Assignement 1

Niyaboo12

week_1_online_reading-2.pdf

Home >Reading homework help >Assignement 1

EDUC 1002: Pioneers and Philosophies of Education

Week 1

Classical Thinking in Education

We study the past to help us understand the present and, hopefully, better the

future. By learning about different philosophies of education and studying

epistemology, the study of the knowledge acquisition process, we can improve our

understanding of how human beings learn and better our chances at becoming

effective teachers both inside and outside the classroom.

To begin our study of the history and philosophy of education, we first take a look

back on the classical influences of educational theory. The great ancient Greek

philosophers Plato and Aristotle thought a great deal about education and its

importance to individuals and society. As you read this week, think about how our

present system of education has been influenced by the ideas these seminal

philosophers set forth. Objectives

By completing this week, you should be able to:

• Recognize the importance of studying the history and philosophy of

education.

• Identify the major contributions of the targeted philosophers.

• Analyze the impact of targeted philosophers on modern education. You’ll know you have successfully completed this week when:

• You can discuss the importance of studying the history and philosophy of

education.

• You can describe the major contributions of the targeted philosophers.

Page 1 of 11

EDUC 1002: Pioneers and Philosophies of Education

Page 2 of 11

• You can assess the impact of targeted philosophers on modern education.

The Underlying Issues

Why study the history and philosophy of education? What do we learn from the

past? How did two of the most important classic Greek philosophers view education

and how have their philosophies impacted modern education? This week we will

explore possible answers to these questions as we take a closer look at the

educational philosophies of Plato (c. 427 – 347 BC) and Aristotle (c. 384 – 322 BC).

As you read this week, keep the following issues in mind:

• Issue #1: Why study the history and philosophy of education? What can we

learn from the past?

• Issue #2: What were the major contributions of Plato and Aristotle to the

philosophy of education?

• Issue #3: What impact has each of these philosophers had on modern

education?

EDUC 1002: Pioneers and Philosophies of Education

Bust of Plato, Museo Pio Clementino, Vatican Museums, Vatican State

Plato: Laying the Foundation of Educational Philosophy “The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery.” --Plato

c. 427 BC - Born c. 399 BC - Socrates executed; Plato began traveling and writing Socratic dialogues c. 347 BC - The “first university,” the Academy, opened c. 360 BC - The Republic c. 387 BC - Died

Brief Bio

Plato is recognized as one of the most influential figures of Western philosophical

thought as well as one of the earliest writers on the philosophy of education. Plato

was born around 427 BC in Athens, Greece, into a well-to-do family. During his life,

Athens experienced great political and social turmoil. Plato received a conventional

Athenian education that consisted of instruction in reading, writing, and computation,

as well as gymnastics (i.e., physical education), music, dancing, and singing, and

served his obligatory year of military service.

When Plato was 22 he began to study with the philosopher, Socrates. Socrates

believed that teachers cannot pour knowledge into students but, instead, lead

students to the knowledge they have within themselves; the task of the teacher is to

Page 3 of 11

EDUC 1002: Pioneers and Philosophies of Education

Page 4 of 11

ask challenging questions that cause students to think critically and reflectively (the

Socratic method) and the task of students is to critically examine things and cast off

false beliefs. In 399 BC, Socrates was tried and executed for impiety to the gods and

corrupting the youth of Athens.

Socrates teachings and death profoundly affected Plato. In fact, it is likely that

Plato’s association with Socrates prompted Plato to leave Athens to travel throughout

the lands of the Aegean and Mediterranean beginning in 399 BC. During these

travels Plato studied with Euclid, the great geometry scholar, and the Pythagoreans,

a group of mathematics scholars. In Sicily he was arrested and sold into slavery by

Dionysius, the strong city-state’s ruler. Luckily for Plato, his freedom was purchased

by a friend. Upon his return to Athens around 387 BC, Plato founded the Academy,

often referred to as the first university. Many of Plato’s works are attributed to his

time at the Academy, which lasted until his death sometime around 347 BC.

Major Contributions to Education

The Socratic Method and General vs. Technical Education

Plato’s epistemological theory centered on the existence of innate ideas and that

the knowledge acquisition process consisted of “reminiscing” or recalling the store of

knowledge that exists in all human beings. During his travels, Plato began to write

about his search for knowledge and the truth through dialogues that employed what

is known today as the Socratic method. The Socratic method uses a question-and

answer format to discover the truth through the discovery of that which is not true.

Key principles of the Socratic method are listed below:

• The teacher sets and the student agrees to the topic of instruction.

• The reasoning process is more important than the student’s answers.

EDUC 1002: Pioneers and Philosophies of Education

Page 5 of 11

• The teacher's questions should expose errors in the student’s reasoning and

lead the student to the correct reasoning.

In one of Plato’s later dialogues, Protagoras, he uses the voice of Socrates to

successfully defend the view that a general liberal education is superior to a technical

education. In the dialogue Socrates contends that while a technically educated

person may learn useful skills, a generally educated person is likely to be a more

ethical, and therefore better, human being. The debate between technical and

general education continues today and Plato’s views reflect the contemporary

arguments for general education that assert that those who possess general

knowledge and critical thinking skills are better able to make informed choices and

decisions.

The First Organized Institute of Learning: The Academy

Upon his return to Athens around 387 BC, Plato founded the first organized

institute of learning, the Academy. While it is not known if students were required to

pass an entrance examination, they did undergo a probationary period during which

they had to demonstrate their intellectual abilities as well as their dedication to the

pursuit of knowledge. Students at the Academy studied arithmetic, geometry,

astronomy, and music as a prelude to the study of metaphysics (the fundamental

nature of reality), epistemology (the origin, nature, and limits of knowledge), and

axiology (the examination of values). Students were all males, although Plato would

argue in The Republic, one of his most famous philosophical works, that women

should have the same educational opportunities.

Education in Plato’s Republic

In his best-known dialogue, The Republic, Plato outlines the ideal society and

suggests the social, political, and education infrastructure needed to construct it. In

this treatise, he defines the intimate connection between education and citizenship,

EDUC 1002: Pioneers and Philosophies of Education

Page 6 of 11

by demonstrating the common purpose sociopolitical and educational institutions

have in maintaining and enhancing the republic. In Plato’s utopia, people were

divided into three classes depending not on wealth but on intellectual ability: the

guardians or philosopher-kings, the policy makers consisting of the most

intellectually advanced; the defenders, members of the armed forces consisting of

the strongest and the bravest; and the workers, the lowest class consisting of those

best suited to the production of goods and services.

In Plato’s view, the education process would begin at a young age. Early

education was crucial since the attitudes of later life were formed in the early years.

State nurseries would provide a pure environment that would serve the following

functions:

• Cultivate habits and dispositions supportive of life in the republic.

• Provide a curriculum of stories, music, games, and drama that would be

models of the good life.

• Begin to identify those with superior intellectual talents.

From the state nurseries, children would go on to attend schools where the

curriculum consisted of music to help create the proper moral spirit; literature to

help inspire desired character formation; mathematics to develop abstract reasoning

abilities; and gymnastics to promote healthy physical and emotional development.

After this primary schooling, most students would enter the economic sector and aid

in the production of goods and services. Those with higher intellectual and physical

strength would continue with two years of military training. Some would then

become defenders and others, the most promising group intellectually, would

continue their education in preparation for their roles as guardians or philosopher-

kings. These guardians would study for 10 more years, combining the pursuit of

mathematical and philosophical knowledge, after which some would assume state

EDUC 1002: Pioneers and Philosophies of Education

Page 7 of 11

administrative and educational responsibilities. The cream of the crop would study

metaphysics, or the fundamental concepts, beliefs, and nature of reality, for five

more years before beginning to minister and supervise state affairs. After 15 years of

service, members of this elite group would be eligible, at the age of 50, to become

part of the highest policy and decision makers.

In His Own Words

In Book VII of The Republic, Plato drew a distinction between knowledge and

opinion and showed the difficulty and the rewards of recognizing this distinction. As

you read the Allegory of the Cave, think about what other points Plato makes in this

dialogue.

EDUC 1002: Pioneers and Philosophies of Education

Sculpture of Artistotle, Rome, Thermenmusuem

Aristotle: Building on the Foundations of Educational Philosophy

“Education is the best provision for old age.” --Aristotle

c. 384 BC - Born c. 367 BC - Opened his school, the Lyceum c. 343 BC - Began tutoring Alexander the Great c. 336 BC - Began studies at the Academy with Plato c. 322 BC - Died

Brief Bio

Aristotle was a student of Plato’s and the third in a successive line of great Greek

philosophers that began with Socrates. Aristotle was born around 384 BC, the son of

the court physician in Macedonia, a kingdom in northern Greece. He was intrigued by

his father’s collection of scientific specimens and sought to catalogue and categorize

items from the natural world at a young age.

When he was 17, Aristotle left for Athens to study with Plato. During the nearly

20 years that Aristotle spent at the Academy, he developed his own views of reality

and knowledge. Whereas Plato saw reality as nonmaterial and knowledge inbred,

Aristotle viewed reality as composed of matter and form and knowledge founded in

Page 8 of 11

EDUC 1002: Pioneers and Philosophies of Education

Page 9 of 11

experience. After Plato’s death around 347 BC, Aristotle began an educational tour of

Asia minor (roughly modern-day Turkey) during which he studied political

institutions, social customs, and plant and animal life.

Around 343 BC, Aristotle returned to Macedonia to tutor King Philip’s son, the

future conquerer Alexander the Great. When Alexander became king seven years

later, Aristotle returned to Athens and opened his own school, the Lyceum, where he

taught and continued his research. Although relations with Alexander eventually

became strained, Aristotle enjoyed a prestigious reputation until the year before his

death when he was charged, like Socrates, with impiety. Soon after, he left Athens

and spent the last year of his life on the Greek island of Euboea.

Major Contributions to Education

Aristotle’s School: the Lyceum

As we have mentioned, when Alexander became king around 336 BC, Aristotle

returned to Athens and opened a school of higher education, the Lyceum. Alexander

endowed the Lyceum with plant and animal specimens from his travels as well as a

great deal of money. This endowment enabled Aristotle to establish the world’s first

zoo and first botanical garden. The Lyceum also became the site of a great library.

Students at the Lyceum organized and ruled themselves and administrative

duties rotated among students. They pursued the study of the natural sciences,

politics, metaphysics, and ethics and were assigned tasks involving historical or

scientific research. This research, as well as Aristotle’s own scientific observations,

would constitute a large part of the world’s core of scientific knowledge for centuries

to come.

Philosophy of Education in Aristotle’s Works

EDUC 1002: Pioneers and Philosophies of Education

Page 10 of 11

Because only fragments remain of Aristotle’s treatise on education, we must turn

to his other works to get an idea of his views. In Aristotle’s philosophy, the point of

life is the pursuit of happiness. In one of his most famous works, Nichomachean

Ethics, Aristotle states that virtuous activities are what constitute happiness and that

there are two categories of virtue: intellectual and moral. Intellectual virtue is

acquired through reason and requires experience and time, while moral virtue comes

about as a result of habit. In other words, he promotes what today we call active

learning, or learning by doing. “For the things we have to learn before we can do

them, we learn by doing them, e.g. men become builders by building and lyre

players by playing the lyre; so too we become just by doing just acts, temperate by

doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.”1

In another of his famous works, Politics, Aristotle emphasizes the importance of

education to the stability of the state, “But of all the things which I have mentioned

that which most contributes to the permanence of constitutions is the adaptation of

education . . . The best laws, though sanctioned by every citizen of the state, will be

of no avail unless the young are trained by habit and education in the spirit of the

constitution . . .”2 Although Aristotle believed in a system of public education, it

appears that he believed this system should mainly serve male children of the higher

classes.

The Education System According to Aristotle

According to Aristotle, education should avoid extremes and excesses and should

be limited to what is appropriate for the student, taking into account his age,

character, and abilities. In Aristotle’s system, education would be supervised by the

1 Nicomachean Ethics, Book II, by Aristotle as translated by W.D. Ross http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.2.ii.html 2 Politics, Book V, by Aristotle as translated by Benjamin Jowett http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/politics.5.five.html

EDUC 1002: Pioneers and Philosophies of Education

Page 11 of 11

state and divided into three stages: primary schooling, secondary schooling, and

higher education.

• Primary school: Children ages 7 to 14 would receive instruction in

gymnastics to develop coordination, grace, and courage; literacy to provide

the skills needed for further study; music, including poetry, literature, and

drama; arithmetic; and drawing.

• Secondary school: Young men from the ages of 14 to 21 would continue

the study of music as described above; be instructed in the sources of Greek

culture and civics; and be trained in military drill, tactics, and strategy.

• Higher education: Higher education would begin at age 21 and continue for

as long as a student is interested and capable of pursuing abstract study;

would stress the liberal arts and sciences which promote critical thinking

skills that lead to the support of rational choices; and, thus, would serve as a

training ground for the future leaders of the state.

In His Own Words

In Book VIII of Politics, Aristotle defines his views on the necessity for state

sponsored education. As you read Chapters I-III, think about what other points

Aristotle makes regarding education.