EDUC 211 – The Teacher and The Community, School Culture and Organizational Leadership

Lesson 1: Philosophical Thoughts on Education

Learning Outcome:

Let’s Conceptualize

➢ Low-level questions ➢ Teacher deposited facts ➢ Students answering with what they
memorized

A perfect example of the banking system of education that Paulo Freire is very much against.

Thoughts of Education Philosophers

On what should be taught and how learners should be taught

A. Jhon Locke (1632 -1704) The Empiricist Educator

 Acquire knowledge about the world through the senses-learning by doing and by
interacting with the environment.
 EMPERISM - Knowledge is derived from experience/experimentation view that all
knowledge is gained from the senses. Learning by doing - knowledge that is actually
implemented is much more likely to be acquired from learning by doing than from
learning by reading, listening, or even thinking PFEIFFER & Sutton.
 Simple ideas become more complex through comparison, reflection, and generalization.
 Political order should be based upon a contract between the people and the government.
 For John Locke, why is the acquisition of knowledge not contained in the Great Books?
 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 because they are convinced that no one person is destined to be ruler
forever.
B. Herbert Spencer (1820- 1903) UTILITARIAN “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.
 “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survive. It
is the one that is the most adaptable to change’’. Charles Darwin.
 Utilitarian Education
- Curriculum should emphasize the practical, utilitarian and scientific subjects that helped
humankind master the environment.
- Science and other subjects that sustained human life and prosperity should have curricular
priority since it aids in the performance of life activities.

SOCIAL DARWISM

- Strong will survive and the weak will perish over time due to their inability to compete

SPECIALIZED EDUCATION OF SPENCER VS. 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.

SPENCER’S SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

 The competition in class is what advocates of whole-child approach and Socio-emotional

Learning (SEL) atmosphere negate.
 “Each student learns in an environment that is physically and emotionally safe for
students and adult” and each student has access to personalized learning and is supported
by qualified and caring adults...” (Frey, N. 2019)
C. Jhon Dewey (1854-1954)
Learning Through Experiences
 Dewey believed that human beings learn through a 'hands on' approach. This places
Dewey in the educational philosophy of pragmatism.
 Pragmatists believe that reality must be experienced.
 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.
 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. The school is
democratic.
 The authoritarian or coercive style of administration and teaching is out of place.
 Education is a social activity, and the school is a social agency.
 Dewey dos does not regard the accumulated wisdom of the past.
 The ideal learner of Dewey is not just one who can learn by one who can connect
accumulated wisdom of the past to the present.
D. Gorge 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.
 Schools and teachers should be agents of change.
 Lag Between Material Progress and Ethical Values
 “There is a cultural lag between material progress and social institutions and ethical
values”
E. Theodore Brameld (1904 – 1987)
 Social Reconstruction Education is not based on eternal truths but is relative to a
particular society living at a given time and place.
 Social reconstructionism is a philosophy that emphasizes the reformation of society.
 Schools should critically examine present culture and resolve inconsistencies,
controversies, and conflicts to build a new society not just change society.
 “Education is designed to awaken students’ consciousness about social problems and to
engage them actively in problem solving.”
 Like Dewey and Counts, Brameld believes in active problem-solving as the method of
teaching and learning.
F. Paulo Freire (1921 – 1997). Critical pedagogy Vs. The Banking model of education.
 He believed that systems must be changed to overcome oppression and improve human
conditions.
 Freire’s critical pedagogy is problem-posing education.
 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.
  With all the education philosophers mentioned, what do you think is their similarity when
it comes to their views on education?
 The community of inquiry is a group of person involved in inquiry, investigating more or
less the same question or problem, and developing through their exchanges a better
understanding both of the question as well as the probable solutions. (Lee,2010)
Should schools produce generalists or specialists? A specialist knows more and more about less
and less. A generalist knows less and less about more and more.

First Quiz.

1. It is institution charged by society to impart specific knowledge and skills necessary for
functioning in a society.
a. Church b. Community c. School d. Tribal
2. It is the process by which individuals internalize the norms and values of society.
a. Culturalization b. Localization c. contextualization d. socialization
3. Instruction in education in this era was religion- oriented.
a. Per-colonial b. Post-Colonial c. Spanish d. American
4. This law gave Filipinos a complete system of education from elementary to the collegiate level.
a. Educational Decree of 1836 c. Educational Decree of 1863
b. Educational Decree of 1683 d. Educational Decree of 1638
5. Who were the teachers in the pre-colonial period?
a. Thomasites c. Ilustrados
b. Friars d. Tribal tutors
6. A teaching practice that goes with banking system
a. Problem solving c. project-based learning
b. Community of inquiry d. rote learning
7. The educational goal in this era was to develop a well-rounded person.
a. Roman c. Athenian
b. Spartan d. Arabic
8. In this era, schools needed to develop a sense of civic responsibility and to develop administrative
and military.
a. Renaissance c. Arabic
b. Medieval d. Romans
9. Like John Dewey and George Counts, this philosopher also believed in active problem- solving
as the methods of teaching and learning.
 a. Theodore Brameld c. John Luke
b. Herbert Spencer
10. Parents, tribal elders, and priests serve as the agents in this period in history of education
a. Primitive c. Roman
b. Greek d. Arabic

Historical Group or Period Educational Goals

To teach group survival skills.
1.Primitive Societies 7000 B.C- 5000 B.C To cultivate group cohesiveness.

Athenian.
2.Greek 1600 B.C-300 BC To developed well-rounded person spartan.
To develop soldiers and military leaders.

To culture religious commitment,

3. Arabic A. D. 700-A.D. 1350 To develop expertise in mathematics, medicine,
and science.

To develop religious commitment, knowledge,

4. Medieval A.D. 500- A.D. 1400 and ritual.
To establish social order

To culture a sense of commitment to a particular

5. Reformation A. D. 1500-A. D. 1600 religious denomination,
To cultivate, general literacy

To cultivate a humanist who was expert in the

6. Renaissance A. D. 1350 – A. D. 1500 classics.

7. Roman 750 B.C – A.D. 450 To develop a sense of civic responsibility.