What is real?
Epistemology:
How do we know?
Axiology:
What is valuable?
know?
What subjects shall we teach our
students?
The question of metaphysics involves the
curriculum of the school.
basis of learning.
Today learning has become more secular.
Changes in Axiology:
Values
In traditional societies, values were seen
Idealism
First articulated by Plato in ancient
Greece.
Centered on an unchanging set of ideas
that form the core of our society.
Idealists Believed
Classics and the study of the ancient
Realism
Realism
1700s.
This theory examined the seeming
paradoxical relationship between religion
and science.
Realists Believed
Science and mathematics were the most
Pragmatism
Developed in the 1800s.
This theory separated religion from the
Pragmatists Believed
Students should understand the major
Existentialism
Attention is on the individual and the world
of individual relationships.
This theory represented a change in the
philosophical focus from religion to the
individual. (We are responsible for our
own actions.)
Existentialists Believed
Educational Philosophies
Educators have developed a number of
educational philosophies.
Some parallel one of the four modern
philosophies.
Some borrow ideas from these and other
alternative philosophies.
Authoritarian School:
Perennialism
Rooted in ideas of idealism
and realism.
Has been the cornerstone of education for
centuries.
Characterized by the Great Books
curriculum.
Favors a standardized curriculum.
Prefers the top down teacher centered,
or subject-centered method.
Authoritarian School:
Essentialism
Essentialists focus on the development of
Authoritarian School:
Behaviorism
Democratic School:
Progressivism
Democratic School:
Reconstructionism
Emerged during the Great Depression and
Rousseau.
Seeks to nurture the individual spirit
without imposing external ideas on the
student.
Promotes divergent thinking.
Favors the student-centered approach to
learning.
Democratic School:
Constructivism
Focuses on individual development
Democratic School:
Postmodernism
Postmodernism (Continued)
The curriculum
Moral Education
Assumes that students are undeveloped
Focuses on the Development of moral
reasoning
Consistent with the Democratic School
Embraces Progressivism,
Reconstructionism, Humanism and
Postmodernism
Character Education
Students are blank slates
Favors the transmission of unambiguous
moral values
Consistent with the Authoritarian School
Embraces Perennialism, Essentialism,
Behaviorism and Positivism