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PROGRAM OUTCOMES

In pursuance of the above-stated mission, the objectives of the Bachelor of Elementary Education are as
follows:
1. acquire basic level literacy, communication, numeracy, critical thinking, learning and ICT skills needed
for lifelong learning;
2. demonstrate deep and principled understanding of the learning processes and the role of the teacher
in facilitating these processes in their students;
3. manifest a meaningful and comprehensive knowledge of the subject matter they will teach;
4. cultivate direct experience in the field/classroom (e.g . classroom observations, teaching assistance,
practice teaching);
5. demonstrate and practice the professional and ethical requirements of the teaching profession;
6. facilitate learning of diverse types of learners, in diverse types of environment, using a wide range of
teaching knowledge and skills; and
7. show creativity and innovative thinking of alternative teaching approaches and evaluate the
effectiveness of such approaches in improving student learning

(Please insert the program outcomes for BSEd)

COURSE TITLE

The Teacher and the Community, School Culture & Organizational Leadership

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course focuses on society as a context upon which the schools have been established. Educational
philosophies that are related to the society as a foundation of schools and schooling shall be emphasized.
Further, principles and theories on school culture, and organizational leadership shall be included to prepare
prospective teachers to become school leaders and managers. The last part of this course focuses on the
essential concepts and principles of peace education. Active engagement in the planning, implementation
and documentation of service-learning project via the celebration of International Day of Peace shall be this
course‟s culminating activity.

COURSE OUTCOMES (CMO)

1. Demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the connections between the school and society;
2. Demonstrate critical understanding of the influence of school culture on the roles of teachers and student
learning;
3. Exhibit critical attitude towards effective organizational leadership and ethos; and
4. Demonstrate appreciation on the role of schools in creating culture of peace in the society.

Course Requirements

-Compilation of Required Readings

-Quizzes
- Reflection Journal
-Case Analysis and Presentations
- Quarterly Projects
-Major Examinations
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MODULE 1 – PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION

This module presents summaries of thoughts of education philosophers on what should be taught and
how learners should be taught.

PRE-ASSESSMENT

Instruction: In a five sentence paragraph, write your philosophy of education.

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LESSON MAP

John Locks: The Empirical Herbert Spencer: Utilitarian

Educator Education

John Dewey: Learning through George Counts: Building a New

PHILOSOPHY OF
Experience Social Order
EDUCATION

Theodore Brameld- Social Paulo Freire- Critical Pedagogy

Reconstruction

The Lesson Map shows the six famous education philosophers with their philosophical thoughts in
education.

Lesson Learning Outcomes

At the end of this module, the students should be able to:

1. discuss at least six philosophical thoughts on education

2. describe how learners should be thought according to the given philosophies
3. aware of the importance of the philosophy of education to the teachers and the learners
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CONTENT

ENGAGE

ENGAGE – Let’s Read These

Instruction. Read this conversation then answer the questions below it.

In a Grade 3 Science class:

Teacher: What is the function of the mouth?

Student: To break the food into smaller pieces.
Teacher: Very good! What about the stomach?
Student: To digest the food.
Teacher: Very good! Perfect! And the small intestines?
Student: To absorb the food nutrients

Question: What classroom scenario is/are being depicted by the comic strip and the teacher-student question
and answer?
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EXPLORE LetLet’s Analyze

Instruction. Read the given quotation and answer the question below.

1. The modern explosion of knowledge has led to an age of specialization with this concomitant quip:

A specialist knows more and more about less and less.

An expert knows more and more about less and less
until he or she knows everything about nothing.

A related joke cleverly twists this saying:

A generalist knows less and less about more and more

until he or she knows nothing about everything.

Question: Should schools produce generalists or specialists? Defend your answer.

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EXPLAIN LetLet’s Conceptualize

Isolated facts and the Banking Method

Depicted in the question and answer proceeding in class are a common classroom scenario. Most
lessons are devoted to teacher asking low-level questions and students answering with what they memorized
the night before. Teacher deposited these facts a day before and withdraws them the next day. A perfect
example of the banking system of education that Paulo Freire is very much against as it does not make the
learner reflect and connect what he/she was taught to real life.
We have nothing against facts. But isolated facts make no sense but become meaningful when seen
in relation to other facts. These facts when combined with other facts (with further questioning from the
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teacher) help the learner see meaning and connection to his/her life. Example: The pupil learned that food is
broken down into small pieces, which is digested by the stomach and is absorbed by the intestine. To
connect the facts, teacher should ask more questions like: “ What if the food is not chewed in the mouth,
what happens to food in the stomach and to the stomach itself? What if the stomach fails to digest food from
the mouth, what happens to the food in the small intestine? Will the small intestine be able to absorb food,
etc.?...
Below are summaries of thoughts of education philosophers on what should be taught and how
learners should be taught.

A. John Locke (1632-1704): The Empirical Educator

 Acquire knowledge about the world through the senses-learning by doing and by interacting with
the environment
 Simple ideas become more complex through comparison, reflection and generalization-the
inductive method
 Questioned the long traditional view that knowledge came exclusively the literacy sources,
particularly the Greek and Latin classics
 Opposed the “divine right of kings” theory which held that the monarch had the right to be an
unquestioned and absolute ruler over his subjects
 Political order should be based upon a contract between the people and the government
 Aristocrats are not destined by birth to be rulers. People were to establish their own government
and select their own political leaders from among themselves; civic education is necessary
 People should be educated to govern themselves intelligently and responsibly (Ornstein, 1984)

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

 Spencer‟s concept of „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 according to an evolutionary process by which simple
homogeneous societies had evolved to more complex societal systems characterized with
humanistic and classical education.
 Industrialized society require vocational and professional education based on scientific and
practical (utilitarian) objectives rather than on the very general educational goals associated with
humanistic and classical education.
 Curriculum should emphasize the practical, utilitarian and scientific subjects that helped human
kind master the environment.
 Was not inclined to rote learning; schooling must be related to life and to the activities needed to
earn a living.
 Curriculum must be arranged according to their contribution to human survival and progress.
 Science and other subjects that sustained human life and prosperity should have curricular priority
since it aids in the performance of life activities.
 Individual competition leads to social progress. He who is 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, especially the
children, are brought to participate in the society.
 The school is a special environment established by members of 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 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.
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 The learner possesses the information or does research to acquire the information needed to
solve the problem.
 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.
 The fund of knowledge of 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 school is social, scientific and democratic. The school introduces children to society and their
heritage. The school as a miniature society is a means of bringing children into social
participation.
 The school is scientific in the sense that it is a social laboratory in which children and youth could
test their ideas and values. In here, the learner acquires the disposition and procedures
associated with scientific or reflective thinking and acting.
 The school is democratic because the learner is free to test all ideas, beliefs and values. Cultural
heritage, customs and institutions are all subject to critical inquiry, investigation and
reconstruction.
 School should be used by all, it being a democratic institution. No barrier of custom or prejudice
segregate people. People ought to work together to solve common problems.
 The authoritarian or 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, (Ornstein, A. 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 groups that want to change society, schools should cope with 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 agents 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 decisions for them.
 Schools ought to provide an education that afford equal learning opportunities to all students.
(Ornstein, A. 1984)

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

 As the name implies, social reconstructionism is a philosophy that emphasizes the reformation of
society. The social reconstructionists content that:

…humankind has moved from an agricultural and rural society to an urban and technological
society….there is a serious lag in cultural adaptation to the realities of a technological society.
Humankind has yet to reconstruct its values in order to catch up with the changes in the
technological order, and organized education has a major role to play in reducing the gap
between the values of the culture and technology. (Ornstein, 1984)

 So the social reconstructionist asserts that schools should:

critically examine present culture and resolve inconsistencies , controversies and conflicts to build
a new society not just change society…do more than reform the social and educational status
quo. It should seek to create a new society…Humankind is in a state of profound cultural crisis. If
schools reflect the dominant social values. ..then organized education will merely transmit then
social ills that are symptoms of the pervasive problems and afflictions that beset humankind…The
only legitimate goal of a truly human education is to create a world order in which people are in
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control of their own destiny. In an era of nuclear weapons, the social reconstructionists see an
urgent need for society to reconstruct itself before it destroys itself. (Ornstein, A. 1984)

 Technological era is an era of interdependence and so education must be international in scope

for global citizenship.
 For the social reconstructionists, education is designed “to awaken students‟ consciousness about
social problems and to engage them actively in problem solving”. (Ornstein, 1984)
 Social reconstructionists are firmly committed to equality or equity in both society and education.
Barriers of socio-economic class and racial discrimination should be eradicated.
 They also emphasize the idea of an interdependent world. The quality of life needs to be
considered and enhanced on a global basis. (Ornstein, A. 1984)

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

Critical Pedagogy and Dialogue vs. the Banking Model of Education

 Paulo Freire, a critical theorist, like social reconstrutiuonists, believed that systems must be
changed to overcome oppression and improve human conditions.
 Education and literacy are the vehicle for social change. In his view, humans must learn to resist
oppression and not become its victim, nor oppress others. To do so requires dialogue and critical
consciousness , the development of awareness to overcome domination and oppression.
 Rather than “teaching as banking” in which the educator deposits information into students‟
heads, Freire saw 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. He calls this pedagogical approach the “banking method” of education.
 A democratic relationship between the teacher and her students is necessary in order for the
conscientization process to take place.
 Freire‟s critical pedagogy is problem-posing education.
 A central element of Freire‟s pedagogy is dialogue. It is love and respect that allow us to engage
people in dialogue and to discover ourselves in the process and learn from one another ... By its
nature, dialogue is not something that can be imposed. Instead, genuine dialogue is
characterized by respect of the parties involved toward one another. We develop a tolerant
sensibility during the dialogue process, and it is only when we come to tolerate the points of view
and ways of being of others in the process. Dialogue means the presence of equality, mutual
recognition, affirmation or people, a sense of solidarity with people, and remaining open to
questions.
 Dialogue is the basis for critical and problem-posing pedagogy, as opposed to banking education ,
where there is no discussion, only the imposition of the teacher‟s ideas on the students.
(Ornstein, 1984)

EXTEND Let‟s Check your Understanding

Instruction. Explain in a sentence why each education philosophers was associated with these given words:

a.) John Locke- the empiricist

b.) Spenser- the utilitarianist
c.) John Dewey-experience
d.) George Counts- Building a new social order
e.) Theodore Brameld- the Social Reconstructionist
f.) Paulo Freire- Critical pedagogy vs. Banking method
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EVALUATE LETLET CLINCHERS

Instruction. Make a table summary of the Philosophies of Education

Philosophy on Aim/s and

Philosopher Method/s of Education Classroom/School Application

TOPIC SUMMARY

John Locks- the empiricist

 Education is not acquisition of knowledge contained in the Classics. It is learners interacting with
concrete experience . The learner is an active not a passive agent of his/her own learning.
 From the social dimension, education is seeing citizens participate actively and intelligently in
establishing their government and in choosing who will govern them from among themselves.
They are of the thinking that no one person is destined to be ruler forever. This is in keeping with
the Anti-Political Dynasty Bill.

Spencer – the utilitarianist

 To survive in a complex society, Spencer favors specialized education over that of general
education.
 “ The expert who concentrates on a limited field is useful, but if he loses sight of the
interdependence of things he becomes a man who knows more and more about less and less.
 Who is fittest survives.
 The competition in class is what advocates of whole-child approach and Socio-emotional Learning
(SEL)

John Dewey – experience

 Dewey does not disregard the accumulated wisdom of the past. These past ideas, discoveries
and inventions, our cultural heritage, will be used as the material for dealing with problems and so
will be tested.
 Schools are for the people and by the people.

George Counts - Building a new social order

 Schools and teachers should be agents of change. Schools are considered instruments for social
improvement rather than as agencies for preserving the status quo.
 Problem-solving, like Dewey, should be the dominant method for instruction

Theodore Brameld- the Social Reconstructionist

 Social reconstructionists critically examine present culture and resolve inconsistencies,

controversies and conflicts to build a new society not just change society.
 Technological era is an era of interdependence and so education must be international in scope
for global citizenship.

Paulo Freire- Critical pedagogy vs. Banking Method

 Employ critical pedagogy and dialogue in contrast to the banking system of education.
 Learners are not empty receptacles to be filled.
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POST-ASSESSMENT

Instruction. Select the correct answer by writing the letter on the space provided.

__1. Which is NOT TRUE of social reconstructionists?

A. Use of problem-solving
B. Study of the Great Books
C. School as an agent of change
D. Introduce a new society

__2. Which teaching practice goes with the “banking system” of education which was contrary to Paulo
Freire‟s educational thought?
A. Rote memorization
B. Project-based learning
C. Problem-based learning
D. Community of inquiry

__3. For which teaching will social reconstructionists be?

A. Stress on isolation
B. Inequality and inequity as normal for an international society
C. Building of an interdependent world that is international in scope
D. Narrow concept of nationalism

__4. Why is Spencer‟s educational thought described as utilitarian?

A. He emphasized vocational and professional education based on scientific and practical
B. He stressed on general educational goals associated with humanistic and classical education.
C. He stressed a balance of specialized and general education in the curriculum
D. He eliminated the vocational and professional education component of the curriculum

__5 For which educational practice was John Dewey?

A. Problem-solving
B. Banking method
C. Emphasis on the Humanities
D. Teaching of the Classics

REFERENCE

OrnsOOrnstein, Allan C. and Daniel U. Levine, (1985) An introduction to the foundations of education, rd
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.