Shiela Mae S.

Sapan
MILE SocSci

Final Examination in Ed 500 – Foundations of Education

1. Discuss the importance of philosophy in the formulation of educational goals and objectives.
Philosophy is very relevant to teachers in the field of education. Philosophy has shaped the system,
structure, curriculum, participation and organisation since the time of Plato and Aristotle. In fact, there have
been different philosophies that have influenced the way education has been conducted. As a teacher with this
in mind, the field of education can be explored to unimaginable greater depths, where we do not learn to just
prove the teacher is right and the student is wrong, or the teacher knows and the student does not and vice versa.
A teacher with a philosophical approach will do a much better job as an educator.
In our country, the Philippine educational system aims to provide general education that will assist each
individual in the society to attain and become a versatile and productive citizen of our country. Thus,
philosophy in the formulation of educational goal is important especially in mapping your own action, what to
achieve, how you will achieve the certain goal and its implication in the teaching and learning process. Talking
directly of teaching profession, without philosophy, doing random actions by being present in classroom may
not fulfil your responsibility.
2. Give the proponent and give at least two concepts of the following:
a. Realism
Realism refers to the things exist whether or not the human mind perceives them. Aristotle and Thomas
Aquinas was the leading proponent of realism. Aristotle was the philosopher to develop a systematic theory of
logic. In a deeper meaning of realism, it is a philosophy that assumes that there is a real external world that can
be recognized.
 Concept about Realism
- Realists tend to believe that what we believe now is only an approximation of reality and that every
new observation brings us closer to understanding reality.
- Realism believes in the world which we see or perceive to be true and that knowledge is real and can
be assimilated by the human beings.
b. Idealism
Idealism is the oldest philosophy man has ever known. Socrates and Descartes are the major proponents
of this philosophy. The universe is viewed as essentially nonmaterial in its ultimate nature. Although Idealist
philosophers vary enormously on many specifics, they agree on the following two points; the human spirit is the
most important element in life; and secondly the universe is essentially nonmaterial in its ultimate nature.
Idealism should not be confused with the notion of high aspirations that is not what philosophers mean when
they speak of Idealism. In the philosophic sense, Idealism is a system that emphasizes the pre-eminent
importance of mind, soul, or spirit.
 Concept about Idealism
- We should be concerned primarily with the search for truth. Since truth is perfect and eternal, it
cannot be found in the world of matter that is both imperfect and constantly changing.
- The material world is characterized by change, instability, and uncertainty; some ideas are enduring.
c. Pragmatism
According to pragmatists, there are as many worlds as human beings. The ultimate reality is not one but
many. Everyone searches truth and aims according to his will and experiences or circumstances can change the
truth. The world is a process, a constant flux. Truth is always in the making. The world is ever progressing and
evolving and everything in the world keeps on changing.
 Pragmatists are utilitarianists, utility is the test of all truth and reality. A useful principle is that which is
true. The result or consequence of an action decides that worth of something as good or bad. Good results show
the truth and validity of any principle or idea whereas bad results conclude to bad principles. Circumstances
determine the beliefs and theories to be good or evil.
The world serves as a laboratory for the development of aims and values. Changing aims and values are
with time and clime and thus aims cannot be accepted as they are. Everyone should seek aims and values
according to ones tendencies and abilities.

John Dewey is the major proponent of this philosophy. He believed that learning was active and children
came to school to do things. According to Dewey, learning arithmetic would come from learning proportions in
cooking or figuring out how long it would take to get from one place to another by rule.
- Concepts about Pragmatism
- Education is living through a continuous reconstruction of experiences. It is the
development of all those capacities in the individual which will enable him to control his
emotion and fulfil his possibilities.
- According to this the capacity of a human being is valuable and important which enables
him to adjust with the environment or makes him able to change his environment according
to his needs and requirements.
d. Existentialism
It is the modern philosophical view which takes the tao as its starting point. It is subjective. Humans
possess free will and stand in an absurd and meaningless world or universe. Every individual is unique.
Individuals have to take responsibility for their own actions and shape their own destinies. It has an emphasis on
human responsibility and judgment in ethical matters. The individual is the sole judge of his or her own actions.
Among the best-known existentialist philosophers are Sӧren Kierkegaard, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul
Sartre, and Albert Camus. Martin Heidegger is a German philosopher whose work is associated with
phenomenology and existentialism. His ideas have exerted influence on the development of contemporary
European philosophy. According to him “Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.”
- Concepts about Existentialism
- Human freedom is understood precisely as the freedom to choose.
- Human persons do not possess the essence; they make choices that create their own nature.
e. Naturalism
According to naturalism, the material world is the only real world. It is the only reality. This material
world is being governed by a system of natural laws and the man, who is the creation of the material world,
must submit to them. The naturalists have regard for actual facts, actual situations and realities. For them nature
is everything. It is the whole reality.
Behind everything there is Nature. It denies the existence of anything beyond nature. Naturalism believes that
everything comes from nature and returns to nature. Nature, according to naturalism, is a self-sufficient entity. It
is self-determined and governed by its own laws.
The naturalists see things as they are. They apprehend reality as it is in its own nature. They do not
believe that there are any spiritual values or absolute truths. Naturalism takes recourse to such concepts as
appetites, emotions, instincts and evolution. According to naturalists, instincts are responsible for all our
activities; biological, psychological or social. To them there is no absolute good or evil in the world. Values of
life, according to naturalism, are created by the human needs.
Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Herbert Spencer are the major proponents of Naturalism.

 Concepts about Existentialism

- Naturalism is a concept that firmly believes that ultimate reality lies in the nature of the
matter.
 - Matter is considered to be supreme and mind is the functioning of the brain that is made up
of matter. The whole universe is governed by laws of nature and they are changeable.
3. Explain the philosophical views of the following:
A. Plato
Plato regards education as a means to achieve justice, both individual justice and social justice.
According to Plato, individual justice can be obtained when each individual develops his or her ability to the
fullest. In this sense, justice means excellence. For the Greeks and Plato, excellence is virtue. According to
Socrates, virtue is knowledge. Thus, knowledge is required to be just. From this Plato concludes that virtue can
be obtained through three stages of development of knowledge: knowledge of one's own job, self-knowledge,
and knowledge of the Idea of the Good. According to Plato, social justice can be achieved when all social
classes in a society, workers, warriors, and rulers are in a harmonious relationship. Plato believes that all people
can easily exist in harmony when society gives them equal educational opportunity from an early age to
compete fairly with each other. Without equal educational opportunity, an unjust society appears since the
political system is run by unqualified people; oligarchy, defective democracy, or tyranny will result.
B. Rousseau
Rousseau’s philosophy of education is not concerned with particular techniques of imparting information and
concepts, but rather with developing the pupil’s character and moral sense, so that he may learn to practice self-mastery
and remain virtuous even in the unnatural and imperfect society in which he will have to live. The basic philosophy of
education that Rousseau advocates in the Emile, much like his thought in the first two Discourses, is rooted in the notion
that human beings are good by nature. The Emile is a large work, which is divided into five Books, and Book One opens
with Rousseau’s claim that the goal of education should be to cultivate our natural tendencies. This is not to be confused
with Rousseau’s praise of the pure state of nature in the Second Discourse. Rousseau is very clear that a return the state of
nature once human beings have become civilized is not possible. Therefore, we should not seek to be noble savages in the
literal sense, with no language, no social ties, and an underdeveloped faculty of reason. Rather, Rousseau says, someone
who has been properly educated will be engaged in society, but relate to his or her fellow citizens in a natural way.
Rousseau has exerted great influence on education in its manifold aspects. Although his main in life was to
destroy traditionalism, yet many of the important principles in modern pedagogy can be traced back to him. He asserted
that education is a natural process; its function is not to remake the nature of the child by forcing on him the traditional or
customary way of thinking and doing. It is a process of development of the natural powers of the pupil, not an acquisition
of information alone. He declared that a child is not a miniature adult. His instincts ought to be respected, his personality,
individuality should be kept intact. It is due to Rousseau that the need of sense training and physical activities in the
earlier development of the child has been recognized in modern systems of education. We are indebted to Rousseau for
his emphasis on such principles as’ learning by doing’ or ‘learning through one’s experience.
C. Dewey
John Dewey believed in traditional education, in its rigid requirements of standards and conducts,
encourages learners to be docile and obedient, producing an environment where learners are encouraged to
listen and learn but not necessarily to think for themselves. He valued the opportunity progressive education
provides learners to think and grow but believed that progressivism forced younger generations to enact adult
standards, producing an environment where learners would be encouraged to think on their own without
understanding the reasoning behind their thinking.
Dewey rejected both theories and, instead, proposed that educators recognize the relationship between
experience and education. He wrote, 'There is an intimate and necessary relation between the processes of actual
experience and education.' Recognizing that not all experiences were educational, Dewey challenged educators
to begin providing learners with experiences that resulted in growth and learning, believing that these
experiences would someday result in growth and creativity in learners' future experiences. In other words, a
good experience now would impact future decisions and experiences. This is what Dewey called the continuity
of experience.
D. Comenius
 John Comenius was a Moravian teacher, educator, bishop, and writer in the seventeenth century. He is
considered the father of modern education because he advocated universal education in his book The Great
Didactic. Comenius authored over forty works, and he introduced pictorial textbooks, gradual learning of
comprehensive concepts, equal opportunities for poor children and women, and practical, universal education.
Comenius revolutionized education in three ways: school systems, educational theories, and educational
methods. First, Comenius outlined the school system prominently used in America today: kindergarten,
elementary school, secondary school, college, and university. Secondly, he created a general theory of
education around the idea of education according to nature whereby children learned at a natural pace from
simple concepts to challenging theories. Thirdly, he wrote a series of textbooks on educational methods and
teaching subject matter. Comenius is rightly called the father of modern education because of the wealth of
reforms he advocated for public education.
5. Explain the role of nature and nurture in the development of a person.

The nature and nurture debate is one of the oldest philosophical issues within psychology. So what exactly is it
all about?

 Nature refers to all of the genes and hereditary factors that influence who we are—from our physical
appearance to our personality characteristics.
 Nurture refers to all the environmental variables that impact that we are, including our early childhood
experiences, how we were raised, our social relationships, and our surrounding culture.

Even today, different branches of psychology often take a one versus the other approach. For example,
biological psychology tends to stress the importance of genetics and biological influences. Behaviourism, on the
other hand, focuses on the impact that the environment has on behavior.

In the past, debates over the relative contributions of nature versus nurture often took a very one-sided
approach, with one side arguing that nature played the most important role and the other side suggesting that it
was nurture that was the most significant. Today, most experts recognize that both factors play a critical role.
Not only that, but they also realize that nature and nurture interact in important ways all throughout life.

However, in recent years there has been a growing realization that the question of “how much” behavior
is due to heredity and “how much” to the environment may itself be the wrong question. Take intelligence as an
example. Like almost all types of human behavior, it is a complex, many-sided phenomenon which reveals
itself (or not!) in a great variety of ways.
5. Define and explain;
A. Motivation
The concept of motivation is linked closely to other constructs in education and psychology such as
constructs of attention, needs, goals and interests which are all contribute to stimulating students’ interest in
learning and their intention to engage in particular activities and achieve various goals.
Motivation is described as a state that energizes, directs and sustains behavior. Motivation involves
goals and requires activity. Goals provide the impetus for and the direction of action, while action entails effort:
persistence in order to sustain an activity for a long period of time.
There are recognized indices of motivation that are important to be aware of. Indices typically place a
value or quantity on an idea; in this case, we can understand the value or quantity of motivation for an
individual by these four indices.
The selection of a task under free-choice conditions indicates the motivation to perform the task. High
effort levels, especially when working on different tasks and assignments, are also indicative of motivation. For
example, if a student diligently works on a difficult algebra problem again and again, this would indicate a
higher level of motivation towards math activities.
B. Components of Motivation
There are two components of motivation namely; extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation
refers to rewards provided by an activity itself. Intrinsic Motivation is concerned with the factors that stimulate
or inhibit the desire to engage in behaviour.
Intrinsic Motivation is concerned with the factors that stimulate or inhibit the desire to engage in
behaviour. This motivation arises from the use of external rewards or bribes such as food, praise, free time,
money or points toward an activity. These incentives are all external, in that they are separate from the
individual and the task. Example, a child may do chores not because he enjoys them but because doing so earns
an allowance and students who are extrinsically motivated may study hard for a test in order to obtain a good
grade in the course. Intrinsic motivation arises from internal factors.
Extrinsic motivation rewards for students that are tangible rewards given by teachers to students to
motivate them and reinforce performance and behavior. They are extrinsic because they come from outside the
student rather than inside.
C. Functions of Motivation
 Direct activities toward the achievement of a goal
 Controls and directs human behaviour
 Inculcates spiritual and moral values in the minds of the young
 Gives satisfaction and happiness to the individual

6. Discuss Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Maslow’s theory called the Hierarchy of Needs sets out a number of levels around which motivation
takes place. The basic concept that Maslow had was to indicate that in order to reach the next level of
motivation, the previous level would need to be satisfied. Some examples are given below.
The first level relates to physiological needs. These are needs for food and drink and physical health as
well as sex and sleep, so for example, when someone is struggling to find food, they will look hard for it. This
level was seen by Maslow as the most basic because without such biological needs being fulfilled, there would
be no individual to motivate anyway. The second level relates to safety and security – which means we are
secure in our situation, but we are only motivated to fulfil all our safety needs when we have fulfilled our
physiological ones, so for example someone will search for a safe place to live, once they are sure they have
enough food to eat. This is because a feeling of contentment and personal security is seen by most employees at
work as being less important than the search for food, or the need for sleep or drink etc.
The third level is a sense of belonging and community with other people – for example, being part of a
good team at work or feeling part of a group or a family.
Fourthly (and closely related to belonging needs), we have esteem needs, where we get our intrinsic
sense of self-worth, self-identity and personal value: someone having self-confidence will not need to seek more
of that and so that need may be fulfilled, whereas someone who is seeking approval from others will always be
doing so in order to develop that sense of self-esteem. Again, this is necessary because without that sense of
value, we may not believe that achieving our full potential is possible (or rather that we have little potential
anyway). Recognition from others also acts as a catalyst for even greater achievements.
Once we have that sense of self-esteem, Maslow argued that we are motivated to fulfill our self-
actualisation needs and a sense that anything is possible, thus achieving all that we wish to and being ‘self-
actualised’. This means that all that we set out to achieve has been completed. Of course, rarely do individuals
achieve this, but recognising that there is more to do and that there is a challenge and personal reward in
stretching further can drive behaviour in a very productive manner.
7. What are the Social Institutions?
A Social institution is a group of social positions, connected by social relations, performing a
social role. Any institution in a society that works to socialize the groups of people in it example for
these are universities, governments, families. And any people or groups that you have social interactions
with. It is a major sphere of social life organized to meet some human need. Institutions of socialization
have a giant influence on who we become and how we see the world. A social institution is an accepted
and persistent constellation of statuses, roles, values, and norms that respond to important societal needs.
They are usually unplanned and develop gradually. These institutions are interdependent, as a change in
one leads to changes in the others. The traditional social institutions are politics, economics, religion,
family, and school.
Institutions simplify social behavior for the individual person. The social institutions provide
every child with all the needed social and cultural mechanisms through which he can grow socially.
Institutions provide ready-made forms of social relations and social roles for the individual. The
principal roles are not invented by the individuals, they are provided by the institutions.
A. Family
The Family is the smallest social institution with the unique function.It is the basic unit of
Philippine society and the educational system where the child begins to learn his ABC. The basic agent
of socialization because it is here where the individual develops values, behaviors, and ways of life
through interaction with members of the family.
The Filipino family is usually an extended one and therefore, big. In spite of the family planning
programs and population efforts promoted all over the country, many Filipinos have more children than
would be justified by those who are concerned with population growth. In the Filipino family, kinship
ties are extended to include the “compadre’ or sponsors. Compadres and comadres are regarded as
relatives and closer ties are formed. Parents gets sponsors (ninong and ninang) in the baptism of their
child and wedding of a son or daughter.
B. Education
Education is a system consisting of the roles and norms that ensure the transmission of
knowledge, values, and patterns of behavior from one generation to the next.Schooling is formal
education, which involves instruction by specially trained teachers who follow officially recognized
policies.
The basic purpose of education is the transmission of knowledge. While before education was a
family responsibility, along with the community and the church, industrial changed it dramatically.
Schools become necessary when cultural complexity created a need for specialized knowledge and skill
which could not be easily acquired in the family, church or community. The complexity of modern life
has not diminished the teaching function of the family, but it has added the need for many types of
instruction which require specialized educational agencies like school, college or university.
The primary function of education is to move young people in the mainstream of society. The
school is the place for the contemplation of reality, and our task as teachers, in the simplest terms, is to
show this reality to our students, who are naturally eager about them. At home we teach reality to
children in a profoundly personal, informal, and unstructured way.
 C. Religion
Religion is a system of beliefs and rituals that serves to bind people together through shared
worship, thereby creating a social group. A set of beliefs and practices that pertain to a sacred or
supernatural realm that guides human behavior and gives meaning to life among a community of
believers. Following is the Functions of Religion;
1. Serves as a means of social control.
2. Exerts a great influence upon personality development.
3. Allays fear of unknown.
4. Explains events or situations which are beyond comprehension of man.
5. Gives man comfort, strength and hope in times of crisis and despair.
6. It preserves and transmit knowledge, skills, spiritual, and cultural values and practices.
7. It serves as an instrument of change.
8. Promotes closeness, love, cooperation, friendline ss and helpfulness.
9. Alleviates sufferings from major calamities.
10. It provides hope for a blissful life

D. Economic Institutions
Economic institutions are concerned with the specific economic units of parts that makes an
economic system and the relationship between those parts. Emphasis is placed on understanding the
behavior of individual firms, industries, households, and ways in which such entities interact. It focuses
on such problems as the role of unemployment, the changing level of prices, the nation’s total output of
goods and services, and the ways in which government raises and spends money

E. Government
Government is the institution which solves conflicts that are public in nature and involve more
than a few people. It is defined as government as the institution by which an independent society makes
and carries out those rules of action which are necessary to enable men to live in a social state, or which
are imposed upon the people for that society by those who possess the power or authority of prescribing
them. Politics, on the other hand, is a pattern of human interaction that serves to resolve conflicts
between people, institutions, and nations.
Functions of the Government is keeping of order and providing for protection of persons and
property from violence and robbery, the definition and punishment for crimes and the administration of
justice in civil cases.

8. Explain and discuss the educational implications of;

A. Human Rights Violation
Who's afraid of human rights? Many people. Teachers, parents, education officials,
traditional community leaders, among others, feel threatened by the idea. Others, although
believing human rights are important, also think they will not be realized in their lifet ime.
Why do so many people in Asia have reservations about human rights? Even some
involved in community service believe that human rights are used for selfish, individualistic
purposes, that they are Western ideas imposed on local cultures, that they are a political tool
or of use only to lawyers.
When people suffer injustice, however, they begin to see the real meaning of human
rights. When people witness child abuse, they invoke human rights to defend the hapless
children. When they are unjustly deprived of their property or maltreated by the police or
government authorities, they begin to realize that their human rights are being violated.
Human rights usually receive public attention only when they are violated. Media
reports often focus on cases of maltreatment or even death; human rights are normally seen in
a negative light, not as the enjoyment of freedoms that make life more meaningful.
 B. Drug Abuse
No one questions the severity of the drug problem and its devastating impact on youth.
Academic results suffer and, even worse, drugs undermine health and destroy young lives.
It is possible, and desirable, for schools to be concerned with drug demand reduction, drug
supply reduction and mitigating the health and social consequences of drug use, with the major focus on
demand reduction. However, education authorities should not accept sole responsibility for changing
student health behaviours, including reducing drug use. Schools may well be able to influence drug use
behaviour and it is hoped that they will do so. However, it is the primary role of the school to teach
skills, to impart knowledge and to establish a sound values base in relation to health and drug use, not to
change behaviours that may be determined by factors beyond the influence of the school.
Schools, therefore, should not make change in health behaviours of students, particularly drug
use behaviours, the only measure of the success or effectiveness of drug prevention programmes.
Schools can and should report to the community on the achievement of educational outcomes that have
been identified as contributing to the achievement of the broader health goals of preventing drug use and
reducing adverse consequences to individuals and society.
C. Child Abuse
Child abuse has become a chronic and common issue in the country today. In our country, an
estimated three million children are victims of abuse every year. Whether the abuse is physical,
emotional, sexual, or neglect, the scars can be deep and can have a negative effect on a child’s
education. I believe that abused children have a harder time maintaining good grades in school due to
their stressful home lives, which leads to a lack of focus in the classroom. These issues are severely
hurting the education of many children which damages their conscious development. Unstable
households are the number one cause of children not performing at the level of proficiency in the
classroom. (Family Mobility Helps) There are four different types of abuse, but the effects are similar,
which is physical, or emotional harm placed upon the child. There are certain types of abuse that are
often harder to identify. Neglect is the most common form of child abuse. Family members and
caregivers are the abusers in most cases. Research has shown there are three major reasons why abuses
children suffer academically. The reasons are withdrawal, poor communication/social skills, and
behavioral problems. Child abuse does not only hurt a child’s education, but can lead to deaths.
Therefore prevention is the key to the success of a child’s future.
Failure to provide a child with basic necessary needs is known as neglect. Neglect has become
the most common form of child abuse, and its effects have been recognized as the most detrimental to a
child’s development.

9. Discuss the nature and origin of graft and corruption.

Graft is the acquisition of gain or advantage through abuse or misuse of one‘s position or
influence, whether in politics, business or any other undertaking. It is an act performed by a civil servant
or a group of civil servants, acting alone by himself or by themselves, without involving any person
outside the bureaucracy or jeopardizing the performance of duties by another bureaucrat.
Corruption, on the other hand has been defined as the misuse or abuse of public office for private
gain both in government and the private sector. It comes in several illicit forms, including bribery,
extortion, fraud, nepotism, graft, speed money, pilferage, theft, embezzlement, falsification of records,
kickbacks, influence peddling and campaign contributions.
The commonly held perception amongst most people of corruption is that of something that is
debased, impure, or acts of criminality. Indeed, corruption as it relates to human behavior can be all of
those things and more.
Innate in the human psyche, irrespective of race or religion, is a sense of morality, of what is
right and wrong. As innate as this sense of morality, is the desire to gain advantage over others. A
conflict of good and evil. Thankfully most people display more of the good, and some display
extraordinary feats of humility and selflessness.
 Yet others sway to the easy path of seeking advantage, wherever they can get it. Self and self
gratification are their main motives. These individuals it could be said are corrupt or corruptible. Corruption
weakens the fabric of societies and leads to the society becoming dysfunctional. The 1987 Constitution of the
Philippines provides the basis of ethical and accountable behavior in the public sector. Section 1 of Article XI
states that:

Public office is a public trust. Public officers and employees must at all times be accountable to the
people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice,
and lead modest lives. This provision requires every public official and employee to exhibit and live certain
values while in government service. In addition, the State has been mandated by the Constitution to ―maintain
honesty and integrity in the public service and take positive and effective measures against graft and corruption.
10. Give your personal reaction on mother tongue.
As a country of multi-dialectal learners, the use of mother tongue as the medium of instruction leads the
bilingual learners to acknowledge their roots which lead to the appreciation of cultural linguistic heritage of the
country. The use of multiple languages in the learning institutions may be attributed to various circumstances,
such as the linguistic diversity of a country, cultural heritage, social context and religious attitudes. The use of
the mother tongue along instruction mirrors the aspiration of learners to promote national and cultural
distinctiveness. Keeping the Philippine local languages alive ensures that the local languages will continue to be
appreciated by Filipinos. Amidst the trends of globalization, local dialects can survive through the constant use
of the native speaker.
In any curriculum, teachers must update themselves to the literacy demands of a curriculum especially to the
language demands in order to obtain flexible teaching techniques. Learners who have been immersed in the
learning environment in which the mother tongue has been used showed statistically significant improvements
in their academic performance compared to children who were learning only in Filipino. But in my own
personal predicament, our government should make more and additional studies in the teaching and learning
process of mother tongue. And I, Thank you!
Lastly, thank you Ma’am for giving us these mind bombing and extra ordinarily types of questions.
Also, thank you for the worthwhile experience of being our teacher. Love. Love. Love. God bless and more
power to you Ma’am!