The Teacher’s Philosophical Heritage

5 Philosophies of Education

1. ESSENTIALISM
WHY TEACH?
 It contends that teachers teach for learners to acquire basic knowledge, skills, and
values.
 Teachers teach, “not to radically reshape society” but rather “to transmit the traditional
moral values and intellectual knowledge that students need to become moral citizens.
WHAT TO TEACH?
 Essentialists programs are academically rigorous.
 Emphasis: academic content => for students to learn the basic skills or the fundamental
Rs – (READING, (W) RITING, (A) RITHMETIC, RIGHT CONDUCT - as these are
essential to the acquisition of higher of more complex skills needed in preparation for
adult life.
 Essentialists’ curriculum includes the traditional disciplines such as math, natural
science, history, foreign language, and literature.
 The teachers and administrators decide what is most important for the students to learn
and place little emphasis on student’s interests.

HOW TO TEACH?
 Emphasis: Mastery of subject matter.
 They are expected to be intellectual and moral models of their students.
 They are seen as “fountain” of information and paragon of virtue.
 With mastery of academic content as primary focus, teachers rely heavily on the use of
prescribed textbooks, the drill method, and other methods that will enable them to
cover as much academic content as possible like the lecture method.
 2. PROGRESSIVISM
WHY TEACH?
 Progressivist teachers teach to develop learners into becoming enlightened and
intelligent citizens of a democratic society.
 They teach learners so they may live life fully NOW not to prepare them for adult life.
WHAT TO TEACH?
 The progressivists are identified with need-based and relevant curriculum.
 It is a curriculum that responds to students’ needs and that relates to students’ personal
lives and experiences.
 Progressivists accept the impermanence of life and the inevitability of change.
Everything else change. Change is the only thing that does not change.
 Teachers are more concerned with teaching the learners the skills to cope with change
 Instead of occupying themselves with teaching facts or bits of information that are true
today but become obsolete tomorrow, they would rather focus their teaching on the
teaching of skills or processes in gathering and evaluating information and in problem-
solving.
 Subjects that are given emphasis: natural and social sciences.
 Teachers expose students to many new scientific, technological and social
developments, reflecting the
 progressivists notion that progress and change are fundamental.

HOW TO TEACH?
 Progressivist teachers employ experiential methods. They believe that one learns by
doing.
 John Dewey, book learning is no substitute for actual experience.
 Rely heavily on problem-solving

3. PERENNIALISM
 WHY TEACH?
 We are all rational animals. Schools, should, therefore, develop the students’ rational
and moral powers.
 Aristotle: If we neglect the students’ reasoning skills, we deprive them of the ability to
user their higher faculties to control their passions and appetites.
WHAT TO TEACH?
 The curriculum is a universal one on the view that all human beings possess the same
essential nature.
 It is heavy on the humanities, on general education. It is not a specialist curriculum but
rather a general one.
 What the Perrenialist teachers teach are lifted from the
 Great Books (repository of knowledge and wisdom, tradition of culture which must
initiate each generation)
 What the Perrenialist teachers teach are lifted from the Great Books (repository of
knowledge and wisdom, tradition of culture which must initiate each generation)

HOW TO TEACH?
 It is centered on teachers. The teachers do not allow the students’ interest or
experiences to substantially dictate what they teach.
 They apply whatever creative techniques and other tried and true methods which are
believed to be most conducive to disciplining the students’ minds.

4. EXISTENTIALISM
WHY TEACH?
 The main concern is “to help students understand and appreciate themselves as unique
individuals who accept complete responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, and actions.
 Since “existence precedes essence,” the existentialist teachers’ role is to help students define
their own essence by exposing them to various paths they take in life and by creating an
environment in which they freely choose their own preferred way.

WHAT TO TEACH?
 Students are given a wide variety of options from which to choose. Students are afforded
great latitude in their choice of subject matter.
 Emphasis: Humanities – to provide students with vicarious experiences that will unleash their
own creativity and self –expression.
 Example: Instead of historical individuals, existentialists focus upon the actions of historical
individuals, each of whom provides models for the students’ own behavior.
 Vocational education is regarded more as a means of teaching students about themselves and
their potential than earning a livelihood.
 Art - existentialism encourages individual creativity and imagination more than copying and
imitation established models.

HOW TO TEACH?
 Focus on the individual. Learning is self-paced, self directed.
 It includes a great deal of individual contact with the teacher, who relates to each student
openly and honestly.
 To help students know more about themselves, teachers employ clarification strategy.

5. BEHAVIORISM
WHY TEACH?
 Behaviorist schools are concerned with the modification and shaping of students’ behavior by
providing a favorable environment, since they believe that they are product of their
environment.

HOW TO TEACH?
 Behaviorist teachers ought to arrange environmental conditions so that students can make the
response to stimuli.
 Physical variables: light, temperature, arrangement of furniture, size and quantity of visual aids
have to be controlled to get the desired responses from the learners.
 WHAT TO TEACH?
 Behaviorists look at people and other animals as complex combinations of matter that act only
in response to internally or externally generated stimuli.
 Behaviorist teachers teach students to respond favorably to various stimuli in the environment.

Sources:
THE TEACHER AS PERSON IN SOCIETY
Seminar in Education:
Ma. Pri-Ann M. Tinipunan, MALS 2ndSemester, 2009 – 2010
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sophies%20of%20Education(2).pdf?key=new1blis1:journal:51&nmid=301360561

Reported By:

Abigail Velez Augusto

BSE-English