed that the child can showing some interest. A child who is drop
off in school may cry or wails as the parent leaves the school compound. Inexperienced teachers,
school administrators or school proprietors may threaten him with cane and force him to stop
crying. But the pants and may withdraw from the school activities. He builds his emotion within
himself. He may begin to develop a negative attitude towards the school. If adequate care is not
taken, he may lose interest in primary education.

The Child’s Interest in Basic Education

One dimension of a child’s interest in education is that which suggests that he should have some
intrinsic appeal, a strong inclination and a positive desire to go to school. A part of the child’s
autonomy and personality development requires that he chooses for himself among other things,
when to begin schooling.
The school activities are individualized and personal. Each child attends school with his own
personal materials. Each child has to engage in the school activities in his own self recognition.
He has to answer his name from the register and be marked present. Each child determines his
school achievement positive or negative, which influences whether he proceeds to a new class or
repeats at the end of the year. Given the above conditions, one wonders whether it is right for
parents or any other person to decide for the child whether to attend school or not, and when to
attend. If the child develops interest in going to school and the teachers and the school take
cognizance of the experiences and the interests of the child in implementing the curriculum, then
the achievements of the pupils is expected to be heightened. But it may be argued that the child’s
interest in formal education may not be entirely within the capacity of the child to choose.
Cultural background or environmental stimulation can heighten or dampen the child’s interest in
education. Take the cultural dimension for instance, some communities show negative attitude to
western formal education.

Kaita discussed the biases against western formal education in some communities in the far
northern part of Ghana. “According to her, ‘children are brought up from the beginning with
some feelings against western education and in that respect they are unwillingly forced to go to
school for which they already cultivate a traditional prejudice” Given such a background one
wonders whether the average child from such communities could on his own develop strong
inclination to western education. But a family that encourages their children to aspire to western
education may stimulate in them a strong desire for western education. The situation would be
different from a family that encourages children to take to trading or acquire occupational skill.
Hence another dimension of the child’s interest could be environmental stimulated.

While the child’s interest is important in the motivation to attend school, his interest may wane
on facing the realities of the school life. This is because at school the child is expected to learn
things he has not experienced and which may be of interest to him and things he has not
experienced and which may not be of interest to him. Hence, a part of the role of the teacher is to
rein enforce pupil’s existing interest, initiate new interests and sustain existing interests. What the
teacher does and how he does it depends on the curriculum of the primary education in a society.

CONCLUSION
Educational system of various societies is designed according the concrete realities of such
various societies.

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SUMMARY
In this lecture we have learnt about the following:
 The scope of philosophical foundations of basic Education;
 The concept of great personality;
 The fundamental responsibility of parents to the child;
 The needs of the child;
 The child’s readiness of primary education;
 The influence of education on the perception of realities;
 The child’s interesting primary education.

PRACTICE QUESTIONS
1. Explain the realities of a society.
2. Enumerate the attributes of a dehumanized society.
3. What are the qualities of a great personality?
4. Mention four factors that can heighten a child’s interest in primary education.
5. Mention any four factors that can heighten a child interest in primary education.
6. Distinguish between a child who is ready for primary school and another who is not
ready.
7. At what age is a child ready for primary education in Ghana?
8. List some of the responsibilities of the parents to the child?
9. What are the basic needs of the child from his parents?
10. What are the qualities of the Great personality?
11. How can a dehumanized society be humanized.
12. What type of curriculum should a child be exposed to for a society to be humanized.
13. List the bases of the philosophical foundations of primary education.
14. Explain the realities of a society.

THE ROLE EXPECTED OF THE BASIC SCHOOL TEACHER

Introduction
In the last lecture you read about the philosophical foundations of basic education, the child’s
interest in basic education and the nature of the child. In this lecture you are going to study about
the roles expected of the basic school teacher, the concept of the teacher, the qualities of the basic
school teacher and the relationship between the teacher and the pupil.

Objectives
By the end of this lesson you will be able to do the following:
 explain the role of basic school teacher or teaching;
 explain the qualities of the basic school teacher;
 enumerate the roles expected of basic school teacher;
 explain the relationship between the teacher and the pupil; and
 describe the teacher as a model to the children.

The Concept of the Basic School Teaching

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Who is a teacher?
The word “Learner” stands for one who imparts knowledge especially one whose professional
occupation is teaching. He is a person who has completed a professional curriculum in a teacher
education institution and whose training has officially been recognized by the award of an
appropriate teaching certificate. To Good (1945) in Emenogu et al (1992:86) “A rich experience
or education or both in a giving field is able to contribute to the growth and development of other
persons who come intact with him. The combination of children’s education and teacher forms a
strong link between children and education (Ajayi Dopemu 1994).

The teacher has many roles to play in the upbringing of the child. As a resource person, his main
functions are to guide learning. He is to provide enriched educational environment and expose
the child to a variety of learning experiences in order to help them unfold the hidden talents in
them. Teaching is more than exposing the learner to the acquisition of skills. In addition, it
involves a systematic method of exposing the learner to a suitable environment to enable him
develop his cognitive and affective potential using worthwhile materials. The teacher is
professionally prepared for his task through exposure to appropriate courses taught in a school of
education. The teacher should therefore be honest, trustworthy, tolerant, broadminded,
sympathetic, kind, faithful, disciplined; he should be able to give unconditional positive regards
and care to the needs and attention to the children. He is the coordinating agent who ought to
ensure the smooth running and development of teaching and learning. These must be are well
organized and supervised. In other words, the teacher is seen in the background of learning
activities as a guide encouraging and facilitating the protection of the child into prominence.

Qualities of Primary School Teacher

The teacher of great personality has some distinct qualities, which make him unique among other
professionals. Among other things, he knows his responsibility, enjoys his autonomy, and
demonstrates humility in practice. The teacher knows his responsibility because he plans his
teaching diligently often far ahead of the day of delivery. This enables him to reflect on the
lesson and add the final touches before the day of presentation. In planning any lesson, he thinks
about the pupil his age and his environment. He thinks about the content he wants to teach. He
searches for reference materials to guide his selection of the content. As he reads the reference
materials and gathers the content of the lesson, he critically reflects on them, and ensures that
they are within the intellectual level of the pupil. On the basis of his experience he adds some
ideals on his own which are not in the reference materials. He organizes them in sequence from
what the pupil already know to what they do not know. Then he looks for the appropriate
teaching materials to illustrate the lesson. He tries to dramatize the lesson to himself think about
its effect then make final retouching here and there before he approves the lesson tentatively.

He is punctual to school, well dressed, neat and tidy. At school he does what he is supposed to do
without being ordered or driving about to do so. He follows the time table and teaches his lesson
diligently and consistently, with every commitment and enthusiasm. He keeps his records up to
date and marks his assignments promptly to enable the pupil know his errors and be prepared to
correct them. The teachers enjoys his autonomy the freedom and initiative to carry out his
teaching activity using whatever worthwhile method he deems reasonable and most rewarding.
He does not tolerate being excessively supervised. He is conscious of the disastrous effect of the
excessive supervision of the Jesuits. They were so excessively supervised that Quick and
Kinlocke suggested that the amount of supervision was akin to spying and for it aimed to gain

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complete control over a human being, so that he becomes a mere instrument in the hands of his
supervisor.

That the teacher abhors being excessively supervised does not mean that he thinks himself all
knowing, efficient and perfect. He acknowledges that he still has room for improvement; he has
the humility to admit that the theories and principles of teaching acquired in teacher education
institution are not enough to prepare him fully for his teaching activities. He therefore, believes
that the better part of teaching is acquired in the field by practice and learning. He acknowledges
with all sincerity, that one does not know everything and that improvement in life undertakings
demands consultation with those who are more experienced in particular fields of endeavor. The
desire to do better as a teacher and achieve higher results motivates him to watch the
performance of others acclaimed to be very good at teaching. He consults them when problems
arise in the process of teaching he invites an experienced teacher to watch occasionally and
criticizes his teaching.

Thereafter, he endeavors to correct his shortcomings. He has learned his humility from Comenius
(John Amos Komensky) a prominent Moravian teacher and later a superintendent of schools. In
his book Didactical magna, Comenius considered himself “a man of moderate ability and of
almost no learning.” His humility made him proclaim that “it matters not to me whether I teach
or be taught.” But the teacher maintains within himself that he is not a case advocating for over-
humility which may result in the loss of identity and personality. He maintains initiative and
autonomy, because he is desirous of improving himself. He only co-opts the good teaching
methods of the other teachers into his own to yield, for him, a dialectical result, which is
synthetically higher than what he knew before and what his experienced colleagues
demonstrated.

Besides that, he does everything meaningful to improve on his teaching. He even considers his
voice a strategic natural appliance that can add some aesthetics to his teaching. He recognizes
that the voice of the teacher has some influence on how effectively the pupil learns or fails to
learn. He is aware that a coarse voice is repulsive to the pupil and a gentle voice is more
appealing and inviting. But of importance is that he articulates his speech so that he is distinctly
and clearly hard by the pupil to enhance his understanding. He adequately modulates his voice
for effect and notice that this practice is very motivating to the pupil.

The teacher is conscious of when to introduce variation in the tone if his voice, when to stress his
voice when to be loud and when to apply the voice for emphasis. It was observed by Pestalozzi
that the voice and attitude of the teacher affect the response of pupil. In addition, it is the view of
Chukwu that “sounds that come out of the teacher have to be clear and should be carefully and
consciously considered in the creation of meaningful sensation for effective teaching”

Role Expected of Primary School Teacher Implication for Effective Teaching/Learning

Teacher Having Interest in Children

Personality traits of the teacher condition modulate and promote certain responses from pupils.
They motivate, direct, formulate pupils reactions in the classroom-learning situation. Teachers of
primary school are faced with many challenges. The personality development of pupils at this
stage is still immature. This level of education needs warmth and friendliness on the part of the
teacher. As these have great effect on children’s learning.

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The teacher should create an enabling environment where by he can communicate with the
children effectively and friendly i.e. passing the massages across to the pupil in a cordially way.
He has to spend time a good deal explaining things, talking to them be a good listener and
ensuring that the pupil’s understand what he is saying and doing.

To surmount or cope with the mounting problems associated with children of primary school, the
teacher should be energetic and physically fit, patient, kind, caring, loving, but firm. He should
be able to understand the child i.e. has good knowledge of the child’s mind and how it works.
The teacher should create a happy atmosphere in the class and interact with them freely. He
could do this by involving them in class discussions, taking imagination, engaging them in drama
and quiz. He must be patient with them and guide their activities and behaviour. It is generally
contended that when the teacher appears as the friend of the child, not as his enemy the child
learns faster because he is co-operating. He learns with less fatigue, because there is not that
constant strain of bringing back a reluctant and bored attention. His sense of personal initiative is
cultivated instead of being diminished.

Possession of Professional Knowledge

A good school teacher should be someone who would have insight into children. He must have a
foundation of knowledge, which is fully backed by an intellectual understanding. He should have
a thorough study of educational psychology, sociology, history of education as well as
philosophy of education in his training. This wealth of knowledge will equip him well to cope
with varieties of experience and queries of curious children and be able to work in their best
interest.
The achievement of our primary school objectives calls for specialist teachers based on the
realization that children need to be helped by trained pedagogues if they are to develop their
maximum potentials. But some are reported to be untrained to handle the primary children’s
education. (NERC 1980; Enesator, 1992; John – Nwosu and Okpara, 1995). This underscores the
need to have professionally qualified and competent teachers in our primary schools to guarantee
commitment of excellence. The academic training of the teacher will assists him to understand
more fully his own personality, the demands of his profession and more ideas concerning the
children under this custody.

Academically, he must be a teacher who imparts knowledge with ease, creates, builds and
facilitates learning. Besides interest in subject matter, good personality, perseverance,
responsibility initiatives, self-control, sincerity, humour, loyalty and good leadership amongst
others have been found necessary qualities, which a teacher possess. Professional training of the
teacher will equip him to make him articulate about his work. This means that his knowledge as
a professional will guide him explain to others the specification and description of his job etc. As
a person with superior and richer experience, the teacher of primary school children serves as a
resource for the identification of significance problems and for mapping out modes of attack. He
should encourage cooperation rather than competition among his pupils. It is dishearten to note
that only few primary school teachers have both the academic, moral and psychological
disposition to cater for these children in their formative years. The teacher has onerous duty to
perform in the child’s education in order to guarantee future dedicated manpower. Such teachers
earlier indicated must be professionally trained and ready to devote themselves to the important
assignment of training the young minds.

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Teacher as a Model to the Children
Teaching children is one of the helping professions that need dedicated practitioners. The child-
hood education profession needs happy, intelligent, energetic and creative teachers to guide the
pupils in their character formation and intellectual development. The role of the teachers in this
includes inculcating good habits and socialization of the children so that they can easily adjust to
any environment they may find themselves in future. Psychologists and educationalists have
confirmed that children learn by imitation. The way the child perceives teacher determines his
attitude to the subject the teacher teaches. Children learn more by imitation than they do by
listening to a lesson. This calls for a teacher who is responsible, seasoned and academically
equipped to direct the children’s programme. This in effect is saying that the teacher should feel
well, think well and act well. Since the teacher is the main audio-visual aid that appears in every
lessons, his images is highly important, as he is memorable because he is associated with some
emotional experiences. Children will like to remember that their teacher is warm, kind, honest,
loving, fair, always punctual, neat, friendly, strict and proud and all these affect their learning. It
is also necessary to point out that energy and flamboyance in the teacher may stimulate the
children’s active participation and involvement in the material to learn.

Children like to identify with their teacher, so teachers should be wise in whatever they do or say.
A good teacher should be aware of what is entrusted to him and should work in the best interest
of the children. He must be an example of good living. He must communicate effectively to the
children, have an ability to select his words correctly and think critically before talking.
Unnecessary reprimands of the child by the teacher could affect the children’s learning and their
future life. The teacher should be aware that whatever he does, or say are being watched and
copied by the little kids around. Therefore, he needs to be well discipline and enrich himself with
good manners.

The Teacher as a Facilitator of Learning

The teacher of the great personality has some distinct qualities in facilitating the learning of
children. He is an inevitable factor in the children’s development that is the teacher has the most
fundamental, far reaching and direct influence on the children. He knows his responsibility
because he plans his teaching diligently often far ahead of the day of presentation. In planning he
thinks of the pupils, their age and their environment. He thinks also about the contents, he wants
to teach and searches for reference materials to guide him in the preparation of the lesson. All the
strategies which the teacher employs in the classroom enhances the general atmosphere of life in
the classroom thus encourages the children to learn optimally either individually or collectively.
Even though a conducive and stimulating learning environment is very vital for the children yet
the teacher remains the most important factor in the environment of learning because available
instructional materials and children cannot educate unless the teacher gives directive and
guidance.

The Relationship between the Teacher and the Pupil

The teacher demonstrates some virtues in his relationship with the pupil. He is patient in dealing
with him. He endures the initial uncoordinated and ill-regulated habits of the newly admitted
pupil. He accommodates his occasional restlessness. The numerous questions from pupils from
highly stimulated families. The appeal for recognition by some of the pupils and the desire of
some to be closer to the teacher and to share some love. He tolerates the occasional
misunderstanding and quarrelling among some of the pupils, the aggregate behaviours of some
pupils from different family backgrounds. He counsels them to relate better and accommodate

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one another. He is not upset or angered by some odd behaviours of some of the pupils like
messing themselves up. He carefully takes care of them and later advises them. He is always
willing to help the pupil feel at home while at school. After all he considers himself to have
assumed the role of the parent at school. The teacher extends his friendly relationship to the pupil
by knowing his name and family background, not necessarily to exploit such knowledge for
selfish interest, but to enhance the advancement of the education of the pupil. There is a sense of
belonging and recognition in the class when the teacher addresses the pupil by name. Knowledge
of the background of the pupil helps the teacher in the adequate use of evidences or in the
diversification of evidences to ensure that the pupil understands from the background experience.

Another dimension of the cordial relationship between the teacher and the pupil is the use of
dialogue in teaching. The use of dialogue can act and do things. The pupil is appreciative of the
teacher’s friendly gestures and practices. He opens up and recognizes the teachers as a person
worth confiding in. Such mutual recognition of each other by the two persons initiate and bound
of relation of which the teacher is implicitly, the active initiator, but by which the overt activity
of the pupil projects the pupil’s reality and existence. But of significance is that each recognizes
the existence, action and contributions of the other in their common experience in the process of
teaching and learning. Buber describes the dialogical relations as:

First, a relation of no matter what kind is between two persons, second an event experienced by
them in common, is what, at least one of them actively participates, and third, the fact that this
one person, without forfeiting anything of the of the felt reality of his activity at the same time
leaves through the common events from the standpoint of the other. By what seems an extension,
Gentile, an Italian philosopher and educationist conceived the relations between the teacher and
the pupil in the process of education as spiritual. The spirit of the teacher and the pupils are
indissolubly linked such that the previous gulf of distinction is filled and leveled. The spirit, here,
refers to consciousness of the teacher and the pupil, being conscious of each other. At the same
time the teacher stimulates in the pupil’s an intellectual well-being which, according to Gentile,
can advance the pupil’s personality and self-creation.

But despite the very affinity between the teacher and the pupil, which is liberating, the teacher
recognizes his indispensable role as a guard and organizer. The ideal of his being a guard should
not, however, be misunderstood to suggest that the pupil is blind and like the blind beggar,
should be held by the hand for the teacher to guide while the pupil follows. For the pupil to grow
into a Great personality, the influence of the teacher, according to Buber, should not be too
obvious to the pupil. The teacher has some specific objective to achieve in each lesson. Those
objectives nevertheless, should not be very obvious to the pupil. The pupil should be made to
feel that he is responsible for initiating himself into growth. On no account does the teacher
make any head-way personal interest, or that he is “helping” the pupil or that he is interfering in
the pupils personal interest, or that without him the pupil cannot make any head way in his
dedication.

Thus the teacher does not just show the pupil the way he rather ‘guides’ the pupil to find the way
himself. The teacher takes that position in appreciation of one of John Locke’s important
contribution to educational thought-the ideal that the pupil should be seen and treated as a
rational being from the beginning. In the process of teaching, the pupil should be stimulated to
use his sense to discover and acquire knowledge, instead of stuffing him with available
information. That is not all; the teacher in addition, stimulates the pupil to make his own

1
contribution to knowledge, by perceiving any short –coming in the existing knowledge and
possibly seeing beyond the obviously given. In that way the teacher makes the pupil an active
participant in the acquisition and upgrading of knowledge, and not a dormant receptacle. Perhaps
it may be asked whether the friendly relationship the teacher establishes with the pupil will not
affect the disciplines of the pupil at school.

Conclusion
In this unit you have learnt about the concept of a primary school teacher; the qualities of a
primary school teacher. You have also learnt about the role expected of a primary school teacher
and the relationship between the pupils.

Summary
Developmental and educational psychologists have made it clear that primary school years are
the formative period in the life of an individual. As a critical period most of the concept and
basic principles of life are engrained in the children during these early years.

PRACTICE QUESTIONS
1. Enumerate the qualities of primary school teacher.
2. Since children learn better by imitating how can a primary school teacher use this method
in teaching?
3. List four ways by which the teacher can establish relationship with the pupils.
4. List four ways by which the teacher can establish relationship with the pupil.
5. Mention some of the traits of the teacher that can enhance learning.
6. Enumerate four benefits of having trained educated teachers in our primary school.
7. Since children learn better by imitation how best can a teacher use this method in
teaching?
8. Enumerate five qualities of a Primary School teacher.
9. Explain one of the qualities of a teacher.

CHARACTERISTICS OF BASIC SCHOOL CHILDREN

Introduction
In the last lecture you studied about the concept of basic school teacher, the qualities of primary
school teacher, the roles expected of the basic school teacher, the relationship between the
teacher and the pupil and the teacher as a model to the pupils. In this lecture you will study about
the physical characteristics of the basic school children, social characteristics of basic school
children, emotional characteristics of primary school children and cognitive characteristics of
basic school children, and their educational implications.

Objectives
By the end of the lesson you should be able to do the following:
 explain the physical characteristics of basic school children;
 describe the social characteristics of basic school children;

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  explain the emotional characteristics of basic school children;
 describe the cognition characteristics of the basic school children; and
 describe the implications of these characteristics

The Physical Characteristics of the Basic School Children

You should know that children between the ages of 6 and 9 years are extremely active, they
participate in sedentary pursuit. They also release energy in the form of nervous habit such as
pencil chewing, finger biting, hair twirling, and general fidgeting. They easily become fatigued
as a result of physical and mental exertion. Many children, especially boys, have difficult
manipulating a pencil. Many children have difficult focusing on small prints or objects. Quite a
few children may be far sighted because of the shallow shape of the eyes. At the age of nine
children tend to be extreme in their physical activities. They have excellent control of their
bodies and develop considerable confidence in their skills. As a result, they often underestimate
the danger involved in their move during exploits. The accident rate is at a peak; a growth spirit
occurs in most girls and starts in early-maturing boys in same age. Fine motor coordination is
quite good, therefore the manipulation of small objects is easy and enjoyable for most children.
As a result, arts and crafts and music activities are popular.

Educational Implication of Physical Characteristics for Effective Teaching in Basic School

Every basic school should provide adequate, free and self-opportunities for children’s play. This
will help them learn how to share interact and co-operate in teamwork. The school should
provide variety of play equipment for pupils’ use, this will help in the development of bones and
muscles and keep them fit. Specific games should be organized for the children under strict
supervision of the teachers to minimize accident. Children should be allowed to rest after
strenuous exercise to avoid fatigue. Children’s books should be written with bold letters and
teachers writing on the chalk board to be legible; this will minimize children gazing at tiny
objects. Children with left hand should be encouraged to use them instead of compelling them to
change. Those who are physically handicapped should not be pitied rather should be engaged in
activities that suit their physical capability. Between the ages of ten to twelve the teacher should
help the pupils to adjust. The school should encourage activities skills in creative ways.

Social Characteristics of Primary School Children Pupils

Understand that basic school pupils are somewhat more selective in their choice of friends. They
are likely to have more or less permanent best friends and many also pick out a semi-permanent
enemy.” Children of age six to nine often like organized games in small groups, but they may be
overtly concerned with rules or get carried away by team spirit. Quarrels are frequent within
these groups. Words are used more often than physical aggression, but many boys may indulge in
punching, wrestling and shoving.

At the age of ten to twelve, the peer groups become powerful and begin to replace adults as the
major source of behaviour standers and recognition of achievement. The development of inter
persons reasoning leads to greater understanding of the feelings of other primary school children.
Primary school children pick up habit very fast at this stage. Habits like growing in love, self-
confidence, and maintaining stable relationship, development of self-control, having self-
responsibility and self-consideration for others.

Educational Implication of Social Characteristic of Basic School Children to Learning

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In the light of the above social characteristics of basic school children, teacher and school
should:
1. Take the place of parents in the school by loving, protecting and caring for the children so
that parents absents will not be felt much.
2. The teacher should inculcate in the children how to be polite, obedient, respectful,
courteous and relate well with one another.
3. The teacher should encourage the children to play, associate and work cooperatively on
joint projects with other. The shy and loner ones should be given enough encouragement
to integrate with others.
4. The teacher should allow the children to settle their differences on their own and only
intervene if the quarrel gets off hand. The school should provide adequate and enough
play materials and teaching in other to minimize constant quarreling. All this will enable
the pupil to satisfy their curiosity when they want to play.

Emotional Characteristics of Basic School Children

Emotion according to oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (1999:297) means a strong feeling
of any kind, love, joy hatred, fear, jealous. “primary school pupils have emotions it could be
pleasant or unpleasant but both play important roles in the lives of children and all of them
contribute to the personal and social adjustment made by any individual.

Basic school pupils are sensitive to the feelings of others, unfortunately this permit them to hurt
others deeply by attacking a sensitive spot without realizing how devastated the attack really is,
girls may find it more difficult to develop to autonomy and independence because they identify
more completely with the mother and her first teacher and also experiences less conflict with
them.

Educational Implication of Emotional Characteristics to Effective Teaching and Learning

To control this emotion the basic school teacher should provide the children with enriched
environment full of friendliness, love, care and consideration. The teacher should take care of the
emotional needs of the children. The teacher can do this by being sensitive to emotions that arise
in her classroom since the children have much regard for teachers; the teacher should endeavour
to give the pupils much attention but must spread it evenly to every member of the class. The
teacher should provide positive reinforcements as frequently as possible and reserve her negative
reactions for nonacademic misbehaviour. It is important to avoid sarcasms and ridicule
scrupulously in order to satisfy the desire to help. The teacher should assign jobs on rotating
bases.

Teacher should control the fears of the pupils by showing love and speaking softly instead of
being harsh and reprimanding for every move or interaction of the children, teachers should be
good listeners, cheerful, humorous when necessary among other these acts will lead them
through their fears. If coarse environment is created, school phobia and anxiety may set in and
could affect latter life.

Cognitive Characteristics of Basic School Children

Intellectual depicts the power to integrate experience and process of reasoning abstract.
Generally speaking, basic pupils are eager to learn. One part of the best things in the Primary
School is the build in motivation of pupils. They like to talk and have more facility in speech
than in writing. They are eager to recite whether they know the right answer or not. Because of

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their literal interpretation of rules, Basic level children tend to be tattles. Sometimes telling the
teacher that someone has broken a school’s rules may be due to a child’s level of moral
development. This could sometimes out of malice or is simply a way to draw attention to the
misbehaviour of others.

Educational Implications of Cognitive Characteristics of Basic School Children

The school should provide reasonable and stimulating environment through which the child
learns to develop basic conceptional skills necessary for life, have a reasonable linguistic
repertoire for meaningful communication and grows intellectually, the stimulating environment
should include play grounds. Teachers should exercise patience in answering children’s
numerous questions and in conversation with them, by doing so learning will naturally take
place. Basic school children need a lot of exposure which involve what they could see leading to
what they know through experience. Teacher should then give the children enough time to
interact with their rich environment in order to acquire attitudes for further living. He should
encourage the spirit of imagination, inventiveness and appreciation in the children. This could be
achieved by engaging the children in meaningful activities.

Conclusion
In this lecture you have learnt about the social characteristics, physical characteristics, emotional
characteristics, cognitive characteristics of Basic School children and their educational
implications.

Summary
Teacher should be sensitive to children’s unique characteristics at Basic School level so as to
direct and guide them properly for meaningful development of habit and virtue which will have a
long life influence on their personal and social adjustment to their environment.

PRACTICE QUESTIONS
1. List four physical characteristics of basic school children.
2. List four educational implications of the social characteristics of basic school children.
3. Enumerate four emotional characteristics of primary school children.
4. Describe the educational implications of the cognitive characteristics of the basic school
children.
5. List three emotional characteristics of Basic School children.
6. Enumerate three cognitive characteristics of Basic School pupils.
7. Name three educational implications of emotional characteristics of Basic School
children.
8. List four physical characteristics of basic school children.
9. Enumerate four social characteristics of basic school children.
10. List three educational implications of social characteristics of basic school children.

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 THE MEANING AND PURPOSE OF BASIC EDUCATION

Introduction
In the last lecture you learn about the physical characteristics of basic school children, the social
characteristics of basic school children, the emotional characteristics of basic school children and
the cognitive characteristics of basic school children. You also learnt about their educational
implication. In this lecture you are going to study about the meaning of basic education, the
purpose of basic education during the missionary era and during the regional governments. You
will also learn about the purpose of the universal basic education.

Objectives
By the end of this unit, you will be able to:
 explain the meaning of basic education;
 describe the purpose of basic education;
 enumerate the purpose of basic education during the missionary era;
 explain the purpose of basic school in the regional government era; and
 explain the purpose of the universal basic education.

Meaning of Basic Education

Basic Education is a very interesting and challenging aspect of education. It is interesting
because it helps to clarify and make you appreciate many things you did and learned at your
Basic school age, and so help you to understand your students better. The study of Basic
education will open up a world of knowledge about children: the way they grow, think, play,
learn and make friends. It is challenging because it provide opportunities for children to aspire
and attain the best they can under the guidance of teachers. It challenges you to be interested,
appreciative and especially be a part of what many dedicated teachers are doing to improve
mankind.

A study of basic education is important because it is at this level that we can find the greatest
number of pupils. Indeed, it means that whatever knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that are
relevant for living must be introduced in some way to the pupils at this stage. Again, basic school
pupils are in their formative years and so are most open to influence. In this lecture, you will be
reading about the meaning and purpose of basic education. Basic education is made up of two
words: Basic and education, which we need to briefly, explain.

a. Basic

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According to Oxford Dictionaries Basic is an adjective meaning forming an essential foundation
or starting point; fundamental.

b. Education
Education has been defined in several ways; Education can be viewed as “a process of training
and giving instructions especially to the young and inexperienced. “It is through training and
instruction that children acquire knowledge, skills, attitudes and readiness for living a better and
sustaining life. Education can be acquired either formally or informally. Informally education is
received out of school. Children learn to clean themselves, sweep their homes even before they
go to school. Formal education is received in the school from teachers. With set objectives
established curriculum and content for study.

c. Basic Education
According to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED, 1997), basic
education comprises primary education (first stage of basic education) and lower secondary
education (second stage).

d. Primary
The Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary explains primary as “the earliest sin time or order of
development”. A thing is at the primary stage, when it is at the beginning. The beginning of
anything is very important. If the beginning is strong, it is unlikely that the subject may fail or
die.

e. Primary Education
Primary education is the education given to children in the first six years of school. It is for the
children between ages 6 and 11. You may wonder why primary education is referred to as the
first years of schooling when children had already attended the nursery and kindergarten schools
before being admitted into a primary school. Again both the nursery/kindergarten schools are
usually referred to as pre-school, which means before formal education. Formal education begins
with primary education, which is the foundation of all the education systems. As a foundation, its
quality will determine the quality of the rest of it. In fact, primary education is the substructure
upon which other education levels are created.

The Purpose of Basic Education

A purpose is an intention, an aim, and objective for doing something. A purpose is intentional. It
is not accidental. If I ask your purpose for studying this course, you may reply that it is an
essential requirement for obtaining a degree in education.

Factors that Affect Purpose are Purposes of Education Reflect a variety of Opinions:
Primary Education, like other arms of education, has purposes. Indeed it is interesting to observe
that contemporary primary education reflects a variety of opinions on what education is all
about. Take a parent for instance; ask him why he sent his son to school. You may be surprised at
his reply. One parent may have sent his son to learn his name like “John Bull” while another may
have sent his son to school so that he would be prepared to make lots of money later in life, take
good care of his father in his old age and give him a befitting burial at his death. If the same
question were to be asked a clergy man, he may reply that he wanted his son to be honest, gentle,
obedient and reflective about God. A primary school teacher may even have a different answer.
He may feel that school children are sent to him to enable him teach them well for them to pass

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their examination and gain admission into secondary schools. All the purposes of education
indicated by the parents, clergy man and the primary school teacher are good purposes, yet each
is deficient in many other ways that should help to produce an educated primary school child.
Take the purpose stated by the parents, neither the spelling of his name nor making money on
earth can give a child self-actualization and happiness. The purpose indicated by the clergy man
will produce a well behaved child who may lack the ability to create, solve problems and
compete effectively with his peers in a dynamic world. The primary school teacher will
eventually produce a child who may go to a secondary school but lack affection and cannot use
his hands in doing manual work. Purposes of education are desirable, valuable outcomes of
education. They are desirable and valuable because a sound education should help children
develop competencies in basic knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that are socially accepted
and lead to individual development irrespective of their individual differences.

Purposes of Purposes of Basic Education Change with Time

The society we live in is dynamic and education should also be the same, because individuals
function in a changing society. During the colonial period in Ghana, the purposes of education
were to produce people who could read and write, become interpreters and catechists. The
purposes above can no longer serve the present Ghana. This is why purposes of education change
with time to reflect the needs of a society.

Purposes of Basic Education are not Universal

Purposes of primary education are not the same in all countries of the world, purposes of primary
education in Ghana cannot be the same with Britain. This becomes even more pertinent, knowing
that the purposes of Basic education reflect the philosophy of education in each particular
country.

Purposes of Basic Education should be Child- Centered

Purposes of basic education should address the needs of the child and not that of the teacher. This
is basically so because any planned education should modify the behaviour of the child. Its
effectiveness is assessed using the child. The personal growths of the child in the cognitive,
psychomotor and affective domains are important consideration when basic education purposes
are stated. Also since he is an integral member of his society, the purpose of education should
reflect his personal social needs. All knowledge, skills, attitudes and values he acquires should
relate to his intellectual, physical, aesthetic, spiritual, emotional and personal as well as his social
and moral developments as a member of a social group.

The Educated Person

The purpose of basic education is to produce educated persons. Some important questions worth
asking at this point are: who is an educated person? Is the educated person the one who always
take the first position in his class? The one who goes to the best university, the one with lots of
money, or who has a good white caller job? None of the answers above depicts an educated man.
From what we learned in this unit, we can conclude that an educated man should have the
following attributes:
1. He should develop knowledge and skills, positive attitudes and behaviours; and values
that are relevant to his personal growth and that of his society. Some of the relevant
knowledge include: a wide vocabulary, wide general (not subject based) knowledge of
times and places beyond his environment, variety of skills in reading, writing,

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 concentration, library work, doing different arts and crafts. Playing variety of games and
appreciate beauty, etc.
2. He should be able to transfer what he learned at school and apply them appropriately in
different situations where there is the need.
3. He should practise lifelong education and be willing to continue to improve himself even
after schooling.
4. He must be committed in his area of specialization and defend his commitment.

The Purpose of Education during the Missionary Era

The main aims of missionary schools were religious and vocational education or the “Bible and
the People” a slogan coined from the statement of Thomas Fowell Buxton. According to Thomas
Buxton, “It is the Bible and the plough that must regenerate Africa”. The idea of the Bible and
the plough meant that in addition to literacy education that was religious in content, the Mission
schools should pursue vocational training. Also included in the aims and objective of the
curricula were “the development off the local and the identification and training of leaders”.

The aims and objectives of the programme reflected the needs and aspiration of the missionaries
rather than those of the society. The aim and objective of education, however, vary from mission
to mission.
Some missionaries thought education “Is necessary to enable the native to read the Bible and
understand the spirit of Christianity”. But the local chiefs themselves had different idea about the
school. They wanted the school to cater for their economic needs. For example, the Bonny
Chiefs told Rev. Samuel Ajayi Crowther that they did not want any religious education for their
children because they had enough at home. They would prefer schools to teach their children
how to gauge palm-oil and get involved in other mercantile businesses. The communities wanted
education objectives structure around socio-economic needs and problems of the society; but the
curriculum did not emphasize this.

Generally, the purpose of education to the missionaries was to bring up devout Christians who
would be able to read and understand the Bible, preach the gospel, win converts, serve as
interpreters, teach in Sunday and primary schools. They also wanted people to work in mission
hospital as nurses and dispensers and serve them at home as obedient cooks and stewards.

The various mission schools differed from one another in the content of instruction in the
schools. For example, 1882, the subjects taught in majority of the primary schools under the
C.M.S were scripture, English Grammar, English Composition, Mathematics, Geography,
Singing, Reading, Writing, Dictation, Handwork, (Needlework, drawing, etc) Hygiene, Rural
Science including practical agriculture; and for girls, sewing in addition. The medium of
instruction in the school was the local language at the lower level of primary education while
English was used at the higher level.

Next to the spreading of the Gospel, the prime goal of missionary activity was education. The
hostility of the climate, which exposed them to the vagaries of tropical diseases resulting in early
deaths, made the training of natives imperative. Though the Danish Government which first
invited the Basel Mission to the country mandated them to provide spiritual and secular

1
education to only the Europeans and mulatto populations at Christianborg, their pietistic ideas
inspired them to embrace the indigenous population as well.

Wherever they went, missionaries always built a mission station with a chapel and a school.
Bright youngsters were also taken as boy-servants to enable them become thoroughly acquainted
with European manners. The most talented among were sent for higher education. This practice
laid the foundation for boarding schools in the Gold Coast.

The tragedy of premature deaths interrupted the educational program on more than a few
occasions. Nevertheless, hard work on the part of the missionaries made them the pioneers of
primary as well as technical and teacher training in Ghana. The pietistic discipline and education
sowed the seeds of what produced leaders of Africa’s wave of independence in the 1960s.
The first Mission School to be established was what later developed to become the famous
Mfantsipim School by the Wesleyan Mission. This was to be followed by Adisadel College by
the Church of England, St. Augustine’s College by the Roman Catholic Mission and the
Odumase Krobo Secondary School by the Basel Mission. The Basel Mission also established a
teacher-training college at Akropong while the Wesleyans built one in Kumasi. The Basel
Mission, particularly, paid attention to technical and industrial training and set up industrial
institutions and workshops to train carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, shoemakers,
builders, chariot makers and locksmiths.

The textbooks used were the same as those in primary schools in England. They were planned to
meet the requirements of the education code of England. They did not reflect the Ghanaian
background. Good examples were “the Queen Premier” for the teaching of Reading at the lower
level of primary education and “the Oxford Reader” for the higher classes.

The Purpose of Education- Post Independence Era

Since Ghana's independence, successive governments have demonstrated their recognition of the
importance of education to national development, by pursuing policies aimed at making
education accessible to all and relevant to the social, industrial and technological development of
the country. Independent Ghana's first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, initiated the
Education Act 1961, Act 87, aimed at achieving Free Universal Primary Education. The Act
endorsed the two-tier system of education as instituted by the British in colonial times, namely
primary and middle education, and secondary education. Three things of significance are worth
highlighting:

First, the Act established Local Education Authorities within Local Authorities and entrusted
them with the responsibility, among other things, to: build, equip and maintain all public
primary and middle schools in their areas; and establish all such public primary, middle and
special schools as are, in the opinion of the Minister, after consultation with the Minister
responsible for Local Government, required in its area. Thus the establishment of public basic
schools henceforth became the responsiblity of the local authorities only. The second important
feature of the 1961 Act was the fact that it made education compulsory. Section 2(1) states that:

"Every child who has attained the school-going age as determined by the Minister shall attend a
course of instruction as laid down by the Minister in a school recognised for the purpose by the
Minister." A third equally important aspect of this Act was its provision for free education.
Section 20(2) stipulated: "No fee, other than the payment for the provision of essential books or

1
stationery or materials required by pupils for use in practical work, shall be charged in respect of
tuition at a public primary, middle or special school." Soon after coming into office in 1966, the
Government of the National Liberation Council (NLC), appointed an Education Review
Committee "to examine the problems arising from the Programme of National Research and
make recommendations for improvement." The Review Committee's proposals covered a wide
range of issues concerning education from primary to university levels. Its recommendations on
the structure of education were largely an endorsement of the policies already existing. The
highlights were as follows:

The school-going age should be six years. Elementary education should have duration of ten
years with a break at the end of the eighth year for selecting those suitable for secondary
education. After this selection, the remaining middle school pupils should complete their
elementary education by attending for two years pre-vocational continuation classes where these
are available; otherwise the pupils should continue the study of the ordinary school subjects for
the two remaining years. Two-year pre-vocational continuation classes patterned on the
industrial and farming needs of the country should be established in two middle schools of each
region to serve as a pilot scheme.

The secondary school courses should have duration of five years, at the end of which suitable
pupils may proceed to a two year sixth form course. The first-degree course at the university
should be of three years' duration (four years or more for specialized courses).

The Committee also proposed for a long-term plan a six-year primary school course followed by
four years of secondary school education, with two years of sixth form work leading to a three-
year university degree. Within this long-term plan, pupils who could not enter secondary school
after the primary school course would have to attend continuation classes for four years.

On the content of elementary education, the committee recommended the following subjects: a
Ghanaian Language, English, Mathematics, History, Geography, Civics, Science, Music, Art and
Craft, Physical Education, Religious Instruction and Housecraft.

Thus, by the end of the 1960s, the structure and content of education in Ghana largely remained a
heritage of the pre-independence era: long and academic. The National Liberation Council
experimented with the 8-year primary course at the end of which pupils who did not gain
admission into secondary or equivalent level schools either attended pre-vocational continuation
classes to predispose them to suitable occupations in industry and farming, or continued the
study of the general subjects in school. Among the subjects studied were woodwork, masonry
and agriculture.

Public desire for change reached a high point in the 1972-74 period with the development in
1974 of an elaborate programme for education from Kindergarten through Primary and Junior
Secondary to Senior Secondary Schools. The proposals in the document "The New Structure and
Content of Education for Ghana" which was the report of the Dzobo Committee, were discussed
nationwide and subsequently approved by Government for implementation. Consequently, the
Ghana Education Service was established in 1974, principally to ensure the effective
implementation of the New Structure and Content of Education.

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The 1974 reform of education introduced the Junior Secondary School concept. It stressed the
educational importance of a curriculum which predisposed pupils to practical subjects and
activities by which they would acquire occupational skills at school and, after a little further
apprenticeship, become qualified for gainful self-employment. The implementation of this
reform began on an experimental basis. New subjects were introduced for the first time. They
included Technical Drawing, Tailoring, Dressmaking, Metalwork, Automobile Practice,
Woodwork, Masonry and Catering.

However, due to the economic constraints that faced the country in the late 1970s, bureaucratic
bottlenecks and sheer lack of interest and commitment from administrators, the new programme
never went beyond the experimental stage. There was stagnation and near demise of the
experimental JSS system. By 1983 the education system was in such a crisis that it became
necessary for a serious attempt to be made to salvage it. Among the many problems of the system
were lack of educational materials, deterioration of school structures, low enrolment levels, high
drop-out rates, poor educational administration and management, drastic reductions in
Government's educational financing and the lack of data and statistics on which to base any
planning.

Reforms of The 1980s

From the early seventies to the mid-eighties, Ghana experienced a serious national economic
decline which affected all social sectors. Along with other sectors, the education system was
starved of both human and material resources. In the early eighties, Ghana embarked on a series
of IMF structural adjustment programmes under which the government mounted reforms in all
social sectors. The Education Sector Adjustment Credit (EdSAC) became operational with the
help of development partners notably the World Bank, the Department for International
Development (then the ODA) and grants from other friendly countries. This program aimed at
arresting the decline of the education sector. Under EdSAC, a review of the Dzobo Report was
undertaken by the Evans Anfrom Committee in 1986 and the resulting proposals implemented in
1987. Some of the principles which formed the basis of the reform were the importance of
education for all, the need for education to be relevant to professional employment opportunities,
and the importance of scientific and technological education to national development. The major
considerations for the restructuring of pre-university education in 1987 thus included the need to
increase resources to the sector, to vocationalize education by shifting emphasis from an
academic orientation to a more practical, technical one, and to reduce the cost of education by
shortening the statutory period of pre-university schooling. In brief, the education reform had the
following objectives:

 To increase access to basic education;

 To change the structure of pre-university education from 6:4:5:2 to 6:3:3 i.e. from 17
years to 12 years;
 To make education cost-effective and achieve cost recovery, and be able to sustain the
reform program after the adjustment period;
 To improve the quality of education by making it more relevant to socio-economic
conditions.

As a result of the reforms, the Junior Secondary School structure was put in place nationwide.
This meant that the 6 years of primary school and 3 years of junior secondary school were

1
consolidated into a uniform and continuous 9-year free and compulsory basic education. The
length of the school year was increased from 32-35 weeks to 40 weeks to compensate for the
reduction in the years spent at pre-university level. The reforms also brought about revisions in
syllabuses and provision of educational resources ranging from infrastructure such as classroom
blocks and libraries, to school supplies such as books and technical skills equipment. New Senior
Secondary Schools were built to absorb the expected increases in enrolment. To improve the
management of the education system, District Education Offices were upgraded with the
appointment of Directors and Circuit Supervisors, and the supply of logistics such as vehicles, to
enhance their management activities. Qualified teachers were appointed to head basic schools.

The implementation of the 1987 education reforms was supported with some other interventions.
One of them was the Primary Education Project (PREP) which was embarked upon in 1991 with
a USAID grant to bring about improvement in Primary Education. Another was the Primary
School Development Project, implemented from 1993 with financial assistance from the
International Development Association (IDA).

Despite the numerous interventions to improve education, achievement levels of school children,
especially at the basic level, were low. The results of public schools in the criterion reference
tests (CRTs) conducted from 1992 to 1997 in English and Mathematics indicated an extremely
low level of achievement in these subjects. Indeed, it was evident that although the reforms had
succeeded in resolving some of the problems like reducing the length of pre-tertiary education
and expanding access to education, some of the problems still persisted. FCUBE PROGRAMThe
current initiative in basic education is another bold attempt by the Government to address the
major problems that persisted in the education system in spite of the earlier reforms. The package
is called the Basic Education Sector Improvement Program (BESIP) or, more popularly, the Free,
Compulsory, Universal, Basic Education (fCUBE) Program.

The main goal of the BESIP/fCUBE Programme is to provide an opportunity for every child of
school-going age in Ghana to receive good quality basic education. The Programme is intended
to reinforce the on-going educational reform program and achieve good quality basic education
for the Ghanaian child. See the 'Education Today/Policies' section of this website for more
information on fCUBE. Reforms in the Tertiary Education Sub-sectorThe tertiary education
system in Ghana was originally modeled on the British system and was designed to educate an
elite corps to gradually take up roles in the civil service played by expatriates. The first tertiary
institution in Ghana was the University College of the Gold Coast, established in 1948 and later
renamed the University of Ghana.

By 1971, Ghana had three universities which, together with a number of research institutions and
professional associations, represented the country's tertiary education sector. Starting with under
100 students in the University College of the Gold Coast, the number of university students
reached 9,000 in 1976 and remained at that level until the commencement of the Tertiary
Education Reform Programme. The above are among the key finding of the University
Rationalization Committee, which undertook a comprehensive review of post-secondary
education in the country and came out with detailed proposals for far-reaching reforms of the
management, academic and governance structure, and funding of the sub-sector. The report of
the Committee was finalized after comments had been received from a cross section of
stakeholders in the sub-sector and submitted to Government in 1988. It formed the basis of the
development of the tertiary education component of the Education Reform Programme as well as

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for a government White Paper entitled "Reforms to the Tertiary Education System". The main
objectives of the reforms were to restructure the manner in which tertiary education was
perceived and managed in order to improve quality, efficiency, access, equity, relevance and
sustainability. Specifically, the objectives included the following:

 Re-definition of the structure of the tertiary education system, to comprise all post-
secondary pre-service training institutions under the general supervision, direction and
control of the Ministry of Education;
 Making tertiary education more cost-effective;
 Increasing the capacity of the institutions for income generation and encouraging private
sector participation in funding of tertiary institutions;
 Increased access for qualified people, improved gender balance and provision of quality
education;
 Appropriate balance between science/technology and social sciences/humanities students
in relation to national needs;
 Improving the management of the tertiary institutions.

As a result of the reforms at the tertiary level, access to tertiary institutions has been increased,
although the institutions are still unable to absorb all the students who qualify, due to inadequate
resources. For this reason, distance education is being explored as a possible alternative. The
sustainable funding of tertiary education also remains a problem. Various solutions have been
proposed, such as cost-sharing involving Government, students and the private sector.

Vision and Mission of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports

To provide relevant education to all Ghanaians at all levels to enable them to acquire skills that
will assist them to develop their potential to be productive, to facilitate poverty reduction and to
promote socio-economic growth and national development. To formulate and implement policies
to accelerate Youth and Sports Development for the welfare of Ghanaians to achieve human
development, good health, poverty reduction, national integration and international recognition.

Functions of the Ministry

For the purpose of achieving its objective under the Civil Service Law 1993, PNDC Law 327,
the Ministry performs the following functions:

 Initiate and formulate policy options on Education for the consideration of government;
 Initiate and advise on government plans;
 Undertake such research as maybe necessary for the effective implementation of
government policies;
 Reviews government policies and plans;
 Coordinate and Monitor the implementation of sector policies and strategies;
 Perform such other functions as may be directed

Conclusion
Basic education is the foundation of the educational system it should therefore be strong since all
the educational systems rest on it.

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Summary
In this lecture you have studied about the meaning of basic/priamry education, the purpose of
basic educations, the purpose of basic education during the missionary era, the purpose of basic
school in the post-independence era and the purpose of the universal basic education.

PRACTICE QUESTIONS
1. Why is Basic education important?
2. Enumerate the purpose of the missionary education.
3. What were the factors that inhibited many children from attending school before the
arrival of Europeans?
4. What were the factors that inhibited many children from attending school before the
arrival of early Europeans?
5. Enumerate the purpose of the early mission schools?
6. Mention one of the achievements of early mission schools.
7. What were the purposes of education of the missionaries?
8. What were the educational needs of the local Chiefs?
9. Why are purposes intentional?
10. What are the purposes of Basic education?
11. What factors affect the purposes of basic education?
12. What does basic education means?
13. Why is basic education important?

THE GREAT EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHERS

SOCRATES

An Historical Background Socrates (470-399 BC)

Socrates was born about the year 470 BC. His father was a sculptor while his mother was a
midwife. His goal in life was to be a philosopher (teacher) and he indeed later became one of the
first
Athenian teachers. He did not put his thought into writing. But most of what was known about
him is from the writing of two of his disciples - Xenophon and Plato.
Socrates lived a humble, disciplined and upright life. As Plato wrote about him, he was “the best
of all of his time that we have known and more over the most wise and just”. You can see that his
students liked him. He was a man who holds strongly to what he thinks is right and without
changing his opinion.

Socrates Major Educational Ideas

The teachings of Socrates were based on ethics or moral philosophy aimed at solving the
problems created in Athens then by the teaching of the Sophists (non-Athenian teachers who
taught for some wages). But his teachings are important to us today.

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Socrates Theory of Knowledge
The Sophists had taught that people come to know the truth by mere sense feeling or impression
that knowledge is attained by perception. The Sophists would say “whatever seems to me right is
right”. But Socrates' theory of knowledge asserts that knowledge is derived through concepts and
that since reason is the source of concept, it follows that reason is the source of knowledge. You
should understand that what he was teaching here is that, since reason is a common quality of all
men, people should no longer depend on what they ‘feel’ in trying to come to the truth. They
should rather depend on ‘reason’ which is the closest source of all knowledge of truth.

Concept of Virtue
a. Socrates taught that “virtue is knowledge”. He believed that a man cannot act right unless he
first knows what is right, that is, unless he appreciates the concept of right. Moral action (action
that is right) is thus based on knowledge. He went on to say that if a man possesses knowledge,
he cannot do wrong because all wrong doings spring from ignorance. He also said that ‘no man
intentionally does wrong’. It is good you know the weakness of this theory. Many people’s
actions are governed not by reason, but by emotions (or feelings). People also deliberately do
wrong, even when they know the right thing.

b. Related to the above is another teaching of Socrates that virtue can be taught. This idea
received support from Plato who said that all we need is to have knowledge of what virtue is, and
it could be passed on to others by teaching.
c. The third aspect of his teaching on virtue is that “virtue is one”.
d. Ordinarily, we talk of many virtues such as courage, justice, kindness, honesty, faithfulness
etc.

But Socrates believed that all these individual virtues have one source - knowledge. Therefore,
knowledge itself that is wisdom is the sole virtue which embraces all others.

The Dialectic Method (Socratic Method)

In passing on his ideas to people, he used one method – dialectic method which has come to be
known as the Socratic Method. It is a method of seeking knowledge by question and answers. It
involves the skillful use of leading questions. It has been used all over the world as an effective
method of teaching.

The Doctrine of Reminiscence (Remembering):

Socrates said that people learn by remembering or recalling what they knew previously but had
been stored up in the mind.
The function of the teacher, therefore, is to bring out such knowledge by making the learner to
think through questioning. In others words, students should be encouraged to think for
themselves.

The Relevance of the Thought of Socrates to Ghanaian Education

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 i. Socrates teaching on moral agrees with what is contained on National Policy on
Education 1987 and 2007 editions on “character and moral training and development of
sound attitude”.
ii. The dialectic or Socrates method is used in teaching and learning today in Ghana and it is
also taught in teacher training. You can observe that you must have come across this
method of teaching somewhere along the line in your educational career.
iii. Reasoning which is an important part of education as you know is extensively used in our
school system today. This is one of the important discoveries of Socrates.
iv. We will want you to emulate the disciples of Socrates who displayed their love for him in
writing that Socrates was humble, disciplined and upright. These virtues you should also
encourage.
PLATO
He lived between 428 to 348 BC. He was a great philosopher who had a rich background. He
attended one of the best schools in Athens. He was greatly influenced by Socrates his teacher. He
loved Socrates so much that he emulated his life style. Some of you will be greatly influenced by
us and we know you will love us as well.
Plato built a school in Athens called the Academy. He stayed in the
Academy where he taught and worked as a Philosopher. Plato wrote books. Some of which are
the “The Republic” and “The Law”. Now that we have looked into a brief background of Plato,
let us go on to study his educational contributions

Educational Contribution of Plato

You will remember that the Sophists were mobile teachers whose idea Socrates followed. From
the historical background you learnt that Plato built a school called the Academy. This school
included a dormitory, secondary and higher school. It was the first establishment of an organised
school in the world.
The western world emulated him, and today in Ghana, we are practicing the same thing.
Plato believed in state control of the education system. To Plato, this will bring proper
organisation and supervision of teaching and learning. You know that this method is adopted in
this country today. He suggested the appointment of a Director of Education, who is to be
assisted by a committee of experts to advise him. The Director is to decide what should be
taught, how it should be taught, and supervise the work of the teacher.

The Importance of Plato’s Education Ideas to Ghana Education

You have seen that in all the areas of education, Plato has influenced Ghana. In the establishment
and organisation of primary, secondary and higher school, Plato has influenced this country. He
also influenced Ghana in the area of Universal Basic Education. Equal education for boys and
girls and the setting up of technical and vocational education.

JOHN LOCKE
John Locke unlike Socrates and Plato was not a Greek man. He was a European of British origin.
He lived from 1632 to 1704. His father was a lawyer. This British Lawyer encouraged his son to
study medicine.
John grew up to become interested in philosophy and education. You know that this can hardly
happen in Nigeria of today. John Locke wrote many books. In these books, he discussed issues
like freedom and equality, human understanding, right of parents and the mind or mental faculty.
He also wrote extensively on education.

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John Locke’s Education Ideas

In his education idea, John Locke was of the view that education should be made to suit the
mode of life which the pupil is expected to live. In his postulation, he had classes of children in
mind, these are, the children of the princes, the noble and those of the common man. He was
interested in the physical, moral and intellectual development of the child. He saw these faculties
as complementary to the other, thus he asserted that without good physical health, mental
achievements will not be enjoyed and without sound mind, physical health alone will amount to
nothing. This will lead to the production of sound mind in a sound body. You know that the
situation is not always as he advocated, this is because, there are deformed people who are doing
very well intellectually. He recommended a process that will harden or toughen the child with
regard to physical training. He does not believe that the wrongs of children should be over-
looked; he insisted that children should be corrected in order to create and generate dependable
behaviour in them.

Method of Education
John Locke advocated good education for the child. He said that they should be made to feel
free, be at ease, active in class, yet disciplined.
To Locke, the play way method of learning should be used. He was of the view that practical
learning and the use of instructional materials should be encouraged.
These you know will arrest the attention of the student and they will understand better. Locke
advocated the method of individualized teaching. This is a system in which the teacher finds out
the differences in the children and adjusts himself to take care of these differences.

Locke condemns the use of corporal punishment. He advocates the use of praise in the presence
of others. He does not recommend the use of reward, instead, he advises that when a child
misbehaves, that the teacher should reason or discuss with the child in private.
He condemned the idea of public school but recommended private school because of the risk of
spoiling a boy’s good character when the boy mixes with boys with bad character and because a
teacher may not give individual attention to a pupil. You know that this does not obtain in Ghana
context. Here public and private schools are established side by side and yet individual
differences are taken care of.

John Locke’s Idea of Curriculum

John Locke speculated that the child should not be exposed to all the available experiences but
only to the one that are of use to him. He listed a number of subjects which include English,
French,
Latin, Arithmetic, Astronomy, Geometry, Geography and history. He said a child should choose
the ones he considers useful. You know that this is in agreement with the career guidance where
a student is guided to choose the subjects the student thinks will lead him to what he wants to
study.
John Locke also suggested that accounts and manual trade should also be added. He is of the
view that education should be concluded with an excursion. It is good you know that excursion is
a very vital aspect of education, like he said, it makes you see the world around you. He

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speculated that the children of the poor should not be involved in academics. Instead, he said
they should be apprenticed to some trade.

MARIA MONTESSORI

Maria Montessori ideologies towards the development of basic education.

i. Maria Montessori believed that education rather than physical or mental treatment
was the best remedy for children’s ailment.
ii. She also believed in the provision of enriched environment for children to learn on
their own under the teacher’s guidance.
iii. Two educational implications of Montessori’s philosophy to basic schools education
in Ghana are:
 The teacher should provide variety of the equipment and learning materials that would
help children to develop their intellectual capabilities.
 Teachers should make school environment enjoyable like the home.

JOHN DEWEY

John Dewey’s Background

John Dewey was born in Burlington Vermouth (USA) on the 20th of October, 1859. He was an
American great philosopher, scientist and educator who taught in many universities. Dewey was
one of the proponents of pragmatism who believed that experimentation is a way of knowing.
His philosophy of pragmatism is associated instrumentalism, experimentalism or
reconstructionalism. In 1894, he was appointed Professor of philosophy and Chairman of the
Department of Philosophy and Pedagogy at the University of Chicago. He published many
books. On June 1, 1952, John Dewey about the age of ninety three (93) years died of pneumonia.

Dewey and the Concept of Education

John Dewey first looked at education as fundamental method of social progress and reform and
lauded intelligently guided development that is inherent in ordinary experience.
Therefore, to Dewey (1966) education is “the reconstruction or reorganisation of experience
which adds meaning to experience and increase the ability to direct the course of subsequent
experience”. The words such as experience, reconstruction, reorganisation, growth, development,
reform, progress, intelligence and others are key concepts in Dewey’s education. He therefore,
sees education as a process of living. It is life itself and not a process of growth with the purpose
of developing the intellectual capacity of the individual.

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Dewey and the Conception of Philosophy of Education
You have to understand that John Dewey’s exploration on education is grounded in two
important issues, first is the identification of philosophy with education and second the
characteristics of what qualifies as education. For him philosophy has no practical importance or
meaning except it is associated with education. Philosophy and education are closely related.
Hence, education is the “laboratory” in which philosophic distinctions become concrete and are
tested. Dewey (1960) sees philosophy as the theory of education in its most general phases. He
proceeded to describe philosophy of education thus:
Philosophy of education is not an external application of ready-made ideas to a system of
practice having a radically different origin and purpose. It is only an explicit formation of right
mental and moral habits in respect to the difficulties of contemporary social life.
Dewey sees philosophy of education as an application of philosophy to solve the problems of
education. On the other hand, philosophical discussion of education rest on the fundamental
question, what are the characteristic of what qualify as education? It is the place of philosophy to
help education identify the characteristics of worthwhile education, hence philosophy of
education.

Deweism and Education

Aims of Education

John Dewey maintains that education is life and the aims of schooling are:
a. To grow out of existing condition.
b. To be tentative at least in the beginning and maintain flexibility.
c. To always be directed towards a set of activities, an end in view.

Methodology
Dewey believes that an acceptable method should be activity oriented as to help the child
develop initiative, reflective/critical thinking and sense of problem solving. He develops the
following methods:

a) Scientific or experimental method

b) Play-way or activity method
c) Object learning method
d) Excursion method
e) Project method and
f) Inductive method

The School
To Dewey, the school is both the germinal and cellular structure of society; a process by which
society grows and reproduces itself. Dewey
(1938) clearly stated:
The school is primarily a social institution. Education being a social process the school is simply
that form of community life in which all those agencies are concentrated that will be most
effective in bringing the child to share in the inherited resources of the race and to use his own

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powers for social ends. The school organisation should be home extension and play-ground ideal
to the child’s real life situation.

The Teacher
The teacher should be a guidance and a director who carefully selects and constructs learning
experiences of the child. According to John Dewey, the teacher must:
a) be intelligently aware of the capacities, needs and past experiences.
b) allow the suggestion made to develop a plan and organised into a whole by the members
of the group.

The Child

The ideal education should be child centred since he is the most important element in education.
In Dewey’s view, the child has four basic instincts or impulses namely: communication, inquiry,
construction an artistic expression. These can make the child an active individual in learning
activities which education must take cognizance of.

The Curriculum
The ideal curriculum should consider the interest and ability of the child so that it will be
meaningful to him. The curriculum should always change and be subjected to constant review to
meet the current and prevailing demands of the times. Education and curriculum should be child
centred considering the needs of the child above all.

Discipline
Dewey believes that externally imposed discipline or a form of authoritarianism on the child is
unhealthy and should be avoided. That discipline should be self-imposed or internally imposed,
which the child will develop by cooperatively shared activity.

Values
Dewey disagrees with the idea of any static or constant value that education is value laden
pursuit but all values are relative. A subject matter is only valuable as for as it is educative and
useful in problem solving.

SUMMARY
In this lecture we have learnt about:
Summary

In this lecture, you have studied about:

 Historical background of Socrates.
 Socrates educational ideas and his theory of knowledge.
 Educational contributions of Plato.
 The importance of Plato’s educational ideas to Ghanaian education.
 John Locke’s educational ideas.
 John Locke’s method of education and his curriculum
 Maria Montessori
 John Dewey’s background

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  Dewey and the concept of education
 Dewey and the concept of philosophy of education
 Deweism and education
ASSIGNMENT
1. Name two methods of teaching which Socrates taught which are relevant to education in
Ghana?
2. Explain the importance of Plato’s educational ideas to Ghanaian education?
3. Mention the three methods of teaching advocated by John Locke?

PHILOSOPHICAL SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

Philosophical Schools of Thoughts

Philosophical schools of thought have helped to solve the problems of education. These schools
of thought are of two major divisions, they are classical schools of thought such as idealism,
realism, naturalism, humanism and scholasticism and the progressives namely: pragmatism,
existentialism and reconstructionism. These schools of thought as you will read about have
systems of beliefs and values about the individuals and the society.
The classical schools believe in the existence of absolute and eternal principles of realities. They
maintain that performance of unchanging and universal values should be emphasised by the
educational system.
The progressives believe that change is the essence of reality. They also believe that education is
always in the process of development where no values could be fixed.

IDEALISM
We want you to know that the major proponents of idealism are Plato (427–347 BC), Rene
Decartes (1596-1650), Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD), Kant (1724-1804 AD) George
Berkeley (1685-1753 AD) to mention but a few. You will understand that for the idealists, reality
is beyond what you can see, notice or touch. Ideas are real, of cosmic importance or significance
and are the ultimate realities.
You read that they asserted that matter is possibly known through the senses but its principles can
only be understood by the mind. Therefore, ideas are eternal and unchanging. For them realities
are fixed and unchanging in spiritual realms and hence the physical world of experience is a
mere copy. They maintain that ultimate reality that is, the world of ideas is mental and spiritual.
The physical world of our everyday experience is a shadow of the real. They maintain that values
are absolute and constant no matter the situation. They assert that idea is inborn; this inborn idea
is to be illuminated by education.
From the above, you will recognize that Plato and other idealists recognized the existence of
ideas which is perfect world and the physical world which is the world of shadow. The former
constitutes the ultimate and absolute reality, which is perfect, permanent and immortal, while
later is imperfect manifestation of the real world or ultimate realities. They believe that the
spiritual nature of man is more important than the physical.

Educational Implications

The Idealists greatly believe that education should not only be a process of developing the
individual consciousness but also the spiritual self-education should encourage people to focus

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attention on lasting values or universal values. As far as moral order is fixed or universal,
education must be for character development, the search for truth demands personal discipline.
Idealists emphasize self-realization through educational process.
Education should eliminate the impediments for the possession of truths and goodness. It is the
process of illuminating that which the child’s mind already possesses.
The teacher carefully presides over the birth of ideas without really introducing any new idea but
illuminates the minds. The teacher guides in bringing to light the ideas already inborn in the
child. He is mature and nearer to the perfect ideal of personality by the virtue of his position,
experience and knowledge and, therefore worthy of emulation.

He is rightly regarded as a model of all that is sound, good and upright.

They believe that school/institution should provide proper direction, the right atmosphere and
suitable environment for effective learning.

The idealists recommended dialectic method of learning, which emphasises effective and critical
thinking. This should encourage in-depth knowledge, and understanding. It encourages activity
method for the development of self realisation. The child is expected to participate in all learning
activities and ask questions about society, people, events and ideas.

The idealist curriculum embodies those subjects that can improve the learner’s intelligence and
understanding and also enable him realise his spiritual potentialities.
We want you to understand that the idealism recommends subjects, which include:
a) Mathematics
b) Creative arts
c) Language skills
d) Scientific skills
e) Normative skills and
f) Aesthetic skills

In concluding this area, you should know that idealism influences current educational practices
on the freedom of the child, the development of characters and personality development in
modern education.

REALISM
The proponents of realism are Aristotle (156 – 162 BC), Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD),
Francis Bacon (1561-1626), John Locke (1632-1704), David Hume (1711-1776), Alfred
Whitehead (1864-1947), Bertrand Rusell (1872-1970) to mention a few. You will understand that
there are basically four types of realism namely:

 Religious Realism (scholastlism)

 Material realism (materialism)
 Natural realism (Naturalism)
 Pragmatic realism (Pragmatism)

The realists as you will soon discover believe that the world is real. What you see and touch is
real. Matter is therefore real. This reality is not only fixed but also unchanging and is directed by

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definite laws. To the realist, matter is the ultimate reality and material things exist independent of
the mind.
It exists irrespective of being thought of. The world is governed by its own laws which the
human mind has no control whatever.
Matter is all things. It is the real and beyond it nothing else is or can be. Hence ideas exist only in
so far as they are situated in matter. We have the rational realists who hold that material things
exist only because of a spiritual being giving origin to it, while the scientific or natural realists
emphasise the materiality of the real and reject either the idea of any spiritual being or affirm that
such reality exists. Values are absolute, fixed and unchanging.

The realists believe that the mind at birth is blank or empty (tabula raza) but as the child grows
various sense impressions are made to his mind. The sense experience is emphasized as the
major source of knowledge. Therefore, it is an individual responsibility to discover thing or truth,
hence they believe in fundamental scientific discoveries.

Educational Implications
Realism is in education because of the need for factual data and subject matter. They agree that
the technicians and scientists should be developed. Their emphasis in education is placed in the
acquisition of good habits and to live according to moral order, maintaining absolute moral
value.

All educational enterprise should try to polish and write on the tabula raza or blank mind with
the real things. Education therefore, should introduce knowledge got from without not within.
The mind of the learner is like an empty tank in a new motor car which must be filled with fuel
from a filling station with bundles of knowledge by education.

The teacher transmits and transports knowledge into the learner. Education is to transmit
accumulated and verified body of knowledge as subject matter through the teacher who transmits
it to the pupils to assimilate. The realists recommend authoritative method of teaching and
learning. The child is meant to cultivate self-discipline in his attitude to enable him absorb the
truths contained in the subjects taught by the teachers.
Education is discipline centred and teacher oriented. The teacher is the representative of culture,
the custodian of knowledge and hence the transmitter of basic truth to the child.
The curriculum as you will expect is society-centred not child-oriented because they believed
that social interest and general needs are more vital than the individual interests and needs. You
should now know that they emphasised broad based curriculum with some core subjects to which
children are required to offer. These core subjects should be the same at all levels of education
except in the progression of basic principles from the known to the unknown and simple to the
complex.

Assessment
You should know that reality is composed of both material and spiritual entities. Education must
transmit accumulated knowledge but in the sense of the learner being passive. The learner and
the teacher enjoy their freedom as human beings. The learner’s mind is not tabula raza since he
can interact with his environment.

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The realists emphasize attainment of practical technicians and scientists while idealists uphold
character development by which the search for truth demands personal discipline and an
acceptable behavioural pattern.

NATURALISTS
The chief proponents of the naturalists are Thales (16th century BC), Jean Jacque Rousseau
(1712-1778) and Jean Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827). The naturalists believe that existence can
be satisfactorily explained in natural or scientific terms. That is, whatever exists has natural
interpretation and meaning. Thales maintained that nature holds the key to knowledge of the
ultimate reality. Nature is real and the whole of reality can be expressed in nature. It is the sum
total of objects on time, space and in natural law. You have to understand that to them, it is nature
alone that exists and mind and reason emerge from it. Nature to them is beautiful, valuable and
desirable, efficient and wonderful.

Naturalists emphasize that necessary change results when it brings novelty. There is no need for
any artificial setting, when nature itself is pure and simple. People should protect ideal existence
of undiluted peace and calm, which the growth of human environments tends to destroy with
uncontrolled materialistic tendencies. Man in his natural state is simple peaceable, happy and
contented individual. Naturalists maintain that the man is not only noble but also a sinless person
whose freedom from interference should be guaranteed to enable him develop his own nature.

In Rousseau’s view, it is the corrupt man and society that corrupts the man and distorts his
natural self. Rousseau quoted by Okafor (1981) said: Everything is good as it comes from the
hands of the author of Nature: but everything degenerates in the hands of man. He will leave
nothing as nature made it not even men. Like a saddled horse that must be trained for man’s
service he must be made over according to his fancy like a tree in his garden.

Educational Implications
Having gone through the assertions of the naturalists, you will no doubt expect that the assertions
will influence their views on education. As you will expect, the naturalists believe that the senses
are important in learning process because knowledge is got from the senses. Educational
procedure method must agree with and promote the laws of nature instead of violating them.
Education should be given to the child according to the level of his maturity, considering the
natural process of mental and physical growth.
Education is a process of socialisation and an instrument of national development when it is best
utilized. But, that nature is the best teacher that can help the child to develop according to its
laws using the senses.

Education is not a preparation for life. It is life itself. Therefore, the main aim of education
should be to promote the future happiness of the child. It maintains that development stages,
individual differences and the child’s level of readiness should be considered, for effective
learning. And curriculum shall vary and perhaps be broad to accommodate the child’s conditions
of effective learning. You have understood that child-centered education is highly recommended.
The child should be kept away from the corrupt society and persons by the teacher. Therefore,
the teacher should be an observer and an organiser of learning materials and environment. He
sets the learning environment allowing the child to learn from the known to the unknown within
the natural frame work. However, organized school is not required rather natural environment
ought to play the role of the school where the play way or the project method needs to be used.

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The naturalists oppose the use of corporal punishment, they hold tenaciously to discovery of
child’s interests, needs, abilities and environment. The child is expected to be responsible for this
opportunity and action, which he is meant to learn from, while punishment should be natural
consequences of any given action. Philosophy of naturalism intends to bring man back to his full
status of humanity believing that man can better utilize his freedom of thought and opportunity
himself than being coerced to do so.

PRAGMATISM (EXPERIMENTALISM)- JOHN DEWEY 1899-1952

The aims of education according to Dewey

 Experimentalism is associated with a very broad but shallow curriculum. Many electives,
few required subjects.
 Experimentalism is friendly to educational research, and many new ideas come from it.
 But experimentalism can be wasteful of resources
 It can also fail to follow through
 Accommodates fads too easily
 Experimentalist teachers like to tinker or experiment
 They don’t like to leave things the same all the time.

Classroom Management for Experimentalists

 Prefer more constructivistic approaches such as Discipline with Dignity

 Everything--anything that had any relation to students’ possible futures
 Has been accused of trying to do the home’s job

Where experimentalism becomes useful

 When essentialism or perennialism have been in power for so long, school programs have
become stagnant
 When school has become all work and no play
 When traditional methods have become ineffective

You will come to know that pragmatism is the philosophical idea that asserts that change is
dynamic and belongs to the essence of reality. You will discover that some of the proponents of
realism are also proponents of pragmatism. Some of them are Francis Bacon (1561-1626) also in
Realism, John Locke (1632-1704) also in Realism, William James (1842-1920) Charles Sanders
Pierce (1839-1914) and John Dewey (1959 – 1952) to mention but a few.

The pragmatists refused the idea of any fixed and unchanging world of realities. They assert that
change is dynamic and belongs to the essence of reality. They also believe that no value is

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absolute but all are relative and cautioned that man must not take anything for granted; rather he
should critically examine everything by the use of intelligence. The sum total of what man
experiences in the process of interaction between man and his environment is the genuine reality.
The pragmatists assert that values are changing and changeable not constant or fixed. What
might be valuable today might be valueless in future.
You should know that the pragmatists are also known as the experimentalists or instrumentalists.
Pragmatism is not only an essential method of solving problems, but is also interested in the
material benefits. William James like John Dewey asserts that theories considered applicable to
the solution of problems must be one that could be subjected to test through experimentation.
Oroka (1990) summarises the basic elements of the pragmatic theory as follows:
a) That there is reality in change. It does not believe in absolute and eternal ideas and values
found in idealism, nor in the sense experience of matter as in realism. Rather pragmatism
maintains that ideas and values change with situations, time and place.
b) That man is essentially social and biological in nature. Reality or truth results from the
“interaction” of the human being with his environment.
c) That there is relatively goodness and truth to be judged by the end result. It is the result
and consequence of an action, which determines its goodness or truth conditions.
d) That there should be the use of critical intelligence. The subjection of issues to critical
analysis is inevitable in man’s ability to identify problems and find relevant solution to
them.
e) That the critical use of intelligence thrives best in an atmosphere permeated with
democratic ideas.

Educational Implications
You have read that pragmatism assert that change is dynamic and constant. In the same vain, they
maintain that education should prepare the learner to cope with the changing modes of reality.
They believe that it is the learner’s dynamic life that enables him to face the problem created by
constant interaction with the environment. Education is therefore seen as life. So teaching in
education becomes a teaching that leads to good life. This emphasises exploration and a
discovery by the learner about his environment.

Understand that to the pragmatists, education develops in the learner the ability to make
decisions in a dynamic world. Thus, the teacher’s responsibility is to construct learning situations
that are conducive and suitable to a solution of problems that will help the child to better the
understanding of his social and physical environment.

Appreciate that for them education develops in the learner the ability to make decisions in a
dynamic world. Thus the teacher’s responsibility is to construct learning and suitable to a
solution of problems that will help the child to better the understanding of his social and physical
environment.
That education should be planned as to make the learner active in class while the teacher serves
as a guide who assists to facilitate the process of discovery in an exploration by the learner. The
child in educational process should learn to depend on his personal interest and needs and be
ready to provide solution to his problems. The teacher should provide rich experience that
assists, guides and motivates the learner.

Assessment

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As you have learnt, experience is the central concept in pragmatism. Dewey (1964) maintained
that “all education proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social consciousness of
the race”. You know that change is a reality in the dynamic world. The learner must be dynamic
in response to the needs of changing times, places, and peoples.
However, man’s nature is both material and spiritual as against the pragmatic emphasis on the
materialistic aspects only, it is not also true that all values are relative; some values are absolute
such as love and justice. Change is real and it is the essence of reality based on some
permanence.
Also, by way of planning, education should have some predetermined aims, which learning must
strive to achieve. Learning must be related to relevant knowledge and experience or interest of
the learner. The teacher must guide learning as an experienced person to select what is
acceptable, valuable or desirable and worth knowing.

ESSENTIALISM (WILLIAM BAGLEY-1874-1946)

 Academic tests
 Basic skills and knowledge

Essentialism is the basis of the core curriculum philosophy. It means to teach what is essential to
know. Subscribers to the essentialism philosophy believe that students should be taught the core
essential curriculum of reading, mathematics, literature, history, science and foreign language.
Subscribers to this philosophy do not believe in vocational training, such as co-op, work program
or student internships. Instead, they focus on teaching to the state academic tests.

The school’s task is to teach mastery over a set core of “basic knowledge”.
Learning is hard work. Must drill, memorize, “know” the content.
The teacher is all knowing and the disciplinarian controlling the curriculum and students.

“Everything that ever has been always will be, and everything that ever will be always has
been.” A conservative stance to education that strives to teach students the knowledge of our
society and civilization through a core curriculum.
To promote reasoning, train the mind, and ensure a common culture for all citizens

 Emphasis on a traditional education

 Development of the mind
 Core curriculum
 Reality is based in the physical world
 Teacher-directed learning

Essentialism is a conservative view of curriculum that holds schools responsible for only the
most immediately needed instruction. Essentialism avoids some of the waste inherent with
experimentalism.

What would essentialists teach?

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Reading, spelling, language arts
Mathematics, & World History
No vocational education!

How essentialists would evaluate student's learning?

Standardized tests
Criterion referenced tests
Not as likely to require portfolios

Classroom management

Using only text books

Seated row by row
Teacher lectures, students listen
Punishment--attempted behaviorism but without expertise

Orientation of Essentialism

Teach the basic civilized skills of reading, spelling and measuring.

Limit education’s responsibility--let industry teach vocational subjects

Reality testing

Writing test
Multiple choices
True/False
Binary-Choice
Matching

Future orientation

All students will remember the basic information.

All students will learn how to pass the test.

EXISTENTIALISM (ARTHUR BESTOR-1909-1994)

Existentialism philosophers believe in free will, choice and personal responsibility. Educators
who subscribe to this theory give situations to students that encourage students to develop their
own ideas, choose for themselves and assume personal responsibility for those choices.

Aims of Education
 To help students understand and appreciate themselves as unique individuals who accept
complete responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, and actions.

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  Existence precedes essence.
 Education of the whole person, not just the mind.

 Existentialists celebrate the human existence

 Very subjective
 Emphasis on meaning within each individual
 May doubt external reality
 Emphasis on present

Philosophy

 Gives a wide variety of options from which to choose.

 Emphasis on the humanities.
 Vocational education to teach children about themselves and their potentials.
 In the arts, students are encouraged to practice individual creativity and imagination.
 How to teach?
 Focuses on the individual.
 Learning is self-paced, self-directed.
 Individual contact with the teacher.
 Teachers remain non-judgmental and take care not to impose their values on the students;
since values are personal.

What existentialists believe

Focus on the experiences of each individual, personal growth

 A search for meaning
 Raise the personal awareness of students towards their existence as “free agents”
 Existentialists believe in the consciousness of the self
 They are very concerned with whether students find school to be a satisfying emphasizes
the ability of an individual to determine the course and nature of his or her life and the
importance of personal decision making.
 Help students “self-actualize” and become free agents who decide the course of their own
lives.

What existentialists would teach

 Not the same subjects to everyone, since not everyone would enjoy the same things
 They would emphasize self-esteem and a feeling of self-worth.
 They would include topics such as values clarification

The proponents of existentialism are Soren Kierkegaara, Martin Heidegger, George Knellwe,
Martin Buber, Ven Cleve Mori and Jean Paul Sartre to mention a few. Existentialism could be
described as philosophy of existence, holding that existence precedes essence. It is concerned

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with the development of human conscious state considering man as thinking, feeling and acting
individuals in the world.
Man for the existentialists owes nothing to nature apart from his existence since the physical
world has no meaning and no purpose outside man. The individual discovers his destiny and
explores his own feeling and coordinates ideas to his existence. He is responsible to himself.
Freedom of choice is his major responsibility and also his greatest problem.
An existentialist sees man as not only alienated, lonely but also caught up in an absurd and
meaningless world. However, man is said to be a free and self-determining individual,
unidentical with unique personality and unpredetermined existence. His existence preceded
essence implying that man will first exist before defining or conceptualizing himself.

Educational Implications
You know that education endeavours to enable man to ask and answer questions such as Who am
I? Why am I here? Where am I going to or where am I going from here? Education primarily
helps man to identify himself in all his frustration, fears, joy and hopes. It should make the
individual accept responsibility for his own action. The teacher should impose any form of
discipline so as to assist the learner prepare for self-development and self-fulfillment.
Education should enable the child to develop his ability, to decide correctly, to discover himself
and to acculturate the attitude of self-reliance. The teacher assists the child to develop his unique
potentials, act in his own unique way and learn according to his interest and desire. The teacher
should liaise with the child’s parents and thereby act as a counselor and an instructor.
The dialectical method is recommended because it gives opportunity for dialogue and recognizes
the worth of the child. Role play is also acceptable for the purpose of enhancing the child’s direct
experience of the situation. The school should be the child’s home extension which can create a
conducive atmosphere for cultural and development of past experience.

The curriculum should create critical mind and freedom of choice. All subjects are equally
important depending on child’s interest. Therefore, the curriculum should include disciplines that
guarantee freedom, needs and individual differences as he experiences them.

Assessment

Freedom is really important to man in his existence, but it should be exercised with great deal of
caution, as not to infringe on another person’s right. As you already know, the existentialists
believe that man alone without assistance can make himself, if this is true there would be no need
for living together in towns and villages. The environment has to play a vital part in making and
unmaking man. The need for complementary living gives rise to the training of lawyers, teachers,
doctors, carpenters and others like traders, farmers and fishermen.
Agreeably, the exercise of ability to choose among various opportunities, materials, actions etc
are central and inevitable to man but there are certain actions or reactions that are beyond choice
such as biological reaction, reflex actions, death, moral decision, some emergency situations and
so on. It is therefore, erroneous to reduce everything in man’s life to the exercise of choice.

SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTIONISM (GEORGE S. COUNTS 1889-1974)

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Reconstructionists believe that education should give immediate attention to social problems and
seek change within society. Educators therefore give students real-world problems and ask
students to solve the problems.

 Learning happens when the student interacts with their environment

 Wrong answers are a vehicle to deeper understanding because they trigger deeper
reflection
 Students need to be intentional about their learning
 When students challenge each other in groups more learning happens
 Complex reasoning is an indicator of successful learning

Students’ experiences
 Interdisciplinary exploration
 Collaboration amongst students
 Reflection
 Self-examination
 Experiential learning

Presented with:
 Materials that captures one’s interest
 Conceptual clusters – Big ideas
 Questions are posed
 Complex situations or problems are tackled
 Activities are student centered:
 Ask their own questions
 Follow through on their own experiments
 Make their own conclusions

The role of the teacher

 Teacher as a resource
 Everyone in the room can contribute
 Teacher is not the only expert
 Challenge students
 Question previously held beliefs
 Let students’ needs help drive the lesson
 Allow think time
 Student understanding should help guide pacing
 Encourage questioning
 Ask open-ended questions
 Support student autonomy
 Relinquish classroom control
 Use many forms of materials
 Manipulatives
 Games

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Activities
 Honor the discovery process
 Many vehicles to get to understanding
 Ask for clear communication
 If students can explain their thinking well they have deeply learned

The philosophy of Reconstructionism deals with the construction of the harmony between nature
and man. Reconstructionism believes that nature which is in strife and tension needs to be
reorganised, reconstructed and recorded. It shows that nature is sinful, bad, nasty, wicked
especially as conditioned by the governing class. Reconstructionists maintain that man needs a
well-planned action for two reasons:

1. Nature is perversely evil

2. Man’s nature is perpetually in crisis with the society.

They therefore, claim that society is constantly in strife and tension. Without a concerted effort,
how can man change and restore the disrupted harmony between man and nature. For any society
to achieve peace and harmony there must be deliberate change. The society and nature need a
great deal of change for them to be responsive to the needs of man.

Education Implications
You need to know that the reconstructionism believe that education can bring about the required
harmony and social political order which nature through societal activity disrupted. Education
assists man to identify the needs for changes and effect these changes. It helps in the
modification of goals to restore the disrupted social and political harmony. Man is restored in the
process to his original status. They in this regard believed that education alone could acclimatize
man within a normative environment. In any given society, a positive change and reconstruction
can be possible if only education can be effectively reconstructed.

Plato in this same vein as he identified in the Republic, sees education as an instrument of
effective reconstruction of an ideal state. Education in this wise becomes the fundamental tool
for effective and continuous change for the better in a civilized society.
Also the reconstructionists maintained that education is a cultural renewal. It aims at a better
future. It plans for democratic order and attempts to bring about a positive change. The school
must be culture bound and influence its new shape. It is believed that by method of inductive
thinking, problem solving, group dynamism and group consensus major changes of physical and
social structures and attitudes could take place. It is man or the group of people that control the
process and imposes discipline in forms of punishments and rewards.
Note that for any real order and lasting changes to take place in the society, both in and outside
school system the educator must act as the only right agent. He must purposefully act for social
and political affairs. Education can effectively reform the social and political order if every
educator acts as an agent. Education becomes relevant if it considers and blends thought and
action, intellectualism with activism and theory with practice. Reconstructionism holds that
school system should be structured and organized to help the society and be accountable to the
needs of man in the society.

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Assessment
You know that reconstructionism overemphasises social evaluation, determination of goals and
values in education, and therefore proffers no principle of truth and goals. It neglects man and
only over-stresses the place of the group/society. The school of philosophy demands too much
from the learner who is still immature. The learner only needs mature guidance of the teacher in
the education process. Pragmatism sees education as an instrument of social and cultural reform
but
reconstructionism desires for a change and social reform and moves beyond the demands made
by pragmatic philosophers. And in the process makes too much romantic notion of what schools
and educators can do and achieve.

In this lecture we have learnt about:

1. Pragmatists assertions
2. The educational implications of pragmatic ideas.
3. Reconstructionists tenets
4. The educational implications of Reconstructionists ideas
5. Existentialists beliefs
6. The educational implications of existentialism
PERENNIALISM (ROBERT M. HUTCHINS-1899-1977)
Perennialism educators subscribe to Aristotle and Plato’s belief system that education should be
everlasting information given to the students to stimulate thought provoking-discussions.
Educators teach principals and not facts.

 Develop the minds of rationale beings to control our emotions

 Basic subject matter and “great works” are at the center – not the student
 Human nature consistent so we should all have / experience the same core education
 The teacher knows, the student shows (what they know)

A curriculum focused upon fundamental subject areas, but stressing that the overall aim should
be exposure to history's finest thinkers as models for discovery. The student should be taught
such basic subjects as English, languages, history, mathematics, natural science, philosophy, and
fine arts.

Aims of education

 To develop the students’ rational and moral powers.

 Belief in the primacy of reason and in the human’s ability to make rational judgments
about the goodness of things (Adler & Hutchins).
 What to teach?
 The perennialist curriculum is a universal one on the view that all human beings possess
the same essential nature.
 Heavy on humanities and general education.

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  Great Books.

Method of Education

The perennialist classrooms are “centred around teachers”. The teachers do not allow the
students’ interests or experiences to substantially dictate what they teach. They apply whatever
creative techniques and other tried and true methods which are believed to be most conducive to
disciplining the students’ minds.

Perennialists like to teach time-honored curricula, including the classics such as Plato and
Aristotle. They don’t like change. Heavy orientation to the past 20 years--almost nil attention to
the future.

They would include subjects such as:

 Geometry
 English literature
 World Geography
 Algebra
 Trigonometry
 Ancient Geography
 World history
 U.S. History
 Bookkeeping

Perennialist Evaluation Methodology

 Teacher-made tests
 Standardized test
 Memory work (“mind is a muscle”)
 Spelling bees
Classroom Management

 Assign seats in rows.

 Be strict, but not necessarily expert, with punishment and reward.
 Set up classroom rules.

Orientation Expected

 Self-contained knowledge--teacher is supposed to know all the answers

 Teacher is the “fountain of all knowledge.”
 Students are passive listeners

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Reality Testing for Perennialists

 Paper-pencil test
 Recitation
 Standardized test

Future Orientation for Perennialists

 Expect future to continue in the same vein as the present

 Belief that knowing the classics of the past will equip students for the future

Where Perennialism Shines

 Perennialism does help to dampen the uncertain effects of the fads that come to education
 Not every new idea is a good one, or one that will even be effective.
 Perennialism plays well to traditional communities

PROGRESSIVISM- child focused (WILLIAM KILPATRICK 1871-1965)

Progressivism considers students’ needs, interest and experiences to make lessons relevant.
The student’s world is the focus and starting point of education. Learning is an active,
democratic and social process. Knowledge is constructed by the student as they experiment and
solve problems. The teacher is a facilitator and guide. School is a reflection of the wider world.
The student’s world is the focus and starting point of education. Whole Child focus. Active
rather than passive learning. Experimentation, discovery

 Student’s understanding is the most important thing

 Students must be able to assess their own learning as well as that of their peers
 Encourage
 Responsibility for self and others
 Problem solving
 Critical thinking
 Learning should have value for the student
 Students should be able to interact with their environment

In the classroom

 Cross-curricular integration
 Teacher is facilitator
 Many types of materials are employed

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  Including manipulatives
 Individual as well as group work
 Students can move around the room and interact with other students
 Time is more flexible – pacing is determined by student understanding
 Assessment is done more at the individual level rather than group comparisons

What to teach?

Need-based and relevant curriculum. This is a curriculum that “responds to students’ needs and
that relates to students’ personal lives and experiences.”

More concerned with teaching the learners the skills to cope change. Change is the only thing
that does not change. Natural and social sciences. Teachers expose students to many new
scientific, technological, and social developments, reflecting the progressivist notion that
progress and change are fundamental.

How to teach?

 Progressivists teachers employ experiential methods. They believe that one learns by
doing. (John Dewey)
 Problem-solving method makes use of the scientific method.
 “Hands-on-minds-on” teaching methodology (e.g., field trips during which students
interact with nature or society). Teachers also stimulate students through thought-
provoking games and puzzles.

Teaching Techniques
 Complex situations and problems are presented to students
 Group work
 CI tasks
 Teacher as a resource
 I am not the one with all of the answers
 Asking open-ended questions
 Scaffold learning
 Let students’ needs drive the pacing
 Re-teach when necessary
 Honor the discovery process
 Allow for messiness while learning

FREEDOM AND EDUCATION

Freedom: An Historical Background

People have valued freedom highly for a long time. Amongst the earliest references to it as an
ideal is the writing of various Athenians of the fifth century B.C. And this is no accident, for
Athens gave birth to democracy and traditionally democracy and freedom go closely. Pericles
dwells upon the freedom of the Athenians in famous Panegyric on the city recorded by

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Thucydides. Herodotus goes further to attribute Athens’ sudden increase in power in the 5th
century to her new found freedom. ‘Proof’, he suggests ‘if proof were needed, of how noble a
thing freedom is, not in one respect only; but in all respects’. Evidence of the above can be seen
from a number of political speeches, plays and novels throughout history. The democratic
Athenians were not only who were proud of their freedom. The Spartans also prided themselves
of being free people.
This is extraordinary because Sparta was a rigid authoritarian state.

Plato had this to say about democratic government and its emphasis on freedom “that democratic
people are free any one is allowed to do what he likes that being so everyone arranges his own
manner of life to suit his pleasure”. This implies greater varieties of behaviour than you will find
in any other type of government. Plato went further to argue that being able to do what or like is
not being free rather, he argues the truly free man is the self-controlled man- one whose passions,
impulses and desires are controlled by reason. Laws in a community ideally uphold reasonable
ends, and therefore, law is a necessary condition of the freed society. This one can say that
Plato’s social objective was freedom, but by this he means personal liberty not in the sense of
being allowed to do what one likes, but in a sense including freedom from arbitrary arrest and in
general subordination only to laws devised in general interest.

The Concept of Freedom

You have read about the views of philosophers like Thucidides and Plato. You are now to learn
about the concept of freedom. Rouseau at the beginning of the social contract said that man is
born free, yet everywhere he is in chains. Here Rouseau is saying that just as man is born free, he
is to remain free throughout life. The question is what exactly does the claim that man is born
free mean? In what sense is man born free in as much as man is born helpless. He is not born free
to do very much, for surely it only makes sense to say that somebody is free to do such and such,
if among other things he is able to do such and such. As a matter of fact, is man born free from
all restrictions arbitrarily imposed upon him by other people? Even if it is allowed that man is
born free. It would not follow logically that man ought to be free.

Many of us like Rousseau value freedom although it might be worth bearing in mind that we
were brought up in, and live in a society that places considerable stress on freedom. Some
philosophers have tried to explain the concept of freedom. They point out that one can be free
from various restrictions and impositions, and that one can also be free to do various things.
They said freedom means the freedom to do some things like develop one’s potential, ‘realize
one’s personality or ‘set up the rule of reason over one’s desire and passions. If we think of
freedom in this way, it obviously follows that restraints and restrictions may actually be
necessary in order to promote freedom. Thus Bantock writes: What the attainment of true
freedom involves is some measure of restraints, it is in fact, something to be realised, not
something to be accepted.”

Bantock wrote in relation to young children. He asserts that removing all restrictions from them
is not much of an ideal and that by actually imposing on them in various ways we can positively
contribute to their development and ultimately their freedom. By forcing the child to attend
school, by compelling him to learn to read and write, by making him study literature, we may

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undoubtedly open up avenues for him in later life that would otherwise have remained closed; he
will thus, as an adult, be free to do things that he would not otherwise have been free to do.

Freedom is defined as absence of restraint. But it does not follow that it is sufficient to say that a
free man is simply a man who is not subject to restraint. If freedom means absence of restraint,
then it follows that there are different kinds of freedom. To be precise, there are as many kinds of
freedom as there are kinds of restraint.
We may talk of physical freedom (i.e. the absence of physical restraints) psychological freedom
(the absence of psychological restraints) moral freedom, legal freedom and so on. Now clearly it
is conceivable that a man should be physically free but not psychologically free, and given that
this is so it is plainly insufficient to say that a free man is one who is subject to no restraints. No
man is literally free from all restraints. The question of whether a man is free or not is to some
extent at least a question of degree.

The Consequences of Freedom

You have read through the concept of freedom and the assertion of various philosophers. You
will be reading through the consequences of freedom to give you a better understanding. When
we were discussing the concept of freedom we looked at one of the consequences of freedom.
That was when we said that nobody should insist that children have any education, and nobody
should impose any specific restraints on them such as the demand that they take exercise, eat
healthy food or learn to count and read. You should think up a situation where children are given
freedom in which all restraints are removed from them. If we were to do so, it would follow that
we accepted that, if a child shows signs of developing into a bully he should not be guarded
against it. It followed that we agree to refrain from any short-term imposition on the child
designed to provide him with long term benefit. It will in practice inevitably lead to gross
inequality and stratification of society. Since some with natural flair and curiosity would rapidly
develop skills, knowledge and abilities, through their own choice, which would drastically mark
them off from the weak and the dull. Surely, in the case of children there must be some
curtailment of freedom.

Secondly, if no restraints are legitimate, then even among adults we shall perpetuate a situation
that works to the advantages of various individuals. Restrictions on people’s freedom to steal
property, beat me up or kill me, are restrictions that I, for one, am pleased to benefit from.

A world in which there are no restrictions would be a world in which only the strong survived.
If every individual is literally free to do as he chooses and is subject to no restrictions from his
fellow citizens, either directly or indirectly through the process of law then nobody is entitled to
stop him doing things like making a noise late at night, doing no work, paying visits to people,
killing or stealing. You have to know that it is not only the prima facia wrong acts such as killing
and stealing, that should raise an eyebrow here. The point is that if we take the demand that
people be free to do what they choose to do at its face value, we run into difficulties, even with
innocent acts like visiting people. For visiting people like most human activities impinges on
other people. If I visit you, then I impinge on your freedom to say ‘go away’ and to close the
door on me but if you chose the latter course of action, then you are impinging on my freedom. It
is no longer true to say that I am free to pay you a visit. In other words the notion of everybody

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being literally free to do as they choose is a logical impossibility, unless as a matter of fact every
body’s choices happened to coincide all the time.

DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION

Democracy

Democracy is derived from Greek words: Demos- People and Kratos- power or rule. A system
of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through
elected representatives.
A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly
or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

A form of government in which people choose leaders by voting. An organization or situation in

which everyone is treated equally and has equal rights. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

A method of group decision making characterized by a kind of equality among the participants at
an essential stage of the collective decision making. Three aspects of this definition should be
noted.

 First, democracy concerns collective decision making,.

 Second, this definition means to cover a lot of different kinds of groups that may be
called democratic. So there can be democracy in families, voluntary organizations,
economic firms, as well as states and transnational and global organizations.
 Third, the equality required by the definition of democracy may be more or less deep.

Democracy” may refer to any of these political arrangements. It may involve direct participation
of the members of a society in deciding on the laws and policies of the society

OR

It may involve the participation of those members in selecting representatives to make the
decisions.

Education

Education is a process of transmission of knowledge from one generation to another to bring

positive behavioral change. Education is the process of social adjustment and self –realization of
the individual.

Democratic Education

The Institute for Democratic Education in America (IDEA) defines democratic education as
"learning that equips every human being to participate fully in a healthy democracy.

For education to be democratic it must be a holistic education, not proscriptive, and not limited
to the four walls of the classroom. It must be developmentally and culturally appropriate and it

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must be participatory. It helps a child develop a love for learning and critical thinking. It must
also be equitable so that all have access to it."

Education is democratic when it is inclusive because it is acceptable to a wide variety of people.

It's democratic because it recognizes that students are not passive beings but have to be engaged
as critical thinkers. It's democratic because parents need to be treated as active participants in the
educational process and not merely as consumers of it. And it's democratic because it has a sense
of public accountability and a commitment to addressing broader public and social goals."

"Democratic education is where people listen to one another and where children are the source of
learning for teachers. There is a way to help children learn and at the same time listen to them.
Teachers do not feel diminished, and they construct with the children and respect them, which is
something important to learn."

Democracy and Education

According to John Dewey, "the object and reward of learning is continued capacity for
growth." However, in order that all people may be allowed the opportunity to expand their
capacities for growth they would have to live in a democratic society. Dewey believed that mass
education, at least in terms of this definition of education, can take place only in societies where
there is mutuality, and where there is:
"Adequate provision for the reconstruction of social habits and institutions by means of wide
stimulation arising from equitably distributed interests."

Dewey's vision of education is thus directly connected with the question of preparing people for
active citizenship in a participatory democracy.

The Promotion of Democracy through Education

Currently, the leading hypotheses for the promotion of democracy through education are
Education increases the benefits of political activity because it increases human capital
Education lowers the costs of political activity because the citizens are better able to make
decisions
Socialization hypothesis- education affects socialization equally, including its manifestation in
politics.

Democracy in Education

Democratic education is an educational ideal in which democracy is both a goal and a method of
instruction. It brings democratic values to education and can include self-determination within a
community of equals, as well as such values as justice, respect and trust.

Why does democracy need education?

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Education is a universal human right. It also is a means of achieving other human rights and it is
an empowering social and economic tool. Through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
the world's nations have agreed that everyone has the right to education.
Every society transmits its habits of mind, social norms, culture, and ideals from one generation
to the next. There is a direct connection between education and democratic values: in democratic
societies, educational content and practice support habits of democratic governance. This
educational transmission process is vital in a democracy because effective democracies are
dynamic, evolving forms of government that demand independent thinking by the citizenry. The
opportunity for positive social and political change rests in citizens' hands.

 Governments should value and devote resources to education just as they strive to defend
their citizens.
 Literacy enables people to stay informed through newspapers and books. Informed
citizens are in a better position to improve their democracy.
 Democracies encourage students to develop reasonable arguments based on careful
research and a clear understanding of history.
 Private and religious groups should be free to create schools or parents may choose to
teach their children at home.
 Government-run schooling must be equally accessible to all citizens regardless of their
ethnic or religious backgrounds, gender, or physical disabilities.
 Democratic norms and practices should be taught in order for people to understand and
appreciate their opportunities and responsibilities as free citizens.
 Education for democratic citizenship includes knowledge of national and world history
and of basic democratic principles.
 School curricula in democracies include history, geography, economics, literature,
philosophy, law, the arts, social studies, mathematics, and science courses available to all
students -- girls and boys.
 Students should also be free to organize clubs and activities where democratic norms can
be put into practice. For example,

 Government gives pupils experience in the democratic process.

 Mock elections teach students about citizen participation and encourage in them lifelong
voting habits

 The researchers also find that established democracies are more likely to survive if the
population is more educated

Dewey’s Assumptions

The John Dewey Project on Progressive Education grounds its work in Dewey’s assumption that
the aims of education should be oriented towards preparing young people to be full and active
participants in all aspects of democratic life.

The skills and dispositions needed to actively participate in all aspects of democratic life include:

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The ability to think critically, a sense of efficacy, a commitment to compassionate action, and a
desire to actively participate in political life by engaging in local decision-making processes,
voting, etc., as well as the basic need to be able to read, write and do arithmetic.

What must education be to become democratic?

It must be accessible for everyone. It means every human being has access to quality education
and has their basic needs met. This means addressing social issues such as poverty and others
that affect people's ability to learn.
For education to be democratic, every person must be valued, listened to, and participate
actively in their learning and in the decision making processes."

Activity for Democratic Education

Question Answer Sessions- Open ended Session

Equal Opportunity to Everyone- without barrier
Monitor methods- Leadership Training
Activity Based teaching – Simulation of Situation
Respect others opinion – Encourage Harmony
Convey Massage Effectively – Better Communication
Celebration of Events – Effective Planning

Teacher As A Leader

 First person of the Classroom.

 As king so kingdom
 Energetic
 Ready for new challenges
 Problem Solving Attitude
 Inculcate the values of Democracy to His /Her students
 Effective orator
 Unbiased
 Trustworthy

Democracy has been accepted as a Philosophy of modern life. Since Education is a potential
instrument for social changes leading to modernization it has to maintain close relationship with
that philosophy. In order to get education, democracy is necessary. Also to understand the
meaning and applications of democracy, education is essential.

By education, I mean an all-round development of the best in child and man - body, mind and
spirit.
Man is a social being. The society will be developed and modified through each individual by
education.
Democracy and Education plays a vital role in order to achieve these goals.

MORAL EDUCATION

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What is Moral Education?

Moral education is the guidance and teaching of good behavior and values. It is taught to young
children in schools, providing them with a sense of politeness and lawfulness.

By Moral Education “we mean inculcation of refined ideals, values, principles with a view
to bring a purposeful behavioural change among the inhabitants of this universe”.

Moral education is becoming an increasingly popular topic in the fields of psychology and
education. Media reports of increased violent juvenile crime, teen pregnancy, and suicide have
caused many to declare a moral crisis in various nations.

Where should moral education start?

Home-school

What are some cases happening in our country that indicates moral crisis?
Do you believe that a child is born with a built-in moral conscience?

Bull (1969) “The child is not born with a built-in moral conscience. But he is born with those
natural, biologically purposive capacities that make him potentially a moral being” (p.15).

Wilson in Wilson et al, 1967 “Teachers and parents should confront the child with their own
moral codes in a very clear and definite manner so that, whether he accepts or rejects a code, at
least he knows what he is accepting or rejecting” (p.132).

As a future parent to be, what are the things that you should give to your child that would help
him grow as a person with good values?

Wilson in Wilson et al, 1967 “The child needs other things, such as love, emotional security,
food, warmth, enough sleep and so on. All these things as well as a framework of rules are
necessary (, p.129).”

“If we want to be able to show that certain types of education produce ‘morally educated’ people,
we must first identify a ‘morally educated’ person so that we know what types of education to
look for (1967, p.191).”

Importance of Moral Education

Value-based education is needed for developing moral qualities such as humility, truthfulness,
honesty, courtesy, tolerance, sacrifice, etc. among the youth.

Values education is essential for developing democratic qualities such as dignity of the
individual, social justice, liberty, equality, fraternity etc.

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Only values education would lead us to attain our ultimate goal of peace on earth.

Roles of Teacher in Moral Education

A teacher is a philosopher. The cognitive developmental approach to moral education also

encourages the teacher to become a developmentalist.

Approaches in Teaching Moral Education

Virtue of the Month Approach - Where the entire school community gives particular attention to
a quality such as cooperation or kindness. ex: newsletters, bulletins

Problem-based Approach - Students can make their own choices about the curriculum and
involving them in the decision-making process.

As future Values Educators, how are you going to make a change in your students?

References
Chandra S. S., R. Sharma, Rejendra K (2002) "Philosophy of Education." New Delhi, Allantic
publishers.
Chakraborty A. K.(2003)." Principles and Practices of Education." Meerut, Lal Book Depot.
Seetharamu, A. S. (1989). Philosophy of Education. New Delhi, ' Ashish Publishing House.
Taneja, V. R. (2000). " Educational Thought and Practice." New Delhi, Sterling
Adaralegbe, A. (1985). A Philosophy for Nigerian Education. Ibadan: Courage Printing Works.
McClellan, J. E. (1976). Philosophy of Education. Eaglewood Cliff.
Okoh, J. D. (1989). Philosophy of Education. Owerri: Total Publishers.
Adaralegbe, A. (1985). A Philosophy for Nigerian Education. Ibadan: Courage Printing Works.
McClellan, J. E. (1976). Philosophy of Education. Eaglewood Cliff.
Okoh, J. D. (1989). Philosophy of Education. Owerri: Total Publishers.
Akinpelu, J.A (1974). “Conception of Education” in West African Journal of Education.
Akinpelu, J.A (1981). An Introduction to Philosophy of Education. London: Macmillan
Publishers.
Brutus, H.W. and Brauner, C. J. I (1976). Problems in Education and Philosophy. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall.
O’ Connor, J.D. (1957). An Introduction to Philosophy of Education. Routledge and Kegan Paul.

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