Philosophical foundations of curriculum

2.  The term has been derived from two Greek words,
‘Philos’ means love and ‘Sophia’ means wisdom.
 Philosophy means love for knowledge or passion
for learning.
 MEANING OF PHILOSOPHY: Philosophy as:
 Love of knowledge
 An Activity
 A comprehensive picture of the universe
 A guide to a way of life
 Philosophy and Science

3.  Metaphysics – deals with reality
 Epistemology – deals with knowledge
 Axiology – deals with values

4.  Education and Life are interdependent. It is aptly
remarked that without philosophy, education
would be a blind effort and without education
philosophy would be cripple.
 Education is the dynamic side of philosophy –
Adams (The great scholars like Plato, and Aristotle
wanted that their philosophies should be given
practical shape. The shape can be given only
through well planned education system.)

5.  Philosophy points out the way, and education
follows it. Education thus becomes the best means
for the promotion of philosophy. For the good of
life, for the good of the individual and for the good
of society, we need direction.
 The art of education will never aim at complete
clearness without philosophy.
 Every aspect of education is influenced by
philosophy and so the ultimate questions of
philosophy are all the basic questions of education.

6.  Philosophy is the bedrock for the entire system of
education.
 Great philosophers have been greet educators like
Swami Vevekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Rabindranath
Togore, Radhakrishnan, MahatmaGandhi etc.
 Philosophy and Education are the two sides of the
same coin – Ross.
 The ultimate questions of education are the
questions of philosophy.

7.  Philosophy is the beginning point in curriculum decision
making and is the basis for all subsequent decisions
regarding curriculums.
 It helps the curriculum developers to answer questions such
as:
 What subjects are of value?
 How students learn?
 What methods and materials to use?
 It also provides them with a basis for dealing with precise
tasks and for making such decision as what workbook,
textbooks, or other cognitive and non-cognitive activities to
utilize and how to utilize them, what homework to assign
and how much of it, how to test students and how to use the
test results, and what courses and subject matter to
emphasize.

8.  The aim of education is to discover and develop
each individuals abilities and full moral excellence
in order to better serve society.
 The curricular emphasis is subject matter of mind:
literature, history, philosophy and religion.
 Teaching methods focus on handling ideas through
lecture, discussion and questioning

9.  Naturalism advocates the selection of learning
experience according to the present needs, interests
and activities of the child.
 It insists that adult interference should be reduced to
the minimum and that the child should grow up in
the free atmosphere.
 Naturalists emphasises the child centred methods of
teaching. They recommend proper motivation and
effective use or illustrative aids to capture and
maintain the child’s interest in the lesson.
 They advocate perfect freedom for the child. They
believe in discipline by natural consequences

10.  The pragmatist visualized the relationship between
man and the world as one of perpetual (continuous)
growth towards a dynamic equilibrium.
 The utility theory of truth is to the effect that truth is
what worked in practice. It is based on change,
process and relatively. It constructs knowledge as a
process in which reality is constantly changing and
rejects the dogmas of pre-conceived truths and
external values.
 Pragmatic curriculum reflects practical utilitarian
subjects.

11.  The curriculum designed based on the principle of
utility, integration and child’s personal needs,
interests and experience.
 Methods: Learning by doing, project method,
Integrated method and learning by life
experiences
 Curriculum must not exist apart from the social
context. The pragmatism places heavy emphasis
on broad-field curriculum, diversified curriculum,
experience-centred curriculum, problem-based
curriculum. In brief, the pragmatic curriculum is
built on people’s experiences and needs.

12.  Realism is a philosophy of common sense and
science.
 Physical world is real, senses are gateways of
knowledge
 Truths are discovered through observation and
experimentation.
 The real world exists exclusive of the perception
and interpretation of the perceiver (observer).
 The realist views the world in terms of objects and
matter. People can come to know the world
through their senses and their reason.

13.  Realistic curriculum reflects the material world, physical
science and quantitative aspects of education.
 The realist curriculum consists of the organized, separate
subject matter of the physical world that classifies objects.
Realism advocates the study of the law of nature and the
accompanying universal truths of the physical world.
 Activities that require mastering facts and information on
the physical world are significant aspects of realist
methodology. According to realism, observable fact is the
truth. Hence field trips, laboratories, audio-visual materials
and nature are ingredients of methodology. Realistic
curriculum placed heavy emphasis on knowledge-based,
subject-centred curriculum with humanistic and scientific
subjects.

14.  Existentialism emphasizes individualism and
personal self-fulfilment.
 Existentialists believe in the individual’s freedom,
they no not advocate any rigid curriculum. They
recognise the ’individual differences’’ and wish to
have diverse curricula suiting the needs, abilities
and aptitudes of the individual.
 The central place is given to humanities, poetry,
drama, music, art, novels etc.
 Teach social sciences for inculcating moral
obligation and for knowing the relationship of the
individual to a group.

15.  No school follows any one of these educational
philosophies strictly. Actually schools tend to draw
eclectically (taking the good of every philosophy)
upon more than one philosophy to create the kind
of their parents, administrator and teaching staff
would desire. However, it is desired for curriculum
planner to know the common available educational
philosophies to give the best of the education.

16.  Essentialism emphasizes academic subject-centred
curriculum consisting of essential skills (three R’s.)
and essential subjects (English, science, history,
math). Essentialism advocates fundamentals or
mastery of essential skills and facts that form the
basis of the subject matter.

17. Although aspects of educational philosophy can be
derived from the roots of idealism, realism,
pragmatism and existentialism, a common approach
is to provide a pattern of educational philosophies
which derives from the major schools of philosophy
some of which have been touched upon above. Here,
we shall be looking into the following four educational
philosophies for their implications in the area of
curriculum development.
i) Perennialism (Rooted from realism)
ii) Progressivism (Rooted from Idealism and realism)
iii) Essentialism (Rooted from Pragmatism)
iv) Reconstructionism (Rooted from Pragmatism)

18. Educational
Philosophy
Area of focus
1. Perennialism The focus in the curriculum is classical
subjects, literary
analysis and considers curriculum as
constant.
2. Essentialism The essential skills of the 3 R's and
essential subjects of
English, Science, History, Math and
Foreign Language is the
focus of the curriculum.

19. 3. Progressivism The curriculum is focused on
students' interest, human
problems and affairs.The
subjects are interdisciplinary,
integrative and interactive
4.
Reconstructionism
The focus of the curriculum is on
present and future trends
and issues of national and
international interests

20.  Perennialism is rooted in realism.
 The curriculum of perennialists includes 3Rs,
moral and religious training; Greek, Latin,
grammar, logic and geometry; the liberal arts.
 It concentration is on teaching the three R’s by
group studies, tutoring,, written composition,
arithmetic and spelling.
 They cherished the universally agreed upon
knowledge and cherished values of the society.

21.  They have advocated subject centered
curriculum, which is the defined discipline or
logically organized bodies of content.
 They have emphasized on language,
literature, mathematics, arts and science.
 Teacher is an authority.Teachers are
expected to have master over their subject.
 Teaching was primarily based on Socratic
method, oral exposition and lecture.

22.  Students interests are irrelevant. They
assume that students are still immature and
lack judgment to determine what is the best
knowledge and values.
 Only one common curriculum is offered to all
the students with partial emphasis on
technical, vocational and elective education.

23.  Essentialism is rooted in idealism and realism.
 The curriculum of essentialists includes 3Rs at
elementary level.
 Core subjects at high school level.
 Essentialism tried to instill all the students with the
most essential or basic academic knowledge and skills
and character development.
 Essentialists believe that teachers should try to embed
traditional moral values and virtues such as respect
for authority, perseverance, fidelity to duty,
consideration for others, and intellectual knowledge
that students need to become model citizens.

24.  The foundation of essentialists curriculum is based
on traditional disciplines such as maths, natural
science, history, foreign language and literature.
 In the essentialist system, students are required to
master a set of body of information and basic
techniques for their grade level before they are
promoted to the next higher grade.
 The contents gradually moves towards more
complex skills and detailed knowledge.

25.  The teacher should serve as an intellectual and moral
role model for the students.
 The teacher also focus on achievement test scores as a
means of evaluating progress.
 Essentialists hope that when students leave school,
they will not only possess basic knowledge and skills,
but they will also have disciplined, practical minds,
capable of applying lessons learned in school in the
real world.
 An example of essentialism would be lecture based
classes at universities. Students sit and take notes in a
classroom which holds over one hundred students.

26.  Progressivism is focused on providing students with
the skills and knowledge necessary not only to survive
but also to succeed in a contemporary and
competitive society.
 In progressivism, the focus of curriculum is based on
students interests, involves the application of
human problems and affairs; interdisciplinary
subject matter; activities and projects.
 Progressivism placed heavy emphasis on activity-
based curriculum relevant curriculum and humanistic
curriculum. Very few schools adopt a single
philosophy, in practice, most schools combine various
philosophies.

27.  Progressivism curriculum that promotes education
aimed at helping students to develop the kind of
problem solving skills that will enable them to
function successfully in a competitive society.
 The teacher teaches problem solving, inquiry,
cooperation and self-discipline. He teaches
through activities, experiments, problem solving,
projects and thematic approaches.
 The role of teacher is to facilitate learning by
posing questions for the students that exercise
their minds in a practical manner.

28.  Teacher encourage creative thinking and as well as
analytic thinking .
 The learning environment is collaborative and
democratic, giving opportunity for all to speak
their minds and receive feddback from peers as
well as the teacher.
 The major focus of this progressive movement was
on the child rather than the subject.

29.  The term reconstructionism was coined by John
Dewey but Theodre Brameld is often considered as the
founder.
 It views education as a means of reconstructing
society.
 Put school in the forefront in remaking society
 Believe that as school/college is attended by all youth,
it must be used as a means to shape the attitudes and
values of each generation. As a result, when the youth
become adults they will share certain common values,
and thus the society will have reshaped itself.

30.  The Philosophy of Reconstructionism contains two
major premises: 1) Society is in need of constant
reconstruction or change, and 2) such social
change involves a reconstruction of education and
the use of education in reconstructing society.
 Reconstructionists believe that the teacher should
be an educational activist. She should be a person
who is aware of what is going on in society and has
an opinion and is able to discuss this with the
students.

31.  .The subject matter is to be used as a vehicle for studying social
problems which must serve as the focus of the curriculum.
The following gives us a view of the reconstructionist programme of
education:
a) critical examination of the cultural heritage of a society as well as
the entire civilization;
b) scrutiny of controversial issues;
c) commitment to bring about social and constructive change;
d) enhancement of cultural renewal and internationalism.
 Curriculum advocated by deconstructionists emphasizes the social
sciences-history, political science, economics, sociology,
psychology and philosophy-and not the pure sciences.

32.  curriculum development is heavily influenced
by philosophy