Unit I: Educational Foundation

Module 1: Philosophical Thoughts on Education

Introduction:
Most lessons are devoted to teacher asking low-level questions
and students answering with what they memorized the night before.
Teacher deposited these facts a day before and withdraws them the
next day. A perfect example of the banking system of education
that Paulo Freire is very much against as it does not make the
learner reflect and connect what he/she was taught in real life.
Outcome: 1. You should be able to discuss at least 6
Philosophical Thoughts on Education

Isolation Facts and the Banking Method

We have nothing against facts. But isolated facts make no sense
but become meaningful when seen in relation to other facts.
These facts when combined with other facts (with further
questioning from the teacher) help the learner see meaning and
connection to his/her life. Example: The pupil learned that food
is broken down into small pieces, which is digested by the
stomach and is absorbed by the intestine. To connect the facts,
teacher should ask more questions life: “What is the food is not
chewed in the month, what happens to food in the stomach and to
the stomach itself? What is the stomach fails to digest food
from the mouth, what happens to the food in the small intestines?
Will the small intestines be able to absorb food, etc? . . .”
Below are summaries of thoughts of education philosophers on what
should be taught and how learners should be taught.
A. John Locke (1632-1704): The Empiricist Educator

 Acquire knowledge about the world through the senses –

learning by doing and by interacting with the environment.
 Simple ideas become more complex through comparison,
reflection, and generalization – the inductive method.
 Questioned the long traditional view that knowledge came
exclusively from literary sources, particularly the Greek
and Latin classes.
 Opposed he “divine right of kings” theory which held that
the monarch had the right to be an unquestioned and absolute
ruler over his subjects.
 Political order should be based upon a contract between the
people and the government.
 Aristocrats are not destined by birth to be rulers. People
were to establish their own government and select their own
political leaders from among themselves; civic education is
necessary.
 People should be educated to govern themselves intelligently
and responsibly (Ornstein, 1984).
Comments:

 For John Lock education is acquisition of knowledge

contained in the Great Books. It is learners interacting
with concrete experience, comparing and reflecting on the
same concrete experience. The learner is an active not a
passive agent of his/her own learning.
 From the social dimension, education is seeing citizens
participate actively and intelligently in establishing their
government and in choosing who will govern them from among
themselves because they are convinced that no one person is
destined to be ruler forever.
B. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) Utilitarian Education

 Spencer’s concept of “survival of the fittest” means that

human development had gone through an evolutionary series of
stages from the simple to the complex and from the uniform
to the more specialized kind of activity.
 Social development had taken place according to an
evolutionary process by which simple homogeneous societies
had evolved to more complex societal systems characterized
with humanistic and classical education.
 Industrialized society require vocational and professional
education based on scientific and practical (utilitarian)
objectives rather than on the very general educational goals
associated with humanistic and classical education.
 Curriculum should emphasize the practical, utilitarian and
scientific subjects that help human kind master the
environment.
 Was not inclined to rote learning; schooling must be related
to life and to the activities needed to earn a living.
 Curriculum must be arranged according to their contribution
to human survival and progress.
 Science and other subjects that sustained human life and
prosperity should have curricular priority since it aids in
the performance of life activities.
 Individual competition leads to social progress. He who is
fittest survives. (Ornstein, 1984).
Comments:
Specialized Education of Spencer vs. General Education

 To survive in a complex society, Spencer favors specialized

education over that of general education. We are in need of
social engineers who can combine harmoniously the findings
of specialized knowledge. This is particularly true in the
field of medicine.
 The expert who concentrates on a limited field is useful,
but if he loses sight of the interdependence of things, he
becomes a man who knows more and more about less and less.
We must be warned of the deadly peril of over specialism.
Of course, we do not prefer the other extreme, the
 superficial person who knows less and less about more and
more.
Spencer’s Survival of the Fittest

 He who is the fittest survives. Individual competition leads

to social progress. The competition in class is what
advocates of whole-child approach and Socio-emotional
Learning (SEL) atmosphere negate. The whole child approach
a powerful tool for SEL-focus schools has a tenets – “each
student learns in an environment that is physically and
emotionally safe for students and adults” and “each student
has access to personalized learning and is supported by
qualified and caring adults . . . “ (Frey, N. 2019).
The highlighted words point to no competition for
competition works against an emotionally safe environment.
C. John Dewey (1859-1952): Learning through Experience

 Education is a social process and so school is intimately

related to the society that it serves.
 Children are socially active human beings who want to
explore their environment and gain control over it.
 Education is a social process by which the immature members
of the group, especially the children, are brought to
participate in the society.
 The school is a special environment established by members
of society, for the purpose of simplifying, purifying and
integrating the social experience of the group so that it
can be understood, examined and used by its children.
 The sole purpose of education is to contribute to the
personal and social growth of individuals.
 The steps of the scientific or reflective method which are
extremely important in Dewey’s educational theory are as
follows:
 The learner has a “genuine situation of experience” –
involvement in an activity in which he/she is interest.
 Within this experience the learner has a “genuine
problem” that stimulates thinking.
 The learner possesses the information or does research
to acquire the information needed to solve the problem.
 The learner develops possible and tentative solutions
that may solve the problem.
 The learner tests the solutions by applying them to the
problem. In this one way one discovers their validity
for oneself.
 The fund of knowledge of the human race-past ideas,
discoveries and inventions have to be used as the material
for dealing with problems. This accumulated wisdom of
cultural heritage has to be tested. If it served human
purposes, it becomes part of a reconstructed experience.
 The school is social, scientific and democratic. The school
introduces children to society and their heritage. The
 school as a miniature society is a means of bringing
children into social participation.
 The school is scientific in the sense that it is a social
laboratory in which children and youth could test their
ideas and values. In here, the learner acquires the
disposition and procedures associated with scientific or
reflective thinking and acting.
 The school is democratic because the learner is free to test
all ideas, beliefs and values. Cultural heritage, customs
and institutions are all subject to critical inquiry,
investigation and reconstruction.
 School should be used by all, it being a democratic
institution. No barrier of custom or prejudice segregate
people. People ought to work together to solve common
problems.
 The authoritarian or coercive style of administration and
teaching is out of place because they block genuine inquiry
and dialogue.
 Education is a social activity and the school is a social
agency that helps shape human character and behavior.
 Values are relative but sharing, cooperation, and democracy
are significant human values that should be encouraged by
schools. (Ornstein, A. 1984).
Comments:
The Fund Knowledge of the Human Race

 Dewey does not disregard the accumulated wisdom of the past.

These past ideas, discoveries and inventions, our cultural
heritage, will be used as the material for dealing with
problems and so will be tested. If they are of help, they
become part of a reconstructed experience. If they are not
totally accurate, they will still be part of a reconstructed
experience. This means that the ideal learner for Dewey is
not just one who can learn by doing, e.g., conduct an
experiment but one who can connect accumulated wisdom of the
past to the present.
Schools are For the People and By the People

 Schools are democratic institutions where everyone

regardless of age, ethnicity, social status is welcome and
is encouraged to participate in the democratic process of
decision-making. Learners and stakeholders practice and
experience democracy in schools.
D. George Counts (1889-1974): Building a New Social Order

 Education is not based on eternal truths but is relative to

a particular society living at a given time and place.
 By allying themselves with groups that want to change
society, schools should cope with social change that arises
from technology.
  There is a cultural lag between material progress and social
institutions and ethical values.
 Instruction should incorporate a content of a socially
useful nature and a problem-solving methodology. Students
are encouraged to work on problems that have social
significance.
 Schools become instrument for social improvement rather than
an agency for preserving the status quo.
 Teachers should lead society rather than follow it.
Teachers are agents of change.
 Teachers are called on to make important choices in the
controversial areas of economics, politics and morality
because if they failed to do so, others would make the
decisions for them.
 Schools ought to provide an education that afford equal
learning opportunities to all students. (Ornstein, A. 1984)
Comments:
Schools and Teachers are Agents of Change

 For George Counts, schools and teachers should be agents of

change. Schools are considered instruments for social
improvement rather than as agencies for preserving the
status quo. Whatever change we work for should always be
change for the better not just change for the sake of
change.
 Teachers are called to make decisions on controversial
issues. Not to make a decision is not actually making a
decision.
 Like Dewey, problem solving, should be the dominant method
for instruction.
Lag Between Material Progress and Ethical Values
Counts asserts that “there is a cultural lag between
material progress and social institutions and ethical values.”
Material progress of humankind is very evident but moral and
ethical development seem to have lagged behind. A friend once
wrote: “The Egyptians had their horses. Modern man has his jets
but today it is still the same moral problems that plague
humankind.” Indeed, with science and technology, we have become
very powerful and yet powerless. We have conquered a number of
diseases and even postponed death for many, we have conquered
aging, the planets, the seas but we have not conquered ourselves.
E. Theodore Brameld (1904-1987) Social Reconstructionism

 As the name implies, social reconstruction is a philosophy

that emphasizes the reformation of society. The social
reconstructionist contends that:
. . . humankind has moved from an agricultural and
rural society to an urban and technological
society . . . there is a serious lag in cultural
adaptation to the realities of a technological
 society. Humankind has yet to reconstruct its values
in order to catch up with the changes in the
technological order, and organized education has a
major role in play in reducing the gap between the
values of the culture and technology. (Ornstein,
1984).

 So the social reconstructionist asserts that schools should

critically examine present culture and resolve
inconsistencies, controversies and conflicts to build a new
society not just change society . . . do more than reform
the social and educational status quo. It should seek to
create a new society . . . Humankind is in a state of
profound cultural crisis. If schools reflect the dominant
social values . . . then organized education will merely
transmit the social ills that are symptoms of the pervasive
problems and afflictions that beset humankind. . . The only
legitimate goal of a truly human education is to create a
world order in which people are in control of their won
destiny. In an era of nuclear weapons, the social
reconstructionists see an urgent need for society to
reconstruct itself before it destroys itself. (Ornstein, A.
1984)
 Technological era is an era of of interdependence and so
education must be international in scope for global
citizenship.
 For the social reconstructionists, education is designed
“to awaken students’ consciousness about social problems and
to engage them actively in problem solving”. (Ornstein, A.
1984)
 Social reconstructionists are firmly committed tao equality
or equity in both society and education. Barriers of socio-
economic class and racial discrimination should be
eradicated.
 They also emphasize the idea of an interdependent world.
The quality of life needs to be considered and enhanced on a
global basis. (Ornstein, A. 1984)
Comments:

 Like John Dewey and George Counts, social reconstructionist

Brameld believe in active problem-solving as the method of
teaching and learning.
 Social reconstuctionists are convinced that education is not
a privilege of the few but a right to be enjoyed by all.
 Education is a right that all citizens regardless of race
and social status must enjoy.
F. Paulo Freire (1921-1997) Critical Pedagogy
Critical Pedagogy and Dialogue vs. the Banking Model of Education

 Paulo Freire, a critical theorist, like social

reconstructionists, believed that systems must be changed to
overcome oppression and improve human conditions.
  Education and literacy are the vehicle for social change.
In his view, humans must learn to resist oppression, and not
become its victims, nor oppress others. To do so requires
dialogue and critical consciousness, the development of
awareness to overcome domination and oppression.
 Rather than “teaching as banking,” in which the educator
deposits information into students’ heads, Freire saw
teaching and learning as a process of inquiry in which the
child must invent and reinvent the world.
 Teachers must not see themselves as the sole possessors of
knowledge and their students as empty receptacles. He calls
this pedagogical approach the “banking method” of education.
 A democratic relationship between the teacher and his
students is necessary in order for the conscientization
process to take place.
 Freire’s critical pedagogy is problem-posing education.
 A central element of Freire’s pedagogy is dialogue. It is
love and respect that allow us to engage people in dialogue
and to discover ourselves in the process and learn from one
another. . . By its nature, dialogue is not something that
can be imposed. Instead, genuine dialogue is characterized
by respect of the parties involved toward one another. We
develop a tolerant sensibility during the dialogue process,
and it is only when we come to tolerate the points of view
and ways of being of others that we might be able to learn
from them and about ourselves in the process. Dialogue
means the presence of equality, mutual recognition,
affirmation of people, a sense of solidarity with people,
and remaining open to questions.
 Dialogue is the basis for critical and problem-posing
pedagogy, as opposed to banking education, where there is no
discussion, only the imposition of the teacher’s ideas on
the students. (Ornstein, A. 1984)
Comment:

 All of these education philosophers, point to the need of

interacting with others and of creating a “community of
inquiry” as Charles Sanders Peirce put it. The community of
inquiry is “a group of persons involved in inquiry,
investigating more or less the same question or problem, and
developing through their exchanges a better understanding
both of the question as well as the probable solutions.“
(Lee, 2010) A community of inquiry will engage learners in
active problem solving.

Summary:
John Locke – the empiricist

 Education is not acquisition of knowledge contained in the

Classics. It is learners interacting with concrete
 experience. The learner is an active not a passive agent of
his/her own learning.
 From the social dimension, education is seeing citizens
participate actively and intelligently in establishing their
government and in choosing who will govern them from among
themselves. They are of the thinking that no one person is
destined to be ruler forever. This is in keeping with the
Anti-Political Dynasty Bill.
Spencer – the utilitarianist

 To survive in a complex society, Spencer favors specialized

education over that of general education.
 “The expert who concentrates on a limited field is useful,
but if he loses sight of the interdependence of things, he
becomes a man who knows more and more about less and less.
We must be warned of the early peril of over-specialism. Of
course, we do not prefer the other extreme, the superficial
person who every day knows less and less about more and
more.
 Who is fittest survives. Individual competition leads to
social progress.
 The competition in class is what advocates of whole-child
approach and Socio-emotional Learning (SEL) atmosphere
approach negate. The whole child approach, a powerful tool
for SEL-focused schools has tenets – “each student learns in
an environment that is physically and emotionally safe for
students and adults” and “each student has access to
personalized learning and is supported by qualified and
caring adult . . .” (Frey, N. 2019)
 The highest words – emotionally safe and caring adults point
to no competition for competition works against an
emotionally safe environment.
John Dewey - experience

 Dewey does not disregard the accumulated wisdom of the past,

these past ideas, discoveries and inventions, our cultural
heritage, will be used as the material for dealing with
problems and so will be tested. If they are of help, they
become part of a reconstructed experience. If they are not
totally accurate, they will still be part of a reconstructed
experiences. This means that the ideal learner for Dewey is
not just one who can learn by doing, e.g., conduct an
experiment but one who can connect accumulated wisdom of the
past to the present.
 Schools are for the people and by the people. Schools are a
democratic institution where everyone regardless of age,
ethnicity, social status is welcome and is encouraged to
participate in the democratic process of decision-making.
Learners and stakeholders practice and experience democracy
in schools.
George Counts – Building a new social order
  Schools and teachers should be agents of change. Schools
are considered instruments for social improvement rather
than as agencies for preserving the status quo. Whatever
change we work for should always be change for the better
not just change for the sake of change.
 Problem-solving, like Dewey, should be the dominant method
for instruction.
 “There is a cultural lag between material progress and
social institutions and ethical values.” Material progress
of humankind is very evident but moral and ethical
development seem to have lagged behind.
Theodore Brameld – the Social Reconstructionist

 Social reconstructionists critically examine present

culture and resolve inconsistencies, controversies and
conflicts to build a new society not just change society.
 Technology era is an era of interdependence and so
education must be international in scope for global
citizenship.
Paulo Freire – Critical pedagogy vs. Banking method

 Employ critical pedagogy and dialogue in contrast to

the banking system of education.
 Learners are not empty receptacles to be filled.