OUR PHILOSOPHICAL

HERITAGE:
Philosophies of Education
7
 CONSTRUCTIVISM

Why Teach.
Constructivists sees to develop
intrinsically motivated and
independent learners adequately
equipped with learning skills from
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 out of
these bits of information learned.
How to Teach.
In the constructivist classroom, the teacher
provides the students with data or
experiences that allows them to
hypothesize, predict, manipulate objects,
pose questions, research, investigate,
imagine, and invent. The constructivist
classroom is interactive. It promotes
dialogical exchange of ideas among
learners and between teacher and learner.
The teacher’s role is to facilitate this
process.
Knowledge isn’t a thing that can be easily
deposited by the teacher into empty minds
of learners. Rather, knowledge is
constructed by learners through an active,
mental process of development; learners are
the builders and creators of meaning and
knowledge. Their minds are not empty.
Instead, their minds are full of ideas,
waiting to be “ midwifed” by the teacher
with his/her skillful facilitating skills.
 ESSENTIALISM
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 r’s – reading,
‘riting,’rithmic, right conduct– as these
are essential to the acquisition of
higher or more complex skills needed
in preparation for adult life.
The essentialist curriculum includes the
“traditional disciplines such as math,
natural science, history, foreign language,
and literature. Essentialist frown upon
vocational courses…” or other courses with
watered down academic content… the
teachers and administrators decide what is
most important for students to learn an
place little emphasis on student interests,
particularly when they divert time and
attention from the academic curriculum.
How to Teach.
Essentialist teachers emphasize mastery of
subject matter. They are expected to be
intellectual and moral models of their
students. They are seen as “fountain” of
information and as a “paragon of virtue” if
ever there is such a person. To gain mastery of
basic skills, teachers have to observe “core
requirements, longer school day, a longer
academic school year..”
With mastery of academic content as primary
focus, teachers rely heavily on the used of
prescribed textbooks, the drill method, and
other methods that will enable them to
cover as much as academic content as
possible like lecture method. There is a
heavy stress on memorization and
discipline.
 PROGRESSIVISM
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
live life fully NOW not to prepare
them for adult life.
What to teach.
The progressivists are identified
with need-based and relevant
curriculum. This is a curriculum
that “responds to students”
needs and that relates to students
personal lives and experiences.
How to teach.
Progressivist teachers employ
experiential methods. They
believe that one learns by doing.
For John Dewey, the most
popular advocate of
progressivism,book learning is
no sustitute for actual
experience.
• One experiential method that
progressivist teachers heavily
rely on is the problem-solving
method. This problem-solving
method makes use of the
scientific method. (You will
learn more of this in your
Principles and Strategies of
Teaching.)
• Other “hands-on-minds-on-
hearts-on” teaching
methodology that progressivist
teachers use are field trips
during which students interact
with nature or society. Teachers
also stimulate students through
thought provoking games, and
puzzles.
 PERENNIALISM
Why teach.
We are all rational animals. Schools
should, therefore, develop the students’
rational and moral powers. According
to Aristotle, if we neglect the students’
reasoning skills, we deprive them of the
ability to use their higher faculties to
control their passions and appetites.
What to teach.
The perennialist curriculum is a
universal one in the view that all
human beings possess tha same
essential nature. It is heavy on the
humanities, on general education.
It is not a specialist curriculum
but rather a general one.
• There is less emphasis on vocational
and technical education. Philosopher
Mortimer Adler claims that the “Great
Books of acient and medieval as well as
modern times are a repository of
knowledge and wisdom, a traditions of
culture which must initiate each
generation.” What the perennialist
teachers teach are lifted from the Great
Books.
How to teach.
The perennialist classrooms are
“centered around teachers.” The
teachers do not allow the students’
interests or experiences to substantially
dictate what they teach. They apply
whatever creative techniques and other
tried and true methods which are
believed to be most conducive to
disciplining the students’ minds.
• Students engaged in Socratic
dialogues, or mutual inquiry
sessions to develop an
understanding of history’s most
timeless concepts.”
 EXISTENTIALISM
Why teach.
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
What to teach.
"In an existentialist curriculum, students
are given a wide variety of options from
which to choose." Students are afforded
great latitude in their choice of subject
matter. The humanities, however, are given
tremendous emphasis to "provide students
with vicarious experiences that will help
unleash their own creativity and self
expression.
How to teach.
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.
 BEHAVIORISM

Why teach.
Behaviorist school are 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
What to teach.
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.
How to teach.
Physical variables like light,
temperature, arrangement of
furniture, size and quantity as visual
aids have to be controlled to get the
desired responses from the learners.
 LINGUISTIC PHILOSOPHY

Why to teach.
It is through his/her ability to
express himself/herself clearly, to
get his/her ideas across, to make
known to others the value that
he/she has imbibed, the beauty
that he/she that discovered.
What to teach.
Learners should be
taught to
communicate clearly,
how to send clear,
concise messages and
how to receive and
correctly understand
message sent.
 There is need to teach learners to
use language that is correct, precise,
grammatical, coherent, accurate so that
they are able to communicate clearly and
precisely their thoughts and feelings.
There is need to caution the
learners of the verbal and non-verbal
barriers to communication
How to teach.
The most effective way to
teach language and
communication is the
experimental way.
Teachers should make the
classroom a place for the
interplay of minds and
hearts.
 Formulate my philosophy of education

You have been acquainted with various

philosophies. With which you
identify yourself? What is personal
philosophy of education? You are
expected to formulate it in this
second lesson.
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 is writing.
Your surely have one just as everybody
has only that sometimes it is well not
articled. Your philosophy of education
is reflected in dealings with students,
colleagues, parents and administrators.
• Your attitude towards problems and
life as whole has an underlying
philosophy. In this lesson, you will
articulate your thoughts on how you
perceive the learner, on what at 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
action and decisions.
• As a teacher you have tremendous power.
You can make 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 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.
My philosophy of education as a Grade School
Teacher
I believe that every child
• Has a natural interest in learning and is capable of
learning
• Is an embodied spirit
• Can be influenced but not totally by his/her
environment
• Is unique , so comparing a child to other-children has
no basis
• Does not have an empty mind, rather is full of ideas
and is my tasks 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
modelling, value inclination and value
integration in my lessons.

• I believe that my tasks as a teacher is to

facilitate the development of every child
to the optimum and to the maximum by:
• Reaching out to all children without bias
and prejudice towards the “least “ of the
children
• Making every child feel good and
confident about himself/herself through
his/her experiences of success in the
classroom
• Helping every child master the basic
skills of reading, communicating in oral
and written form, arithmetic and
computer skills
• 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
• Inculcating or integrating that unchanging
values of respect, honesty, love and care for
others regardless of race, ethnicity,
nationality, appearance and economic status
in my lessons
• Consistently practicing these values to serve
as model as model for every child
• Strengthening the value formation of every
child through “hands-on-minds-on –hearts-
on” experience inside and outside the
classroom
• Providing every child activities meant to
develop the body the mind and the spirit
• 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
taught are the bases of your actions and
decisions when you prepare to teach and
when to 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
rationalist, because she is after the
holistic development of the learner –
body, mind and spirit – she is also
humanist thinking and in practice.
• She also believe in the behaviourist
philosophy because she accepts that the
learner can be influenced by the
environment.
• However, she does not totally adhere to
the behaviourist philosophy because she
does not agree that the learner can be
totally influenced by his environment.
Teacher Macrina is constructivist in
philosophy because she 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 tasks is the child’s mastery of the
basic skills of reading, communicating in
oral and written form, arithmetic and
computer skills. She believes that the
mastery of these basic skills prepare the
child to go beyond the basics. Her
behaviourist philosophy makes her word
hard for every child to experience success
which surely contributes to a favourable
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 in
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.
Thank You For
Listening!!!