EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY

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EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY

• What is a Philosophy of Education?

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Philosophy of Education

• Philosophy centers on three major questions.
  What are these?
• What is real?
• What is true?
• What is good and beautiful?

What is Philosophy? http//www.wisdomquotes.com/ca
t_philosophy.html http//www.philosophypages.com/i
ndex.htm
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Educational Philosophy

• Love of wisdom pursuit of wisdom
• Offers an avenue for serious inquiry into ideas,
  traditions, ways of thinking
• Help develop new insights into educational
  problems
• Role is to examine critically the intellectual
  disputes suggest different ways of viewing
  things

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What is Content of Philosophy?

• Activites
• Prescribing
• Speculation
• Analysis
• Synthesizing

• Attitudes
• Self-awareness
• Comprehensiveness
• Penetration
• Flexibility

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Body of content of Philosophy

• Metaphysics what is real to you
• Epistemology how do we know
• Axiology values
• Ethics morality, behavior
• Asthetics beauty, comfort

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Everyday problem vs. Philosophical analysis of
problem

• Philosophical conflicts
• Look beyond the obvious philosophical analysis

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Assumption

• Taken as true
• Example If a student does well on the TAAS,
  ACT, SAT, etc., they are educated.

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Hypothesis

• A considered guess or hunch in regard to which
  some pertinent data are available a trial answer
  to be tested.

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Intuition

• Instinct feel something
• Low level gut feeling
• Based on past experiences

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Theory

• A theory is an instrument, a guide to thought,
  not necessarily a guide to direct practice.
  Richare Pratte, Contemporary Theories of
  Education (1971).
• Invites argument and counterargument
• Organize ideas for eventual practical activity

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Practice

• Provides raw materials and testing grounds.
• Experiences shared, critically analyzed for
  improvement, taken back into practice for testing
• Serves to expand theory and direct it toward new
  possibilities

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Theory and Philosophy

• What is the relationship between theory and
  philosophy?
• Is theory a set of assumptions? Explain
• Explain how questions such as why, what, how,
  etc. build a theoretical basis from which to
  operate.

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Metaphysics

• The view that reality exists beyond the
  observable world
• Conceived to be transcendental to humankinds
  sensory experience
• Beyond, independent of, superior to, separate
  from the world of experience

Metaphysics Resources http//www.spaceandmotion.c
om/Metaphysics-Principles-Reality.htm
http//websyte.com/alan/metamul.htm
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Areas of Metaphysics

• Cosmology-order in being
• universe? Human?
• Teleology- final causes, end
• Theology study of God
• Anthropology study of humankind
• Ontology-existence, nature of being

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Cosmology

• Order in being
• Study of the origin, nature development of the
  Universe
• Our picture of the order priority of values in
  the structure of the Universe

More on Cosmology http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co
smology
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Teleogy

• Study of purpose of being
• Is there an end?
• Afterlife?

Three Views Outline
Fetus by Leonardo da Vinci
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Theology

• Theological questions
• How do I answer questions I have about God?
• Can God allow evil if he is good?

Examples of Theological Questions and answers if
God were a computer programmer http//www.meyerwe
b.com/other/humor/theology.html
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Anthropology

• Two views
• Judeo-Christian
• human beings have worth dignity
• Free will
• Scientific
• determined by our environment
• No free will

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Ontology

• Study of being
• Existence, nature
• What are the essential qualities of the human
  being?
• Value - priority

More on Ontology http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ont
ology
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Problems of metaphysics?

• What does it mean to be?
• When does life begin?
• Is this a dream or reality?
• When does life end?

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Reality vs. Appearance

• Perception
• Reliability of sense data

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Referent vs. Symbol

• Symbol red
• Referent what you think about
• Language is a catalogue of symbols

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Static vs. Dynamic Culture

• Characteristics of cultures
• Universals society agrees on these
• Specialties some people know
• Alternatives society disagrees on these
• Universals gt Alternatives static
• Alternatives gt Universals dynamic

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• Culture is static subjects used for study are
  static
• Culture is dynamic subjects used to teach
  people to think

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Epistemology

• What is true?
• The nature of truth and knowledge
• The source of truth and knowledge

Quotes on Truth and Wisdom http//www.wisdomquote
s.com/cat_wisdom.html
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In Education

• Metaphysics deals with content
• Epistemology deals with instruction, strategy
  used to deliver content
• direct instruction, cooperative learning, inquiry
  learning, etc.

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Scientific Knowledge vs. Intuition

• Knowledge - Truth Epistemological Is truth an
  absolute?
• Intuition - Gut feeling you just know innate
  sense of knowing information is immediate w/o
  any reasoning involved react spontaneously w/o
  knowing why

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Levels of Intuition

• Simple Awareness
• Scientific Intuition
• Artistic Level
• Religious Intuition

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Problems - Epistemology

• Truth vs. truth
• Vicarious vs. Direct Learning
• Objective vs. Subjective Knowledge
• a priori vs. a posteriori

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Truth vs. truth

• Is there an absolute truth in the Universe? Are
  there absolutes? What are absolutes?
• Something that NEVER changes
• T Classical Phil
• Truth changes - small t
• Contemporary Phil

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Vicarious vs. Direct Learning

• Vicarious indirectly through others
• Direct experience, by doing

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Objective vs. Subjective Knowledge

• Objective - Knowledge is out there to be
  discovered. How can I discover knowledge?
• Subjective Knowledge is inside everyone. How
  can I create knowledge?

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a priori

• Deductive knowledge based on principles that are
  self-evident apart from observation or
  experience.
• Independent of sensory experience
• Proposition is necessarily true or false based on
  purely logical or semantic (meaning in language)
  grounds

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a posteriori

• Knowledge gained as a result of experiences

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How do we know?

• Sense data
• Common sense
• Logic
• Syllogism
• Dialectic

• Intuition
• Science
• Choice making

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Rationalism vs Empiricism

• Rationalism the basic source of knowledge is
  reason.
• Adherents think that each person either is or has
  a mind that has the ability to know truths
  directly.
• Things need not be perceived by the senses.
• idealism, classical realism, dualistic theism

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Rationalism vs Empiricism

• Empiricism the basic source of knowledge is
  experience, not reason.
• Adherents emphasize that human learning centers
  on perceptual, sensory experience instead of
  being centered on the mentalistic, speculative
  reasoning or rational process.
• behavioral experimentalism, logical empiricism,
  cognitive-field experimentalism

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Axiology

• What is good and beautiful?
• A general theory of value
• Primary concepts are ought, duty, right and wrong

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Ethics

• Ethics a theory of behavior
• Morality a practice of behavior

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Axiological problem in U.S.

• Growth of mass society
• Depersonalization
• Alienation
• Law of Interchangeable Parts
• Cloning

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What do we deal with in Ethics?

• Good G vs. good g
• Free choice vs. determinism on the other
• Means vs. Ends
• Do ends justify the means?
• Conceived vs. Operative Behavior
• What you believe you should do vs. what you do
• Morality vs. Religion
• Varied agreement of morality vs. rules

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Aesthetics

• Beauty
• Feeling good part
• Who are you? What do you like?
• Taste good or bad

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Aesthetic Experience

• Euphoric state
• Beauty of something overwhelms you
• Transcend self
• Lost in the experience

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Two areas of Aesthetics

• Art for Arts sake something is done for the
  purpose of beauty-nothing else
• Art for our sake - decide what it is to be used
  for, then design it.
• Form follows function

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21st Century Educational Issues

• Identify major 20/21st century problems relative
  to education, such as
• National standards
• High Stakes Testing
• Vouchers
• Federal dollars to religious organizations
• others

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THREE BASIC WORLDVIEWS
Dr. J. Scott Horrell Dallas Theological Seminary
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THREE BASIC WORLDVIEWS
Dr. J. Scott Horrell Dallas Theological Seminary
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(No Transcript)
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THREE BASIC WORLDVIEWS
Dr. J. Scott Horrell Dallas Theological Seminary
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(No Transcript)