FILAMER CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
Autonomous Status- CHED
Roxas Avenue, Roxas City
Educ 403: Philosophical, Historical and Legal Foundation of Education
Submitted by: Maiden Canabe Braulio Legaste, MAT English (fb name: Ma I Den)
Submitted to: Prof. Exequiel A. Calimutan
PRAGMATISM-
John Dewey
1859-1952
Pragmatism- derived from Greek word ‘pragma’ which means work, practice, action or activity.
It is the philosophy of practical experience
It is a typical American Philosophy which is practical in approach.
BASIC PRINCIPLES OF PRAGMATISM
Gives importance to action.
Gives importance to experience.
Believes in change.
No believe in permanent values.
Gives emphasis on experimentation.
A practical and humanistic philosophy.
Pragmatists believe on present.
Believe that growth and development takes place through interaction and environment.
Deep faith bin democracy.
Emphasis on ‘means not the end’.
METAPHYSICS
Rejects metaphysics as an area of philosophical inquiry.
Reality is determined by individual sense experience- Man can know nothing in beyond his experience.
Any conclusions we make about life after death is merely a guess.
Does not believe in anything spiritual or transcendental values.
Reality is constantly changing.
EPISTEMOLOGY
Knowledge based on experience is true.
Phenomenon are constantly changing to knowledge about truth must change accordingly.
They emphasize on functional knowledge and understanding.
AXIOLOGY
Does not believe on standard permanent and external values.
Man, being a part of society, the consequences of or his actions are either good and bad. If the
consequences are worthwhile, then the value of his action is proven to be good.
PRAGMATISM AND EDUCATIVE PROCESS
“Education is living through a continuous reconstruction of experiences. It is the development of all
those capacities in the individual which will enable him to control his emotions and fulfil his possibilities.”
--John Dewey
PRAGMATISM IS A PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY
It aims at developing efficiency of the pupil through activities and experience.
Education should enable the child to solve his daily problems and lead a better life.
It is a work philosophy.
Activities lie at the center of all educative process.
AIMS OF EDUCATION
Does not believe in setting predetermined fixed, ultimate and general aims of education.
The only aim is more and more growth creation of new values. One can create values through activities
and experience.
Aims of education given by John Dewey in his ‘Democracy and Education’ :
Natural development.
Development of society efficiency.
PRAGMATISM AND CURRICULUM
Pragmatic curriculum is framed according to the following principles:
Principle of dynamism and flexibility.
Principle of utility- subjects like language, literature, physical education, hygiene, history, geography,
civics, sociology, psychology, etc. Priority is give to social sciences to make the students good,
cooperative and useful citizens. Natural sciences comes next.
Principle of activity and experience, agriculture, wood craft and industrial sciences.
Principles of integration.
TEACHING METHODS
Against outdated, lifeless and rigidly traditional methods of teaching.
Methods to be formulated on the basis of the following principles:
- Principle of purposive process of learning
- Principle of learning by doing
- Principle of integration.
- Project method by kilpatric.
- Experimental method
- It also encourages:
Discussion as a method of laboratory work.
Personal reference in the library.
Educational tows and excursion.
TEACHER
As a friend, philosopher and guide.
Not a dictator but only a leader of the group.
Should have knowledge of students' interests and provide them social environment.
Should believe in democratic values.
Should have knowledge of social conditioning.
Should not overshadow the personality of the student.
DISCIPLINE
Freedom as an important element.
Promotes self discipline.
Condemns enforced discipline and advocate social discipline based on child’s interest, activities and a
sense of social responsibility.
According to pragmatists:
“Discipline is primarily social and it emerges through active participation in group and purpose of activity.”
SCHOOL
Any social environment which inspires children for experimentation constitute a school for them.
A social institution which develops in child a social sense and sense of duty towards society and nation.
According to John Dewey:
“School is the embryo of the society.”
“School is a miniature of a society.”
“An instrument of transmission and transformation of the culture.”
LIMITATIONS
Little attention to spiritual values.
Too much emphasis in material things.
Insignificant place to cultural values.
Ignores the knowledge accumulated through ages.
Project method alone can’t be used.
Heavy demands on teachers.
Does not indicate fixed educational goals.
CONTRIBUTION OF PRAGMATISM TO EDUCATION
Contributes to the development of the system which is vocation centered.
Recognizes that an individual should be socially efficient and productive, the curriculum duly takes note
of it.
Another important principle given by pragmatism is the principle of integration.
Project method.
Helps to realize the value of today’s life.
Saves child from burden of education which is too much centered on books.
CONCLUSION
Pragmatism is characteristic of current educational thought and it is representative of progressive trends in
education. Progressive education lays emphasis on learning by doing and involving the child actively in the
learning process. Children must be given educative freedom to express and develop himself. In the knowledge
gaining process, observation and experimentation are the basic tools and knowledge is of the nature of the
hypothesis.
The truth of something is, knowing whether a given generalization is obtained as a result of scientific
experimentation or an observation whether it has served purpose or not. Secondly, because of the principle of
change, which is one of the important tenets of pragmatism, truth is relative through space and time. That is
if something is relevant today, it is possible that the same thing may become irrelevant in the future.
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