SENEN A.

DE CHAVEZ

1. What are some common sources of research ideas and generate research

ideas using those sources? Describe.

 Three of the most common sources of inspiration in research ideas are informal

observations, practical problems, and previous research.

- Informal observations include direct observations of our own and others’

behaviour as well as secondhand observations from nonscientific sources such

as newspapers, books, blogs, and so on. For example, you might notice that you

always seem to be in the slowest moving line at the grocery store. Could it be

that most people think the same thing? Or you might read in a local newspaper

about people donating money and food to a local family whose house has burned

down and begin to wonder about who makes such donations and why. Some of

the most famous research in psychology has been inspired by informal

observations. Stanley Milgram’s famous research on obedience to authority, for

example, was inspired in part by journalistic reports of the trials of accused Nazi

war criminals—many of whom claimed that they were only obeying orders. This

led him to wonder about the extent to which ordinary people will commit immoral

acts simply because they are ordered to do so by an authority figure (Milgram,

1963)[2].
 Practical problems can also inspire research ideas, leading directly to applied

research in such domains as law, health, education, and sports. Does taking

lecture notes by hand improve students’ exam performance? How effective is

psychotherapy for depression compared to drug therapy? To what extent do cell

phones impair people’s driving ability? How can we teach children to read more

efficiently? What is the best mental preparation for running a marathon?

 Probably the most common inspiration for new research ideas, however, is

previous research. Recall that science is a kind of large-scale collaboration in

which many different researchers read and evaluate each other’s work and

conduct new studies to build on it. Of course, experienced researchers are

familiar with previous research in their area of expertise and probably have a

long list of ideas. This suggests that novice researchers can find inspiration by

consulting with a more experienced researcher (e.g., students can consult a

faculty member). But they can also find inspiration by picking up a copy of almost

any professional journal and reading the titles and abstracts. In one typical issue

of Psychological Science, for example, you can find articles on the perception of

shapes, anti-Semitism, police lineups, the meaning of death, second-language

learning, people who seek negative emotional experiences, and many other

topics. If you can narrow your interests down to a particular topic (e.g., memory)

or domain (e.g., health care), you can also look through more specific journals,

such as Memory & Cognition or Health Psychology.

2. Identify some techniques for turning ideas into empirical research questions

and use those techniques to generate questions.

 Once you have a research idea, you need to use it to generate one or more

empirically testable research questions, that is, questions expressed in terms of a

single variable or relationship between variables. One way to do this is to look

closely at the discussion section in a recent research article on the topic. This is

the last major section of the article, in which the researchers summarize their

results, interpret them in the context of past research, and suggest directions for

future research. These suggestions often take the form of specific research

questions, which you can then try to answer with additional research. This can be

a good strategy because it is likely that the suggested questions have already

been identified as interesting and important by experienced researchers.

But you may also want to generate your own research questions. How can you

do this? First, if you have a particular behaviour or psychological characteristic in

mind, you can simply conceptualize it as a variable and ask how frequent or

intense it is. How many words on average do people speak per day? How

accurate are our memories of traumatic events? What percentage of people have

sought professional help for depression? If the question has never been studied

scientifically—which is something that you will learn in your literature review—

then it might be interesting and worth pursuing.

If scientific research has already answered the question of how frequent or

intense the behaviour or characteristic is, then you should consider turning it into

a question about a statistical relationship between that behaviour or

characteristic and some other variable. One way to do this is to ask yourself the

following series of more general questions and write down all the answers you

can think of.

 What are some possible causes of the behaviour or characteristic?

 What are some possible effects of the behaviour or characteristic?

 What types of people might exhibit more or less of the behaviour or

characteristic?

 What types of situations might elicit more or less of the behaviour or

characteristic?

In general, each answer you write down can be conceptualized as a second

variable, suggesting a question about a statistical relationship. If you were

interested in talkativeness, for example, it might occur to you that a possible

cause of this psychological characteristic is family size. Is there a statistical

relationship between family size and talkativeness? Or it might occur to you that

people seem to be more talkative in same-sex groups than mixed-sex groups. Is

there a difference in the average level of talkativeness of people in same-sex

groups and people in mixed-sex groups? This approach should allow you to
generate many different empirically testable questions about almost any

behaviour or psychological characteristic.

If through this process you generate a question that has never been studied

scientifically—which again is something that you will learn in your literature

review—then it might be interesting and worth pursuing. But what if you find that

it has been studied scientifically? Although novice researchers often want to give

up and move on to a new question at this point, this is not necessarily a good

strategy. For one thing, the fact that the question has been studied scientifically

and the research published suggests that it is of interest to the scientific

community. For another, the question can almost certainly be refined so that its

answer will still contribute something new to the research literature. Again, asking

yourself a series of more general questions about the statistical relationship is a

good strategy.

 Are there other ways to operationally define the variables?

 Are there types of people for whom the statistical relationship might be

stronger or weaker?

 Are there situations in which the statistical relationship might be

stronger or weaker—including situations with practical importance?

For example, research has shown that women and men speak about the same

number of words per day—but this was when talkativeness was measured in

terms of the number of words spoken per day among university students in the

United States and Mexico. We can still ask whether other ways of measuring

talkativeness—perhaps the number of different people spoken to each day—

 produce the same result. Or we can ask whether studying elderly people or

people from other cultures produces the same result. Again, this approach

should help you generate many different research questions about almost any

statistical relationship.

3. How can you make a research questions interesting and how to evaluate

questions in terms of interestingness?

 How often do people tie their shoes? Do people feel pain when you punch them

in the jaw? Are women more likely to wear makeup than men? Do people prefer

vanilla or chocolate ice cream? Although it would be a fairly simple matter to

design a study and collect data to answer these questions, you probably would

not want to because they are not interesting. We are not talking here about

whether a research question is interesting to us personally but whether it is

interesting to people more generally and, especially, to the scientific community.

But what makes a research question interesting in this sense? Here we look at

three factors that affect the interestingness of a research question: the answer is

in doubt, the answer fills a gap in the research literature, and the answer has

important practical implications.

First, a research question is interesting to the extent that its answer is in doubt.

Obviously, questions that have been answered by scientific research are no

longer interesting as the subject of new empirical research. But the fact that a

question has not been answered by scientific research does not necessarily

make it interesting. There has to be some reasonable chance that the answer to
the question will be something that we did not already know. But how can you

assess this before actually collecting data? One approach is to try to think of

reasons to expect different answers to the question—especially ones that seem

to conflict with common sense. If you can think of reasons to expect at least two

different answers, then the question might be interesting. If you can think of

reasons to expect only one answer, then it probably is not. The question of

whether women are more talkative than men is interesting because there are

reasons to expect both answers. The existence of the stereotype itself suggests

the answer could be yes, but the fact that women’s and men’s verbal abilities are

fairly similar suggests the answer could be no. The question of whether people

feel pain when you punch them in the jaw is not interesting because there is

absolutely no reason to think that the answer could be anything other than a

resounding yes.

A second important factor to consider when deciding if a research question is

interesting is whether answering it will fill a gap in the research literature. Again,

this means in part that the question has not already been answered by scientific

research. But it also means that the question is in some sense a natural one for

people who are familiar with the research literature. For example, the question of

whether taking lecture notes by hand can help improve students’ exam

performance would be likely to occur to anyone who was familiar with research

on notetaking and the ineffectiveness of shallow processing on learning.

 A final factor to consider when deciding whether a research question is

interesting is whether its answer has important practical implications. Again, the

question of whether taking notes by hand improves learning has important

implications for education, including classroom policies concerning technology

use. The question of whether cell phone use impairs driving is interesting

because it is relevant to the personal safety of everyone who travels by car and

to the debate over whether cell phone use should be restricted by law.

Key Takeaways

 Research ideas can come from a variety of sources, including informal

observations, practical problems, and previous research.

 Research questions expressed in terms of variables and relationships between

variables can be suggested by other researchers or generated by asking a series

of more general questions about the behaviour or psychological characteristic of

interest.

 It is important to evaluate how interesting a research question is before designing

a study and collecting data to answer it. Factors that affect interestingness are

the extent to which the answer is in doubt, whether it fills a gap in the research

literature, and whether it has important practical implications.

 A REACTION PAPER ABOUT THE PROBLEMS AND ISSUES IN EDUCATION

(PHILIPPINE CONTEXT)

Today, for every 10 children who start their primary education, only 6 go on

to continue with their secondary education, and 4 will manage to enter college. What

happened? Other countries used to send their students to the Philippines to learn, now

they've overtaken us and are the experts. Isn't that frustrating? The situation of the

educational system here, in the Philippines, is a great cause for worry.

As a teacher, I feel for those children who want to go school but situation

would not allow them, especially the ones that barely go to school yet without any

materials in hand and with empty stomach, at the same time. This is very unfortunate. I

believe every child has the right to proper education as stated in our Constitution.

However, what has happened? Instead, they’ve deserve less, with crowded classroom,

shared textbooks, incomplete school facilities, and incompetent teachers.

I would like to point out three reforms to our government officials regarding

our educational issues. First, upgrade teachers’ salary scale. Our dear teachers have

been underpaid; thus there is very little incentive for most of them to take up advanced
trainings, and there is less interest to teach if that’s the case. Second, stop the current

practice of subsidizing state universities and colleges. Because this may not be the best

way to promote equity, an expanded scholarship program to give more focus and

priority to the poor but deserving, maybe more equitable. Finally, get all the leaders in

business and industry to become actively involved in higher education. This is aimed to

carry out a selective admission policy, i.e., installing mechanisms to reduce enrollment

in oversubscribed courses and promoting enrollment in undersubscribed ones.

To tap it all, they say that education is the very answer to poverty,

corruption, hate, and ignorance. If it really is like many people believe it is, then the

study of the key educational issues in the Philippines is a significant endeavor that

needs serious attention and action. I hope to be able to make some sense about the

decline in the quality of education, and with the help of people as concerned as I, do

something to change for the better.

SENEN A. DE CHAVEZ
SENEN A. DE CHAVEZ

PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION QUESTIONS

1. Why Philosophy is important for administrators in Education?

 By learning philosophy, a teacher would be able to view and analyze from the

perspective of their students. Apart from understanding why students are

behaving in a particular way, teachers would also be able to know how students

perceive their actions. ... Just as if it helps students, it helps them as well.

2. Who are the people behind the Philosophy of Education?

 John Dewey

- John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational

reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform.

 Immanuel Kant

- Immanuel Kant was an influential Prussian German philosopher in the Age of

Enlightenment. In his doctrine of transcendental idealism, he argued that space,

 time, and causation are mere sensibilities; "things-in-themselves" exist, but their

nature is unknowable

 Jean-Jacques Rousseau

- Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer and composer. His

political philosophy influenced the progress of the Enlightenment throughout.

Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the development of

modern political, economic and educational thought

 John Locke

- John Locke FRS was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as

one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the

"Father of Liberalism”.

 Plato

- Plato was an Athenian philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece,

founder of the Platonist school of thought, and the Academy, the first institution of

higher learning in the Western world.

 Aristotle

- Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in

Ancient Greece. He was the founder of the Lyceum and the Peripatetic school of

philosophy and Aristotelian tradition. Along with his teacher Plato, he has been

called the "Father of Western Philosophy".

 Ludwig Wittgenstein

- Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian-British philosopher who

worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind,

 and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Wittgenstein taught at the

University of Cambridge.

 Paulo Freire

- Paulo Reglus Neves Freire was a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a

leading advocate of critical pedagogy. He is best known for his influential work,

Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which is generally considered one of the

foundational texts of the critical pedagogy movement.

 Friedrich Nietzsche

- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher, cultural critic, composer,

poet, philologist, and scholar of Latin and Greek whose work has exerted a

profound influence on modern intellectual history. He began his career as a

classical philologist before turning to philosophy.

 René Descartes

- René Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. A

native of the Kingdom of France, he spent about 20 years of his life in the Dutch

Republic after serving for a while in the Dutch States Army of Maurice of Nassau,

Prince of Orange and the Stadtholder of the United Provinces.

 Richard Stanley Peters

- Richard Stanley Peters was an English philosopher. His work belongs mainly to

the areas of political theory, philosophical psychology, and philosophy of

education.

 Thomas Aquinas
- Thomas Aquinas was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, Catholic priest, and

Doctor of the Church. An immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist

in the tradition of scholasticism, he is also known within the latter as the Doctor

Angelicus and the Doctor Communis.

 Jean Piaget

- Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development.

Piaget's theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together

called "genetic epistemology". Piaget placed great importance on the education

of children.

 Michel Foucault

- Paul-Michel Foucault, generally known as Michel Foucault, was a French

philosopher, historian of ideas, social theorist and literary critic. Foucault's

theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and

how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions.

 William James

- William James was an American philosopher and psychologist, and the first

educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered

to be a leading thinker of the late nineteenth century, one of the most influential

philosophers of the United States, and the "Father of American psychology".

 Bertrand Russell
 - Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM FRS was a British

philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, essayist, social critic,

political activist, and Nobel laureate.

3. What are the theories of Philosophy of Education?

FIVE MAIN THEORIES OF EDUCATION

(1) Perennialism

As mentioned earlier, educational theories are specific and focused on educational

components such as curriculum, teaching and learning. Educational theories are

rooted in one or more educational philosophies. The first educational theory is

perennialism, which is rooted in Idealism and Realism. Leading proponents

include Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler. The influence of Idealism is seen in the

perennialists advocating that the aim of education is to help students know and

internalise ideas and values which are universal and lasting. The focus is on

knowledge that is perennial – ideas which has endured through time and space. Its

realist influence is seen in its emphasis on cultivating the students’ reason and

developing their intellectual powers. The role of schools, for the perennialists, is to

train a group of intellectual elite. They are expected to be grounded in the classics and
the traditions of the community, and charged with passing this on to a new generation

of learners (Ellis, Cogan & Howey, 1991). The great books and the classics of art,

music and literature are especially important as they are seen as capturing the

essence of the human search for what is true, good and beautiful (Gutek, 2004).

The perennialists also favour a subject-matter-based curriculum where the

students are incrementally taught the skills and inculcated with the disposition to

appreciate the classics. The teaching materials, learning activities, and pedagogy are

not dependent on the students’ interests, but on what is necessary to enhance

their intellectual capacity. As perennialists believe that all students should receive

a liberal education, they are against streaming where some students receive

purely vocational and technical training.

(2) Essentialism

The second educational theory, essentialism, shares a number of similarities with

perennialism. It originated from William C. Bagley and is also rooted in Idealism

and Realism. Like perennialism, it emphasises the importance of teaching

essential and enduring knowledge accumulated through the ages and encapsulated in

the great works of art, music and literature. As mentioned, a central feature of

Idealism is the emphasis on universal and permanent ideas. The function of

schools for the essentialists is to transmit cultural and historical heritage to

students, with the appropriate skills, attitudes and values (Ellis, Cogan & Howey,

1991). Its Realist influence is seen in the essentialist accent on the mastery of facts
and concepts in order for the students to understand the surrounding physical

world. The curriculum is similar to the perennialists in being subject-centred. The

essentialists oppose interdisciplinary studies such as language arts and social studies

as they prefer differentiated and specialised subjects developed and organised by

experts (Gutek, 2004). The curriculum is determined by the traditions and heritage

that the students need to master, rather than the interests of the students. The

essential skills and subjects will also prepare them for advanced education, the

world of work, and effective social and political participation (Gutek, 2004).

(3) Progressivism

Progressivism is an American educational philosophy used to meet the needs and

challenges in education in the late 19th and early 20th century. Its proponents include

Charles S. Peirce, William James, and John Dewey. It is a distinctively American

thought in its emphasis on preparing students for active participation in a liberal

democratic system. Progressivists wanted to offer an alternative approach to

education as they found the prevailing schooling at that time to be too teacher-

centred and rigid, with the students having to study organised body of subjects that

they had no interest in under an authoritarian system. They hold that there are

no universal and unchanging knowledge and values to be passed down through the

generations, since knowledge and values are dependent on human experiences

which are contingent. The belief that reality is always changing and that

knowledge and values are relative shows the influence of Pragmatism. Its Pragmatist

roots are also reflected in the progressives’ emphasis on schools being social
agencies to provide the skills and attitudes for students to participate in a

democracy. Students need the wherewithal to interact with an environment that is

constantly changing. Problem-solving skills are especially crucial for the individuals to

confront their personal and social problems. Rather than learning from a fixed

curriculum, students should acquire communication skills, mathematical processes

and scientific methods of inquiry (Ellis, Cogan & Howey, 1991). The curriculum

should be interdisciplinary since problems by nature are multi-dimensional and

involve answers from a variety of subject-matter.

(4) Reconstructionism

Like progressivism, reconstructionism or social reconstructionism is rooted in

Pragmatism. In fact, it grew out of the progressive movement in education as the

reconstructivists were dissatisfied with certain aspects of progressivism. Its

proponents include George S. Counts and Theodore Brameld. Its Pragmatist root is

seen in its conception of schools as social agencies rather than mere academic

institutions. They are critical of traditional schooling with predetermined curriculum and

instruction that reinforces the status quo. Instead, reconstructionists and progressives

are united in believing that students should be empowered to solve personal and social

problems. But the reconstructionists want schools to do more to solve the problems

that plague the world today. In his 1932 book, Dare the Schools Build a New Social

Order?, George S. Counts argues that schools should be the centres for the

reconstruction of society and the creation of a new social order. This can be

achieved only when students are aware of global social, economic and political
problems such as poverty, warfare, famine and terrorism, are equipped with the

necessary skills to solve these problems, and are convicted to create a new world

order. By fostering ideals through curricular, administrative and instructional

practices, schools will serve as models for the rest of society by adopting these

ideals (Ozmon & Craver, 2003). A reconstructionist programme of education

critically examines controversial issues, cultivates a planning attitude in teachers and

students, and enlists them in social, educational, political and economic change as

means of total cultural renewal (Ornstein & Levine, 2003). Reconstructivists favour

multicultural education, believing that students need to go beyond their inherited

culture to construct a larger sense of identity and purpose.

(5) Critical Theory

Critical theory is rooted in Existentialism and Postmodernism, with influences also

from Marxism. Leading critical theorists include Henry A. Giroux, Peter L. McLaren,

Ivan Illich and Paulo Freire. Critical theory is “critical” in the sense that it aims

to analyse social and educational conditions in schools and society in order to

surface exploitative power relationships, and introduce reforms that will produce

equality, fairness and justice (Gutek, 2004). Critical theory is predicated on the Marxist

premise that human history was a struggle for economic and social control, and that

educational institutions are usedby powerful groups to control those who lack

power (Ornstein & Levine, 2003). This conflict over control of curriculum and

teaching, and the need to elevate the status of marginalised groups, echo the

concerns of Postmodernism. Critical theorists share the same belief as the

reconstructionists in arguing that schools should be centres of social change. Its

Existentialist influence is evident in its emphasis on the students’ own

experiences, history, identities and struggles. Drawing rom Existentialism and

Postmodernism, critical theorists oppose the transmission of a fixed body of

traditional knowledge, ideas and values, believing them to be the views of those in

power. They are also skeptical of the hidden curriculum which refers to the values,

behaviour and attitudes conveyed to and imposed on students through the milieu

and practices of the school in a capitalist consumer-oriented society. Instead,

they advocate a flexible and multidisciplinary curriculum which is based on the

students’ own experiences. Such a curriculum includes the viewpoints of all groups,

especially neglected groups such as the oppressed poor, women, Africans, Asians,

gays and lesbians.