I.

UNIT TITLE/CHAPTER TITLE: Philosophical thoughts on Education

II. LESSON TITLE:

Summaries of thoughts of education philosophers on what should be

taught and how learners should be taught:

1. John Locke (1632-1704): The Empiricist Educator

2. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903): Utilitarian Education
3. John Dewey (1859-1952): Learning Though Experience
4. George Counts (1889-1974): Building a New Social Order
5. Theodore Brameld (1904-1987): Social Reconstruction
6. Paulo Freire (1921-1997): Critical Pedagogy

III. LESSON OVERVIEW: This lesson dwells on philosophical thoughts on

education – what should be taught for the socialization of the individual and
how these should be taught.
IV. DESIRED LEARNING OUTCOMES: At the end of the chapter, the
students are expected to:
1. Discuss at least six (6) philosophical thoughts on education.
2. Identify the significant educational philosophies each philosopher
contributed
3. Relate the philosophical thoughts to the application of teaching and
learning.
V. LESSON CONTENT
Introduction
Isolated facts and the banking method
Depicted in the questions 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 then
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 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 intestines. To
connect the facts, the 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
intestines? Will the small intestines be able to absorb food, etc.?...
Here are summaries of thoughts of education philosophers on what
should be taught and how learners should be taught.
A. John Locke (1632-1704) – The Empiricist 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
from literary 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 ta 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)

Comments:
● For John Locke education is not acquisition of knowledge contained in
the Great Books. It is learners interacting with concrete experience,
comparing and reflecting on the same concrete experience. The
learner is an active not a passive agent of his/her learning.
● From the social dimension, education is seeing citizens participate
actively andintelligently 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 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 the uniform to the more specialized
kind of activity
● Social development had taken the 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 o 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 specific
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 subject 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)

Comments:

Specialized Education of Spencer vs. General Education

● To survive in a complex society, Spencer favors specialized education

over that of general education, we need social engineers who can
combine harmoniously the findings of specialized knowledge. This is
particularly true in the field of medicine.
● The expert who concentrate on a limited field is useful, but if loses
sight of the interdependence of things he becomes a man who knows
more and more about less and less. We must be warned of the deadly
peril of over specialism. Of course, we do not prefer the other
extreme, the superficial person who knows less and less about more
and more.

Spencer’s Survival of the Fittest

● He who is fittest survives. Individual competition leads to the social

progress. The competition in class is what advocates of whole-child
approach and the Socio- emotional Learning (SEL) atmosphere negate.
The whole child approach a powerful tool for SELF-focused schools has
a tenets – “each student learns in an environment that is physically
 and emotionally safe for students and adults” and “each student has
access to personalized learning and is supported by qualified and
caring adults…”(Frey, N. 2019)

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 continue to the personal and social
group 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
● 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 way one discovers their validity of oneself
● The fund of knowledge of the 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.
● 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)

Comments:

The fund of Knowledge of the Human Race

● 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.
Of they are of help, they become part of a reconstructed experience. If
they are not totally accurate, they will still be part of the reconstructed
experience. This means that the ideal learner for Dewey in not just one
who can learn by doing, e.g., conduct an experiment but one who can
connect accumulated wisdom of the past to the present.

Schools are for the People and by the People

● Schools are democratic institutions where everyone regardless of age,
ethnicity, social status is welcome and is encouraged to participate in
the democratic process of decision-making, learners and stakeholders
practice and experience democracy in schools.

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 as a given time and place.
● By allying themselves with groups that want to change society, schools
cope with social change that arises from technology.
● There is a cultural lag between material progress and social institutions
and ethical values.
● Institution 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)

Comments:

Schools and Teachers as agents of Change

● For George Counts, schools and teachers should be agents of change.
Schools are considered instruments for social improvement rather than
as agencies for preserving the status quo.
● Whatever change we work for should always be changed for the better
not just change for the sake of change.
● Teachers are called to make decisions on controversial issues. Not to
make decision is to actually making a decision.
● Like Dewey, problem solving, should be the dominant method for
instruction.

Lag between Material Progress and Ethical Values

● Count asserts that “there is a cultural lag between material progress
and social institutions and ethical values.” Material progress of
humankind is very evident but moral and ethical development seem to
have lagged behind. A friend once wrote: “The Egyptians had their
horses. Modern man has his jets but today it is still the same moral
problems that plague humankind.” Indeed, with science and
technology, we have become very powerful and yet powerless. We
have a number of diseases and even postponed death for many, we
have conquered aging, the planets, the seas but we have not
conquered ourselves.

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

● As the name implies, social reconstructionism is a philosophy that
emphasizes the reformation of society. The social reconstructionist
contend 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 transit the 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 control of their own destiny. In an era of nuclear
weapons, the social reconstructionist see an urgent need for society to
reconstruct itself before it destroys itself. (Ornstein, 1984)

● Technological era is an era of interdependence and so education must

be international in scope for global citizenship.
● For the social reconstructionist, education is designed “to awaken
students’ consciousness about social problems and to engage them
actively in problem solving.”
● Social reconstructionist are firmly committed to equality and 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, 1984)

Comments:
● Like John Dewey and George counts, social reconstructionist Brameld
believe in active problem-solving as the method of teaching and
learning.
● Social reconstructionists are convinced that education is not a privilege
of the few but a right to be enjoyed by all.
● Education is a right that all citizens regardless of race and social status
must enjoy.

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

Critical Pedagogy and Dialogue vs. the Banking Model of Education

● Paulo Freire, a critical theorist, like social reconstructionists, believed
that systems must be changed to overcome oppression and improved
human conditions.
● Education and literacy are vehicle for social change. In his view,
humans must resist oppression and become its victims, 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-solving education.
● A central element of Friere’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. But 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 that we might be able to learn from them and about
ourselves in the process. Dialogue means the presence of equality,
mutual recognition, affirmation of 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).

Comment:
● All of these education philosophers, point to the need of interacting
with others and of creating a “community of inquiry” as Charles
Sanders Peirce put it. The community of inquiry is “a group of persons
involved in inquiry, investigating more or less the same question or
problem, and developing through their exchanges a better
understanding both the question as well as the probable solutions.”
(Lee, 2010) A community of inquiry will engage learners in active
problem solving.