Philosophical Positions and Statements

1. P H I L O S O PH I C A L P O S I T I O NS A N D
S T A T E M E NT S O F P U R P O S E
Philosophies of Education

2. Tools of Philosophers (1 0f 3)
 Axiology is the study of values; it asks the question of
“What is good?” From axiology, we arrive at an
understanding of “What is good?”
 We get ethics from the study of axiology

3. Tools of Philosophers (2 of 3)
 Epistemology—”How do we know what is true?”
 This is a live question today—Do we listen to
standardized test results to determine how much
students know, or read their portfolios?

4. Tools of Philosophy (3 of 3)
 Metaphysics is somewhat related to epistemology
and asks the question “What is real?”
 Are the things that are real only the things that can
be touched and measured?
 Behaviorists vs. existentialists

5. Purposes for Education
 Hilda Taba, 1962--
 Transmit the cultural
heritage
 Transform the
culture
 Maximize human
potential

6. The Seven Cardinal Principles (1 of 2)
The Seven Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education
Commission on Re-organization of Secondary Education (1918).
1. Health
2. Command of fundamental processes
3. Worthy home membership
4. Vocational competence

7. The Seven Cardinal Principles (2 of 2)
The Seven Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education
Commission on Re-organization of Secondary Education (1918).
5. Citizenship
6. Worthy use of leisure time
7. Ethical character

8. But what do these mean?
 Meaning comes from
at least six
philosophical
positions that “filter”
or influence how
people perceive
educational events.

9. Essentialism
 Almost an entire generation in America has grown
up under essentialism.
 Essentialism is a conservative view of curriculum
that holds schools responsible for only the most
immediately needed instruction.

10. Essentialism (2)
 Essentialism avoids
some of the waste
inherent with
experimentalism
 But it can become so
conservative that it
fails to truly educate

11.  Emphasis on a traditional
education
 Development of the mind
 Core curriculum
 Reality is based in the physical
world
 Teacher-directed learning

12.  Reading, spelling,
language arts
Mathematics, U. S. &
World History
No vocational
education!

13. Standardized tests
Criterion
referenced tests
Not as likely to require
portfolios

14.  Using only text books
 Seated row by row
 Teacher lecture, students listen
 Punishment--attempted
behaviorism but without
expertise

15.  Teach the basic civilized
skills of reading, spelling
and measuring.
 Limit education’s
responsibility--let
industry teach vocational
subjects

16. Writing test
 Multiple choices
 True/False
 Binary-Choice
 Matching

17. All students will
remember the basic
information.
All students will learn
how to pass the test.

18. Experimentalism
 Experimentalism is associated with a very broad but
shallow curriculum. Many electives, few required
subjects.
 Experimentalism is friendly to educational research,
and many new ideas come from it.

19. Experimentalism (2)
 But experimentalism
can be wasteful of
resources
 It can also fail to
follow through
 Accommodates fads
too easily

20. Experimentalism
 Experimentalist
teachers like to
tinker or experiment
 They don’t like to
leave things the same
all the time.

21. Classroom Management for
Experimentalists
 Don’t like bmod or
assertive discipline
 Prefer more
constructivistic
approaches such as
Discipline with
Dignity

22. What experimentalists would teach
 Everything--
anything that had
any relation to
students’ possible
futures
 Has been accused of
trying to do the
home’s job

23. Where experimentalism shines
 When essentialism or perennialism have been in
power for so long, school programs have become
stagnant
 When school has become all work and no play
 When traditional methods have become ineffective

24. Perennialism
 Perennialism was prevalent in the early seventies in
U. S.
 Perennialism reveres the experience of teachers who
have been there.
 Heavy orientation to the past 20 years--almost nil
attention to the future

25. Perennialism
 Perennialists like to
teach time-honored
curricula, including
the classics such as
Plato an Aristotle
 They don’t like
change.

26. Perennialism
 They would
include subjects
such as:
 Geometry
 English literature
 World Geography
• Algebra
• Trigonometry
• Ancient
Geography
• World history
• U.S. History
• Bookkeeping

27. Perennialist Evaluation Methodology
 Teacher-made tests
 Standardized test
 Memory work (“mind is a muscle”)
 Spelling bees

28. Classroom Management
 Assign seats in rows.
 Be strict, but not necessarily expert,
with punishment and reward.
 Set up classroom rules.

29. Orientation Expected
 Self-contained knowledge--teacher is
supposed to know all the answers
 Teacher is the “fountain of all
knowledge.”
 Students are passive listeners

30. Reality Testing for Perennialists
 Paper-pencil test
 Recitation
 Standardized test

31. Future Orientation for Perennialists
 Expect future to continue in the same vein as the
present
 Belief that knowing the classics of the past will equip
students for the future

32. Where Perennialism Shines
 Perennialism does help to dampen the uncertain
effects of the fads that come to education
 Not every new idea is a good one, or one that will
even be effective.
 Perennialism plays well to traditional communities

33. Behaviorism
 Behaviorism believes in a science of behavior
that would shape the world into a better place to
live
 Behaviorists to some degree rightfully claim
that behaviorism naturally occurs in the world
whether people acknowledge it or not

34. What behaviorists believe
 Behaviorists believe
in a science of
behavior
 They rely heavily on
scientific studies of
behavior and how
behavior is
influenced by its
consequences

35. What behaviorists would teach
 Behaviorists are at least as concerned about how
people behave as what they know
 They do not tend to be big innovators in curriculum
 They will however give a fair trial to any new
curricula that someone else might write

36. Where Behaviorism shines
 Special ed situations,
where students do
not pick up on subtle
cues about learning
or behavior
 Alternative and
problem schools

37. Where behaviorism will come short
 Situations where behavior is not so much the need as
the learning of academic content
 Situations where students have internalized
appropriate behavior and behavior does not need to
be emphasized at the expense of scholarship.

38. Reconstructionism
 Reconstructionists point to a time in the past
when they believe that things were better
 They would re-create education to be like things
were back during that time
 They cite research, particularly historical, to
show that things are not going well now.

39. What reconstructionists believe
 Reconstruction-ists
point to a time in the
past when they
believe that things
were better
 They would re-create
education to be like
things were back
during that time

40. What reconstructionists would teach
 Reconstructionists would teach the subjects that
were taught during that “golden age.”
 The subjects would be those that were taught
during that time.
 If the 1960s, for instance, they would teach
usage of the slide rule.

41. One example of Reconstructionism
 1946—right after the
Second World War
 GIs wanted schools
and society to return
to what they were
before Pearl Harbor

42. Reconstructionists and technology
 Their orientation is
very much to the
past
 They and
perennialists do not
react immediately
and positively to new
technology

43. Existentialism
 Existentialists celebrate the human existence
 Very subjective
 Emphasis on meaning within each individual
 May doubt external reality
 Emphasis on present

44. What existentialists believe
 Existentialists
believe in the
consciousness of the
self
 They are very
concerned with
whether students
find school to be a
satisfying experience

45. What existentialists would teach
 Not the same subjects to
everyone, since not
everyone would enjoy the
same things
 They would emphasize
self-esteem and a feeling
of self-worth
 They would include
topics such as values
clarification and . . . .

46. An example of existentialism
 1960—Summerhill
School in England
 1970s in some parts
of America—self
esteem, values
clarification

47. A healthy balance
 Each of the six
philosophies has
something to offer
 The only hazard
happens when one
philosophy rules for
a long period of time