Read Chapter 4: "Philosophy: Reflections on the Essence of Education" of the course textbook, the PowerPoint presentation on "Philosophy: Reflections on the Essence of Education", and any articles and books relevant to the topics in Chapter 4. Select a topic of interest to you and reflect (express your own thoughts, views, opinions, feelings, etc.) on the topic you have selected. Your reflections on the topic you selected must be a minimum of one full page and must be written in your own words. You must cite the sources of all your information including the course textbook and the sources of any Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated information in your discussion post and at the end of your discussion post.
Sample Discussion post attached along with PowerPoint on chapter 2
Textbook (Red Shelf): Foundations of American Education
SS 203: Historical and Cultural Foundations of Education Sample Student Discussion Posts
Sample 1: For this discussion post, I decided to use one of the discussion questions because I thought they were pretty good. Question 4 asked, "In my opinion, how much progress has the United States (US) made in equal educational opportunity?" This is a very good topic because it is something I like to talk about regularly. I feel like the US has moved forward but needs more work in providing equal educational opportunities for schools. I say this because we, as a country, did a great job in moving forward with the times by desegregating, increasing opportunities for girls and women in education, providing necessities for people with disabilities, and expanding early childhood education but we are still struggling with school funding equality, socioeconomic factors playing into school choice, and achievement gaps.
My opinion is there is no point in being able to "move forward" if you are not going to address the actual issue at hand. The United States does a good job of putting a bandage on an issue that needs deeper investments and concern. What was the point of desegregating schools when the main issue was never being with the white students but not having equal opportunities and funding? What was the point of increasing opportunities for girls and women when the issue is the pay wage for teachers is too low for all the issues they endure? What was the point in expanding early childhood education if we struggle with keeping educators, especially educators that care? Of course, there was a point for all of this but MY point is the United States does just enough to shut everyone up and not pay attention to the bigger pictures and issues that need real change.
Even though we have done better in changing the aims of education, receiving more students and expanding bigger schools, making sure teachers are prepared, and trying to keep up to date, we have other fish to fry. Some teachers are still undervalued and paid less than their professional counterparts despite their similar educational levels and experience due to racial, socioeconomic, and ethnic lines. Many students have disadvantages coming from lower-income communities, and the lack of resources and funding to schools based on unequal opportunities and economic racism that creates a gap for opportunities to students. Until these issues are truly addressed, it does not matter how much the United States can "move forward”. In MY opinion, we are not making great progress in creating equal educational opportunities. We must, we need to make progress in creating equal educational opportunities for the good of this country.
Sample 2: It is incredible to think of the sheer growth of the educational enterprise over the past half-century. It's insane to think that schools were once scarce and a luxury that only the wealthiest could afford. Now, education is available to all regardless of their background and that's something we take for granted. With the growth of the educational enterprise, naturally more schools needed to be built to accommodate all these students. Many schools had to resort to mobile classrooms and this reminded me of the time I was taught in a trailer in third grade. This was due to the school expanding and remodeling the entire school grounds to keep up with the times. Almost like a domino effect, with the rapid growth in education came a desperate need for more teachers.
Even today, there is still a need for more teachers. I firmly believe that teachers deserve way more pay and appreciation for all the hard work they do day in and day out. Also, they put their lives on the line every day for their students with the huge increase in school shootings across the country. It's incredibly tragic that school shootings weren't even thought of half a century ago and now they are rapid through our society like a cancer. Teachers did not sign up to have to learn how to shoot weapons or defend their classrooms against outside threats like that. They want to teach and nurture kids to become the best version of themselves. Since they are risking their lives for us, they deserve a huge bonus and I fear we will see less teachers if something isn't done to change the narrative. I greatly enjoyed the section on special education since that's the field I plan on working in. It's incredibly haunting to think that half a century ago, there was little known about common disabilities. Thankfully, the Education for All- Handicapped Children Act changed this and designed programs for students with a variety of disabilities to be able to be successful in the classroom.
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Chapter 4:
Philosophy: Reflections on the Essence of Education
By: Arion Parks, David Camper, Brendon Bush
Structure and methodology of Philosophy
– In this section we will be discussing the reasoning and the foundation of philosophy. We will discuss how it is broken down and its true purpose.
Philosophy
-Philosophy means the love of wisdom.
-Seeks to understand fundamentals
-Philosophy provides tools to think clearly
Types of Thought as a philosopher
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space.
People with this set of ideals believe knowledge of humanity and the universe are the most important ideas.
Teachers role is to guide and and determine what is worth knowing.
Physical sciences and reality
Epistemology is the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope. Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.
Knowledge about and what to know is most important
It is up to the teacher to decide what is in the curriculum and the role of the teacher is to teach and know what is in the curriculum
Truth
Types of Thoughts (contd)
Axiology is the study of the nature of value and valuation, and of the kinds of things that are valuable.
Teachers of this train of thought are open to new ideas and interpretations. Ethics and morals are deemed to be most important.
Good citizenship, honesty, and correct human relations are the most important topics. The instructor’s role is to guide the student to have good morals and ethics.
Examples
Metaphysicist
Pythagoras of Samos[a] (c. 570 – c. 495 BC)[b] was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His political and religious teachings were well known in Magna Graecia and influenced the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and, through them, Western philosophy. Around 530 BC, he travelled to Croton, where he founded a school in which initiates were sworn to secrecy and lived a communal, ascetic lifestyle.
Epistemology
Robert Audi Robert N. Audi (born November 1941) is an American philosopher whose major work has focused on epistemology, ethics – especially on ethical intuitionism – and the theory of action. His book, The Good in the Right, updates and strengthens Rossian intuitionism and develops the epistemology of ethics. He has also written important works of political philosophy, particularly on the relationship between church and state. He is a past president of the American Philosophical Association and the Society of Christian Philosophers.
Analytic ways of Thinking in Philosophy
Analytical thinking- what seems to be
Abstraction- drawing away from experiences to a conceptual plane. 1 Focusing on some feature within experience. 2 examine precise characteristics of this feature. 3 remembering the deaure and its characteristics later so as to apply them life.
Imagination and generalization- altering of abstractions and set ranges
Analytic ways of Thinking (contd)
Logic- examines principals that allow us to move between arguments.
Induction- the productions of facts to prove a statement.
Deduction- coming to a conclusion or inference from set a laws or principles from the facts.
Schools of Philosophy and Their Influence on Education
In this section we will discuss the individual philosophers and their schools of thoughts and the four well known schools of thoughts: Idealism, Realism, Pragmatism, and Existentialism.
Idealism-Definition
-A school of philosophy that considers ideas to be the only true reality. Physical entities are only shadows of the true reality. (e.g idea and mind)
Idealism Cont’d
-Idealism’s roots are found in the writings of Plato.
-Idealists believe in the power of reasoning but de-emphasize both the scientific method perception, which they hold suspect. Thus, idealists contend that the rational mind has the ability to reason its way to the underlying ideas that support the world we live in today.
-Idealists practices Epistemology, which is the study of the nature of knowledge, justification, and the rationality of belief
-Idealist value universal and absolute truths or ideas that remains consistent throughout centuries.
-Idealist believes that truth, goodness and beauty transcends and connects ideas. They’re important to all cultures and people.
-Idealists considers that values are unchanging, due to them underlying all aspects of existence and that they are perfect. This is called Axiology.
Idealist Philosophers
Plato (427-347 BCE)
According to Plato, truth is our central reality.
Plato believes that truth is perfect, therefore it can’t be found in the world of matter because the material world is imperfect.
People create knowledge, rather than discover it.
Humans once had true knowledge, but lost it by being placed in a material body that distorts and corrupt that knowledge.
Socrates (470-399 BCE)
Spoke to himself as a midwife because, he believed that humans were pregnant with knowledge-knowledge that had not been born or realized.
Socrates wrote a Doctrine titled, “Doctrine of Reminiscence”. In the doctrine it describes how teachers need to question students, in such a way as to help them remember what they have forgotten.
The Socratic Method emphasizes on bringing forth knowledge from students through artful questioning.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Believed in freedom, the immortality of the soul, and the existence of God.
The only way humankind can know things is through the process of reasoning.
It is only through reason that we acquire knowledge of the world.
Reality is not a thing by itself, but the interaction of reason and external sensations.
Jane Roland Martin (1929-)
Labeled as a feminist scholar, Jane is a contemporary disciple of Plato’s dialogues.
In Martin’s book, she describes how women have historically been excluded from conversations that constitutes Western educational thought.
In order to be educated is to engage in a conversation that stretches back in time.
Education=the conversation, is the place where one comes to learn what it is to be a person.
Socratic Dialogue to Enhance Reflective Learning
Socrates and Plato believed that learning is best achieved through dialogue.
When using this Socratic Dialogue, the teacher does not teach a subject by direct exposition. Teachers throw out a series of questions, that causes the learners to reflect on their beliefs.
There was a study created in 2001, using the Socratic Dialogue to see how it helps students, and researchers found that those students who were assisted with the Socratic dialogue significantly improved both surface level and abstract understanding of the project.
Realism-Definition
A school of philosophy that holds that reality, knowledge, and value exist independently of the human mind. In contrast to the idealist, the realist contends that physical entities are true reality. (e.g nature, body)
Realism Cont’d
Realist believes in natural causes for evolution of the universe.
They also believe that the world of physical objects is the ultimate reality.
Realist, unlike idealist focus more on the body then the mind.
Believes that the reason things look different from one another is due to the form that structures their matter (Metaphysics).
Realist endorse the use of the senses and scientific investigation to find truth in the physical world.
Aristotle, a realist, claims that the art of thinking well is to be able to distinguish things based on essential differences (epistemology).
Realist Philosophers
Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
Believed that ideas are found through the study of the world of matter.
Believed that one could acquire knowledge of ideas or forms by investigating matter.
Matter cannot exist without form.
John Locke (1632-1704)
Believed in the Tabula Rasa (blank tablet) view of the mind.
Tabula Rasa (an absence of preconceived ideas or predetermined goals; a clean slate.)
Locke stated that the mind of a person is blank at birth and that the person’s sensory experiences make impressions on the blank tablet.
Ideas Represent Objects.
Locke claimed that primary qualities represents the world, whereas secondary qualities have a basis in the world but do not represent it.
Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)
Attempted to reconcile some conflicting tenets of idealism and realism.
Proposed “process” to be the central aspect of realism.
Unlike Locke, Alfred did not see objective reality and subjective mind as separate.
Believes the universe is made up of patterns and these patterns are analyzed through math.
Pragmatism-Definition
-A late 19th century U.S school philosophy that stresses becoming rather than being. (e.g experience and problem solving with reason)
Pragmatism Cont’d
-Pragmatism emphasizes the importance of understanding what it means to know.
-Believe that that we learn best through experience, but they also believe that the experience changes both the knower and the world.
-Knowing is a transaction or a conversation between the learner and the environment.
-Pragmatist do not believe in absolute and unchanging truth or values
Pragmatist Philosophers