PHILOSOPHIES OF EDUCATION

What is philosophy?
Philosophy may be defined as the study pursuit of facts which deal with the
ultimate reality or cause of things as they affect life. The philosophy of a country like
the Philippines is made up of the intricate and composite interrelationship of the life
histories of its people; in other word, the philosophy of our nation would be strange
and indefinable if we do not delve into the past tied up with the notable life
experiences of the representative personalities of our nation.

Seven (7) Philosophies of Education

1. Essentialism-Contends that teachers teach for learners to acquire basic

knowledge, skills, and values. Teachers teach not to radically reshape society, but
rather to transmit the traditional moral values and intellectual knowledge that
students need to become model of society.

Why Teach?
This philosophy contends that teachers teach for learners to acquire basic
knowledge, skills and values. Teachers teach “not to radically reshape society but
rather “to transmit the traditional moral values and intellectual knowledge that
students need to become model citizens.”
What to teach?
Essentialist programs are academically rigorous. The emphasis is on academic
content for students to learn the basic skills or the fundamental.

What are the Fundamental Skills?

4’rs (reading, riting, rithmetic, right

conduct)

o Essentialist teachers emphasize mastery of subject matter. They are expected to

be intellectual and moral models of their students.
o They are seen as “fountain” of information and as Paragon of Virtue, an
essentialist teacher always has to observe “Core requirements, longer school
day, a longer academic year.” Mastery of academic content is its primary focus.
How to teach?
o To gain mastery of basic skills, teachers have to observe “core
requirements, longer school day, a longer academic year.”
o Mastery of academic content is the Primary focus, teachers rely
heavily on the use of prescribed textbooks, the drill method like
Lecture Method.
o There is a heavy stress on Memorization and discipline.

2. Progressivism
o Believes that, “Change is the only thing that does not change.”
o Teachers are more concerned with teaching the learners the skills to cope
with change. Instead of teaching facts today that become obsolete tomorrow,
they would rather focus their teaching on skills or process in gathering and
evaluating situation.

Why teach?
Progressivist teachers teach to develop learners into becoming enlightened
and intelligent citizens of a democratic society. This group of teachers teaches
learners so they may live life fully NOW not to prepare them for adult life.
What to teach?

o The progressivists are identified with need-based and relevant curriculum.

This is a curriculum that “responds to students’ needs and that relates to
student’s personal lives and experiences.”
 o Teachers expose students to new scientific, technological, and social
developments, reflecting the progressivist notion that progress and change
are fundamental.
o Accept the impermanence of life and the inevitability of change. For the
progressivists, everything else changes. Change is the only thing that does
not change.
How to teach?
o They employ experiential methods. They believe that one learns by doing.
-John Dewey “book learning is no substitute for actual experience.”
o Another, “hands-on-minds-on-hearts-on,” teaching methodology that
progressivist teachers use are field trips during which students interact
with nature of society. Teachers also stimulates students through
thought-provoking games and puzzles.

3. Perennialism. In this philosophy of education – they do not believe on diversity of

learners and the multiple of intelligences rather they believe on the idea that every
student are the same-that’s why the same learning pedagogy is applied.

What to teach?
o The perennialist curriculum is a universal one on the view that all
human beings possess the same essential nature.
o It is not a specialist curriculum but rather a general one.
o Perennialist teachers teach are lifted from the textbooks/great books.
Why Teach?
o We are all rational animals.
o Schools should be, therefore, develop the students rational and moral powers.
o The perennialist classrooms are “centered around teachers.’’ The teachers do
not allow the students’ interest or experiences to substantially dictate what they
teach.
How to Teach?
o The perennialist classrooms are “centered on teachers.” The teachers do not
allow the students interest or experiences to substantially dictate what they will
teach. They applied every technique and other conducive in disciplining
student’s minds.
o Students engaged in Socratic dialogues, or mutual inquiry sessions to develop
an understanding of history’s most timeless concepts.

4. Existentialism
The main concern of the existentialist is “to help students understand and
appreciate themselves as unique individuals who accept complete responsibility for
their thoughts feelings and actions.” Since existence precedes essence, the
existentialist teacher’s role is to help students define their own essence by
exposing them to various paths they take in life and by creating an environment in
which they freely choose their own preferred way.

Why teach?
To help the students understand and appreciate themselves as unique
individuals who accept complete responsibility for their thoughts, feelings and
actions.”
What to teach?
Help students define their own essence by exposing them to various paths
they take in life and by creating an environment in which they freely choose their
own preferred way.
How to teach?
o Existentialist methods focus on the individual. Learning is self-paced, self-
directed. It includes a great deal of individual contact with the teacher, who
relates to each student openly and honestly. And to help students know
themselves and their place in society.
 o In the use of values clarification strategy, they remain not to be judgmental
and take care not to impose their values on their students since values are
personal.

5. Behaviorism
Why Teach?
Concerned with the modification and shaping of students’ behavior by
providing for a favorable environment, since they believe that they are a product
of their environment.
How to teach?
Behaviorist Teachers “ought to arrange environmental conditions so that
students can make the response to stimuli.” Physical variables like light,
temperature, arrangement of furniture, size and quantity of visual aids have to be
controlled.
What to teach?
o Because behaviorists look at “people and other animals as complex
combinations of matter that act only in response to internally or externally
generated physical stimuli.” Behaviorist teachers teach students to respond
favorably to various stimuli in the environment.
o Teachers ought to make the stimuli clear and interesting to capture and hold
the learner’s attention.

6. Linguistic Philosophy

Why teach?
o To develop communication skills of the learner because the ability to articulate,
to voice out the meaning and values of things that one obtains from his/her
experience of life and the world is she very essence of man.
o It is through his/her ability to express himself. Herself clearly, to get his/her
ideas across, to make known to other values that he she is imbedded, the
beauty that he/she has seen discovered. Teachers teach to develop in the
learner’s skill to send messages clearly.
What to teach?
Learners should be taught to communicate clearly-how to send clear, concise
messages and how receive correctly understand messages sent.

Communication takes place in three ways:

1. Verbal: Components refers to the content of our words. (it can be

verbal and Non-Verbal
2. Non-Verbal: Components refers to the message we send through our
body language.
3. Para-Verbal:
How to Teach?

Teach them to speak as many languages as you can. The more languages one
speaks, the better he/she can communicate to others and in the world.

7. Constructivism

Why Teach?
To develop intrinsically motivated and independent learners adequately
equipped with learning skills for them to be able to construct knowledge and
make meaning of them.
What to teach?
The learners are taught how to learn. They are taught learning processes
and skills such as searching, critiquing and evaluating information, relating
these pieces of information, reflecting on the same, making meaning out of
them, drawing insights, posing questions, researching and constructing new
knowledge.
How to teach?
The constructivist classroom is interactive. It promotes dialogical exchange of
ideas among learners and between teacher and learners. The teacher’s role is to
facilitate this process.

Conclusion:
o You are expected to contribute to the betterment of this world in your own
unique way.
o To teach is to influence every child entrusted in your care to become better and
happier.
 MY PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

Your philosophy of education is your "window" to the world and "compass" in life.
Hence, it may be good to put that philosophy of education in writing. You surely have
one just as everybody has only that sometimes it is not well articulated. Your
philosophy of education is reflected in your dealings with students, colleagues, parents
and administrators. Your attitude towards problems and life as a whole has an
underlying philosophy. In this lesson, you will articulate your thoughts on how you
perceive the learner, on what are the right values, on what and on how you must
therefore teach. If you articulate your philosophy of education, you will find yourself
more consistent in your dealings with other people, in your actions and decisions.

As a teacher you have tremendous power. You can make a difference in the life of
the young. In this lesson, you will formulate your philosophy of education. This
should give you direction on what you should do and be to your students to ban agent
of change.

All in all, your philosophy of education must spell out very clearly what you and
how you should teach, how you should relate to your students to make a difference.

Here is an example of a Philosophy of Education :

My Philosophy of Education as a Grade School Teacher

I believe that every child

o has a natural interest in learning and is capable of learning.

o is an embodied spirit.
o can be influenced but not totally by his/her environment.
o is unique, so comparing a child to other children has no basis.
o does not have an empty mind, rather is full of ideas and it is my task to draw
out these ideas.

I believe that there are unchanging values in changing times and

these must be passed on to every child by my modeling,
value inculcation and value integration in my lessons.
I believe that my task as a teacher is to facilitate the development of every
child to the optimum and to the maximum by:

o reaching out to all children without bias and prejudice towards the
"least" of the children
o making every child feel good and confident about himself/ herself
through his/her experiences of success in the classroom
o helping every child master the basic skills of reading, communicating
in oral and written form, arithmetic and computer skills
o teaching my subject matter with mastery so that every child will use
his/her basic skills to continue acquiring knowledge, skills and values
for him/her to go beyond basic literacy and basic numeracy
o inculcating or integrating the unchanging values of respect, honesty,
love and care for others regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality,
appearance and economic status in my lessons
o consistently practicing these values to serve as model for every child
o strengthening the value formation of every child through
o "hands-on-minds-on-hearts-on" experiences inside and outside the
classroom
 o providing every child activity meant to develop the body, the mind and
the spirit
o teaching not only what to learn but more important how to learn
Your philosophy of education is your concept of the learner concept of what
must be taught and how this must be taught. These thoughts are the bases of
your actions and decisions when you prepare to teach and when you teach.
Teacher Macrina subscribes to the Christian philosophy because she believes
that the learner is an embodied spirit and she wants to provide every child with
activities that are meant to develop the learner's body, mind and spirit. The fact
that she is mindful of the development of the mind makes her a rationalist. Because
she is after the holistic development of the learner — body, mind and spirit — she is
also humanist in thinking and in practice.
She also believes in the behaviorist philosophy because she accepts that the
learner can be influenced by the environment. However, she does not totally adhere
to the behaviorist philosophy because she does not agree that the learner can be
totally influenced by his environment. Teacher Macrina is constructivist in
philosophy because she does not agree that the learner has an empty mind (John
Locke's tabula rasa), rather she believes that the child is full of ideas and it is her
task to draw out these ideas.
Teacher Macrina is also essentialist in orientation. She is convinced that her
primary task is the child's mastery of the basic skills of reading, communicating in
oral and written form, arithmetic and computer skills. She believes that mastery of
these basic skills prepares the child to go beyond the basics. Her behaviorist
philosophy makes her work hard for every child to experience success which surely
contributes to a favorable learning environment.
Teacher Macrina is. also essentialist and perennialist in thinking. She
believes in unchanging values of respect, honesty, love and care for others
regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, appearance and economic status
and therefore inculcates them in her lessons.
She is also cognitivist in thinking and practice because like Bruner, she
believes that modeling these values is the most effective way to teach these values.
She wants to make use of hands-on-minds-on-hearts-on" experiences inside
and outside the classroom. This makes her a progressivist. Teacher Macrina applies
the progressivist's dictum, learning by doing and the whole world (outside the
classroom) is a classroom. She is also progressivist in the sense that she teaches
learners not only subject matter but also how to learn.
This is how one's philosophy of education governs one's practice as a
teacher.
 TEACHING, THE NOBLEST OF ALL PROFESSION

Teaching has a lot of demands. That is why only a few answer the call to teach.
Even for those who respond to the call, sometimes their response is half-hearted
because they find themselves in a situation where there is no other choice. Or if
finally, they become professional teachers they introduce themselves as teacher "lang"
(meaning teacher only) or leave after three or four years of teaching. Only a few
embrace it as their mission while on earth. Yet, it is has always been described as the
noblest profession.

Let’s View and Discuss

View the moving story of Teddy and Ms. Thompson at YouTube titled: “Three
Letters from Teddy.”

Abstraction
The story of Teddy must have touched you a lot. I have seen it and presented it to
audiences of teachers a number of times and it has always touched me. Let us
remember that there are a lot of "Teddy's" in our classes. But there may be just a few
"Ms. Thompson's" in the classrooms. The like of "Ms. Thompson" as a teacher is said to
be an "endangered, disappearing species." "Hopefully, the story touched you so much
that starting from now you vowed to be like "Ms. Thompson" to all your students in the
future and so the like of "Ms Thompson" multiplies.
Convinced of the nobility of the teaching profession, Henry Adams also said, "A
teacher affects eternity; no one knows where his influence stops."
John Steinbeck, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, claims
"Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind
and spirit." While the artist works on canvass, the teacher works on the human mind
and heart.
The greatest men and women in history were teachers Socrates, Plato, Aristotle,
Confucius. Lao Tsu, Siddharta Gautama, Jesus Christ. Their teachings have
transformed the individual and collective lives of their followers and their worlds. Their
teachings reverberate up to the present.
An old anecdote about teaching and teacher may convince you more that you are
preparing for a profession which is the noblest of all professions. It is considered the
mother of all professions. Teachers have a special place in heaven. Agree or disagree?
Read "Their Special Place in Heaven" lifted from Teacher: A Tribute to Teachers
Everywhere published by the Technological Institute of the Philippines on the occasion of
its 50th Foundation Anniversary. This is an old story told again and again, but let me
share it with you anyway.

Special Place in Heaven

by Cynthia Ferrer Gubler

At the gates of heaven, Saint Peter stood, resplendent, holding the keys to heaven.
Before him snaked a long line of people eager to pass through the portals of heaven.

Saint Peter asked the man at the head of the line

Saint Peter asked the man at the head of the line a simple question: "Why, dear sir,
should I let you enter heaven?' The man replied: "I am a doctor. In my lifetime, I saved
lives, cured the sick and gave them and their families a better quality of life.
To which Saint Peter commented: "Remarkable. You may enter through the gates of
Paradise and enjoy your rightful place.

Next in line was a woman dressed in a no-nonsense business suit. Saint Peter asked
her the same. "Why should I let you enter heaven, dear woman? " And she replied: "I'm
an entrepreneur. I gave people decent jobs, paid them well enough for them to feed,
clothe, shelter and afford their families the niceties of life. "

"Ah, " said Saint Peter. "Indeed, that is remarkable as well. But, of course, you may
enter heaven.

A young man in uniform stepped up and /faced Saint Peter and to the same question, he
responded: "1 am a policeman. In my lifetime, I came to the succor of the citizenry,
protected it against criminals who plagued the streets down on earth. Saint Peter was
impressed, and gave the young man a pass to enter through the gates of heaven.

Soon, it was the turn of a dignified elderly man, who did not wait for Saint Peter to pose
him the question, and offered his reason: "I am a lawmaker. I crafted laws and policies
for the benefit of all the stakeholders of society, prescribing their rights and violations,
thereof.

Impressed with the lawmaker's credentials, Saint Peter let him through, without any
hesitation.
Fast on the heels of the lawmaker a young woman, austerely
dressed, in came up front. Peter "Tell asked. me, she young replied, lady, "I why am
should a lawyer, I? " Saint let you
Saint Peter to the best of my abilities, I defended the rights of victims and, at times, the
rights of the accused, just as vigorously.
"Commendable! " roared Saint Peter in delight.

Saint Peter now faced a middle-aged man with rimmed glasses. The man had heard the
question that St. Peter had posed those ahead of him, and he had a ready answer: "I am
a scientist, dear Saint Peter. I helped unlock the secrets of life and the secrets of the
fields: research, technology, communications, medicine, transportation, galactic travel,
among others. And in doing to, I assure you, I never lost my awe and wonder of the
Creator of such majesty and grandeur as the universe.
Saint Peter could not contain his delight and permitted the man to enter heaven.

In stark contrast to the scientist who left, a tall, dignified man in a well-cut Italian suit
and handmade silk tie stepped up in front of the line. My dear man, Saint Peter said,
feeling more loquacious. "You must agree that I did well letting the scientist into heaven.
Pray, tell me, why I should let you through the gates of heaven: And to this, the man
replied: I am a diplomat. With all my God-given skills very hard to eradicate the scourge
of war that has visited peoples time and time again and devastated scores and scores of
generations to the human race.

"But of course, a peacemaker, " Saint Peter murmured appreciatively. "Do take your
place in heaven as promised to peacemakers.

This line of questioning continued down the line of souls who stood before Saint Peter,
eager to disclose to him their rights to enter heaven: farmer, architect, fisherman,
engineer; bus driver, household help, actor, comedian; banker, parent, computer
analyst, financier; politician, chief executive officer, country president, chef.

Finally, the last person in the line stood before Saint Peter. It had been a long day, and
he was pleased that he did not have to turn anyone away. He looked at the simple
woman before him and asked the same question for the last time that day. "My dear
lady, thank you so much for waiting so patiently for your turn. Now, tell me, why should
I let you into heaven? '

And the elderly woman responded, without rancor or recriminations at being heard last:
"Dear Saint Peter... This is why you should let me through the gates into heaven. Those
people who entered a head of me... they became who they were... because of me.

In a mixture of pride and humility, she continued: "I am their teacher

Saint Peter silently nodded, breaking into a smile. His job for the day had ended. He
locked the gates of heaven, only after the teacher stepped in for her just deserved
reward.

Indeed, a teacher is powerful. You are in a very noble profession where you help
others become what they want to be. You are in a profession where you can touch
lives and so affect eternity. In the United States of America, the global financial
institution ING conducted a survey in 2010 in conjunction with the National Teacher
of the Year Award. A significant finding was: eighty-eight percent (88%) of one
thousand (1000) - Americans age 18 and older who were surveyed-identified at least
one teacher who had a significant positive impact on their life. (Saenz, 2012)

A teacher has the power to touch lives and make a difference in peoples' lives.
"The influence of a good teacher can never be erased," says one quotable quote. Just
remember the moving story of Teddy and Ms. Thompson. May you be a "Ms.
Thompson" to all your students in the future. If you do that, you prove to the world
that teaching, indeed, is a noble profession.
 ACTIVITIES!

Activity 1.
Direction: Fill in the table by sighting accurate ideas asked about the 7 Philosophies of Education.

Enumerate the 7 Philosophy What to Teach? Propose 1 learning activity for

of Education students
Activity 2. With Teacher Macrina’s philosophy of education as an example, formulate
your own philosophy of education.

Things to remember when writing a Philosophy Statement

 Reasons why you want to become a teacher

 Duties and responsibilities of an effective teacher
 Beliefs about how students learn
 Approaches methods and strategies which are needed in effective teaching
 Views of different stakeholders in teaching and learning
 Theories or philosophies of teaching and learning that are similar to your ideas
 Reasons why teaching is the most important profession
 Challenges/obstacles of teaching which you want to overcome
 And always use present tense

MY PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
Activity 3. List at least 10 statements that prove the advantages of being a teacher.

Prepared by

ROMAR B. ANTONIO, MA

Instructor