11/3/2015

EDUCATIONAL THOUGHTS OF

KARL RAIMOND
POPPER

11/3/2015

When he was nearly seventeen Popper became a

communist, but after only a few months he became
disillusioned.
Once I had looked at it critically, the gaps and
loopholes and inconsistencies in the Marxist theory
became obvious.
The encounter with Marxism was one of the main
events in Popper's intellectual development. He says
that it taught him the wisdom of the Socratic saying,
I know that I do not know.
It made me a fallibilist... And it made me most
conscious of the differences between dogmatic and
critical thinking.

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Popper says: I shall be for ever grateful to

my first teacher, Emma Goldberger, who
taught me the three R's.
They are, I think, the only essentials a child
has to be taught; and some children do not
even need to be taught in order to learn
these. Everything else is environment, and
learning through reading and thinking.

In about 1917, Poppe r came to a clear realisation about

school: ...we were wasting our time shockingly, even thoug h
our teachers were well-educated and tried hard to make the
schools the best in the world. That much of their teaching was
boring in the extreme hours a nd hours of hope less torture
was not new to me.
They immunised me: never since have I suffered from
boredom. In school one was liable to be found out if one
thoug ht of some thing unconnected with the lesson: one was
compelled to attend. La ter on, when a lec turer was b oring,
one could entertain oneself with one's own thoughts.

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On returning to school after an illness of over two months

Popper was shocked to find that his class had hardly made
any prog ress, so, a t the age of sixteen, he decided to leave
school. He enrolled a t the University of Vie nna, where the cost
of enrolling was nominal a nd every student could a ttend a ny
lecture course.
Few of us thoug ht seriously of caree rs there were none...
We studied not for a career bu t for the sake of studying. We
studied; and we discussed politics.

Instead of encouraging the student to devote

himself to his studies for the sake of studying,
instead of encouraging in him a real love for his
subject and for enquiry
he is led to acquire only such knowledge as is
serviceable in getting him over the hurdles which
he must clear for the sake of his advancement.

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'If I thought of a future, I dreamt of one day

founding a school in which young people could
learn without boredom, and would be stimulated
to pose problems and discuss them;
a school in which no unwanted answers to
unasked questions would have to be listened to; in
which one did not study for the sake of passing
examinations'.
Unended Quest, p. 40.

Traditionally, educationists have, in general, vastly

underestimated
the
human
potential
for
imaginative criticism because they have not
recognised the extent to which it lies at the heart of
what we, including the youngest children, do in
order to succeed at even the most basic tasks.
When educationists act on the assumption that
there is some direct transference of information
from the environment to the learner, the natural
inclination of children to engage in exploratory
activity spontaneous trial and error-elimination
is curtailed.

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It follows that teachers initiate most of the planned

learning activities, and students are expected to
rely on teachers for fundamental decisions about
what to do and when to do it.
Mostly, too, students are not encouraged to
question or criticise the material with which they
are presented.
The task of the student is to learn the syllabus, not
question it. For much of the time, students are
expected to replicate the arguments of others
rather than develop arguments of their own.

Teachers are put under pressure to produce

individuals who are able to perform a limited
range of tasks according to narrowly conceived
standards.
In such circumstances, the tendency is to penalise
the student for failing to understand, failing to give
the prescribed answer, failing to agree, failing to
conform.

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Our memories, are an outcome of learning and

they are used in processes where there is learning,
but there is no memory organ.
The function of the brain is to select and create; it
has no means of taking in information

Learning by instruction from

within - Imaginative Criticism
We do not passively absorb what is said a nd there is no
direct tra nsfer of information.
aware of it, we are

Whether or not we are

critical and creative listeners.

In general, when lea rning is seen to take place in

response to instruction, the learner will have made and
tested

informed guesses with regard bo th to the

nature of the situa tion and what the teacher was trying
to convey.

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Learning by instruction from

within - Imaginative Criticism
According to Popper
All our knowledge is either inborn or created by us through a
process of trial and error. A learning organism is one that, so to
speak, instructs itself from within in the face of challenges from
without.

Learning by instruction from

within - Imaginative Criticism
Despite the many occasions when we are awa re of our
learning, most moment-by-mome nt lea rning takes place
without our be ing awa re of what has been learned, or
even that learning has taken place.
In order to understand what someo ne is saying we must
solve a variety of p roblems; this we do rapidly a nd
mostly at an unconscious level.

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Criticalist Curriculum
is a means by which children are introduced to
the best that has been known and thought in the
world.
It differs from conventional school curricula in that
critical discussion of public knowledge is a crucial
element. By being initiated into the practice of critical
discussion, students become able to re-assess and
facilitate the development of their cultural heritage.

Student-Initiated Curriculum
curriculum conceived and formulated by
the students themselves.
Student-initiated curricula are crucial in fostering
learner autonomy, in challenging students to
develop the assumptions that influence their
everyday lives, and as a means of helping them to
deal with their learning problems (that is, what
they want to learn but are having difficulty in
learning.

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Useful learning
starts with the persons own
authentically realised problem.
There is a place for inducting children into a third
world of ideas, which represents the accumulated
wisdom of mankind.
The better the initiation into this world the more likely
it is that the learner will go on to solve interesting
problems for himself. Those solutions might then
become in time part of the constantly evolving world
three.

Children must be confident to face continual

failure in the solution to problems they actually
care about solving.
The learner has to care about solving the problem
and be prepared to take an imaginative leap in
trying to solve it.
Popperian learner has to be not only imaginative
but also robust enough to face severe criticism,
apparent rejection and failure.

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