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Summary of Five Educational Philosophies

Philosophy Summary
Education should focus on developing rationality. Education is
Perennialism preparation for life and students should be taught the world’s
permanencies (subjects/disciplines) through structured study.
Students should be taught through highly disciplined drill and
behaviour control. The student is seen as a passive recipient of
information. Mastery of facts and permanent knowledge is the focus.
Teachers Help students to think rationally based on Socratic
Methods: oral exposition, explicit teaching of traditional values.
Classical subjects , liberal arts, and the knowledge of great books. It’s
focus is mainly to create the intellect. It’s philosophical base is in
realism.

Idealism Teachers are models of ideal behaviour. Reality is seen as a world

within a persons mind. Goodness is an ideal state, something to strive
to attain. The school’s function is to sharpen intellectual processes.
Students are passive participants, receiving and memorizing the
reporting of the teacher. It builds the spiritual, moral and mental and
its unchanging. Emphasis is on recalling knowledge and ideas,
abstract thinking. It is subject based, classical or liberal arts. Arts and
sciences are at the top of the hierachical structure.
Realism
The job of schools is to teach students about the world. For the
realist, goodness is found in the laws of nature. Schools should be
dominated by the subjects of the here and now such as; math and
science. Classrooms should be highly ordered and disciplined like
nature and the students are passive recipients in the learning process.
Focus i son cultivating rational thought. Knowledge is base don arts,
science, humanistic and scientific subjects. Reality is base don natural
laws and is objective

Experimentalism The experimentalists view the world as an ever changing place.

Reality is what is actually experienced. Truth is what presently
functions. Goodness is what is accepted by public tests. Learning
should occur through a problem solving or inquiry approach.
Learners are active participants in the learning process. The school
should place high emphasis on social subjects and experiences.
Existentialism
The world is viewed in terms of personal subjectivity. Goodness,
truth and reality are individually defined. Schools if they exist would
be places that assist students in knowing themselves and learning
their place in society.To cultívate personal choice and individual self
definition. Choices in subject matter electives, emotional, esthetic and
philosophical subjects. It’s focus i son knowledge for personal
choice. Free choices are made based on the individuals perception.
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