Republic of the Philippines

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

ARASOF-NASUGBU
R. Martinez St., Brgy. Bucana, Nasugbu, Batangas

LEARNING MODULE IN THE TEACHER AND THE COMMUNITY,

SCHOOL CULTURE AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP
1st Semester, A.Y. 2021-2022

PHILOSOPHICAL
CHAPTER 1 CONCEPT OF
EDUCATION

Duration: 3 hours/week
Subject Code: Ed 103
Prepared by: Mr. MICHAEL JOHN V. FRANCISCO

*The author does not claim originality. The following is just a

compilation of available works on each topic.
 PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT OF EDUCATION

EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Explain the relationship between education and philosophy.

2. Discuss the philosophical thoughts on education.

THE BIG IDEA

An educational philosophy is a personal statement of a teacher's guiding principles about

"big picture" education-related issues, such as how student learning and potential are most
effectively maximized, as well as the role of educators in the classroom, school,
community, and society.

1. What is the relationship of education to philosophy? How can it affect the school and
the community?
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DEEPEN YOUR UNDERSTANDING

Philosophical Thoughts on Education

A. John Locke (1632-1704) The Empiricist Educator

• Acquire knowledge about the world through the senses.
• Simple ideas become more complex through comparison, reflection and
generalization.
• Questioned the long traditional view that knowledge came exclusively from
literary sources.
• Opposed the “divine right of kings” theory
• Political order should be based upon a contract between the people and the
government.
• Aristocrats are not destined by birth to be rulers.

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 • People should be educated to govern themselves intelligently and responsibly
(Ornstein, 1984).

B. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903): Utilitarian Education

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

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 are
brought to participate in the society.
• The school is a special environment, established by the 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 school is social, democratic and scientific.
• The authoritarian o 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.
• The fund of knowledge of the human race-past ideas, discoveries and inventions
was 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 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 interested.
• Within this experience the learner has a “genuine problem” that stimulates
thinking.
• The learner processes the information or does research to acquire the information
needed to solve the problem.
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 • 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. (Ornstein, 1984).

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 the 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 agent 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 decision for them.
• Schools ought to provide an education that afford equal learning opportunities to
all students (Ornstein, 1984).

E. Theodore Brameld (1904-1987): Social Reconstructionism

• Emphasizes the reformation of society.
• Schools should critically examine the present culture and resolve inconsistencies,
controversies and conflicts to build a new society and not just change society.
• Technological era is an era of interdependence and so education must be
international in scope for global citizenship.
• Education is designed to “awaken students’ consciousness about social problems
and to engage them actively in problem solving.
• Committed to equality or equity in both society and education.
• Emphasize the idea of an interdependent world (Ornstein, 1984).

F. Paulo Freire (1921-1997): Critical Pedagogy

• System must be changed to overcome oppression and improve human conditions.
• Education and literacy are the vehicle for social change.
• 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.
• A democratic relationship between the teacher and her students is necessary in
order for the conscientization process to take place.
• Critical Pedagogy is problem-posing education.
• Dialogue is the basis for critical and problem-posing pedagogy (Ornstein, 1984).

K-12 Educational Philosophies

The K to 12 philosophical points are anchored on philosophical approaches and trends.

The first aspect of the need to strengthen the Early Childhood Education is based on the
philosophy of German educator Fredrick Froebel. The K to 12 program adheres to his
cognitive approach of enhancing a child’s skills through mental stimulation.

The second aspect of the K to 12 is on Contextualization and Enhancement which barrows

heavily on the philosophies of American philosopher John Dewey. The second aspect of

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the program aims to make a learner-relevant curriculum. This very much echoes Dewey’s
pragmatist approach. Dewey, as well as the second aspect of the K to 12 program, believes
that education is a process by which the young were introduced to their cultural heritage.
The K to 12 approach to a curriculum that is relevant to the learners sounds entirely a
pragmatic philosophy.

The third aspect of K to 12 on use of the Mother Tongue borrows its rationalization from
the Multilingual Education (MLE) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cul-
tural Organization (UNESCO) for 2003 and 2005.
In fact, the program stages of the MLE programs of the UNESCO that promotes four
stages of instruction are exactly the same on how the MT is introduced in the K to 12
programs. UNESCO’s stages include:
• Stage I - learning takes place entirely in the child’s home language
• Stage II - building fluency in the mother tongue. Introduction of oral L2
• Stage III - building oral fluency in L2. Introduction of literacy in L2.
• Stage IV - using both L1 and L2 for lifelong learning

The fourth and last aspect of the program is Learning Spiral Progression. This adheres to
the educational theories of Essentialism. Essentialism is particularly concerned with the
fundamentals of education. Curricular points of Essentialism encourage the cultivation of
basic skills that contribute to mastery and literacy.

ACTIVITY

1. Explain the relationship of education, philosopy and educational philosopy using the
venn diagram below.

Education Educational Philosophy

Philosophy

2. Read carefully the following questions. Write your answer in three to five sentences.
a. “If you cannot bring the learners to the world, bring the world to the classroom.” Will
this go with John Dewey’s philosophy of Education? Explain your answer.
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b. Freire opposed the banking method of education and favored critical pedagogy. Why
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3. Complete the table below to summarize the philosophies of education.

Philosophy Aim/s and Method/s of Education
1. 1.

2. 2.

3. 3.

4. 4.

5. 5.

6. 6.

7. 7.

8. 8.

9. 9.

10. 10.

TAKEAWAYS

Five things that I learned from this chapter are the following:
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 ASSESSMENT

Directions: Essay: Read and analyze the following questions. Answer it in two-three
sentences only.
1. Complete these sayings and explain. Which one is in favor on the philosophy of Herbert
Spencer?
A. A __________ knows less and less about more and more until he or she knows nothing
about everything.
B. A __________ knows more and more about less and less until he or she knows
everything about nothing.
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2. “Freedom fighters use liberating, nationalist and scientific education to study realities
and free the oppressed.” In which philosophy is this statement alike? Justify your answer?
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3. All of the philosophical thoughts on education point to the need of interacting with
others and of creating a ‘community of inquiry.’ What does it mean?
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4. What is the relationship between education and philosophy? How does it affects the
teaching-learning process?
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5. What is the relationship between educational philosophies and the society? How does
it serves as foundation of schools and schooling?
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LEARNING RESOURCES

The contents of this module are from:

Prieto, Nelia G., et al (2019). The Teacher and the Community, School Culture and
Organizational Leadership. Metro Manila: Lorimar Publishing Inc.
Bilbao, Purita P., et al (2015). The Teaching Profession. Metro Manila, Lorimar
Publishing Inc.

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Educational Philosophies Definitions and Comparison Chart. Available at
http://ctle.hccs.edu/facultyportal/tlp/seminars/tl1071SupportiveResources/compa
rison_edu_philo.pdf
ThoughtCo. (n.d.). Educational Philosophy Basics. Available at
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-an-educational-philosophy-2081642

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