THE UNIVERSITY OF DODOMA

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL
FOUNDATIONS AND CONTINUING
EDUCATION (EFCE)

FE 111: Principles of Education

THOUGHTS ON THE PURPOSE OF
EDUCATION
Instructor: Anna J. Marwa
Office no; 111 CoED
[email protected]
 Module Three
THOUGHTS ON THE PURPOSE OF
EDUCATION
What’s the Purpose of Education?
 If you were to ask a group of teachers,
administrators, students, parents, community
members and policy makers to address the
question of purpose of education, how difficult do
you think it would be to reach to the consensus.
 However, there are various philosophical thinkers

who created the society as a whole ideas with

respect to the society in the universe, social
organization, milieu (environment) and the
implications and imperatives for the conduct and
process of education.
Cont…
 In this regard, the purpose of learning in
this discussion has been revolving in a
triangle where some thinkers believe that
the purpose of education should be for the:
Society as a group (edc for attaining the
good or survival of the society)
Individual or learner (edc for attaining
good of the individual)
Subject matter (edc. for the pursuit of
excellence in the subject matter)
A. Primacy of the Society
Thoughts that place emphasis on the pre-eminence of
society seem to be based on at least three
contentions about society and social development
(Nyirenda and Ishumi, 2002) these are as follows:

I. Any education process, wherever it takes

place, does take place within society and not
outside it.
II. The human mind is influenced by many and
varied social processes and events taking
place within the community.
III. It is important to identify and isolate problems
that impact on the everyday life of society and
its people, to which solutions must be provided
for a better future.
Protagonists in these ideas
The above major philosophical contentions and
their various implications are at the base of
educational thought. However, consideration
will be given to the following:
 Socrates (470-399BC)
 Plato (428 – 348 B.C
 Aristotle (384-322 BC)
 John Dewey (1859 - 1952)
 James Emmanuel Kwegyir Aggrey (1875 - 1927)
 Julius Kambarage Nyerere (1922 - 1999)
 Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
 Swami Dayanand (1825-1883)
Socrates (470-399BC)
Biography:
 Socrates was born circa 470 BC and died

399 BC in Athens, Greece.

 He was an ancient Greek philosopher, who

together with Plato and Aristotle laid the

foundations of western philosophy and
culture.
Cont…
 For Socrates philosophy was a daily activity,
thinking about the world around him, he try
to answer the some difficult questions such
as what is wisdom? And what is beauty?
what is right thing to do? etc.

 He knew that these questions were hard to

answer and he thought it would be better
to have a lot of people to answers together
so that they might come up with more
ideas.
Cont..

 Also he used to invite the Athenian citizen into

arguments and discuss with them the problems of
life and their world around, thus Athens become
the classroom of Socrates.
 He went asking qns of authorities and of the man
around the street in order to arrive at political and
ethical truths.
 Socrates soon had a group of young men who
listened to him and learned from him how to think.
Plato was one of these young men
 Socrates was concerned with question of ethics
(moral behaviour) and justice.
 He believed that there was definite right and wrong
and it was up to people (society) to establish those
things that are right and those that are wrong.
Cont..
 But in 399bc when Socrates was 70 yrs old,
some of the Athenians got mad at him for
what he was teaching the young men.
 the gods) and corrupting the youth (They
charged him in court with impiety (not
respecting teaching young men bad things)
…he was convicted of these charges and
sentenced to death, and he died soon
afterwards, when the guards gave him a
cup of hemlock (a poisonous plant) to drink
Socrates’ teaching
method
Socrates questioned groups of his students as a
means of instructions.
 His dialect method or methods of investigating
problems through dialogues discussions come to be
known as the Socratic Method.
 He choose people who were experts in their field and
who fully understood the topic being discussed.
 He adopted the role of ignorant questioner, i.e
pretended to know nothing and wanted to be
educated.
 He asked tactful questions which would bring the
experts to a dead end, they would run out of
answers.
Educational Implications of Socratic
Thought on Teaching Methods
The Socratic method offers the following to
teaching:
 Problem centered.
 Based upon student experience.
 Critical thinking
 Teaching is a drawing forth rather than

telling
 Learning is discovery.
Cont… Socratic
Thought on
the
Purpose of
Education

Socratic Thought on
the Purpose of
Education

Individual Skill in
moral good thinkin
g
Educational Implications of Socratic
Thought on the Role of the teacher
 According to Socrates the main
function/role of a teacher is to
stimulate mental activity by
providing suggestions and guidance
to learners.
 PLATO (428-348 B.C)
Biography
 Plato was born into a wealthy family
in Athens, Greece 428 B.C.
 At the age of 20’s he became a pupil
and a friend of Socrates.
 During his youth, Plato become a
close friend of Socrates, a Greek
philosopher and was influenced by
Socrates’ search for the meaning of
life.
Cont…

 Thus, Plato began his philosophical

career as a student of Socrates.
 Plato believed that different people

have different strengths and

weakness and that the ideal society
is one in which each member
understands and performs her or his
proper role.
Cont…
 Plato traveled widely in Greece, Egypt and
Italy until 387 B.C when he returned to
Athens and opened his school called
“Platonic School or the Academy” in the
olive garden of “Academe” in Athens.
[which is where we gate the word
academics of today]
 Platonic school was a school of advanced
studies in Mathematics and Philosophy
where he taught until his death.
 At his school he taught and expounded
many ideas including reasoning, ethics and
politics.
 Plato’s philosophical
ideas/contribution to
Education
 Hismajor concern was how to bring
up a generation that was sensitive
to the service of their society-
the Republic and in which
everybody was usefully deployed in
accordance with their place and
abilities.
Cont…

 He firmly believed that, the character

of any state depends on the quality of
its people and their rulers.
 Thus, Plato suggested that, such a
society must have a sound political
system and a sound education system.
 Education system was duty bound to
selectively and effectively prepare the
younger generation for future roles
differentiated according to their
abilities.
 1. The bright 2. The less
ones (the best bright(the less
brains) whom he gifted/intelligent)
called ‘the golden but physically fit,
boys’ ‘the silver boys

Plato’s three
categories of
children
(learners or
pupils)

3.The dull
pupils ‘the iron
boys’
Plato’s idea on
Curriculum
 He advocated on the diversified
curriculum to include gymnastic
and music. Where gymnastic
include physical training and
music include dram, history,
oratory and music in real term.
 Also insisted on teaching maths,

physical edc, rhetoric and

military training.
Aristotle (384-322 BC)
 Ancient Greek philosopher
Aristotle was born in circa 384
BC in Stagira, Greece
 When he turned 17, he enrolled

in Plato's Academy.
 In 338, he began tutoring
Alexander the Great.
Cont…
 In 335, Aristotle founded his own
school, the Lyceum, in Athens where
he spent most of the rest of his life
studying, teaching and writing.
 He is a leading figure in the Greek
astronomy specializing in physics.
 Aristotle died in 322 BC after he left
Athens and fled to Chalcis.
Cont…
 Aristotle believed that sense experience
was the only source of knowledge and
that the essence of things could be
discovered only through reasoning.

 Aristotle, also held the view and

prescribed that the upbringing and
training of the young in society should
involve both moral and political
education.
Cont…
• He believed that ‘Man is a rational animal’
while animals express pleasure or pain with
their cries, man and only man is able to
speak.
• Ability to speak allows man to be able to
determine the difference btn what’s right
and what’s wrong
• So how are these skills and knowledge
acquired?
Through education
• Edc was essential for self-realization of
man and a means used to create a state of
good citizen.
 ARISTOTLE’S SCHEME OF
EDUCATION
 The early education and moral

development is the responsibility

of parents.
 Further education is the

responsibility of the state.

ARISTOTLE’S
CURRICULUM
 Gymnastics
 Music and literature- for the
moral and intellectual
development.
 Mathematics for higher learning.
 Aristotle’s Education and
Learning
 Aristotle believed edc & learning are
always abt an object and should
have content.
 He believed a teacher instruct a
learner abt an object, abt knowledge
or some discipline.
 T/L are always abt inquiry into some
aspect of reality.
 Thus, a school should cultivate and
develop each person’s rationality.
 Aristotle's Goals of Education
 Edc is a function of the state, and is
conducted primarily at least for the ends of
the state.
 Edc is preparation for some worthy activity.
 Edc should be guided by legislation to
make it correspond with the results of
psychological analysis and follow the
gradual dvp of the bodily and mental
faculties.
 Edc is the attainment of virtue training and
habituation are required for the practice of
virtue.
MAHATMA GANDHI (1869-1948)

Biography:
 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was

born in 1869 Porbandar, Gujarat in

north west India into a Hindu family
and died on January 1948 New Delhi,
India.
 He was commonly known as
“Mahatma” meaning “Great Soul ”.
Cont…
 He is referred as farther of the Indian
(Bapu)
 Gandhi received a education
.at Samaldas college
.the university of Bombay in India and
.university college of London.
 In 1893 he accepted a contract to work
for an Indian firm in Natal, South Africa.
 He witnessed the system of “apartheid”
in SA and he was against the injustice
of racial segregation.
Cont…

 Thus, he attempted to fight at all levels

and founded a political movement known
as the Natal Indian Congress and
developed his theoretical belief in non-
violent civil protest.

 Meanwhile, on his return to India in 1916,

Gandhi developed his practice of non-
violent raising awareness of oppressive
practices in Bihar by the British masters.
Cont…

 By 1921 he was leading the

Indian National Congress to fight
for independence from the
British.
 He was eventual assassinated in

January 1948.
 MAHATMA GHANDI’S
PHILOSOPHICAL STANCES
 He believed that God is there in every
human being and not in the temple,
church or mosque and synagogue but in
the temple of humanity. Thus, all that
man does should be guided by truth.
 Gandhi’s fundamental philosophy of life
was Truth and Non-violence.
 He believed that education must take care
of the whole child, the human personality
in all aspects physical, intellectual and
spiritual.
Cont…

 He also believed on the learning by

doing teaching method
 He advocated the activity centered
and craft centered curriculum where
mother tongue should be used as the
medium of instruction.
 On textbook, he believed that the
true textbook for pupils is the
teacher.
Gandhi’s role of Teacher
 role model.
 to teach by examples
 He emphasized on value of self
discipline in life.
 He opposed corporal punishment i.e
violence to pupils.
JOHN DEWEY (1859-1952)
Biography
 John Dewey was born in 1859 in

Vermont, U.S.A.
 He studied science, psychology,
history and philosophy at Vermont
University and graduated in 1879.
Dewey’s Early Recognition
 His early recognition was that the
emergency of a modern democratic and
industrial society demanded a new
educational approach with schools their
curricular reflecting values and practices
identifiable with such a society.
 So, he founded a progressive school “the
Laboratory School or the Dewey School”, at
Chicago University in order to experiment
his ideas on the Purpose; Content and
Methods of education.
 Dewey’s theories and beliefs
on education
 Dewey focused his concept of
“instrumentalism” in education on “learning
by doing or hands on learning”, which
means to learn not only by the theory but
also by the practice.
 Instrumentalism is a theory of knowledge

created by Dewey in which ideas are seen

as instruments for the solution of problems
encountered in the environment.
cont…
 Dewey thought that people learn the
best through experience.

 Heemphasized on inquiry based

education.
 Dewey’s Philosophical
Contribution to Education
He accepted and developed four great
themes which had been introduced by
Comenius, extrapolated by Rousseau
and practiced by Pestallozi. The four
themes are as follows:
(i) Education should be based on the
inherent nature and interests of the child
(ii) It should proceed largely through direct
experiences rather than books
(iii) It should aim higher than mere
academic or vocational learning.
Cont…
(iv) It should operate to democratize
culture by reaching out to the lower
classes through special teaching
techniques.

 To Dewey, education does not exist

in isolation. It is a sub-process with
societal process.
Dewey’s ideas on the place and
role of the school
 According to John Dewey, the following are
the expectations of the school:
1. To teach students how to be problem
solvers by helping them how to think
rather than simply learn rote lessons
about large amount of information.
2. Dewey stressed the importance of
education in school not only as a place to
gain content knowledge, but also as a
place to learn how to live.
Cont…

3. He believed that students should be

actively involved in real life tasks
and challenges.
4. It should encourage group
cooperation and group activity
where each pupil has opportunity to
argue, experiment and test, for the
benefit of the whole group.
Dewey contribution on the Curriculum
 Dewey advocated for an educational structure
that makes a balance between the child and the
curriculum, i.e delivering knowledge while also
taking into account the interests and
experiences of the student.
 curriculum should be both society and child
centered.
 Flexible and changeable in according to child’s
interest.
 Reflect social life and social activities.
 Curriculum should include aesthetic, moral and
religious aspects of education, as well as
incorporate the arts, crafts and physical training.
Dewey’s methods of teaching
 Project method.
 Problem solving method.
 Experimental method.
 Direct experience and activity

method.
Dewey contribution on the role
of the Teacher
1. He believed that the teacher’s role should
be that of facilitator and guide.
2. teachers are responsible for achieving the
goals of the school, but the specific topics
to be studied to meet those goals cannot
be determined in advance because they
should be of the interest of the children.
3. Teachers have to make suggestions to the
members of a group (children) as to what
they should do.
Cont…
4. learner’s past experience should be
taken into account the teaching-learning
process as well as the environment.
5. Teachers should measure the child’s
progress by their own best standards, not
by performance standards of other
children, who may differ in natural ability,
in environmental exposure and in
temperament.
Cont…

6.Teachers should foster and

encourage group cooperation and
student group activities within the
school and classrooms.
7.Teachers should combine various
pedagogical methods in their
classroom teaching approach to
avoid monotony and boredom from
use of one method.
 JAMES AGGREY (1875-
1927)
 Biography.
 He was born in the West African Cape
Coast village of Anamabu in the Gold
Coast (today Ghana) in 1875 and died in
1927.
 He spent more of his adult life in
continuous advanced academic study.
Cont…
 Aggrey was selected to live in the mission
house as part of the missionary family, and
was appointed as teacher at a school in
hinterland of the coast, at the age of 15 years.

 This raised him to an award of GCLC and to

the Headmastership of a Methodist Mission
School. So, he served the community through:
 Translating the Bible into local Fanti language
 Interpreting and translating for foreigners
 Sub-editing for a Gold Coast Methodist News
paper.
Cont..
 He advocated that education should
address itself to the immediate problems of
the black African society. people were
contracting infectious and contagious
diseases due to poor hygiene.
 His recommendations caused the colonial

authorities in many parts of africa to

introduce health science and hygiene in
schools along with agriculture, handcrafts,
besides some vocational educational and
training.
Cont…

 He asserted that education should be for

the development, restitution and self-
actualization of society to levels of
knowledge, self-sufficiency, productive
abilities, respectability and equality.
 Education should enable individuals and

educational institutions to offer

constructive and patriotic service to their
nation as well as development of their
economic life.
 Aggrey’s arguments on the
content of the school
curriculum
His ideas centered on areas for African
society development.
 Vocational education of the kind that

promoted the advancement of (rural)

community as a whole, through the
improvement of agriculture, development
and strengthening of native industries and
village crafts.
Cont..
 Technical
and industrial training, through a
system of apprenticeship in government
workshops.

 Teaching of local (vernacular) languages

through which to promote local African
Cultures.
 Aggrey’s Objectives of
Education

To promote and
To promote local To promote and empower certain
industry/ develop local important
indigenous crafts languages occupations
existing in society

 To teach these skills by practically involving

the pupils in the actual situations.
 2. Purpose of Education at
Individual/ Learner
 The learner is an individual, a unique
individual and a unique personality
who must be taken into account in
the whole process of education..
 Man is born good and perfect,
therefore, the material world must
respect his place, his interests and
needs in nature.
Cont..
 Therefore, the learner should be the
central point of reference in the
design of the curriculum and the
system of education in general.
 Thus, learning process should be
child or individual centered.
 Philosophers/Thinkers who argued on
Purpose of Education to Individual

They include the following:-

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712 -1778)
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746 -

1827)
Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel (1782 -

1852)
Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952).
 JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU
(1712-1778)
Biography:
 He was born in the small city state of

Geneva (in today’s Switzerland) in

1712.
 Rousseau was a French philosopher

and writer of the Age of

Enlightenment
Cont…

 Rousseau lived at the time France

was a monarchy under centralized
autocracy of King Louis xiv, when
education opportunities were
available only to the children of
Aristocracy.
 Also schools were institutions far

removed from the real world,

teaching unrelated things to social
realities of their everyday life.
 Rousseau’s Philosophical
Contribution
 In his appeal for redressing the
situation Rousseau’s advocated a
“going back to nature”, rather than
activity in artificiality.
 He believed that the child was born

naturally good, whatever we find

wrong in the child cannot have come
from within him but he learnt if from
his interactions with evil people.
Cont…

 The teacher should guide the child

according to his nature. “let him
know nothing because you have told
him, but because he has learnt it on
his own”.
 The purpose of education was to

foster the good nature of the child

and to protect him from being
contaminated with evil.
 The child was to learn naturally by

following his natural characters.

 Rousseau’s Philosophy on
Curriculum
 Rousseau also recommends a curriculum
in accordance with the nature and stage
of the children i.e
 Stage One: 1-5 yrs. The children should

be allowed to wonder in the country side

and his play things should be very simple
with fruits and flowers.
 Stage two: 5-12 yrs: leads children to

develop of the senses, learning should be

actively and experiences
Cont..

 Stage three: 12-15 yrs; consists of studies

that reveal nature i.e astronomy, the art
and craft, and science.
 Stage four: 15-20 yrs; the study of society,

economics, politics and religions are

appropriate because they can understand
complex of social relationship

During these stages – Rousseau advocates

that “let the child see with his eyes and feel
with his heart, let him own no sway but that
of reason”.
 Rousseau’s Philosophical contribution
on the role of the teacher
 He argued that;
 Teacher should teach and guide children
according to the children’s nature (the
children’s own environment).

oHis stance in well elaborated in his celebrated

thesis called Emile: where he emphasizes that:
“Put the problems before him and let him solve
them himself. Let him know nothing because
you have told him, but because he has learnt it
for himself. Let him not be taught science, let
him discover it”.
 Rousseau’s on teaching
methods:
 Teach by doing
 Provide opportunities to children from their
own experience and not from books
 Don’t teacher books. He hates books.

His contribution on education:

 His emphasis on discovery learning has
brought revolution in the thinking among
educators.
 He showed that teacher must study the child

thoroughly.
 learning by doing.
 Rousseau’s Ideas on the Aim
of Education
According to Rousseau the aims of
education include:
o To promote liberty and happiness in the

individual (learner).
o To defend and not restrict the child’s

interests
o The whole process of education must give

the child its proper place in nature to be

ultimately to the glorification of the
creator, God.
 Limitation of Rousseau’s
philosophy on education
• Neglect of books.
• Physical nature alone is not enough.
• Let a child be punished by natural
consequences is not sufficient. A child
needs a mature guidance from parents
and teachers.
• His ideas on women education seem to
be outdated and not working in the
contemporary societies.
 JOHANN HEINRICH
PESTALOZZI (1746-1827)
 He was born in Jan. 12, 1746, Zurich, Switzerland
and died Feb. 17, 1827.
 He was a Swiss educational reformer and educator,
who emphasized teaching methods designed to
strengthen the student’s own abilities.
 He is known as the father of modern education.
 Educational philosophy of Pestalozzi was shaped by
his early social difficulties and resulted in the
emphasis on practical training and child socialization.
 He believed in the ability of every individual human
being to learn and in the right of every individual to
education. therefore it is the duty of society to put
this right into practice.
Cont…

 He was very interested in philosopher

Jacques Rousseau of “going back to nature”.
It was following Rousseau's ideas that
Pestalozzi would explore how he could
develop and use them for himself.
 In 1799, he established a primary school at

Burgdorf to experiment with activity

methods.
 He was a classroom teacher and became

one of the greatest teachers in the history

of Pedagogy.
Cont…
 Pestalozzi’s ideas are thus a practicing
teacher’s experiences in the field.
 He would more often urge observers to
see what he was doing than come out with
a theoretical base or principle for practice.
“Go and see for yourself, it works
splendidly”.
 Pestalozzi’s goal of
education
 The goal of education is not to impart
knowledge, but to unfold the natural
faculties latent and hidden in every human
being. This means that educators need to
focus on the human being, a child and not
on education.
 Pestalozzi presented two purposes of

education;
a. development of individual
b. Improvement of society
Cont…

 On the individual level, educators should strive

to educate the whole child, not just their
intellect. Physical knowledge and emotional
development are also important.
 He believed that education should develop the
powers of head (intellectual knowledge),
hands (technical and physical education) and
hearts (moral and religious education).
 He believed that this would help create
individuals who are capable of knowing what is
right and what is wrong.
 His aim was for a complete theory of education
that would lead to a practical way of bringing
happiness to humankind.
Cont…
 On the social level, education provides the
means for general development of the
whole society. This means that, the more
the individuals in a society develop
intellectually, emotionally, morally and
socially through education, the more
educated and regenerated the whole
society becomes.
 According to Pestalozzi, education plays a

central role in the improvement of society

 Pestalozzi’s principles of
teaching
 Pestalozzi employed the following principles
of teaching:
 Begin with concrete object before

introducing abstract concepts.

 Begin with the immediate environment

before dealing with what is distant and

remote.
 Begin with easy activities before introducing

complex ones.
 Always proceed gradually, cumulatively and

slowly.
 Method of education
 Thus, on teaching methods, he used a
method of instruction that called “intuitive
practice” to encourage the children to
discover knowledge under their guidance
and close supervision of his teacher.
 Centered on the child not curriculum.
 No use of books but direct experience.
 He advocated an inductive method. The

child starts with simple objects and simple

observation, and build toward more
complex and abstract things. Only after
that a child can start to use books.
Ideas of Pestalozzi on the role
of teachers
 To be loving and kind, and earn the trust of
the children. He believed that without
love, neither the physical nor the
intellectual power will develop naturally.
 To encourage the child instead of imposing
their ideas and attitudes on the student.
 To teach students based on the nature and
basic elements.
 Pestalozzi’s curriculum
 Curriculum should be based on practical
activities such as drawing, writing, singing,
physical exercise, model making, field trips
etc.
 Curriculum should include language,

geometry, history, moral training, nature

study, oral speech, religious training,
agriculture and manual activities.
Cont…

 On the role of the home, according to

him, a good house is the ideal education
institution and the centre of love and active
cooperation for the common welfare.

 Discipline: he is in favour of guiding

children to control themselves
Cont..

Direct
experien
Child ce
centered

Pestalozzi’s ideas Activity

to Early Childhood based
Education

Proceed Concrete
from known experienc
to unknown e than
books
Cont..
Question
Explain the implications of Pestalozzi's
ideas to early childhood education.
FRIEDRICH AUGUST WILHELM
FROEBEL (1782-1852)
He was
born in
april 21,
1782 in
Thuringia
germany
and died
june 21,
1852.
Cont…
 He added a significant dimension to Pestalozzi’s
practical experiments in the teaching
methodology by supplying some theoretical
explanations and guiding models to practice.
 In 1836 he introduced a new educational system,
called kindergarten, where children have to be
educated in that freedom which will stimulate
them to learn.
 The system consisted of games and songs
construction and gifts system which allowed
children to compare, test and explore.
 He believed highly in ‘unity’. All creation exists in
a unity, therefore all properties or features that
make up the world are internally connected with
each other.
Cont..

 “Kindergarten” is derived from two German

words, kinder which means children and garten
which means garden.
 Therefore “kindergarten” means a “garden for
children”, a location where they can observe
and interact with nature.
 According to Froebel kindergarten ideally
implied that, “children must be provided a free,
conducive and well facilitated environment to
enable them to grow and learn basic concepts
as freely and happily as plants grow in the
field”.
 His point was for children to grow according to
the laws of nature as plant does.
Cont..

 His philosophy consists of four basic components

 Free self activity- free play activities like songs as a
means for child to take enviable idea and make it
reality.
 Creativity- using of materials and language in
constructing reality. i.e gifts eg ball and occupation
eg paint. Led a child to make some comparison,
demonstration, testing and have creative
exploration activities.
 Social participation- social interactions and homely
environment.
 Motor expression/psychomotor activities. Learning
by doing as opposed to rote learning. To engage
children directly in learning instead of teaching
content.
 Froebel on the role of the
teacher
 That the teacher is not simply a teacher,
but a mother teacher.
 He/she should be the loving mentor to the
child’s awakening powers.
 Should be the agent and channel to
nurture the infant ‘seeds’ in his ‘garden of
children’.
 Should stimulate the interest of the child.
 Froebel’s method of
teaching
 Gifts and occupation- gifts eg ball, wooden
blocks etc. occupation eg paints, sticks,
chalk etc.
 Play- children construct their

understanding of the world through direct

experience.

 QUESTION

Explain the contribution of Froebel's

philosophical ideas to education.
Maria Montessori (1870-
1952)
Auto-
biography
She was
born in
1870, and
was a
daughter of
a
government
official and a
talented
young house
wife.
Cont…
 After primary school she enrolled in a
technical secondary school so as to
become an engineer.
 However, she changed from engineering
to medicine becoming the first Italian
woman to earn a medical degree in 1896.
 Working as a doctor in a psychiatric clinic
in Rome, she became interested in
children’s mental problem and sought to
look for educational solutions.
 she developed her programmes for
exceptional children.
Cont…
 She asserts that “Children are born with
special mental powers which aid in the
work of their own construction”.
 Therefore they must be given the freedom

to use their inborn powers to develop

physically, intellectually and spiritually.
Cont…

 Her doctoral thesis at Rome University was

in Psychiatry, concerned with the insane,
the sensory, training material for
education of deaf mutes, ‘idiots’ and other
children considered mentally handicapped.
 In 1907 she established a school for
disadvantaged children in a slum area of
the city, which became the first of
Montessori’s famous “Children’s Houses”
(Case dei Bambini) – a school she directed
for two years.
 Montessori’s philosophical
conception
According to her, children develop through
two distinct periods, namely:-
(i) From Birth to 6 years of Age
 Children are characterized by absorbent

minds (mind’s capacity to take in

information and sensations from the world
that surrounds it), with those from 3-6
having a high degree of sensitivity to
sensory stimulation.
 These are years of motor activities.
Cont..
(ii) From 7 to 18 years of Age
Children lose much of their early plasticity
but are able to build upon their sensory
foundations and early acquisition of formal
skills of reading, writing and numeration
(arithmetic) to be able to acquire forms of
knowledge basic to academic attainment.
 Implications for teacher practice
She evolved five principles that exemplified
her philosophy-cum-psychology of child
learning, these are as follows:
1.Children are capable of sustained mental
concentration when genuinely interested in
their work.
2.Children love and enjoy repetition of
actions that they have already mastered.
3.Children prefer work to play and prefer
didactic materials to toys.
4.Rewards and punishments are unnecessary
to motivate children.
5.The child has a deep sense of personal
dignity that is easily offended.
 3. THE PRIMACY OF THE
DISCIPLINE OR SUBJECT-
MATTER
 Primacy of subject-centered curriculum
began in late 1950s and 1960s when in
the words of Ronald Gross it signaled “The
re-entry of academic scholars and
scientists into the field of education”.
Cont…

The argument:
 Pre-eminence of the subject
matter/discipline rests on certain
assumptions about the:
 Individual,
 Society and
 Social development.
 Functions and advantages of
primacy of the pursuit of a
subject
1. It enables the learner and teacher to go into
the depths and breadths of subject matter.
2. It promotes mental discipline and a habit of
searching for further knowledge and
understanding.
3. It generates an intrinsic desire and
motivation to learn more and more and a
natural dissatisfaction at simple bits of
information or conclusions.
4. Concentration on the subject leads to a
development of the intellect.
 Educators and scholars
contribution
 Some of them who brought to the fore the
importance of subject matter/discipline
includes:
 Jerome S. Bruner
 Harry S. Broudy, Othanel Smith and Joe R.
Burnett
 Arthur R. King and John A. Brownell

All of them wrote in the early 1960s.

 Jerome Bruner (1915-2016 )
 Jerome Seymour Bruner was an
American psychologist.
 Born: October 1,1915 New York City and
died June 5, 2016
 He was an educational psychologist by
training
 Jerome made a significant contributions
to human cognitive psychomotor and
cognitive learning theory in educational
psychology.
Cont…

 He taught and researched in American

school system, before taking up a full- time
professorship in several universities in the
U.S.A including Princeton University,
Cambridge University and Harvard
University.
 His ideas on the centrality of the discipline
was concluded from experimental and
observational evidence that, ‘basic
concepts of science and humanities (in all
subjects) can be grasped by children far
earlier than had ever been thought
possible’.
Cont…
 The teacher should present
fundamental structure of the
material to be learned in a form that
can first be comprehended by the
child and then later through
instruction, to build upon the
intuitive understanding established.
 Bruner’s Hypothesis (in
1965)
 “We begin with the hypothesis that
any subject can be taught effectively
in some intellectually honest form to
any child at any stage of
development”.
Cont..

 The three general ideas he expounds

in this hypothesis are as follows:
(i) Intellectual development in the child
This consists of three major mental stages,
these are: Pre-operational, Concrete
operational; and Formal operational.
(ii) The Act of Learning
The act of learning involves: Acquisition of
new information from known to unknown;
transformation-manipulating knowledge to
make it fit new tasks; and evaluation- check
if the way used is adequate to the task.
Cont…
(iii) The Spiral Curriculum
That is a continuous, developmental,
incremental and logically sequenced
programme from lowest to highest
level of complexity, understanding,
internalization and application of
concept.
Cont…

 Bruner’s research based observations

and their implications for practice,
revealed that teaching and learning
act in schools fell far below
expectation, due to the following
reasons;
 Teachers still misunderstood children’s

intellectual stages of development and

thus would stifle the natural ways of their
stimulation and reactions, like intuitive
thinking and guess work which yields new
insights.
Cont…

 They would not use aids properly for

the teaching and learning process.
 They would not motivate learning in

children.
 Teaching methods
 Bruner emphasizes a number of pedagogical
approaches appropriate to the subject-centered
curriculum; they include:
1. Presentation of the structure (the fundamentals)
of the subject matter. It is therefore to learn how
things are related.
2. Motivating the pupils for efficient and effective
learning.
3. Wide, careful and appropriate use of aids to
teaching such as films, Tv or video presentation,
film trips, sound recordings, books, model
devices of the molecule; respiratory system and
the like and dramatizing devices such as acting
from a historical novel.
 Harry Broudy, Othanel
Smith &
These
Joe Burnett
scholars, based at the
university of Illinois in the 1950s and
1960s.

They share the view of subject

matter/discipline for purposes of
optimum (best) learning and for
lasting benefit to society and the
learner in the final analysis.
Cont..

 They make some central observations

about (American) education, that:
1. Education can and should be common
education i.e. the same for all in regard
to what is taught.
2. Education can and should be general
education i.e. what is taught should
consist of those central skills, ideas and
evaluations which can be used to deal
with life in its growing complexities in a
changing society.
Cont…

3. Whenever knowledge is to be interpreted

or applied, curriculum content will tend
to be determined by real life situations
and network of ideas, concepts, patterns
or relationships pursued will largely be
determined pragmatically.
Cont..

They point out a number of short

comings in the curriculum (American
system) which needed remedy, as
follows:
 Diversity and fragmentation of the
curriculum
 Neglect in dealing with values
 De-emphasis of the role of verbal
behavior.
 CURRICULUM
 To them, the goal of curriculum should be:
“To equip the pupils with mental tools for
the interpretation of knowledge”.
 They propose a grouping of curriculum
areas in the school particularly at
secondary school level, into five
categories, namely:-
 Symbolic skills
 Sciences .
 Developmental studies of cosmos
(universe), society and culture
 Value exemplars and
 Moral problem solving.
Arthur R. King and John A.
Brownell
 Arthur King was a professor of education
at the Hawaii University and a research
fellow at the university’s centre for
Education Research and Development;
while
 John Brownell was a professor of education

at Claremont University’s Graduate School

in California, and director of its secondary
school internship programme.
Cont..
 To them, intellectual training has the
prime claim on curriculum, hence it takes
priority because of criteria it fulfills or
associated with, namely:-
 The curriculum that gives or fulfills man’s
essential nature as man the symbolize i.e.
man who reasons, reflects, remembers,
creates, meditates, imagines and seeks to
control his acts.
 Curriculum which is the most general such
that its content has widest application and
gives highest power of understanding.
Cont..

 Curriculum in which the potential or

practicability of the content is most
learnable and teachable
 CURRICULUM
 According to King and Brownell: “A curriculum
should be subject-centered so as to bring
about an intellectual encounter between a
pupil and some selection of communities of
discourse.
 Curriculum should imply and emphasize careful
analysis of problems, criticism, synthesis and
judgment”.
 Moreover, such a curriculum is identifiable by
its pre-occupation with: “Ordering of subject
matter in logical structures and identifying in
each discipline of knowledge the key concepts,
the general principles, and understanding how
they are related”.
 Qualities of a Teacher
according to King and
Brownell
 They assert that, a teacher:-
1. Must be at home in the intellectual world.
He should be a reader, playgoer, artist,
listener; he must have a mature
perspective on the affairs of the day.
2. Must be an exemplar of the discipline to
his students, and to his colleagues.
3. Must, ordinarily, subject himself to
commensurate (appropriate/adequate)
academic study for a respectable
qualification to teach competently and
confidently.