Chapter 1- Philosophical Thoughts on Education

Philosophical Thoughts on Education

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this Chapter, you should be able to discuss at least six philosophical thoughts
on education.
Activity

A. Read this conversation, then answer the question in the ANALYSIS phase of this
lesson.

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.

Analysis. Let’s Analyze

What classroom scenario/S is/are being depicted by the comic strip and the teacher-
student question and answer?

Abstraction
Let's Conceptualize Isolated Facts and the Banking Method
Depicted in the question and answer, proceeding in class is a typical classroom
scenario. Most lessons are devoted to a teacher asking low-level questions and students
answering what they memorized the night before. The teacher deposited these facts a day
before and withdrew 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.

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We have nothing against facts. However, isolated facts make no sense but become
meaningful when seen about other facts. When combined with other facts (with further
questioning from the teacher), these facts help the learner see meaning and connection to
his/her life. Example: The pupil learned that food is broken down into small pieces digested by
the stomach and absorbed by the intestine. To connect facts, a 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.?
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 Empiricist Educator

• Acquire knowledge about the world through the senses - learning by doing and by
interacting with the environment
• The inductive method is simple ideas that become complex through comparison,
reflection, and generalization.
• 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 a contract between the people and the government.
• Aristocrats are not destined by birth to be rulers. People were to establish their
government and select their political leaders: civic education is necessary.
• People should be educated to govern themselves intelligently and responsibly (Ornstein,
1984)

Comments:
• For John Locke, education is not acquiring knowledge contained in the Great Books. It
is learners interacting with substantial experience, comparing and reflecting on
the same concrete experience comparing. The learner is an active, not a passive
agent of learning.

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• From the social dimension, education sees citizens participate actively and
intelligently in establishing their government and 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 has gone
through an evolutionary series of stages from the simple to the complex and from the
uniform to the more specialized activity.
• According to an evolutionary process, social development had taken place by which simple
homogeneous societies had evolved to more complex societal systems characterized by
humanistic and classical education.
• Industrialized societies require vocational and professional education based on scientific
and practical (utilitarian) objectives rather than the general educational goals of humanistic
and classical education.
• The curriculum should emphasize the practical, utilitarian, and scientific subjects
that helped humankind master the environment.
• Unlike rote learning, schooling must be related to life and the activities needed to earn a
living.
• The curriculum must be arranged according to the continuation of human survival and
progress.
• Science and other subjects that sustain human life and prosperity should have curricular
priority since it aids in performing 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 a complex society. Spencer favors specialized education over general
education. We need social engineers who can harmoniously combine the findings of
specialized knowledge. It is particularly true in medicine.
• An expert who concentrates on a limited field is helpful. However, if he loses sight of the
'Like people, like government “What does Why is Spencer's educational
this mean? Does John Locke agree? Justify theory called “Social
your answer Darwinism?”
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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 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 social progress. The
competition in class is what advocates of the whole-child approach and Socio-emotional
Learning (SEL) atmosphere negate. A whole child approach is a powerful tool for SELF-
focused school. It has 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, 2019).

• The highlighted words indicate no competition for competition works against an

emotionally safe environment.

C. John Dewey (1859-1952): Learning through Experience

• Education is a social process, so school is intimately related to the society 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 society.
• The school is a unique environment established by members of society to simplify, purify,
and integrate the group's social experience so that it can be understood, examined, and
used by its children.
• Education's sole purpose is to contribute to individuals' personal and social growth.
• The steps of the scientific or reflective method, which are extremely important in Dewey's
educational theory, are as follows:

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➢ 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 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 the human race-past ideas, discoveries, and inventions was
used as the material for dealing with problems. This accumulated wisdom of cultural
heritage must be tested. If it serves 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 because it is a social laboratory where children and youth can test
their ideas and values. 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 subject to critical inquiry, investigation, and
reconstruction.
• All should use school, and it is a democratic institution. No barrier of custom or prejudice
segregates 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 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
schools should encourage. (Ornstein, A. 1984)

Comments:

The Fund of Knowledge of the Human Race

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Dewey does not disregard the accumulated wisdom of the past. Our cultural heritage, past
ideas, discoveries, and inventions will be used as material for dealing with problems. If they are of
help, they become a part of a reconstructed experience. If inaccurate, they will still be a part of a
reconstructed experience. It means that the ideal learner for Dewey is not just one who
can learn by doing, e.g., experiment, but 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,
or social status, is welcome and encouraged to participate in the democratic
decision-making process: learners and stakeholders practice and experien ce
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 at a
given time and place.
• By allying themselves with groups that want to change society, schools should cope
with social change that arises fruits technology.
• There is a cultural lag between material progress, social institutions, and ethical
values.
• Instruction should incorporate content of a socially helpful nature and a problem-
solving methodology. Students are encouraged to work on problems that have social
significance.
• Schools become an 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 essential choices in the controversial areas of
economics, politics, and morality because if they fail, others can make the decisions for
them.
• Schools slightly provide an education that affords equal learning opportunities to all
students (Ornstein, A. 1984)

Comments:

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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 agencies for preserving the
status quo. Whatever change we work for should permanently be changed for the better, not
just change for the sake of change. Teachers are called to make decisions on
controversial issues.
• Like Dewey, problem-solving should be the dominant method for instruction.

Lag Between Material Progress and Ethical Values

Counts assert a cultural lag between material progress, social institutions, and ethical
values. The material progress of humankind is very evident, but moral and ethical
development seems to have lagged. A friend once wrote: The Egyptians had their horses.
Modern man has his jets, but today it is still the same moral problems plague humankind.
Indeed, we have become very powerful yet powerless with science and technology. We have
conquered some diseases and even postponed death for many, we have conquered aging,
the planets, and 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 reconstructionists contend that:

Humankind has moved from an agricultural and rural society to an urban and
technological society. There is a severe lag in cultural adaptation to the realities of a
technological society. Humankind has yet to reconstruct its values to catch up with the
changes in the technological order, and organized education has a significant role in
reducing the gap between the values of 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, organized education will merely
transmit the social ills that are symptoms of the pervasive problems and afflictions that
beset humankind. The only legitimate goal of truly human education is to create a world
order in which people control their destiny. In an era of nuclear weapons, social

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reconstructionists see an urgent need for society to reconstruct itself before it

destroys itself (Ornstein, 1984).
• The technological era is an era of interdependence, 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 society and education.
Barriers to 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 globally (Ornstein, 1984).

Comments:

• Like John Dewey and George Counts, social reconstructionist Brameld believes in
active problem solving as teaching and learning.
• Social reconstructionists are convinced that education is not four privilege of the few but
a right to be enjoyed by all.
• Education is a right that all citizens, regardless of social status, must enjoy.

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

Critical Pedagogy and Dialogue vs. the Banking Model of Education

• Like social reconstructionists, Paulo Freire, a critical theorist, believed that systems must be
changed to overcome oppression and improve human conditions.
• Education and literacy are the vehicles for social change. In his view, humans must
learn to resist oppression and not become its victims or 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 the teaching and learning process as a process of
inquiry in which a child must invent and reinvent the world.
• Teachers must not see themselves as the sole possessors of knowledge and
students as empty receptacles. He calls this pedagogical approach the banking
method of education.

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• A democratic relationship between the teacher and her students is necessary for
conscientization.
• Freire's critical pedagogy is problem-posing education.
• A central element of Freire's pedagogy is dialogue. Love and respect allow us to engage
people in dialogue, 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 the respect of the parties involved toward one another. We develop a
tolerant sensibility during the dialogue process. When we come to tolerate the points of view
and ways of being of others, we might 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:
• These education philosophers point to the need to interact with others and create a
"community of inquiry," as Charles Sanders Peirce put it. The community of inquiry is "a
group of persons involved in the 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) A community of inquiry will engage
learners in active problem-solving.

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Application

1. The modern explosion of knowledge has led to an age of specialization with this concomitant
quip.
A specialist knows mom 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 saving.
A generalist knows less and less about more and more until he or she knows nothing
about everything.
Should schools produce generalists or specialists? Defend your answer.

2. Spencer is convinced that he who is most fit survives and encourages individual
competition. Read this article about Singaporean education today and find out with whom
you agree - Spencer's competition or the Singaporean educational system where
competition is not encouraged.

Learning is not a competition: No more 1st, 2nd, or last in class for primary and
secondary students.
SINGAPORE. Next year, whether a child finishes first or last will no longer be indicated in
primary and secondary school report books. A move that Education Minister Ong Ye Kung
hopes will show students that 'learning is not a competition.
Report books will stop showing a student's position about class or cohort.
The information to be dropped includes:
• Class and level mean Amelia Teng
• Minimum and maximum marks Education Correspondent
• Underlining and coloring falling marks Facebook Twitter Email
• Pass/ fail for the end-of-year result September 28, 2018
• Mean subject grades
• Overall total marks
• L1R5 (English plus five relevant subjects), L1R4, EMB3 (English, math, best
three subjects), and EMBI for lower secondary levels

The Ministry of Education (MOE) said on Friday (Sept 28) that the change allows
students to focus on their learning progress and discourages them from being overly
concerned about comparisons.

From next year all examinations for Primary 1 and 2 pupils will also be removed.
Whatever forms of assessment they hair will not count towards an overall grade."

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3. The following is an excerpt of the keynote Address of Senator Shahani before the National
Academy of Science and Technology at its 15th Annual Scientific Meeting, 7 July 1993,
Manila.

Read it. Underline those parts that emphasize development in moral and ethical values as
most necessary to effect change. Do you agree with her thoughts in these underlined
sentences?

Keynote Address of Senator Shahani before the National Academy of Science and Technology at
its 15th Annual Scientific Meeting, 7 July 1993, Manila.

In essence, the Moral Recovery Program is a movement that aims to mobilize Filipinos for
nation-building through the practical exercise of human values in our daily lives as citizens
and to awaken us to the power of these values in achieving our individual and national goals.
Those values are free of charge. We do not have to borrow or beg regularly and constantly
from the outside world to obtain them. We only have to look inward, internalize these values
for our self-transformation, then externalize them for our individual lives and for building our
nation. To use current terminology, the Moral Recovery Program seeks to empower people-
the poor, the middle-class, and the rich -through the sustained application of human values
and virtues to overcome our problems and build our country through our collective vision. We
can also see the Program as an attempt to complete the complex picture of nationalism. If
nation-budding has political, economic, and cultural dimensions, it also has a moral and
ethical imperative. The imperative is the most compelling dimension of nation-building. It goes
beyond mere legislation of anti-graft measures or Congressional investigations of wrongdoing
in the government. We need to go back to the basics and ask the fundamental questions:
what is our vision of ourselves and Filipino society? How do we achieve that vision despite
overwhelming odds? What fundamental values are needed to attain our goals? I submit that
this vision and the strategies and political will needed to realize it should constitute the main
framework to build this nation. Nothing less will do. This combination of vision and action is
key to our national survival, rebirth, and renewal. In this context, the Moral Recovery program
becomes an alternative national development strategy's primary ingredient.

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Ethics and Points

The close interrelationship between ethics and politics is evident in our many problems- our
sizeable foreign debt, the state of permanent disrepair of our roads and public toilets, graft
and corruption in government, the perennial squabbling and intramurals between government,
and bureaucratic inefficiency. Chronic problems in vital areas (agriculture and industry, rural
development, and land reforms) could be overcome if some of the values such as love of
country, discipline, honesty, accountability, and teamwork are practiced daily in government
offices and political circles, as well as by the people themselves.

Vision

My overall vision for our country has the following essential elements: reverence for all
forms of life and the primacy of human values: a priority is given to the cultivation of the
spiritual and cultural life of the nation; the democratization of power. Resources and wealth, the
right combination of a free-market economy and government intervention in appropriate areas at
appropriate stages to provide for the basic needs of its citizens. A government that works for
the people's good, the development of our agricultural resources, an environmentally conscious
industrialization plan; a well-implemented agrarian reform program; respect for human rights,
including women's rights, and an independent foreign policy within the framework of global
cooperation. In other words, we should have a vision representing a potent combination of
human dignity, sustainable development and proper economic growth; national interest; and
global orientation. A tall order indeed, but a vision must inspire over the long-term, shed light
amid darkness and make possible the seemingly impossible.

Individual and National Transformation

At this point, we come to the question: what is to be transformed or changed- the

structures of society or the individual? In my view, both should be transformed, each
dynamically affecting the other, but the starting point is always the individual or a group of
individuals within institutions The empowerment of the poor must come from the poor
themselves, the poor must help themselves; others can only help them to help themselves.
There is a welcome opportunity in this country to help empower the poor, and such
empowerment is vital to the creation of more just social and economic structures.

Human Values: Powerful Building Blocks

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It is evident from what I have said that human values are powerful building blocks in
developing a nation. However, the non-economic and non-budgetary dimensions of progress
and growth, i.e., the moral and cultural elements, have been conveniently overlooked or
disregarded by the learned technocrats and theoreticians of development, perhaps to make
way for smooth, non-controversial discussions of the development process. The technocratic
and neutral language of development, which has evolved from the agenda of international
institutions, has eclipsed the moral choices to be made in the development process. Terms like
equity, social justice, and distributive justice. (when repeated over and over again without any
explanation of the painful ethical choices) have to be made by individuals and governments in
order to achieve them. It cannot touch the hearts and minds of the popular, the rich, the
middle-class, and the poor, on whom the burden of transformation rests. Development is, after
all, a grassroots-oriented process and a challenge in mass mobilization for the people and not
for political expediency.

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4. "If you cannot bring the learners to the world, bring the world to the classroom." Will this
go with John Dewey's philosophy of education: Explain your answer.
5. Considering DepEd's mission statement "to protect and promote the right of every Filipino
to quality, equitable, culture-based, and complete basic education," can we say that the
Philippine educational system is equitable? What actions and recent legislation prove that
the Philippines gives its citizens equal access to quality education?

6. Is free tertiary education pro-poor in the sense that it is the poor who are indeed benefited?
Justify your answer.
7. Freire opposed the banking method of education and favored critical pedagogy. Why?
The banking method is characterized by a vertical relationship, while a horizontal
relationship characterizes critical pedagogy. Be guided by the Figure below.

teacher

student

teacher 4 4 student

TAKEAWAYS
John Locke — the empiricist
• Education is not the acquisition of knowledge contained in the Classics. It is
learners interacting with substantial experience. The learner is an active,
not a passive agent of his / her learning.
• From the social dimension, education sees citizens participate actively and
intelligently in establishing their government and choosing who will govern
them from among themselves. They are of the thinking that no one person
is destined to be ruler forever. It is in keeping with the Anti-Political
Dynasty Bill.
Spencer — the utilitarianist
• To survive in a complex society, Spencer favors specialized education over
general education.
• "The expert who concentrates on a limited field is helpful, but if he 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 early 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 every day.

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•
Who is the fittest survives? Individual competition leads to social progress.
•
The competition in class advocates the whole-child approach and Socio-
emotional Learning (SEL) atmosphere approach and Socio-emotional
Learning (SEL) atmosphere negate. The whole child approach, a powerful
tool for SEL-focused schools, has as tenets that each student learns in an
environment that is physically and emotionally safe for students and
adults. Each student has access to personalized learning and is
supported by qualified and caring adults (Frey, 2019).
• The highlighted words - emotionally safe and caring adults point to no
competition for competition works against an emotional sale environment.
John Dewey - experience
• Dewey does not disregard the accumulated wisdom of the past. Our cultural
heritage, past ideas, discoveries, and inventions will be used as the material
for dealing with problems and so will be tested. If they are of help, they
become part of a reconstructed experience. If they are not accurate, they will
still be part of a reconstructed experience. It means that the ideal learner for
Dewey is not just one who can learn by doing, e.g., conduct an experiment
but 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, or social status, is
welcome and encouraged to participate in the democratic decision-making
process: learners and stakeholders practice and experience democracy in
schools.
George Counts - Building a new social order.
• Schools and teachers should be agents of change. Schools are considered
instruments for social improvement rather than work agencies for preserving
the status quo. Whatever change we for should permanently be changed
for the better, not just change for the sake of change.
• Problem-solving, like Dewey, should be the dominant method for
instruction.
• “There is a cultural lag between material and social institutions and ethical
values." The material progress of humankind is very evident, but moral and
ethical development seems to have lagged.

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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.
.
•
The technological era is an era of interdependence, 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.

Let’s Check for Understanding

1. Explain in a sentence why each education philosopher was associated with these given
words:
a) John Locke- the empiricist
b) Spencer- 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

2. Make a table summary of the philosophies of education.

Philosopher Philosophy on Aim/s and Method/s of Classroom/ School Application
education

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Let’s Reflect

Double Entry Journal

Two Things I have learned from this Chapter My Thoughts or Reaction/s

LET Clinchers

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, contrary to Paulo
Freire's educational thought?
A. Rote memorization
B. Project-based learning
C. Problem-based learning
D. Community of inquiry

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3. For which teaching will social reconstructionists be?

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

4. Why is Spencer’s educational thought described as utilitarian?

A. He emphasized vocational and professional based on scientific and practical.
B. He stressed 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 components of the curriculum.
5. For which educational practice was John Dewey?
A. Problem-solving
B. Banking method
C. Emphasis on Humanities
D. The teaching of the Classics

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