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Discuss the Philosophical Schools.

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They include:
i) Traditional school represented by Perennialism and Essentialism
ii) The progressive school represented by progressivists
The three schools have advanced three theories of subject matter as shown below
The perennialists
They believe subject matter should be taught for its own sake.
They also believe that permanence of curriculum content and experiences is more important than change
Subject matter has a value which is inherent in the subject being taught
It’s also their belief that educational system should be stable and its purposes steady.

Perennials Approaches to subject matter
i) Emphasis is laid on the classical subjects. These are subjects valuable in their own right and any educated person was expected to have had exposure to them.
ii) Emphasis is laid on the desire to make children literate and moral to enable them earn a living as well as find a useful place in society.
Principles of perennialists
i) Human nature remains the same
ii) Man’s highest attribute is rationality
iii) Students should be taught certain basic subjects
The Essentialists
To the essentialists subject matter should be taught for use. They maintain that there are certain essentials that each student in school ought to know.
The essentialists devote their time to:
i) Re-examining curricula matters
ii) Distinguishing the essential and the non-essentials in school programmes
iii) Re-establishing the authority of the teacher in the classroom
To the To the essentialists and perennialists agree on certain fundamental principles such as:
i) Learning involves hard work often couple with unwilling application.
ii) The teacher’s role is to mediate between the adult world and the world of the child.
iii) The heart of the educational process is the assimilation of prescribed subject matter.
iv) The school should retain traditional methods of mental discipline.
.
The Progressivists
They believed that subject matter is a medium for teaching life processes and skills.
They take the pragmatist view that change, is the essence of reality.
Educators must be ready to modify methods and policies in light of new knowledge and changes in the environment
To progressivists, a good school is not a place of compulsory instruction but a community of old and young engaged in learning by co-operative experience.

Progressivists’ principles
i) Education should be life itself not a preparation for living
ii) Learning should be directly related to the interests of the child
iii) Learning through problem solving should take precedence over the inculcating of subject matter
iv) Teachers have to advise not direct pupils
v) The school should encourage co-operation as opposed to competition

marto answered the question on May 7, 2019 at 06:35

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Discuss the Philosophical Schools.

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