School of Thoughts of Education Philosophers

1. JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704) : The Empiricist

Educator
* Acquire knowledge about the world through
senses - learning by doing and by interacting wth 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 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 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.
 2. 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 be more specialized kind
of activity.
 * Social development had taken place according
to an evolutionary process by which simple homogenous
society 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.
 3. 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 and
integrating the social experience of the group so that it can
be understood, examined and used by its children.
* The sole purpose of eduction is to contribute to
the personal social growth of individuals.
* The steps of the scientific or reflective method
which are extremely important in Dewey’s educational
theory are as follows:
 a) the learner has a “genuine situation of experience”
involvement in an activity in which he/she is interested.
b) within this experience the learner has a “genuine
problem” that stimulates thinking.
c) the learner possesses the information or does
research to acquire the information needed to solve the
problem.
d) the learner develops possible and tentative
solutions that may solve the problem.
 e) 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 the 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 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 and
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.
 4.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 a cultural lag between material
progress and social institutions and ethical values.
* Instruction should incorporate a content of a
socially useful nature and a problem-solving methodology.
Students are encouraged to work on problems that have
social significance.
* Schools become istrument for social
improvement rather than an agency for presenting the
status quo.
 * Teachers should lead society rather than follow
it. Teachers are agent 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 decision for them.
* Schools ought to provide an education that
afford equal learning opportunities for students.
 5. THEODORE BRAMELD(1904-1987) Social
Reconstructionism
* It is a philosophy that emphasizes the
reformation of society.
* Schools should critically examine present
culture and resolve 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.
* For the social reconstructionists, education is
designed “to awaken students’ consciousness about social
problems and to engage them actively in problem solving”.
* Social reconstructionists 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.
 6. PAULO FREIRE (1921-1997) Critical Pedagogy
* He believed 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, he 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 teachers
and her students is necessary in order for the
conscientization process to take place.
* Freire’s critical pedagogy is problem-posing
education.
* A central element of Freire’s pedagogy is
dialogue.
* Dialogue is the basis for critical and problem-
posing pedagogy.