Reflection on The History & Philososphy of Education - Term Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages... Spreading the awareness of a specific subject matter, in an explicit style is understood as education. Thus the philosophy of education can be either the process of educating others or the wide fields of education and its understanding. The inborn curiosity provoked the earliest man to seek and learn more; of what is around and how to bring betterment and produce comfort from it. This includes the major aim of producing well rounded people and to inculcate the love of learning. The process of learning and teaching is discussed and described by many philosophers. However, all of them hold their view point according to the cultures and times they lived in but some, few elaborated the education purpose and laid the foundation for upcoming generations to understand and explore the horizons of it. Philosophy of Education: Through history one can see that, how the great philosophers of all times learned from one another and left the theories for the upcoming youth to explore and gain. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle; three pioneers of philosophy of education explained their philosophies, which helped others to understand the aim of learning. Socrates taught Plato and is known for his explicit work on ethics and methods. From there onwards Plato followed the footsteps of his teacher and laid the foundation stone of doctrine for education, and called it Academy. Elaboration: Plato advocated the idea of integrity, not only for the state but for the individuals who are learners. The learners are dependent upon teachers who are fairly in a position to deliver the right kind of knowledge in an appropriate manner. Through his theory, one can understand better the significance of the responsibility on a teacher’s shoulder for educating. He also described the various types of learner and their learning styles and how their learning can be supported, like scaffolding; to enhance the capability of each individual. The core of his ideology was to handle an individual in such a manner that the support (scaffolding) is there, but he acquires the skill of learning himself; that he stated can only be achieved in certain environment and through following the knowledgeable. The reasons behind law and rules cannot be understood by all; therefore he promoted the idea of children to learn specific skills under the supervision of knowledgeable personalities. They are the people, who can nourish the positive aspects of a subject, as any subject of knowledge contains; the negative factor which pessimistically impacts the personality of a child; leaving him as a destructive member of the society rather than constructive. Plato strongly believed that arts and literature did not help the learning process; on the other hand they are acting like slow poison, addicting the victims and throwing them in a state of unreality. The general idea is that young children are unable to distinguish between reality and fiction. Thus telling them false stories which are far from reality; is a disorder one develops readily which later on encourages doubts and imbalanced thinking. He was against poetry, music because they produced uncontrollable passion which later becomes a cause of many ethical issues. Moreover, it doesn’t provide with any knowledge and has no practical meaning to it. His theories revolved around the moral values and thus sustaining and inculcating them in the offspring too. He discouraged the concept of myths and stories to young children, as they are far from real ...Download file to see next pagesRead More