B.Ed Helper | Teacher Education [Student-Teacher-School-Society]

This platform is created to help Students of Bachelors in Education. Which includes subjects like General Methods of Teaching, Philosophy of Education, Educational Leadership and Management , Educational Assessment and Evaluation, Curriculum Development, Professionalism in Teaching, Human Development and Learning, Citizenship Education and Community Engagement, Research Methods in Education etc. course codes 8601, 8602, 8603, 8604, 8605, 8606, 8607, 8608, 8609, 8610, 8611, 8612, 8613, 8614 etc.

Showing posts with label Course Code 8609. Show all posts

Friday, December 29, 2023

Educational Method of John Dewey | Philosophy of Education | Course code 8609 |

Discuss the main focus of John Dewey in making teaching methods effective.

Course: Philosophy of Education
Course code 8609

Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment

ANSWER

Educational Method

Dewey, himself a successful educational psychologist, has presented many novels and useful ideas on educational methods in his two books, How We Think and Interest and Efforts in Education.

1. Learning by doing.

The most well-known principle enunciated by him is the theory of learning by doing, in which the child learns best when he performs actions related to particular subjects. The educator is not to stuff the child's mind with the information he has gathered throughout his life but to guide the child to those activities by which the child can develop his own natural abilities and qualities. The child should be acquainted with facts while he is engaged in activities relating to those facts. Besides, the child should be confronted with practical difficulties and problems which he should try to solve. Problem-solving is a good technique because it adds to the child's experience.

2. Integration of life and subjects.

Dewey believes that there should be integration between the child's life, his activities and the subjects he studied. All subjects to be taught to the child should be arranged around his activities in such a manner that he acquires knowledge in the process of doing activities to which he is accustomed. Dewey's principle was later on adopted by Mahatma Gandhi in his plan of basic education.

3. Catering to child interest.

The next question that arises is that of designing the method of teaching according to the child's interests. Dewey considers interest and effort to be of supreme importance in the process of education. The educator must understand the child's interest before organizing the activities which are useful for the child. Given the opportunity to formulate programmes on their own, children will be able to make programmes according to their own interests. It is better if this effort is free of any fear or compulsion, because only then can the children make a programme independently. Once this is done, all school activity takes on the form of self-willed activity. Dewey's ideas on educational methods later on led to the evolution of the project method in which the child was made to indulge in those activities which helped in the development of enthusiasm, self-confidence, self-reliance and originality.

4. Participation in collective activities.

In a democratic educational pattern, the child should be made to participate in a collective activity which can help in evolving a cooperative and social spirit. This method of education is apparently very suitable since it meets the requirements of educational psychology. But in fact, it has one inherent shortcoming if the education of the child is fashioned exclusively according to the child's natural inclination he will remain ignorant of many subjects. Besides, even his knowledge of other subjects will remain disorganized, objections which are accepted by Dewey himself.

Role of the Educator

Pragmatic education grants considerable importance to the educator, who is conceived as a servant of society. His task is to create in the school an environment which will help in the development of the child's social personality and enable the child to become a responsible democratic citizen. Dewey considers the educator to be so important that he goes so far as to call him God's representative on earth.

In determining the educator's own behaviour in the school, Dewey accepts democratic principles and educational psychology as suitable guides for shaping the educator's conduct. To realize the values of equality and independence in the school, the educator should not treat himself as superior to the children. He must also consciously abstain from imposing his own ideas, interests, views and tendencies on the children. He must confine his own activity to an observation of the child's own natural inclinations and personality traits, to engaging the child in suitable activities which will help in developing these traits. Hence, the educator needs to pay constant attention to the individual differences of the children. If this is done, administration of the school becomes easier. The educator must also try and engage the children in activities which compel them to think and reason out things for themselves.

Discipline

If the educator conducts himself on the lines suggested above, discipline in the school becomes easy. Difficulties arise only when discipline takes the form of an external force employed to restrain the child from expressing his natural desires. This is the traditional concept of discipline, which was severely criticised by Dewey. He argued that discipline depends not only upon the child's own personality but also upon the social environment in which he is placed. True discipline takes the form of social control and this is evolved when the child engages in collective activity in the school. It is therefore desirable to create an atmosphere in the school which encourages the children to live in mutual harmony and co-operation. Discipline and regularity of habit can be induced in children by making them act in consonance with each other in trying to achieve a single objective.

This objective may be social, moral, intellectual or purely physical. School programmes go a long way in creating the child's character. It is therefore better to provide the child with a social environment and a mode which inspires him to self-discipline rather than to subject him to long lectures. By methods such as these, the child can be turned into a really social being. A peaceful atmosphere is undoubtedly conducive to good and rapid work, but peace is only a means, not an end in itself. The educator's real task is to engage the children in work which suits their natural inclination. If, in the process, the children come into conflict with each other, it is not desirable to scold them and compel them to be peaceful. Self-discipline is a better weapon, and this can be taught through responsibility. When the eductand is faced with the responsibility of looking after most of the work of the college or school he automatically evolves self-discipline.

Participation in social activity is an essential part of educational training, in Dewey's opinion. The school itself is a rudimentary form of society. If the child is encouraged to take part in all collective activities in the school, he will not only be able to maintain discipline in the school, but he will also be simultaneously trained for many activities he must perform in social life. Thus he will also learn to lead a disciplined life as an adult.

Thursday, December 28, 2023

Curriculum of Education by Plato| Philosophy of Education | Course Code 8609

How had Plato classified the curriculum of education into different parts? Discuss in detail.

Course: Philosophy of Education

Course code 8609

Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment

ANSWER

Curriculum of Education

Plato's education has its objective in the realization of truth, a comprehensive truth, not limited or narrow. Plato, therefore, believes that the development of the mind, body, and soul is essential. For this reason, he has divided the curriculum into three parts:

1. Bodily Development.

Plato's philosophy believes bodily development to be of the utmost importance in education, but this bodily development is achieved not merely through exercise and gymnastic activity, but also through a regulated and controlled diet. The educator must guide and train the educator to attend to his food. He must be the kind of doctor who advises a particular kind of diet after acquainting himself with weaknesses of the educand's body. This must be done to get rid of these debilities and finally to lead to the complete development of the body.

2. Educational Impressions.

But it must be remembered that bodily development is only a means to mental development because a healthy mind resides only in a healthy body. Although much importance is attached to bodily development, even greater importance is attached to mental development. Being under the influence of Pythagoras, Plato recommended the teaching of mathematics as of supreme importance. The first step in the teaching of mathematics is the teaching of arithmetic. Geometry and algebra should then be taught. Plato believed that the teaching of mathematics could remove many mental defects. In addition to mathematics, Plato considered the teaching of astronomy as of great significance, as part of higher education.

3. Training in Music.

To achieve balance in education, Plato stressed the value of musical training as a supplement to training in gymnastics. Exercise is the source of bodily development while music helps in the development of the soul. But music and literature taught to the student must be capable of building character.

Plato suggested that the child's curriculum should be purged of all literature and musical epics which tended to generate such qualities as cowardice, weakness, selfishness, egoism, etc. He was critical of the epics of Homer and other contemporary poets on this ground. Plato considered balance in human life to be of the greatest importance because, in the absence of such a balance, man should neither fulfill his social obligations nor enjoy his own private life to the full. Hence it can be concluded that Plato suggested a balanced curriculum for education.

Role of Educator

In Plato's plan of education, the educator is considered to have the greatest importance. He is like the torch bearer who leads a man, lying in a dark cave, out of the darkness into the bright light of the outside world. His task is to bring the educator out of the darkness of the cave into the light of the day. He is thus the guide.

In his methods of teaching Plato believes imitation to be of the greatest importance, for he realizes that the child learns a great deal through imitation. He will acquire the behavior of the people among whom he is made to live. Hence, keeping in mind the status of the child, he should be made to live among people from whom he can learn good habits and avoid bad ones.

Education According to Classes

Plato's plan of education does not envisage uniform education for one and all. He accepted the concept of social stratification and suggested that since different individuals had to perform different tasks in society, they should also be educated differently, to train each one in his own respective sphere. He believed that different individuals are made of different metals. Those made of gold should take up administration and government, while those made of silver were best suited for trade and defense. Others made of iron and baser metals should become laborers and agriculturists. The state must make different arrangements for the education of these different kinds of people, although Plato implicitly agrees that the education of governing classes is of the greatest importance. The education of the other classes in society does not concern him very much.

Faced with the problem of determining the class of each individual, Plato suggested various kinds of tests to be conducted at different age levels. In the first place, primary education will be given to all between the ages of seven and twenty, following which a test shall be administered to everyone. Those who fail the test are to be sent to labor in various occupations and productive trades. The successful candidates will be sent to the armed forces where training will be imparted to them for the next ten years. This will again be followed by a test; the failures will be compelled to remain in the armed forces while the successful ones will be sent to join the government. Then this governing class will be subjected to further education in science. Later on, one from among the governing class will be elected as the philosopher administrator whose task will be to look after the government and education of the state. This individual will occupy the highest position in the land, his word will be the law of the land. Apart from this supreme individual, all other members of the governing class will continue to receive education throughout their lives, most of this education consisting of teachings in philosophy. It is thus evident that Plato granted the highest place to philosophy in his educational scheme (Shrivastava, 2003).

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Empirical Knowledge | Philosophy of Education | 8609

What is empirical knowledge? Justify its objectivity with the help of suitable examples.

Course: Philosophy of Education

Course code 8609

Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment

ANSWER

Empirical Knowledge

Epistemology has many branches and includes essentialism, historical perspective, perennials, progressivism, empiricism, idealism, rationalism, constructivism, and others. Empiricism and rationalism can be specified as the two major constructing debates within the field of epistemological study. Empiricism accepts personal experiences associated with observation, feelings, and senses as a valid source of knowledge, whereas rationalism relies on empirical findings gained through valid and reliable measures as a source of knowledge. Empirical knowledge relies on objective facts that have been established and can be demonstrated.

The empirical knowledge is an attempt to discover a basis for our knowledge in the sense of experience. In other words, empirical knowledge is the type that finds recourse or is confirmed by the evidence of sensory experience. It is thus derived from the use of the five senses since knowledge can only be acquired from the experience of seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, and tasting. It is the evidence of the senses that gives meaning to empirical knowledge since the senses, according to the empiricists, are the source and originator of our knowledge. The thrust of the empiricists as regards knowledge is that there is no knowledge before sense experience and there can be no knowledge outside sense experience. Since empirical knowledge is fundamentally rooted in sense experience, it stands to reason that observation and experimentation will also be basic to empirical knowledge.

Empiricists hold that all of our knowledge is ultimately derived from our senses or our experiences. They therefore deny the existence of innate knowledge, i.e. knowledge that we possess from birth. Empiricism fits well with the scientific worldview that places an emphasis on experimentation and observation. It struggles, however, to account for certain types of knowledge, e.g. knowledge of pure mathematics or ethics.

Empirical knowledge is knowledge of such facts as one may meet in experience. These are always particular and may be of many kinds, including such as needing a lot of training or some apparatus to experience them.

This doctrine states that experience is the primary source of all human knowledge. For that, it relies on the assertion that when human beings are deprived of various kinds of experiences, they do not know any truth, regardless of its clarity. This shows that human beings are born without any innate knowledge. They begin their awareness and knowledge as soon as they begin their practical lives. Their knowledge widens as their experiences widen, and their knowledge becomes varied in kind as their experiences take on different forms.

The empiricists do not admit necessary rational knowledge before experience. Rather, they consider experience as the only basis of sound judgment and the general criterion in every field. Even those judgments that the rational doctrine alleges to be necessary knowledge must, [according to the empiricists], be subject to the empirical criterion, and must be admitted following the determination of experience. This is because human beings do not have any judgment whose confirmation does not require experience.

This results in the following:

First, the power of human thinking is delimited by the limits of the empirical field; so that, any metaphysical investigation or study of metaphysical issues becomes useless. [In this, the empirical doctrine] is exactly the contrary of the rational doctrine. Second, the movement of thought progresses in a way contrary to the manner asserted by the rational doctrine. Thus, whereas the rational doctrine asserts that a thought always moves from what is general to what is particular, the empiricists assert that it moves from what is particular to what is general; that is, from the narrow limits of experiments to universal laws and principles. It always progresses from the empirical particular truth to the absolute truth. The general laws and universal principles that human beings have are nothing but the result of experiences. The consequence of this is a progression of induction from individual things to a discovery of general objective truths.

For this reason, the empirical doctrine relies on the inductive method in [its] search for evidence and in thinking, since this method ascends from the particular to the universal.

The natural sciences, which the empiricists seek to establish based on pure experimentation, are themselves in need of primary rational principles that are before experimentation. This is because the scientist carries out his experiment in his laboratory on limited objective particulars. Then he puts forward a theory for explaining the phenomena that the experiment in the laboratory had disclosed, and for justifying them by one common cause. This is exemplified in the theory that states that the cause of heat is motion, based on several experiments interpreted in this way. It is our right to ask the natural scientist about how he offers this theory as a universal law applicable to all circumstances resembling those of the experiment, even though the experiment did not apply except to several specific things. Is it, not the case, then, that this generalization is based on a principle stating that similar circumstances and things alike in kind and reality must share in-laws (p. 83) and decrees? Here, once again, we inquire about how the mind reached this principle. The empiricists cannot claim that it is an empirical principle. Rather, it must be a piece of rational knowledge that is before experimentation. The reason is that if it were supported by experimentation, then the experimentation on which this principle is based also, in turn, treats only specific subjects. How, then, can a general principle be based on it? Thus, the establishment of a general principle or a universal law in light of one or more experiments cannot be accomplished except after admitting prior rational knowledge.

With this, it becomes clear that all the empirical theories in the natural sciences are based on several pieces of rational knowledge that are not subject to experimentation. Rather, the mind accepts them immediately. Although there is great value in experience for humanity and the extent of its service in the fields of knowledge. However, experiments are not the primary criterion and the fundamental source of human thought and knowledge.

The seed of the positivist school in philosophy germinated during the nineteenth century, in which the empirical tendency prevailed. Thus, this school developed under the auspices of this empirical tendency.

Friday, December 8, 2023

Contribution of Existentialism in Education | Philosophy of Education | Course Code 8609

QUESTION

What is the contribution of existentialism in education?

Course: Philosophy of Education

Course code 8609

Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment

ANSWER

Contribution to Education

Existentialism developed as a reaction against the contemporary social, economic, and political situation in which man has lost his self. This philosophy has widely influenced art and literature. In politics, it has stood against war. Its followers are active pacifists. In the field of education, the contribution of existentialism is as follows:

1. Total development.

Existentialists have aimed at the total development of personality through education. Education should aim at the whole man. It should aim at character formation and self-realization.

2. Subjective knowledge.

The present age of science has made too much of objective knowledge, so much so that the term subjective has come to mean unreal, non-sense, ignorant, and irrelevant. The existentialists rightly point out that subjective knowledge is even more important than objective knowledge. They rightly hold that truth is subjectivity. It is a human value and values are not facts. The reduction of values to facts has led to a widespread loss of faith in values. Therefore, along with the teaching of science and mathematics, the humanities, art, and literature should also be given a suitable place in the curriculum at every stage of education. Most of the ills of modern man are due to an over-objective attitude. This requires a subjectivist correction in the light of existentialist ideas.

3. Importance of environment.

The present industrial, economic, political, and social environment is valueless. Therefore, it helps confusion and corruption, tensions and conflicts. Existentialists seek to provide an environment proper to self-development and self-consciousness. This environment in the school requires contributions from humanities, arts, and literature. These will help in the development of individuality in education so that he may cease to become a cog in the social wheel. Rather he should develop a self-conscious and sensitive individual

Thursday, May 25, 2023

Educational Views of Ahmed Ibn-e-Muhammad Ibn-e-Ya’qub Ibn-e-Miskawayh | Introduction to Philosophy | Course code 8609 | B.Ed Solved Assignment |

QUESTION

Enlist the educational views of Ahmed Ibn-e-Muhammad Ibn-e-Ya'qub Ibn-e-Miskawayh.

Course: Introduction to Philosophy

Course code 8609

Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment

ANSWER

AHMAD IBN MUHAMMAD IBNYA`QUB -IBNMISKAWAYH

Ahmad Ibn Muhammad ibnYa`qub, surnamed Miskawayh, is also known as Abu 'Ali al-Khazin. Miskawayh appealed to Greek philosophy. He studied history, philosophical disciplines, and alchemy. He is recognized as an eminent theistic thinker, historian, moralist, and historian of Persia. The most significant part of Miskawayh's philosophical activity is devoted to ethics. Three important books of Miskawayh on ethics are Tartib al-Sa`adah, Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, and Jawidan Khirad.

IbnMiskawayh’s objectives and theory of education were based on the Aristotelian theory of education which specified intellectual, moral, and physical education aiming to produce good human beings from the social point of view and attaining eternal happiness and self-realization. Similar to Plato and Aristotle, Ibn Miskawayh believed that education is linked to statecraft. Therefore, he visualized an education system that could fit the people to perform the duties entrusted to them by the state. Like Aristotle, he presented the view that physical education must precede intellectual and spiritual education. To IbnMiskawayh, the goal of life was to combine human will with the Divine Will.

Proper education must, therefore, minister to the needs of the body no less than the aspirations of the soul. Thus asceticism was entirely unacceptable to him. Ibn Miskawaih emphasized that the need for religious education is therefore apparent because of aiming to combine human will and Divine Will. For IbnMiskawayh aim of religious education was not merely to shield against irreligion but to construct the conscience of the child.

In “Tahdhib al-Akhlaq”, Miskawayh connected moral philosophy with psychology and stated it doctrine of the soul. In the history of philosophical thought, Miskawayh is one of the influential personalities among Muslims. He was unique from others due to his concern for ethics. Therefore, he was considered the first ethical thinker among Muslims. Miskawayh’s scientific output is not confined to the field of ethics and philosophy, but he also made notable contributions to history, chemistry, literature, and other subjects.

Miskawayh ‘s "Tahdhib Al-akhlaq" is considered the most famous book. In this book, he explained the education of young boys. According to Miskawayh, knowledge precedes action, and ‘moral happiness’ is happiness enabling the human being to live happily, following the requirements of virtue. Hence, human beings can attain personal happiness through intellectual effort, and endeavoring to acquire the sciences enabling their thought inclusive of all areas. For Miskawayh, ethics are very closely associated with the objective of education. Ethics as a philosophical study is considered a practical philosophy, which strives to decide what should be; so examining this field of study does not lead to philosophical reflection as a final aim, but rather it is used in practical life.

Miskawayh divided philosophy into two parts:

· a theoretical part and
· a practical part

According to Miskawayh, each part completes the other. He distinguished between philosophy and religion. He also distinguished between reason and faith. The famous book “Tahdhib al-akhlaq” (Refinement of character) of Miskawayh is a guide to practical conduct. It is considered a primary contribution to the field of ethics. In his philosophical writings, Ibn Miskawayh presents rational rather than scriptural arguments. Often associated by scholars with Neo-Platonist methods, the author makes frequent reference to Aristotle in discussing human nature, requirements for happiness, and the virtuous life. Miskawayh discussed the training of young boys and men.

In his writings, the word “tarbiya” or “tab has been for the training of young boys and men. The meaning of training primarily shows that obligatory training rests on adults, to impart training to young with desirable, morality, knowledge, customs, and behavior, and prepare them in a way to make them acceptable human beings of society.

Miskawayh provided rules for the preservation of oral health for the cultivation of character. These rules describe how different parts of the soul can be brought together into harmony, for the achievement of happiness. As doctors prescribe rules for physical health, the role of a moral philosopher is to prescribe rules for moral health. Moral health is founded upon a combination of intellectual development and practical action.

Ibn Miskawayh wrote on a wide variety of topics, ranging from history to psychology and chemistry. Still, in philosophy, his metaphysics seems to have been generally informed by a version of Neoplatonism. He avoided the problem of reconciling religion with philosophy.

However, Ibn Miskawayh's work on ethics is of a much higher order and does show evidence of considerable conceptual complexity. In his Tahdhib Al-akhlaq (Cultivation of Morals) he set out to show how we might acquire the right dispositions to perform morally correct actions in an organized and systematic manner. He asserted that the soul distinguishes us from other human beings and from things, from animals, and it uses the body and the parts of the body to attempt to come into contact with more spiritual realms of being. The soul is an independent and immortal substance that controls the body.

According to Miskawayh, humanity is in constant need of adapting to what he was brought up to and became used to in childhood, and also what suits him naturally. If he does not do this, he falls into the place of the worthless, and his connection with God is disconnected. This desolation is confirmed if a person continues in four characteristics:

Idleness, Laziness, and wasting life without work and with no human benefit;
ignorance and stupidity, caused by failure to investigate and exercise the soul with the teachings of wise men;
Disrespect, which results from neglect of the soul when it pursues desires and is unrestrained and seeks to commit sins and evil deeds
The preoccupation arises from persistence in unpleasant deeds.·

According to Miskawayh, changing the character of an adult is difficult, because he is nurtured and grown up with it, however, special conditions and self-realization of the extent of his corrupt morals can provide him the purpose for his change. For such a person, it is hoped that he will refrain from (evil) morals gradually and have recourse to the exemplary way by repentance and by keeping company with the good and the wise by the pursuit of philosophy. The reason behind his emphasis on the possibility of refining character purifying souls, and freeing the self from evil habits and the like, stems from his opinion about people, which is that they are either good by nature or good because of the law and learning.

Miskawayh said that good manners are as useful for boys as are also useful to older people; however, these are more useful to the young because they habituate them to the love of virtues and so they grow up accordingly. Afterward, it will not be hard for them to avoid evils, and later it will be easy for them to follow all the prescriptions of wisdom and the regulations of the Law (sharia) and Tradition (sunna). They become accustomed to keeping themselves from the temptations of wicked pleasures; they restrain them from indulging in any of those pleasures or thinking too much about them. They make them desire the high rank of philosophy.

Miskawayh said that when the soul of the boy is ready to accept training; there must be a concern for the boy, and he must be cared for, and not left to one who cannot do this training well or who does not have fine characteristics and excellent habits. According to Miskawayh, the soul has been divided into three faculties:

· Appetitive,

· Irascible, and

· Rational

These faculties appear gradually, as the boys grow until they reach their perfection and are then called rational. Miskawayh also described some methods for the training of the soul. For Miskawayh, the psychological aspect is the most important. Equipped with a personal code of moral conduct, Miskawayh determined seven species of wisdom:

· Acuteness of intelligence

· Quickness of intellect

· Clearness of understanding

· Facility of acquirement

· Precision of discrimination

· Retention, and

· Recollection

Miskawayh described eleven species of courage:

Magnanimity,
Collectedness,
Loftiness of purpose,
Firmness, coolness,
Stateliness, boldness,
Endurance,
Condescension,
Zeal, and
Mercy
Affability,
Righteousness,
Conciliatoriness,
Continence,
Patience,
Contentment,
Sedateness,
Piety,
Regularity,
Integrity, and
Liberality (which is further divided into six subspecies)

Miskawayh is essentially a historian and moralist. He has mentioned several abstract methods for the training of the soul. These ways include:

Praise the boy for the good things he does which are acceptable to the adults, and also adults who do good deeds should be praised in his presence. All this emphasizes fine actions, whether performed by him or by adults, and by those considered to be an example for him.

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Basic Concepts of John Dewey’s Philosophy of Education | Introduction to Philosophy | Course code 8609 | B.Ed Solved Assignment |

QUESTION

Discuss the basic concepts of John Dewey’s philosophy of education.

Course: Introduction to Philosophy

Course code 8609

Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment

ANSWER

JOHN DEWEY

John Dewey, the greatest of the pragmatists and generally recognized as the most outstanding philosopher his country has yet produced, made significant contributions to virtually every field of philosophy as well as to such other areas of inquiry as education and psychology. Active for 70 years as a scholar, he was a prolific writer publishing approximately fifty books and more than a hundred articles. Many of these have been translated into various foreign languages. New volumes are still coming out with more Dewey material, mainly correspondence, and books and articles on him are appearing at a rapidly increasing rate.

Philosophy of Education

1. Analysis of reflective inquiry. Perhaps the most important single emphasis of John Dewey is his insistence upon applying reflective or critical inquiry to problems or indeterminate situations. What is involved in problem-solving or thinking through a problem? What is critical inquiry? How does one apply intelligence to human affairs? Dewey's answer to these questions is outlined in its simplest terms in How We Think, and a more sophisticated version is given in Logic; The Theory of Inquiry. In a sense, the phases or steps in a complete act of reflective thinking afford an outline for each of his major works, and he had a lifelong concern with what is involved in reflective thinking.

2. View of experience. Experience is one of the central concepts in Dewey's thought, occurring and recurring throughout his writing. Though he finally concluded that he might have done better to use another term, many of his most important works are concerned with clarifying it- for example, his Casus Lectures: Experience and Nature or his Art as Experience or Experience and Education. For him experience constitutes the entire range of men's relations to, or transactions with the universe. We experience nature and things interacting in certain ways made up of experience.

3. View of Knowledge. Dewey rejects the traditional epistemology which sets up a knower outside the world and then asks about the possibility, extent, and validity of knowledge in general. He laughingly suggests that we might equally well have a problem with digestion in general- its possibility, extent, and genuineness—by assuming that the stomach and the food materials were inhabitants of different worlds. The significant problem is not how such a knower is somehow to mirror the antecedently real but rather how one set of experienced events is to be used as signs of what we shall experience under another set of conditions.

The important distinction, moreover, is not between the knower as the subject and the world known as the object. Instead, it is between different ways of being in the movement of things, between an unreflective physical way and a purposive, intelligent one.

In Dewey's view knowledge needs to be placed in the context of the problematic or indeterminate situation and reflective inquiry. Knowledge is more than immediate awareness or the presence of a set of sense data. Having qualities before us does not constitute knowing. Knowledge is always inferential, and the problem is how the processes of inference are to be guided to trustworthy or warranted conclusions. It involves operations of controlled observation, testing, and experimentation. It is a product of inquiry—the steps in a complete act of reflective thinking. Dewey liked Bacon's idea that knowledge is power and it may be tested by the promotion of social progress.

4. Conception of philosophy. In "The Need for a Recovery of Philosophy" Dewey declares that philosophy must cease to be "a device for dealing with the problems of philosophy" and become "a method, cultivated by philosophers for dealing with the problems of men". But the problems of man as he sees them cover a range broad enough to include in one way or another most of the traditional problems as well as many others. The method involves treating philosophy as vision,

imagination, and reflection; and though the clarifying process may show that certain epistemological problems are pseudo-problems, the fact that they are raised may point to genuine cultural crises. If the action at all levels needs to be informed with vision, imagination, and reflection to bring clarity to mind future possibilities about attaining the better and averting the worse, there is more than enough for philosophy to do.

5. Biologism. What is sometimes referred to as Dewey's biologism reflects:

His emphasis on the genetic point of view, and
His conviction is that inquiry has a biological matrix.

He was interested in how ideas originate and become more complex, in the parallels between human responses and lower levels, and in the continuity of different species of organic life from the lowest forms to man. To understand the present situation, he held, we inquire into its specific conditions as well into its probable consequences.

6. Experimentalism. Dewey's experimentalism relates to his analysis of reflective inquiry for which hypotheses, prediction, and experimentation are central. An experiment is a program of action to determine consequences. It is a way of introducing intelligence into a situation. It is an intelligently guided procedure for discovering what adjustments an organism must make to its environment to ward off ill or secure goods. Experimentation for Dewey is relevant not merely on the individual biological level, but wherever planned reconstruction of a situation may help effect the desired transformation, for example, in social planning or in education. The more important the issue at stake, the more clearly is experimentation seen to be preferable to such alternatives as authoritarianism, simple guesswork or merely waiting for events to run their course.

7. Instrumentalism. Dewey's instrumentalism also stems from his analysis of reflective inquiry. Ideas are not copies, images, or visions of external objects but rather tools or instruments to facilitate an organism's behavior. They are instruments for operating on things or on stimuli. Things or objects are what we can do with them, and we can distinguish among them by the behavioral reactions they make possible.

Truth, accordingly, is adverbial. It is a way ideas work out in practice. It is a matter of whether hypotheses lead to predicted consequences, an affair of verified predictions of warranted assertions. Dewey's instrumentalism encourages a new respect for instruments or means. The more we value ends or goals, in his view, the greater our attention to the means which may bring them about. The separation of goods into natural and moral or into instrumental and intrinsic may have the harmful consequence of making moral and intrinsic goods more remote from daily living besides encouraging us to think that we can have the intrinsic without having to concern ourselves with the instrumental. Viewing any good as merely instrumental, moreover, is fairly sure not to do it justice.

8. Relativism. Dewey's relativism is to be opposed to absolutism and is a way of stressing the importance of context, situation, and relationships. To take things out of relations is to deprive them of value and meaning. Absolutes are ruled out in his view, and unqualified generalizations are likely to be misleading. An economic policy or a plan of action is good relative to a specific situation which makes it desirable. A knife may be good for sharpening a pencil and bad for cutting a rope, but to speak of it without qualifications as good or bad is quite misleading.

9. Meliorism. In ethics, according to Dewey's account in Reconstruction in Philosophy, the emphasis should be placed on improving or bettering our present situation rather than upon good or bad in some absolute sense. The good, if one is to speak of the good rather than the better, is what will enable us to solve the problem or difficulty. Thus what is usually referred to as a moral end or standard becomes in this view a hypothesis as to how to overcome a moral problem. Since every problematic situation is unique, values are also unique; but if one is to specify an end, then growth, education, or problem-solving would be that end. Instead of treating the acquisition of skill and attainment of culture as ends, we should see them as marks of growth and means to its continuing difficulties or furthering growth.

10. Humanism. Dewey's humanism stems from his acceptance of the Baconian view that knowledge is tested by the promotion of human intelligence based in good part on the experience of modern science for the sake of bettering the human situation. Supernaturalism and the usual dogmas of revealed religion have no place in Dewey's view. As he tells us in A Common Faith, the things of greatest value in civilization exist by the grace of the continuous human community in which we are a link and we have the responsibility of conserving, transmitting, rectifying, and expanding our heritage of values so that those who come after us may share it more generously and more securely. Our common faith draws its main stand from our attempt to carry out this responsibility.

11. Education and experience. Most of the major theses in Dewey's general philosophy find expression in his philosophy of education. Reflective inquiry is as central for education, in his view, as for any other phase of life or experience. Indeed, for him, education is a problem-solving process, and we learn by doing, by having an opportunity to react in real-life situations. In education not indoctrination, but inquiry is focal. Not simply amassing facts but learning to apply intelligence to problem-solving has a top priority. Education must be experimental without simply improvisation.

The reconstructive purpose is as much at work in education as anywhere else in experience. As he says in Democracy and Education, "Education is a constant reorganizing and reconstructing of experience". Present experiences must be so guided as to make future experiences more meaningful and worthwhile. Though the value and the knowledge of the past are transmitted, this must be done in such a fashion as to broaden, deepen, and otherwise improve them. Criticism and not simply passive acceptance are demanded.

Dewey equates education and growth. As teachers, we start with the child where he now is, with his present stock of interests and knowledge, and seek to help him expand and enrich both his interests and his knowledge and grow as a person in his community and his society. He learns to work responsibly for his own development and for social conditions which will encourage a similar development for all other members of his society. Education must not be simply a means to something else. It should not be merely preparation for the future. As a process of growth it should have its own enjoyable and intrinsically rewarding features at the same time that it helps further continued education, and, in Dewey's view, the test of our social institutions may be found in their effect in furthering continued education or growth. Dewey himself had considerable reservations over some features of "progressive education", but he continued to emphasize some of the strengths of the newer education as compared with the traditional outlook. His humanism and meliorism are richly exemplified in his account of the theory and practice of education. His philosophy of education stresses the social nature of education, its intimate and multiple relations to democracy, and its cultural significance.

Aims of Education

According to Dewey the aim of education is the development of a child's powers and abilities. It is impossible to lay down any definite principle for a particular kind of development because this development will differ from one child to the next, in conformity with the unique abilities of the individual. The educator should guide the child according to the abilities and powers he observes in it. It is better, in Dewey's opinion, to leave the question of educational objectives unanswered. If a definite aim is ascribed to education, it may do very great harm by compelling the teacher to guide the education in a particular direction, not in keeping with the innate abilities of the child.

In general, the aim of education is to create an atmosphere in which the child gets an opportunity to be active and contribute to the social awakening of the human race. From a pragmatic standpoint, education aims at creating social efficiency in the child. Man is a social being who must develop within the confines of society, outside which he cannot develop at all. For this reason, education must aim at creating social efficiency and skill. Pragmatic education aims at instilling democratic values and ideals in the individual, at creating a democratic society in which there is no distinction between one individual and another, each individual is completely independent and willing to cooperate with others. Every individual must be given the freedom to develop his own desires and achieve his ambitions. Every individual must be equal to every other member of society. Such a society can be created only when there is no fundamental difference between individual and collective interests. Hence, education should create cooperation and harmony among individuals, instilling democratic values in school-going children.

In fact, the school itself is a miniature form of a democratic society in which the child undergoes various forms of development, of which moral education and development are the most important. Morality can be developed through active participation because such participation in the activities of the school trains the child in shouldering responsibility. This develops the individual's character and grants him social skills. Equality of opportunity in the school helps to develop boys and girls according to their own individual traits and inclinations.

Pragmatic education is basically practical in as much as it aims at preparing the individual for future life in such a manner that he can fulfill his requirements and achieve contentment. Future life in the pragmatic sense implies not merely individual life but also social life. Dewey was critical of the contemporary modes of education because they tend to drive the child away from democratic life by giving advantages to a small section of society. It also lays more stress on books or formal teaching than is really desirable. This mode of teaching compels the educator to listen to long lectures which blunt his own mental powers. Hence, Dewey laid the foundations of a progressive education in the form of a Progressive School which aimed at establishing democratic values and developing the child's personality.

Canonical Tag Script

Friday, December 29, 2023

Discuss the main focus of John Dewey in making teaching methods effective.

Course: Philosophy of Education

Course code 8609

Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment

ANSWER

Educational Method

1. Learning by doing.

2. Integration of life and subjects.

3. Catering to child interest.

4. Participation in collective activities.

Role of the Educator

Discipline

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Thursday, December 28, 2023

How had Plato classified the curriculum of education into different parts? Discuss in detail.

Course: Philosophy of Education

Course code 8609

Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment

ANSWER

Curriculum of Education

1. Bodily Development.

2. Educational Impressions.

3. Training in Music.

Role of Educator

Education According to Classes

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Tuesday, December 26, 2023

What is empirical knowledge? Justify its objectivity with the help of suitable examples.

Course: Philosophy of Education

Course code 8609

Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment

ANSWER

Empirical Knowledge

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Friday, December 8, 2023

QUESTION

What is the contribution of existentialism in education?

Course: Philosophy of Education

Course code 8609

Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment

ANSWER

Contribution to Education

1. Total development.

2. Subjective knowledge.

3. Importance of environment.

Related Topics

Thursday, May 25, 2023

Enlist the educational views of Ahmed Ibn-e-Muhammad Ibn-e-Ya'qub Ibn-e-Miskawayh.

Course: Introduction to Philosophy

ANSWER