Question

Name the five traditional philosophies and define them. What profession would use these? name one profession for each philosophy.

Answer 1

Ans) 1) Perennialism
- For Perennialists, the aim of education is to ensure that students acquire understandings about the great ideas of Western civilization. These ideas have the potential for solving problems in any era. The focus is to teach ideas that are everlasting, to seek enduring truths which are constant, not changing, as the natural and human worlds at their most essential level, do not change.

- Teaching these unchanging principles is critical. Humans are rational beings, and their
minds need to be developed. Thus, cultivation of the intellect is the highest priority in a
worthwhile education. The demanding curriculum focuses on attaining cultural literacy, stressing students' growth in enduring disciplines. The loftiest accomplishments of humankind are emphasized– the great works of literature and art, the laws or principles of science.

- Advocates of this educational philosophy are Robert Maynard Hutchins who developed a Great Books program in 1963 and Mortimer Adler, who further developed this curriculum based on 100 great books of western civilization.
2) Essentialism:
- Essentialists believe that there is a common core of knowledge that needs to be transmitted to students in a systematic, disciplined way. The emphasis in this conservative perspective is on intellectual and moral standards that schools should teach. The core of the curriculum is essential knowledge and skills and academic rigor.

- Although this educational philosophy is similar in some ways to Perennialism, Essentialists accept the idea that this core curriculum may change. Schooling should be practical, preparing students to become valuable members of society. It should focus on facts-the objective reality out there--and "the basics," training students to read, write, speak, and compute clearly and logically. Schools should not try to set or influence policies. Students should be taught hard work, respect for authority, and discipline.

- Teachers are to help students keep their non-productive instincts in check, such as aggression or mindlessness. This approach was in reaction to progressivist approaches prevalent in the 1920s and 30s. William Bagley, took progressivist approaches to task in the journal he formed in 1934.

3) Progressivism
- Progressivists believe that education should focus on the whole child, rather than on the content or the teacher. This educational philosophy stresses that students should test ideas by active experimentation.

- Learning is rooted in the questions of learners that arise through experiencing the world. It is active, not passive. The learner is a problem solver and thinker who makes meaning through his or her individual experience in the physical and cultural context.

- Effective teachers provide experiences so that students can learn by doing. Curriculum content is derived from student interests and questions.

- The scientific method is used by progressivist educators so that students can study matter and events systematically and first hand. The emphasis is on process-how one comes to know.

- The Progressive education philosophy was established in America from the mid 1920s through the mid 1950s. John Dewey was its foremost proponent.

- One of his tenets was that the school should improve the way of life of our citizens through
experiencing freedom and democracy in schools. Shared decision making, planning of teachers with students, student-selected topics are all aspects. Books are tools, rather than authority.

4) Eclecticism
- Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.
It can be inelegant, and eclectics are sometimes criticised for lack of consistency in their thinking, but it is common in many fields of study.

- For example, most psychologists accept parts
of behaviorism, but do not attempt to use the theory to explain all aspects of human behavior. A statistician may use frequentist techniques on one occasion and Bayesian ones on another. An example of eclecticism in economics is John Dunning's eclectic theory of international
production.

5) Existentialism
- "Childhood is not adulthood; childhood is playing and no child ever gets enough play. The
Summerhill theory is that when a child has played enough he will start to work and face
difficulties, and I claim that this theory has been vindicated in our pupils' ability to do a good job
even when it involves a lot of unpleasant work."