Philosophy of education Essay Example

The Philosophy of Education is a wide and varied examination of Education and its benefits, flaws and rooms for growth. There have been many schools of thought concerning the topic of Education and Philosophy. Many of these schools of thought address many questions of concern surrounding the application, assessment and progression of Education. This type of Philosophy draws from different science including: metaphysics, epistemology, and axiology which all play a pivotal role in understanding Education better.

Different Branches: Philosophy of Education

Idealism was started by Plato and emphasized a sole individual’s service towards their state or country. His belief was that children should be removed from their parents at a very young age. At this time the children would be placed into a caste system. This caste system would allow those children at the top to have access to the best education. Idealism advocates that education should be holistic and that all the arts, sciences and fields of human interaction should be studied. Plato believe that talent could be found in at all levels of society and thus was not connected to genetics. This would allow the best and the brightest to ascend to the highest rankings of politics and government.

Realism was started by Aristotle and emphasized habit and repetition. He believed that all learning was based off of these two characteristics and these two things were the only things needed to learn. Aristotle was very strict concerning balancing both theoretical and practical aspects of all subjects including, mathematics, writing, reading as well as the sciences. His primary goal was to create good citizens that could protect, provide and help their country state progress into the future.

Critical Theory was started by Paulo Freire who believed that students were more than empty vessels waiting to be filled by their master or their teacher’s knowledge. He set out to completely destroy the hierarchy of a classroom and replace it with a more equal powered learning environment. His vision for a classroom saw teachers as learners and students as teachers, this would allow both the student and teacher to benefit from the interaction. His overall goals was to allow the impoverished citizens of Brazil to gain sometime of educational foothold on the rest of the world. This would allow them to rise out of their poor environment and create a chance for positive progression.

Progressivism holds the belief that because humans are social creatures they learn best in real life scenario. This style of learning is also known as “On the Job Training”. This allows the student to experience first hand the different aspects of the subject that they want to learn. Most Progressives believe that people learn like scientist and thus innately follow the Scientific Method.

There are a wide variety of different branches of thought that all lend themselves to education. Most of the educational topics seek to find the best way to teach a student information. However as of late many of these Philosophies of Education have been merged into newly formed schools that provide more options for their students.