CHAPTER 1

Philosophical Thoughts on Education

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this lesson, students are expected to:

➢ Discuss at least 6 philosophical thoughts on education

ACTIVITY- LET’S READ THESE

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

In a Grade 3 Science Class:

ANALYSIS- LET’S ANALYZE

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

ABSTRACTION- LET’S CONCEPTUALIZE

Isolated Facts and the Banking Method

Depicted in the question and answer proceeding in class are a common scenario. Most
teacher asking low level questions and students answering with what they memorized the
night before. Teacher deposited these facts a day before and withdraws them the nest 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 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 intestine. To connect the facts, teacher
should ask more questions like:” What if the food is not chewed in the mouth, what happens
to food in the stomach and 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?

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
➢ 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 he “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 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, comparing. The learner is an
active not a passive agent of his/her learning.
➢ 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 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 from the uniform to the more specialized kind of activity.
➢ Social development had taken place according to an evolutionary process by
which simple homogenous societies had evolved to more complex societal
systems characterized with humanistic and classical education
➢ Industrialized society require vocational and professional education based on
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 scientific 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 subjects 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

➢ To survive in complex society, Spencer favors specialized education over that

of general education. We are in need of social engineers who can combine
harmoniously the findings of specialized knowledge. This is particularly true
in the field of medicine.
➢ 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. 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 social progress. The

competition in class is what advocates of whole-child approach and Socio-
emotional Learning (SEL) atmosphere negate. The whole child approach a
powerful tool for SELF-focused schools has as 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 contribute to the personal and social 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 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 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 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.
➢ 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 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. If they are of help, they become part
of a reconstructed experience. This means that the ideal learner for Dewey is 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.

School 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
at a given time and place.
➢ By allying themselves with groups that want to change society, schools should
cope with social change that arises from technology.
➢ There is cultural lag between material progress and social institutions and ethical
values.
➢ Instruction should incorporate a content of a socially useful nature and 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

➢ 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 change
for the better not just change for the sake of the change.
➢ Teachers are called to make decisions on controversial issues not to make a
decision is to actually making a decision.
➢ Like Dewy, 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”. Materials 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 conquered 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 reconstructs 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, A. 1984)

➢ So, the social reconstructionist asserts that school should: critically examine
presents 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 transmit 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, A.
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 design “to awaken students’
consciousness about social problems and to engage them actively in problem
solving”. (Ornstein, A. 1984)
 ➢ Social reconstructionist are firmly committed to equality or 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, A. 1984)

Comments:

➢ Like John Dewey and George Counts, social reconstructionist Brameld believe in
active problem-solving as the method of teaching and learning.
➢ Social reconstructionist 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 a 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 reconstructionist, believe that systems
must be changed to overcome oppression and improve human conditions.
➢ Education and literacy are the vehicle for social change. In his view, humans must
learn to resist oppression and not 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 at take place.
➢ Freire’s critical pedagogy is problem-posing education.
➢ A central element of Freire’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. By 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 way 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, A. 1984)

Comments:

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

1. The modern explosion of knowledge has led to an edge of specialization with this
concomitant quip:

A specialist knows more 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 saying:
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 so encouraged individual
competition. Read this article about Singaporean education today and find out with
whom you agree- Spencer’s individual competition or Singaporean educational
system where competition is not encouraged.

“Learning is not a competition: No more1st, 2nd or last in class for primary and
secondary students”

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?

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 mission statement” to protect and promote the right of every
Filipino to quality, equitable, culture based, and complete basic education” can we say
that Philippine educational system is in a sense equitable? What actions and what
recent legislations are proofs that the Philippines gives equal access to quality
education to its citizens?

6. Is free tertiary education really 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 as a vertical relationship while critical pedagogy
is characterized by a horizontal type relationship. Be guided by the Figure below.

Teacher

Student

Teacher student
 TAKEAWAYS
John Locke-The Empiricist

• Education is not acquisition of knowledge contained in the Classics. It is

learners interacting with concrete experience. The learner is an active not a
passive agent of his/her own learning.
• From the social dimension, education is seeing citizens participate actively and
intelligently in establishing their government and in choosing who will govern
from among themselves. They are of the thinking that no one person is
destined to be ruler forever. This is in keeping with the Anti-Political Dynasty
Bill.

Spencer-The Utilitarianist

• To survive in a complex society, Spencer favors specialized education over of

general education.
• “the expert who concentrates on a limited filed 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. We must be warned of the early peril of over-specialism. Of
course, we do not prefer the other extreme, the superficial person who every
day knows less and less about more and more.
• Who is fittest survives? Individual competition leads to social progress and
Socio-emotional Learning atmosphere approach and Socio emotional Learning
atmosphere negate. The whole child approach, a powerful tool for SEL focused
schools has as 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)
• The highlited words-emotionally safe and caring adults point to no competition
works against an emotionally safe environment.

John Dewey—Experience

• 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. If they are of help,
they become part of reconstructed experience. If they are not totally accurate,
they will still be a part of a reconstructed experience. This means that the ideal
learner for Dewey is 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 people and by the people. Schools are democratic institution
where everyone regardless of age, ethnicity, social status is decision-making.
Learners and stakeholders’ practice and experience democracy in schools.
 TAKEAWAYS
George Counts- Building a New Social Order

• 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 change 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 progress and social institutions and
ethical values”. Material progress of humankind is very evident but moral and
ethical development seem to have lagged behind.
• It is very evident but moral and ethical development seem to have lagged
behind.

Theodore Brameld—The Social Reconstructionist

• Social reconstructionist critically examine present culture and resolve

inconsistencies, controversies and conflicts to build a new society not just
change society.
• Technological era is an era of interdependence and 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.

Philosophers Philosophy on Aim/s Classroom/Education

and Method/s of Application
education

LET’S REFLECT

Double Entry Journal

Two things I learned from this Chapter My thought/s or Reaction/s

LET’S CLINCHERS

Direction: Encircle the correct answer.

1. Which is not true of social reconstructionist?

a. Introduce new society

b. Use of problem solving
c. Study of the Great Books
d. School as an agent of change

2. Which teaching practice goes with the “banking system” of education which was
contrary to Paulo Freire’s educational thought?

a. Rote memorization
b. Project based learning
c. Problem based learning
d. Community of inquiry
3. For which teaching will social reconstructionist be?

a. Stress on isolationism
b. Narrow concept of nationalism
c. Inequality and inequity as normal for an international society
d. Building of an interdependent world that is international in scope

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

a. He emphasized vocational and professional education based on scientific

and practical.
b. He stressed on 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 component of
the curriculum.

5. For which educational practice was John Dewey?

a. Problem solving
b. Banking method
c. Emphasis on the humanities
d. Teaching of the classics