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 Philosophy of Education. 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, December 7, 2023

Types of Pragmatism | Philosophy of Education | 8609 |

QUESTION

Describe the types of pragmatism.

Course: Philosophy of Education

Course code 8609

Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment

ANSWER

PRAGMATISM

One of the most important schools of philosophy of education is pragmatism. The term pragmatism has been derived from the Greek term pragma which means use. Thus pragmatism is an ism according to which use is the criteria of reality. Pragmatism as a philosophical tradition began in the United States around 1870. Charles Sanders Peirce is generally considered to be its founder.

Pragmatism rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. Instead, pragmatists consider thought an instrument or tool for prediction, problem-solving, and action. Pragmatists contend that most philosophical topics—such as the nature of knowledge, language, concepts, meaning, belief, and science—are all best viewed in terms of their practical uses and successes. The philosophy of pragmatism emphasizes the practical application of ideas by acting on them to actually test them in human experiences.

Forms of Pragmatism

According to H.H. Home, "The main principle of pragmatism is that the theories that work are true". As E.S. Brightman maintains, "Primarily, pragmatism is a criterion of truth." According to them everyone should discover his truth according to his experience and commonsense. The following four types of pragmatism are distinguished according to emphasis:

1. Humanistic pragmatism.

This type of pragmatism is particularly found in social sciences. According to it the satisfaction of human nature is the criterion of utility. All truths are human truths. As the British humanist philosopher F.C.S. Schiller pointed out, "Some London squires are circular". Contradiction in this statement disappears when we know that the term squire here means the meeting of roads and not the geometrical figure known by this name. Similar instances may be multiplied in different social sciences. In philosophy, in religion, and even in science man is the aim of all thinking and everything else is a means to achieve human satisfaction.

2. Experimental pragmatism.

Modern science is based on experimental methods. The fact that can be ascertained by experiment is true. In other words, whatever works in the real world is the truth. The truth of a theory in science can be ascertained by its workability. No truth is final, truth is known only to the extent it is useful in practice. The pragmatists use this criterion of truth in every field of life.

The field of experiment, however, is the widest in the field of science In science, experiment is the only basis for arriving at a conclusion in a controversial matter. Human problems can be solved only through experiments. This is true even in the field of religion. In his famous book Varieties of Religious Experience William James has advised that everyone should discover his God, mode of worship, and man-God relationship by experiments in his own life. No other proof is required for a belief. By experimenting in a field of life, one may know what to believe and what not to believe, what to do and what not to do. Whatever is proved by experience is true.

3. Nominalistic pragmatism.

When we do any experiment we attend to the result. Our aim is an examination of the material. Some hypothesis about the results invariably precedes every experiment. According to nominalistic pragmatism, the results of an experiment are always particular and concrete, never general and abstract. According to medieval European nominalistic philosophy, a universal is only a name. While only particulars exist, the universals have no concrete existence. For example, while we find existing human individuals, we do not find humanity outside these individuals. In the words of E.S. Brightman, "This kind of pragmatism is closely affiliated with sense experience as a criterion for the particulars that we meet are mostly sense data, including their relations". In the field of education, emphasis is laid on concrete particular things and their experiences in comparison to verbal knowledge.

4. Biological pragmatism.

According to John Dewey, "The pragmatic test is found in the function of thought in adapting the human organism to its environment". The experimentalism of John Dewey is based upon this biological pragmatism according to which the ultimate aim of all knowledge is harmony of the man with the environment. Education develops social skill which facilitates one's life. The school is a miniature society that prepares the child for future life. From the biological point of view, man is a psycho-somatic being. Every day we begin our work utilizing set habits. Suppose someday we receive a letter that raises a problem requiring immediate decision the success of thinking in this function depends upon the best answer to the problem.

Thursday, May 13, 2021

Describe Friedrich Froebel ‘views regarding the early childhood education.| Philosophy of Education | aiou solved assignment | Course Code 8609

Q 5: Describe Friedrich Froebel's views regarding early childhood education.

Course: Philosophy of Education

Course Code 8609

Topics

Friedrich Froebel Views

Friedrich Froebel's views regarding early childhood education.
Principles of Friedrich Froebel
AIOU Solved Assignment |Semester: Autumn/Spring | B.Ed/Bachelors in Education /Masters in Education / PhD in Education | BEd / MEd / M Phil Education | ASSIGNMENT Course Code 8609| Course: Philosophy of Education

Answer:

Born on 21 April 1782 Friedrich Froebel was a German educator who invented the kindergarten. He believed that "play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in the child’s soul." According to Froebel, in play children construct their understanding of the world through direct experience with it. His ideas about learning through nature and the importance of play have spread throughout the world.

Froebel considered the whole child’s, health, physical development, environment, emotional well-being, mental ability, social relationships, and spiritual aspects of development as important. Drawing on his mathematical and scientific knowledge Froebel developed a set of gifts (wooden blocks 1-6) and introduced occupations, (including sticks, clay, sand, slates, chalk, wax, shells, stones, scissors, and paper folding). It seems appropriate to mention Froebel's gifts and occupations in conjunction with this new course. Particularly as the gifts and occupations are open-ended and can be used to support children’s self-initiated play.

Froebel believed that it was important for practitioners to understand the principles of observation including professional practice, the multiple lenses through which they see children that children see their worlds, as well as offering children freedom with guidance and considering the children's environments including people and materials as a key element of how they behave.

Because Froebel based much of his understanding of children on observing them this has changed the way we think about children's play. We have Froebel's insights to thank for placing child-initiated activity with adults working with children to give them freedom with sensitive guidance and symbolic and imaginative play at the heart of our curriculum.

Principles

Froebelian principles as articulated by Professor Tina Bruce (1987, 1st edition and 2015, 5th edition).

1. Childhood is seen as valid in itself, as part of life, and not simply as preparation for adulthood. Thus education is seen similarly as something of the present and not just preparation and training for later.

2. The whole child is considered to be important. Health – physical and mental is emphasized, as well as the importance of feelings and thinking and spiritual aspects.

3. Learning is not compartmentalized, for everything links.

4. Intrinsic motivation, resulting in child-initiated, self-directed activity, is valued.

5. Self-discipline is emphasized.

6. There are especially receptive periods of learning at different stages of development.

7. What children can do (rather than what they cannot do) is the starting point in the child’s education.

8. There is an inner life in the child, which emerges especially under favorable conditions.

9. The people (both adults and children) with whom the child interacts are of central importance.

10. Quality education is about three things: the child, the context in which learning takes place, and the knowledge and understanding that the child develops and learns.

A Froebelian principled approach to early childhood education in practice.

• It is important that practitioners offer children what they need now. For example, some children may need to be allowed the autonomy, (to make choices and decisions and to use their skills and techniques) to mix their own paints. While other children may not be ready to mix paints for themselves, and will just waste expensive resources if they are allowed to ladle paint everywhere and splash water onto it, they may be ready to learn how sand, clay, and gravel behave when in contact with water. They can learn about the properties of materials. Another child may be ready to mix paints but may need a great deal of practitioner support as they are in the early stages of learning how to do this.

• The practitioner must nurture the ideas, feelings, relationships physical development, and embodiment of children. The practitioner needs to be able to recognize when children need personal space or need to be diverted into something appropriate for them without making them feel bad about using the paints inappropriately because they couldn’t yet understand. Children need to be given help sensitively, in a way that will build their confidence, skills, and autonomy.

• All children learn in ways that can be linked with The official framework documents of their country, such as the areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage (England) or The Curriculum for Excellence (Scotland), The Foundation Phase Curriculum (Wales) Aistear (Ireland), or Understanding the Foundation Stage (Northern Ireland) and also Te Whariki (New Zealand).

• Children are self-motivated when they are encouraged to be so and their intrinsic motivation to learn is not crushed, but nurtured by practitioners that have an understanding of them.

• Children are encouraged to develop self-discipline. This helps children to concentrate well and to learn effectively. It also relates to understanding of self, others, and the universe.

• Children need to be given choices, allowed to make errors and decisions, and offered sensitive help as and when it is needed, This will help children to learn in ways that are right for each of them as individuals. In this way, practitioners are supporting and also extending their learning.

• Practitioners need to place emphasis on what the children can do, rather than what they can’t do. The tone and atmosphere should be encouraging and not judgmental or critical. This Froebel believed builds self-esteem and confidence.

Q 4: Explain the Role of Contemporary Philosophies in Education?

Course: Philosophy of Education

Course Code 8609

Topics

Role of Contemporary Philosophies in Education
The concept of methods and knowledge of teaching

AIOU Solved Assignment |Semester: Autumn/Spring | B.Ed/Bachelors in Education /Masters in Education / PhD in Education | BEd / MEd / M Phil Education | ASSIGNMENT Course Code 8609| Course: Philosophy of Education

Answer:

Contemporary Philosophies and Theories in Education signify new directions and possibilities outside of the traditional field of philosophy and education. Around the globe, exciting scholarship that breaks down and reformulates traditions in the humanities and social sciences is being created in the field of education scholarship. This series provides a venue for publication by education scholars whose work reflects the dynamic and experimental qualities that characterize today’s academy.

The series associates philosophy and theory not exclusively with a cognitive interest (to know, to define, to order) or an evaluative interest (to judge, to impose criteria of validity) but also with an experimental and attentive attitude which is characteristic of thought exercises that try to find out how to move in the present and how to deal with the actual spaces and times, the different languages and practices of education and its transformations around the globe.

It addresses the need to draw on thought across all sorts of borders and counts amongst its elements the following: The valuing of diverse processes of inquiry; an openness to various forms of communication, knowledge, and understanding; a willingness to always continue experimentation that incorporates debate and critique; and an application of this spirit, as implied above, to the institutions and issues of education.

Authors for the series come not only from the philosophy of education but also from curriculum studies and critical theory, social sciences theory, and humanities theory in education. The series incorporates volumes that are trans- and inner-disciplinary. For much of the history of Western philosophy, philosophical questions concerning education were high on the philosophical agenda. From Socrates, Plato, and (p. 4) Aristotle to twentieth‐century figures such as Bertrand Russell, John Dewey, R. S. Peters, and Israel Scheffler, general philosophers (i.e., contemporary philosophers working in departments of philosophy and publishing in mainstream philosophy journals, and their historical predecessors) addressed questions in philosophy of education along with their treatments of issues in epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind and language, and moral and social/political philosophy.

The same is true of most of the major figures of the Western philosophical tradition, including Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Mill, and many others.

The concept of methods and knowledge of teaching

With the emergence of the new religion (Islam) and the civilization that arose with it, a set of religious and linguistic disciplines came into being, among which were those dealing with the Koran, hadith, fiqh, linguistics, the biographies of the Prophet and his companions, and the military campaigns of the Prophet, which were designated the ‘Arab sciences'. With the growth of Arab and Islamic culture, and through contact and interaction with and borrowing from foreign cultures, another set of disciplines arose, such as medicine, astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, philosophy, and logic, which were called the ‘non-Arab' sciences.

From these native and borrowed sciences, a flourishing scientific movement grew rapidly, although a conflict soon arose between the religious sciences and the disciplines of philosophy and the natural sciences, or between the fuqaha' and the philosophers. Al-Ghazali and his Tahafut al-Falasifa were one of the elements in this struggle, which ended with the victory of the fuqaha' (and Sufis) over the philosophers and scientists. And yet the religious sciences emerged from this battle weakened and lacking in vigor, especially after the gate of independent inquiry was closed and the method of relying on earlier authorities gained supremacy:

Arab civilization and science thus went from an age of original production, creativity, and innovation to one of derivation, imitation, and compilation. As a scholar and teacher, al-Ghazali was interested in the problem of knowledge: its concepts, methods, categories and aims. True knowledge, in al-Ghazali's view, is knowledge of God, His books, His prophets, the kingdoms of earth and heaven, as well as knowledge of shari‘a as revealed by His Prophet. Such knowledge is thus a religious science, even if it includes the study of certain worldly phenomena. Disciplines relating to this world, such as medicine, arithmetic, etc., are classed as techniques.

The purpose of knowledge is to help a man achieve plenitude and attain true happiness—the happiness of the hereafter—by drawing close to God and gazing upon His countenance. The value of learning lies in its usefulness and veracity. Hence, the religious sciences are superior to the secular sciences because they concern salvation in the eternal hereafter rather than this transient world, and because they contain greater truth than the secular sciences. This is not to say that the secular sciences should be completely ignored; they have their uses, and are needed by society. Examples of such disciplines are medicine and linguistics.

The Muslim philosophers and scholars (al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Ibn an-Nadim, Ibn Sina, and others) had a passion for classifying the sciences and were influenced in this respect by the Greek philosophers, in particular Aristotle. Al-Ghazali has several classifications of the sciences: he first classifies them according to their ‘nature' into theoretical (theological and religious sciences) and practical (ethics, home economics, and politics), and then according to their ‘origin' into revealed sciences, taken from the prophets (unity of God, exegesis, rites, customs, morality) and rational sciences, produced by human reason and thinking (mathematics, natural sciences, theology, etc.)

There is no contradiction, in al-Ghazali's opinion, between the revealed sciences and the rational sciences. Any apparent conflict between the prescriptions of revelation and the requirements of reason stems from the incapacity of the seeker to attain the truth and from his faulty understanding of the reality of revealed law or the judgment of reason. In fact, the revealed and the rational sciences complement—and indeed are indispensable to—one another. The problem is that it is difficult, if not impossible, to study and understand them together. They constitute two separate paths, and whoever takes an interest in the one will be deficient in the other.

Finally, al-Ghazali classifies the sciences according to their purpose or aim, dividing them into the science of transaction (governing the behavior and actions of human beings—the sciences of rites and customs) and the science of unveiling (of the apprehension of the reality and essence of things), an abstract science which can only be attained through unveiling a light which illuminates the heart when the heart is purified, a light which is ineffable and cannot be contained in books. It is the supreme science and the truest form of knowledge.

The 11th century (5th century H) witnessed the triumph of the religious sciences over philosophy and the natural sciences. al-Ghazali's violent attack on philosophy was one of the factors that contributed to its weakening in the Islamic East. Al-Ghazali divides the philosophical sciences into six categories: mathematics, logic, natural sciences, metaphysics, politics, and ethics. Mathematics, logic, and the natural sciences do not contradict religion and may be studied. The problem is that whoever studies them may go on to metaphysics and other disciplines which should be avoided.

Metaphysics is the science which is most dangerous and at variance with religion. Politics and ethics are not incompatible with the sciences and principles of religion, but here again, whoever studies them may slide into the study of other, reprehensible sciences. Curiously, although al-Ghazali attacked philosophy and the natural sciences, and was influential in persecuting and weakening them, he also helped to restore them to the curriculum at al-Azhar at the end of the 19th century, where the head of that university, Muhammad al-Anbabi 1878 CE (1305 H) adduced al-Ghazali's writings on the natural sciences to demonstrate that they were not contradictory to religion and to authorize their teaching.

The Islamic educational system was divided into two distinct levels: elementary schooling was dispensed in the books for the common people, and by men of letters in private houses for the children of the élite; higher education took place in various Islamic educational institutions such as mosques, madras as, ‘houses of science and wisdom', Sufi hermitages, brotherhoods, hospices, etc. The elementary curriculum had a pronounced religious character and consisted mainly of learning the Koran and the fundamentals of religion, reading, and writing, and occasionally the rudiments of poetry, grammar, narration, and arithmetic, with some attention being devoted to moral instruction.

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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, December 7, 2023

Describe the types of pragmatism.

Course: Philosophy of Education

Course code 8609