FIVE EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHIES  

There are many kinds of educational philosophies, but for the sake of simplicity it is possible to extract five distinct ones. These five philosophies are (1) perennialism, (2) idealism, (3) realism, (4) experimentalism, and (5) existentialism. Collectively, these philosophies represent a broad spectrum of thought about what schools should be and do. Educators holding these philosophies would create very different schools for students to attend and learn. In the following sections, each of these standard philosophies is discussed in terms of its posture on axiological, epistemological, and ontological questions.

The existentialist sees the world as one personal subjectivity, where goodness, truth, and reality are individually defined. Reality is a world of existing, truth subjectively chosen, and goodness a matter of freedom.

The five standard philosophies are compared in Table 2.1 in terms of attitudes on significant questions.

Perennialism

The most conservative, traditional, or inflexible of the five philosophies is perennialism, a philosophy drawing heavily from classical definitions of education. Perennialists believe that education, like human nature, is a constant. Because the distinguishing characteristic of humans is the ability to reason, education should focus on developing rationality. Education, for the perennialist, is a preparation for life, and students should be taught the world's permanencies through structured study.

For the perennialist, reality is a world of reason. Such truths are revealed to us through study and sometimes through divine acts. Goodness is to be found in rationality itself. Perennialists would favor a curriculum of subjects and doctrine, taught through highly disciplined drill and behavior control. Schools for the perennialist exist primarily to reveal reason by teaching eternal truths. The teacher interprets and tells. The student is a passive recipient. Because truth is eternal, all change in the immediate school environment is largely superficial.

Idealism

Idealism is a philosophy that espouses the refined wisdom of men and women. Reality is seen as a world within a person's mind. Truth is to be found in the consistency of ideas. Goodness is an ideal state, something to be strived for. Idealism would favor schools teaching subjects of the mind, such as is found in most public school classrooms. Teachers, for the idealist, would be models of ideal behavior. For idealists, the schools' function is to sharpen intellectual processes, to present the wisdom of the ages, and to present models of behavior that are exemplary. Students in such schools would have a somewhat passive role, receiving and memorizing the reporting of the teacher. Change in the school program would generally be considered an intrusion on the orderly process of educating.

Realism

For the realist, the world is as it is, and the job of schools would be to teach students about the world. Goodness, for the realist, would be found in the laws of nature and the order of the physical world. Truth would be the simple correspondences of observation. The realist would favor a school dominated by subjects of the here-and-now world, such as math and science. Students would be taught factual information for mastery. The teacher would impart knowledge of this reality to students or display such reality for observation and study. Classrooms would be highly ordered and disciplined, like nature, and the students would be passive participants in the study of things. Changes in school would be perceived as a natural evolution toward a perfection of order.

Experimentalism

For the experimentalist, the world is an ever-changing place. Reality is what is actually experienced. Truth is what presently functions. Goodness is what is accepted by public test. Unlike the perennialist, idealist, and realist, The experimentalist openly accepts change and continually seeks to discover new ways to expand and improve society. The experimentalist would favor a school with heavy emphasis on social subjects and experiences. Learning would occur through a problem-solving or inquiry format. Teachers would aid learners or consult with learners who would be actively involved in discovering and experiencing the world in which they live. Such an education program's focus on value development would factor in group consequences.

Existentialism

 

Educational essentialism is an educational philosophy whose adherents believe that children should learn the traditional basic subjects thoroughly and rigorously. In this philosophical school of thought, the aim is to instill students with the "essentials" of academic knowledge, enacting a back-to-basics approach. Essentialism ensures that the accumulated wisdom of our civilization as taught in the traditional academic disciplines is passed on from teacher to student. Such disciplines might include Reading, Writing, Literature, Foreign Languages, History, Mathematics, Science, Art, and Music. Moreover, this traditional approach is meant to train the mind, promote reasoning, and ensure a common culture.

Principles of Essentialism

Essentialism is a relatively conservative stance to education that strives to teach students the knowledge of our society and civilization through a core curriculum. This core curriculum involves such areas that include the study of the surrounding environment, basic natural laws, and the disciplines that promote a happier, more educated living.[1] Other non-traditional areas are also integrated as well in moderation to balance the education. Essentialists' goals are to instill students with the "essentials" of academic knowledge, patriotism, and character development through traditional (or back-to-basic) approaches. This is to promote reasoning, train the mind, and ensure a common culture for all Americans.[2]

Essentialism is the most typically enacted philosophy in American classrooms today. Traces of this can be found in the organized learning centered on teacher and textbooks, in addition to the regular assignments and evaluations typical in essentialist education.

Essentialism as a Teacher-Centered Philosophy

The role of the teacher as the leader of the classroom is a very important tenet of Educational essentialism. The teacher is the center of the classroom, so they should be rigid and disciplinary. Establishing order in the classroom is crucial for student learning; effective teaching cannot take place in a loud and disorganized environment. It is the teacher's responsibility to keep order in the classroom.[3] The teacher must interpret essentials of the learning process, take the leadership position and set the tone of the classroom. These needs require an educator who is academically well-qualified with an appreciation for learning and development. The teacher must control the students with distributions of rewards and penalties.[4]

History of Essentialism

The Essentialist movement first began in the United States in the year 1938. In Atlantic City, New Jersey, a group met for the first time called "The Essentialist's Committee for the Advancement of Education."[5] Their emphasis was to reform the educational system to a rational-based system.

The term essentialist first appeared in the book An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education which was written by Michael John Demiashkevich.[6] In his book, Demiashkevich labels some specific educators (including William C. Bagley) as “essentialists." Demiashkevich compared the essentialists to the different viewpoints of the Progressive Education Association. He described how the Progressives preached a “hedonistic doctrine of change” whereas the essentialists stressed the moral responsibility of man for his actions and looked toward permanent principles of behavior (Demiashkevich likened the arguments to those between the Socratics and the Sophists in Greek philosophy).[7] In 1938 Bagley and other educators met together where Bagley gave a speech detailing the main points of the essentialism movement and attacking the public education in the United States. One point that Bagley noted was that students in the U.S. were not getting an education on the same levels as students in Europe who were the same age.[8]

A recent branch has emerged within the essentialist school of thought called "neoessentialism." Emerging in the eighties as a response to the essentialist ideals of the thirties as well as to the criticism of the fifties and the advocates for education in the seventies, neoessentialism was created to try to appease the problems facing the United States at the time.[9] The most notable change within this school of thought is that it called for the creation of a new discipline, computer science.

Renowned Essentialists

William Bagley (1874–1946) was an important historical essentialist. William C. Bagley completed his undergraduate degree at Michigan Agricultural College in 1895. It wasn’t until after finishing his undergrad studies that he truly wanted to be a teacher.[10] Bagley did his Graduate studies at the University of Chicago and at Cornell University. He acquired his Ph.D. in 1900 after which he took his first school job a Principal in a St. Louis, Missouri Elementary School.[11] Bagley’s devotion increased during his work at Montana State Normal School in Dillon, Montana. It was here where he decided to dedicate his time to the education of teachers and where he published The Educative Process, launching his name across the nation. Throughout his career Bagley argued against the conservative position that teachers were not in need of special training for their work.[12] He believed that liberal arts material was important in teacher education. Bagley also believed the dominant theories of education of the time were weak and lacking.[13]

In April 1938, he published the Essentialist's Platform, in which he outlined three major points of essentialism. He described the right of students to a well-educated and culturally knowledgeable teacher. Secondly, he discussed the importance of teaching the ideals of community to each group of students. Lastly, Bagley wrote of the importance of accuracy, thoroughness and effort on part of the student in the classroom.[14]

Another important essentialist is E.D. Hirsch (1928-). Hirsch was Founder and Chairman of the Core of Knowledge Foundation and author to several books concerning fact-based approaches to education. Now retired, he spent many years teaching at the University of Virginia while also being an advocate for the "back to basics" movement. In his most popular book, Cultural

Literacy — What Every American Needs To Know, he offers lists, quotations, and information regarding what he believes is essential knowledge.[15]

See also Arthur Bestor.

Schools Enacting an Essentialist Curriculum

The Core Knowledge Schools were founded on the philosophy of essentialist E.D. Hirsch. Although it is difficult to maintain a pure and strict essentialist-only curriculum, these schools have the central aim of establishing a common knowledge base for all citizens. To do so, they follow a nation-wide, content-specific, and teacher-centered curriculum. The Core Knowledge curriculum also allows for local variance above and beyond the core curriculum. Central curricular aims are academic excellence and the learning of knowledge, and teachers who are masters of their knowledge areas serve this aim.[16]

Criticism of Essentialism

One of the positive critiques of essentialism is the stability of the education. Because essentialism is relatively conservative and focuses on disciplines which are relatively stable, it is a rather consistent form of education. The same disciplines are taught consistently and in a progressive manner. It is not persuaded by the fads of the time, but instead focuses on the basics that students need to know to be productive members of society.

However, because Essentialism is largely teacher-centered, the role of the student is often called into question. Presumably, in an essentialist classroom, the teacher is the one designing the curriculum for the students based upon the core disciplines. Moreover, he or she is enacting the curriculum and setting the standards to which the students must meet. The teacher's evaluation role undermines students' interest in study.[17] As a result, the students begin to take on more of a passive role in their education as they are forced to meet and learn such standards and information.[18]

Furthermore, there is also speculation that an essentialist education helps in promoting the cultural lag.[19] This philosophy of education is very traditional in the mindset of passing on the knowledge of the culture via the academic disciplines. Thus, students are forced to think in the mindset of the larger culture, and individual creativity is often squelched.

Teacher-centered philosophies of education require that children are educated using certain methods put into action by their teacher, as opposed to student-centered philosophies, in which teaching methods are formed according to the needs and learning styles of individual students. In short, teacher-centered philosophies force the student to adjust to the teacher; with student-centered philosophies, the teacher adjusts to the student. Essentialism and perennialism are the two teacher-centered philosophies that are prominent in the United States.

Essentialism

Essentialism is a teacher-centered philosophy that stresses rigorous practice with the traditional subjects: reading, writing, math, and science. An essentialist curriculum is structured to develop discipline and a common culture of knowledge. Essentialists value deep knowledge on a few core subjects, as opposed to more general knowledge on a wider array of subjects.

In 1938, education reformist William C. Bagley pioneered essentialism in America. As outlined in his publication Essentialist's Platform, he pushed for a strong, common core curriculum to help America’s school systems compete with higher-ranking countries. He believed that the influx of immigrants was threatening American culture by weakening the schools, and responded with his attempt to raise academic standards.

The Essentialist's Platform detailed three main components of essentialism in the classroom. First, students were to be taught by an essentialist teacher who is well-educated and knowledgeable in the core curriculum. In Bagley’s book Craftsmanship in Teaching, he framed the teacher as the center of the essentialist classroom. The teacher’s role in essentialism was to teach a strict curriculum with knowledge and authority, but the method was at the teacher’s discretion.

The second component was to weave community into the curriculum. The essentialist reform was set to promote the customs of American culture to each student regardless of the school, to ensure that all schools of varying demographics had a common foundation. This element of essentialism is in direct contrast to student-centered philosophies of education, which focus on the growth of the student as an individual.

Third in the Essentialist's Platform, Bagley pushed for a higher standard for all students in “the essentials.” He took a “pass or fail” approach to promoting students to the next educational level; the only way a student could progress was to prove knowledge of the required subjects through grades and testing. “If education abandons rigorous standards and consequently provides no effective stimulus, many persons will pass through twelve years of schooling to find themselves in a world in which ignorance and lack of fundamental training are heavy handicaps,” Bagley said.

Today, essentialist advocate E. D. Hirsch Jr. is the chairman and founder of the Core Knowledge Foundation. Hirsch’s ideas of education reform begin with common cultural literacy. As stated on the foundation’s website, “Our society cannot afford a two-tiered system in which the affluent have access to superior education, while everyone else is subjected to a dull and incoherent classroom experience. Academic excellence, educational equity, and fairness demand a strong foundation of knowledge for all learners.”

Perennialism

Perennialism is a teacher-centered educational philosophy that focuses on everlasting ideas and universal truths learned from art, history, and literature. The curriculum of perennialism stems from the “Great Books,” a collection of literature deemed in Western culture to be foundational, significant, and relevant, regardless of the time period. These books include the works of Socrates, Aristotle, Homer, Plato, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Shakespeare.

“The Great Books were the most promising avenue to liberal education if only because they are teacher-proof,” said prominent perennialist Robert Hutchins in 1973. “If there were a Socrates behind every teacher’s desk, you would not need to worry about the curriculum.”

Perennialism is similar to essentialism in that teachers guide the educational process. It is also closely associated with the Socratic method of teaching, which promotes an open dialogue between teacher and student. Perennialism in the classroom involves students gaining cultural literacy through the Great Books and proving their understanding through tests, writing, and behavior. A perennialism teacher has a duty to help students to become cultural citizens and to understand the principles of human knowledge.

Hutchins believed that students should be taught basic universal truths and an understanding of eternal ideals. Following the principles of perennialism, he implemented education reform at the University of Chicago, encouraging modern critical thinking of old ideals. He did away with traditional grades and requirements, instead focusing on a more broad curriculum and comprehension through exams. He sought to open up the dialogue between teachers and students, and to foster an environment of debate that could help students relate to these ancient values. “The purpose of the university is nothing less than to procure a moral, intellectual, and spiritual revolution throughout the world,” he said.

Teacher-Centered Philosophies in American Education

In his 2003 book Exemplars of Curriculum Theory, education professor Arthur K. Ellis writes that perennialism dominated the American education system from colonial times to the 19th century, but today the “back to basics” essentialist curriculum is prominent in American public education. The ancient and religious values of perennialism have been removed from the public school system in an effort to promote a separation of church and state. Perennialism is still popular in many non-secular schools and universities.

Critics claim that both educational theories are one-sided, only preparing students for one aspect of their future—essentialism is too pragmatic while perennialism is undemocratic. Both have the same goal of training up a student in a certain image, but those images are different. Perennialism aims to raise an enlightened citizen; essentialism aims to raise a knowledgeable student.

Within the epistemological frame that focuses on the nature of knowledge and how we come to know, there are four major educational philosophies, each related to one or more of the general or world philosophies just discussed. These educational philosophical approaches are currently used in classrooms the world over. They are Perennialism, Essentialism, Progressivism, and Reconstructionism. These educational philosophies focus heavily on WHAT we should teach, the curriculum aspect.

PerennialismFor Perennialists, the aim of education is to ensure that students acquire understandings about the great ideas of Western civilization. These ideas have the potential for solving problems in any era. The focus is to teach ideas that are everlasting, to seek enduring truths which are constant,

not changing, as the natural and human worlds at their most essential level, do not change. Teaching these unchanging principles is critical. Humans are rational beings, and their minds need to be developed. Thus, cultivation of the intellect is the highest priority in a worthwhile education. The demanding curriculum focuses on attaining cultural literacy, stressing students' growth in enduring disciplines. The loftiest accomplishments of humankind are emphasized– the great works of literature and art, the laws or principles of science. Advocates of this educational philosophy are Robert Maynard Hutchins who developed a Great Books program in 1963 and Mortimer Adler, who further developed this curriculum based on 100 great books of western civilization.

EssentialismEssentialists believe that there is a common core of knowledge that needs to be transmitted to students in a systematic, disciplined way. The emphasis in this conservative perspective is on intellectual and moral standards that schools should teach. The core of the curriculum is essential knowledge and skills and academic rigor. Although this educational philosophy is similar in some ways to Perennialism, Essentialists accept the idea that this core curriculum may change. Schooling should be practical, preparing students to become valuable members of society. It should focus on facts-the objective reality out there--and "the basics," training students to read, write, speak, and compute clearly and logically. Schools should not try to set or influence policies. Students should be taught hard work, respect for authority, and discipline. Teachers are to help students keep their non-productive instincts in check, such as aggression or mindlessness. This approach was in reaction to progressivist approaches prevalent in the 1920s and 30s. William Bagley, took progressivist approaches to task in the journal he formed in 1934. Other proponents of Essentialism are: James D. Koerner (1959), H. G. Rickover (1959), Paul Copperman (1978), and Theodore Sizer (1985).

ProgressivismProgressivists believe that education should focus on the whole child, rather than on the content or the teacher. This educational philosophy stresses that students should test ideas by active experimentation. Learning is rooted in the questions of learners that arise through experiencing the world. It is active, not passive. The learner is a problem solver and thinker who makes meaning through his or her individual experience in the physical and cultural context. Effective teachers provide experiences so that students can learn by doing. Curriculum content is derived from student interests and questions. The scientific method is used by progressivist educators so that students can study matter and events systematically and first hand. The emphasis is on process-how one comes to know. The Progressive education philosophy was established in America from the mid 1920s through the mid 1950s. John Dewey was its foremost proponent. One of his tenets was that the school should improve the way of life of our citizens through experiencing freedom and democracy in schools. Shared decision making, planning of teachers with students, student-selected topics are all aspects. Books are tools, rather than authority.

Reconstructionism/Critical TheorySocial reconstructionism is a philosophy that emphasizes the addressing of social questions and a quest to create a better society and worldwide democracy. Reconstructionist educators focus on a curriculum that highlights social reform as the aim of education. Theodore Brameld (1904-1987) was the founder of social reconstructionism, in reaction against the realities of World War II. He

recognized the potential for either human annihilation through technology and human cruelty or the capacity to create a beneficent society using technology and human compassion. George Counts (1889-1974) recognized that education was the means of preparing people for creating this new social order.

Critical theorists, like social reconstructionists, believe that systems must be changed to overcome oppression and improve human conditions. Paulo Freire (1921-1997) was a Brazilian whose experiences living in poverty led him to champion education and literacy as the vehicle for social change. In his view, humans must learn to resist oppression and not become its victims, nor oppress others. To do so requires dialog and critical consciousness, the development of awareness to overcome domination and oppression. Rather than "teaching as banking," in which the educator deposits information into students' heads, Freire saw teaching and learning as a process of inquiry in which the child must invent and reinvent the world.

For social reconstructionists and critical theorists, curriculum focuses on student experience and taking social action on real problems, such as violence, hunger, international terrorism, inflation, and inequality. Strategies for dealing with controversial issues (particularly in social studies and literature), inquiry, dialogue, and multiple perspectives are the focus. Community-based learning and bringing the world into the classroom are also strategies.

Related to both the metaphysical worldview philosophies and the educational philosophies are theories of learning that focus on how learning occurs, the psychological orientations. They provide structures for the instructional aspects of teaching, suggesting methods that are related to their perspective on learning. These theoretical beliefs about learning are also at the epistemic level of philosophy, as they are concerned with the nature of learning. Each psychological orientation is most directly related to a particular educational philosophy, but may have other influences as well. The first two theoretical approaches can be thought of as transmissive, in that information is given to learners. The second two approaches are constructivist, in that the learner has to make meaning from experiences in the world.

Information ProcessingInformation Processing theorists focus on the mind and how it works to explain how learning occurs. The focus is on the processing of a relatively fixed body of knowledge and how it is attended to, received in the mind, processed, stored, and retrieved from memory. This model is derived from analogies between how the brain works and computer processing. Information processing theorists focus on the individual rather than the social aspects of thinking and learning. The mind is a symbolic processor that stores information in schemas or hierarchically arranged structures.

Knowledge may be general, applicable to many situations; for example, knowing how to type or spell. Other knowledge is domain specific, applicable to a specific subject or task, such as vowel sounds in Spanish. Knowledge is also declarative (content, or knowing that; for example, schools have students, teachers, and administrators), procedural (knowing how to do things—the steps or strategies; for example, to multiply mixed number, change both sides to improper fractions, then multiply numerators and denominators), or conditional (knowing when and why to

apply the other two types of knowledge; for example, when taking a standardized multiple choice test, keep track of time, be strategic, and don't get bogged down on hard problems).

The intake and representation of information is called encoding. It is sent to the short term or working memory, acted upon, and those pieces determined as important are sent to long term memory storage, where they must be retrieved and sent back to the working or short-term memory for use. Short term memory has very limited capacity, so it must be kept active to be retained. Long term memory is organized in structures, called schemas, scripts, or propositional or hierarchical networks. Something learned can be retrieved by relating it to other aspects, procedures, or episodes. There are many strategies that can help in both getting information into long term memory and retrieving it from memory. The teacher's job is to help students to develop strategies for thinking and remembering.

BehaviorismBehaviorist theorists believe that behavior is shaped deliberately by forces in the environment and that the type of person and actions desired can be the product of design. In other words, behavior is determined by others, rather than by our own free will. By carefully shaping desirable behavior, morality and information is learned. Learners will acquire and remember responses that lead to satisfying aftereffects. Repetition of a meaningful connection results in learning. If the student is ready for the connection, learning is enhanced; if not, learning is inhibited. Motivation to learn is the satisfying aftereffect, or reinforcement.

Behaviorism is linked with empiricism, which stresses scientific information and observation, rather than subjective or metaphysical realities. Behaviorists search for laws that govern human behavior, like scientists who look for pattern sin empirical events. Change in behavior must be observable; internal thought processes are not considered.

Ivan Pavlov's research on using the reinforcement of a bell sound when food was presented to a dog and finding the sound alone would make a dog salivate after several presentations of the conditioned stimulus, was the beginning of behaviorist approaches. Learning occurs as a result of responses to stimuli in the environment that are reinforced by adults and others, as well as from feedback from actions on objects. The teacher can help students learn by conditioning them through identifying the desired behaviors in measurable, observable terms, recording these behaviors and their frequencies, identifying appropriate reinforcers for each desired behavior, and providing the reinforcer as soon as the student displays the behavior. For example, if children are supposed to raise hands to get called on, we might reinforce a child who raises his hand by using praise, "Thank you for raising your hand." Other influential behaviorists include B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) and James B. Watson (1878-1958).

Cognitivism/ConstructivismCognitivists or Constructivists believe that the learner actively constructs his or her own understandings of reality through interaction with objects, events, and people in the environment, and reflecting on these interactions. Early perceptual psychologists (Gestalt psychology) focused on the making of wholes from bits and pieces of objects and events in the world, believing that meaning was the construction in the brain of patterns from these pieces.

For learning to occur, an event, object, or experience must conflict with what the learner already knows. Therefore, the learner's previous experiences determine what can be learned. Motivation to learn is experiencing conflict with what one knows, which causes an imbalance, which triggers a quest to restore the equilibrium. Piaget described intelligent behavior as adaptation. The learner organizes his or her understanding in organized structures. At the simplest level, these are called schemes. When something new is presented, the learner must modify these structures in order to deal with the new information. This process, called equilibration, is the balancing between what is assimilated (the new) and accommodation, the change in structure. The child goes through four distinct stages or levels in his or her understandings of the world.

Some constructivists (particularly Vygotsky) emphasize the shared, social construction of knowledge, believing that the particular social and cultural context and the interactions of novices with more expert thinkers (usually adult) facilitate or scaffold the learning process. The teacher mediates between the new material to be learned and the learner's level of readiness, supporting the child's growth through his or her "zone of proximal development."

HumanismThe roots of humanism are found in the thinking of Erasmus (1466-1536), who attacked the religious teaching and thought prevalent in his time to focus on free inquiry and rediscovery of the classical roots from Greece and Rome. Erasmus believed in the essential goodness of children, that humans have free will, moral conscience, the ability to reason, aesthetic sensibility, and religious instinct. He advocated that the young should be treated kindly and that learning should not be forced or rushed, as it proceeds in stages. Humanism was developed as an educational philosophy by Rousseau (1712-1778) and Pestalozzi, who emphasized nature and the basic goodness of humans, understanding through the senses, and education as a gradual and unhurried process in which the development of human character follows the unfolding of nature. Humanists believe that the learner should be in control of his or her own destiny. Since the learner should become a fully autonomous person, personal freedom, choice, and responsibility are the focus. The learner is self-motivated to achieve towards the highest level possible. Motivation to learn is intrinsic in humanism.

Recent applications of humanist philosophy focus on the social and emotional well-being of the child, as well as the cognitive. Development of a healthy self-concept, awareness of the psychological needs, helping students to strive to be all that they can are important concepts, espoused in theories of Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Alfred Adler that are found in classrooms today. Teachers emphasize freedom from threat, emotional well-being, learning processes, and self-fulfillment.

Existentialism

Understanding existentialism is often difficult, often because its ideas conflict with other major trends in the thought of western and eastern philosophies alike. Many people consider existentialism to be a dark and pessimistic philosophy, void of hope. However, the opinions of existentialist thinkers were often optimistic about the future of human beings.

Existentialism can also be difficult to understand because it does not consist of a specific dogma, or a set of metaphysical claims. Existentialism is not a definitive claim about the world or the people in it. It is marked, instead, by a set of themes about the human condition and the struggles and freedoms that humans must endure, or perhaps embrace.

Despite the various and often conflicting views held by many existentialist philosophers, there are several main concepts of existentialism that are present in virtually all their works:

1. Sentient beings, especially humans, have free will.2. Humans are responsible for the consequences of their decisions.3. Extremely few, if any, decisions are void of negative consequence.4. Even when part of a group, each person acts and decides as an individual, and is accountable as

such.5. The world is indifferent towards humanity.

The definition of existentialism is often hard to pin down, as there are conflicting views within existentialist thought, variations upon the ideas, and a number of so-called existentialists who rejected the title.

Perhaps the central feature of existentialism that can be seen in these points is the focus on the individual. Existentialists reject the idea that there is a fundamentally true human nature. Instead, they point out that those who seek to understand human nature undervalue the individual. The individual is free, as Sartre says, “radically free”. The individual can shape its own life and defy its so-called nature. The individual makes decisions and bears the responsibility for its actions alone.

Existentialism is a philosophy of the individual and its struggle through life — a focus on the subjective life that we all actually live, rather than a search for objective truths external to us.

Existentialist Philosophers

The Minds of Existentialism

Søren Kierkegaard

Often considered to be the first of the existentialists, Kierkegaard was a religious philosopher who stressed the need for individual choice.

Jean-Paul Sartre

Sartre potrayed humans as lonely creatures, and viewed the freedom of choice that many existentialists valued as a burdern, due largely to the responsibility that follows any choice. Sartre is one of the most prominent minds in existentialism, and can be credited for bringing this philosophy to the attention of a much larger audience.

Albert Camus

Moving beyond Sartre's existentialism, Camus explored the meaninglessness and absurd nature of the human condition.

Many Others

Other existential philosophers include Simone de Beauvoir, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Gabriel Marcel and Franz Kafka. Existentialist philosophy was also influenced by many other works, including those of Friedrich Nietzsche, G. W. F. Hegel, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Edmund Husserl.

Behaviorism (philosophy of education)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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It has been suggested that this article be merged into Behaviorism. (Discuss) Proposed since July 2013.

Behaviorism, as a perspective in education, is based on a change in knowledge through controlled stimulus/response conditioning. This type of learner is dependent upon an instructor for acquisition of knowledge. The instructor must demonstrate factual knowledge, then observe, measure, and modify behavioral changes in specified direction. This type of learning is a conditioned response or rote memorization of facts, assertions, rules, laws, and terminology. The correct response is achieved through stimulation of senses. The focus of intelligence development is visual/spatial, musical/rhythmic, and bodily/ kinesthetic intelligence. The purpose in education is to help a learner build initial schema by adopting knowledge from an instructor through use of the learner’s senses. This learning goal is the lowest order learning: factual knowledge, skill development, and training.[1]

Behaviorists

Etienne Bonnot de Condillac, 1754/1982, 1756 Condillac’s works include Essays on the origin of human knowledge (1746), Treatise on the system (1749), Treatise on the senses (1754), and an extensive course of study in 13 volumes [Cours d'études] (1767–1773) that emphasize the importance of using the senses to increase learning. Condillac’s work is significant to the field of education because he is among the first to emphasize the importance of manipulating matter as well as ideas to construct behavioral learning. Condillac advocates a sense luscious environment that provides a stimulus response-learning environment consistent with Behaviorism.[2]

Jean Marc Gaspard Itard 1801/1862; Itard, sometimes called the father of special education, believed that anyone could be educated [as evidenced in his work with The Wild Boy of Aveyron published in 1801, 1806/1962]. Itard did not accomplish the goals he set for himself to

train the wild boy; however, he did bring about an inclusive philosophy of education that emphasized the use of objects as training tools to develop sensual skills leading to cognitive development. Through his attempts to train the wild boy, Itard learned that positive reinforcement [rather than punishment] was an effective means of obtaining necessary behavioral responses. This stimulus response method is consistent with Behaviorism.[3]

B. F. Skinner, 1954 Skinner’s key point is the need of immediate reinforcement to strengthen behavior. The use of mechanical devices to strengthen behavior in 1954 foreshadows the use of computers in today’s classrooms. According to Skinner, organisms learn by making changes in their environments. Skinner noted, “A significant change in behavior is often obvious as the result of a single reinforcement.” [4] Maintaining behavior strength requires gradual contingency changes and skillful use of schedules in conjunction with positive reinforcement. Competition has adverse consequences for all but one participant, where as cooperation provides positive reinforcement for many. Cooperation is, therefore, preferable to competition. In addition, cooperation can be set up more easily than competition. The progressive education reform movement sought to use immediate positive consequences to modify or strengthen desired behavior, rather than relying on adverse events such as the teacher’s displeasure, ridicule of classmates, low grades, poor showing in competition, talks from the principal, or the birch rod from caregivers.[5] When instructors use adverse events rather than positive reinforcement, the results are anxieties, boredom, and aggression rather than reinforced learning. A revision of classroom practices is needed. A single teacher cannot devote all of his or her time to providing positive reinforcement to only one child [6] A rough estimate of the contingencies required for successful behavior in mathematics during the first four years of school is approximately 25,000 contingencies. The responses to be set up far exceed the essential minimum provided by the homework or in class drills used in current classroom practice. Reinforcement devices have been designed that can provide immediate feedback to a pupil at work for an appropriate time each day. Using these devices allows a child to progress at his own rate. Skinner’s prophetic defense of mechanical devices states, “A country which annually produces millions of refrigerators, dish-washers, automatic washing-machines, automatic clothes-driers, and automatic garbage disposers can certainly afford the equipment necessary to educate its citizens to high standards of competence in the most effective way”.[7] After 50 years, Skinner’s argument may still be drawn on to support the use of laptops as educational tools in today’s classrooms. Laptops provide the immediate positive reinforcement that Skinner refers to, in addition to linking a learner to the information highway of the new millennium. Typical of the Behaviorist, Skinner uses a sense luscious environment to stimulate learning.[8]

Instructional theory

Behaviorism (or behaviourism), is an approach to psychology that combines elements of philosophy, methodology, and theory.[1] It emerged in the early twentieth century as a reaction to "mentalistic" psychology, which often had difficulty making predictions that could be tested using rigorous experimental methods. The primary tenet of behaviorism, as expressed in the writings of John B. Watson, B. F. Skinner, and others, is that psychology should concern itself with the observable behavior of people and animals, not with unobservable events that take place in their minds.[2] The behaviorist school of thought maintains that behaviors as such can be

described scientifically without recourse either to internal physiological events or to hypothetical constructs such as thoughts and beliefs.[3]

From early psychology in the 19th century, the behaviorist school of thought ran concurrently and shared commonalities with the psychoanalytic and Gestalt movements in psychology into the 20th century; but also differed from the mental philosophy of the Gestalt psychologists in critical ways.[4] Its main influences were Ivan Pavlov, who investigated classical conditioning although he did not necessarily agree with behaviorism or behaviorists, Edward Lee Thorndike, John B. Watson who rejected introspective methods and sought to restrict psychology to experimental methods, and B.F. Skinner who conducted research on operant conditioning.[5]

In the second half of the 20th century, behaviorism was largely eclipsed as a result of the cognitive revolution.[6][7] While behaviorism and cognitive schools of psychological thought may not agree theoretically, they have complemented each other in practical therapeutic applications, such as in cognitive–behavioral therapy that has demonstrable utility in treating certain pathologies, such as simple phobias, PTSD, and addiction. In addition, behaviorism sought to create a comprehensive model of the stream of behavior from the birth of a human to their death (see Behavior analysis of child development).

Versions

There is no universally agreed-upon classification, but some titles given to the various branches of behaviorism include:

Methodological : The behaviorism of Watson; the objective study of behavior; no mental life, no internal states; thought is covert speech.

Radical : Skinner's behaviorism; is considered radical since it expands behavioral principles to processes within the organism; in contrast to methodological behaviorism; not mechanistic or reductionistic; hypothetical (mentalistic) internal states are not considered causes of behavior, phenomena must be observable at least to the individual experiencing them. Willard Van Orman Quine used many of radical behaviorism's ideas in his study of knowing and language.

Teleological: Post-Skinnerian, purposive, close to microeconomics. Focuses on objective observation as opposed to cognitive processes.

Theoretical: Post-Skinnerian, accepts observable internal states ("within the skin" once meant "unobservable," but with modern technology we are not so constrained); dynamic, but eclectic in choice of theoretical structures, emphasizes parsimony.

Biological: Post-Skinnerian, centered on perceptual and motor modules of behavior, theory of behavior systems.

Psychological behaviorism (PB) Arthur W. Staats: First general behaviorism that centers on human behavior. Created time-out, token-reinforcement and other methods, analyses, findings and the theory of that helped form behavioral child development, education, abnormal, and clinical areas—also terming this behavioral analysis in 1963. PB laid the basis for cognitive behavior therapy, provides basic theory and research that unifies emotional and behavioral conditioning, and introduces new avenues for basic and applied behavior analysis.[8][9]

Two subtypes are:

Hullian and post-Hullian: theoretical, group data, not dynamic, physiological; Purposive: Tolman's behavioristic anticipation of cognitive psychology

Definition

Skinner was influential in defining radical behaviorism, a philosophy codifying the basis of his school of research (named the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, or EAB.) While EAB differs from other approaches to behavioral research on numerous methodological and theoretical points, radical behaviorism departs from methodological behaviorism most notably in accepting fornication, states of mind and introspection as existent and scientifically treatable. This is done by characterizing them as something non-dualistic, and here Skinner takes a divide-and-conquer approach, with some instances being identified with bodily conditions or behavior, and others getting a more extended "analysis" in terms of behavior. However, radical behaviorism stops short of identifying feelings as causes of sexual behavior.[2] Among other points of difference were a rejection of the reflex as a model of all behavior and a defense of a science of behavior complementary to but independent of physiology. Radical behaviorism has considerable overlap with other western philosophical positions such as American pragmatism.[10] Another way of looking at behaviorism is through the lens of egoism, which is defined to be a causal analysis of the elements that define human behavior with a strong social component involved.[11]

Experimental and conceptual innovations

This essentially philosophical position gained strength from the success of Skinner's early experimental work with rats and pigeons, summarized in his books The Behavior of Organisms[12] and Schedules of Reinforcement.[13] Of particular importance was his concept of the operant response, of which the canonical example was the rat's lever-press. In contrast with the idea of a physiological or reflex response, an operant is a class of structurally distinct but functionally equivalent responses. For example, while a rat might press a lever with its left paw or its right paw or its tail, all of these responses operate on the world in the same way and have a common consequence. Operants are often thought of as species of responses, where the individuals differ but the class coheres in its function-shared consequences with operants and reproductive success with species. This is a clear distinction between Skinner's theory and S–R theory.

Skinner's empirical work expanded on earlier research on trial-and-error learning by researchers such as Thorndike and Guthrie with both conceptual reformulations—Thorndike's notion of a stimulus–response "association" or "connection" was abandoned; and methodological ones—the use of the "free operant," so called because the animal was now permitted to respond at its own rate rather than in a series of trials determined by the experimenter procedures. With this method, Skinner carried out substantial experimental work on the effects of different schedules and rates of reinforcement on the rates of operant responses made by rats and pigeons. He achieved remarkable success in training animals to perform unexpected responses, to emit large numbers of responses, and to demonstrate many empirical regularities at the purely behavioral level. This lent some credibility to his conceptual analysis. It is largely his conceptual analysis that made his

work much more rigorous than his peers', a point which can be seen clearly in his seminal work Are Theories of Learning Necessary? in which he criticizes what he viewed to be theoretical weaknesses then common in the study of psychology. An important descendant of the experimental analysis of behavior is the Society for Quantitative Analysis of Behavior.[14]

Relation to language

As Skinner turned from experimental work to concentrate on the philosophical underpinnings of a science of behavior, his attention turned to human language with Verbal Behavior [15] and other language-related publications;[16] Verbal Behavior laid out a vocabulary and theory for functional analysis of verbal behavior, and was strongly criticized in a review by Noam Chomsky.[17][18]

Skinner did not respond in detail but claimed that Chomsky failed to understand his ideas,[19] and the disagreements between the two and the theories involved have been further discussed.[20][21] Dinnate theory is opposed to behaviorist theory which claims that language is a set of habits that can be acquired by means of conditioning. According to some, this process that the behaviorists define is a very slow and gentle process to explain a phenomenon as complicated as language learning. What was important for a behaviorist's analysis of human behavior was not language acquisition so much as the interaction between language and overt behavior. In an essay republished in his 1969 book Contingencies of Reinforcement,[22] Skinner took the view that humans could construct linguistic stimuli that would then acquire control over their behavior in the same way that external stimuli could. The possibility of such "instructional control" over behavior meant that contingencies of reinforcement would not always produce the same effects on human behavior as they reliably do in other animals. The focus of a radical behaviorist analysis of human behavior therefore shifted to an attempt to understand the interaction between instructional control and contingency control, and also to understand the behavioral processes that determine what instructions are constructed and what control they acquire over behavior. Recently, a new line of behavioral research on language was started under the name of Relational Frame Theory.

Behaviourism and education

Behaviourism focuses on one particular view of learning: a change in external behaviour achieved through a large amount of repetition of desired actions, the reward of good habits and the discouragement of bad habits. In the classroom this view of learning led to a great deal of repetitive actions, praise for correct outcomes and immediate correction of mistakes. In the field of language learning this type of teaching was called the audio-lingual method, characterised by the whole class using choral chanting of key phrases, dialogues and immediate correction.

Within the Project-based learning (PBL) environment, students may be encouraged to engage with the learning process and their peers within the group by positive reinforcement from a skilled facilitator to increase positive actions of engagement, contributions and questioning. Negative behaviours e.g. lack of engagement, negative contributions, could be minimized by the facilitator using negative reinforcement. Within the behaviourist view of learning, the "teacher" is the dominant person in the classroom and takes complete control, evaluation of learning comes from the teacher who decides what is right or wrong. The learner does not have any opportunity

for evaluation or reflection within the learning process, they are simply told what is right or wrong. The conceptualization of learning using this approach could be considered "superficial" as the focus is on external changes in behaviour i.e. not interested in the internal processes of learning leading to behaviour change and has no place for the emotions involved the process.

Operant conditioning

Main article: Operant conditioning

Operant conditioning was developed by B.F Skinner in 1937 and deals with the modification of "voluntary behaviour" or operant behaviour. Operant behavior operates on the environment and is maintained by its consequences. Reinforcement and punishment, the core tools of operant conditioning, are either positive (delivered following a response), or negative (withdrawn following a response). Skinner created the Skinner Box or operant conditioning chamber to test the effects of operant conditioning principles on rats.

Classical conditioning

Main article: Classical conditioning

Although operant conditioning plays the largest role in discussions of behavioral mechanisms, classical conditioning (or Pavlovian conditioning or respondent conditioning) is also an important behavior-analytic process that need not refer to mental or other internal processes. Pavlov's experiments with dogs provide the most familiar example of the classical conditioning procedure. In simple conditioning, the dog was presented with a stimulus such as a light or a sound, and then food was placed in the dog's mouth. After a few repetitions of this sequence, the light or sound by itself caused the dog to salivate.[23] Although Pavlov proposed some tentative physiological processes that might be involved in classical conditioning, these have not been confirmed.[citation needed]

Molar versus molecular behaviorism

Skinner's view of behavior is most often characterized as a "molecular" view of behavior; that is, behavior can be decomposed into atomistic parts or molecules. This view is inconsistent with Skinner's complete description of behavior as delineated in other works, including his 1981 article "Selection by Consequences."[24] Skinner proposed that a complete account of behavior requires understanding of selection history at three levels: biology (the natural selection or phylogeny of the animal); behavior (the reinforcement history or ontogeny of the behavioral repertoire of the animal); and for some species, culture (the cultural practices of the social group to which the animal belongs). This whole organism then interacts with its environment. Molecular behaviorists use notions from melioration theory, negative power function discounting or additive versions of negative power function discounting.[25]

Molar behaviorists, such as Howard Rachlin, Richard Herrnstein, and William Baum, argue that behavior cannot be understood by focusing on events in the moment. That is, they argue that

behavior is best understood as the ultimate product of an organism's history and that molecular behaviorists are committing a fallacy by inventing fictitious proximal causes for behavior. Molar behaviorists argue that standard molecular constructs, such as "associative strength," are better replaced by molar variables such as rate of reinforcement.[26] Thus, a molar behaviorist would describe "loving someone" as a pattern of loving behavior over time; there is no isolated, proximal cause of loving behavior, only a history of behaviors (of which the current behavior might be an example) that can be summarized as "love."

Behaviorism in philosophy

Behaviorism is a psychological movement that can be contrasted with philosophy of mind. The basic premise of radical behaviorism is that the study of behavior should be a natural science, such as chemistry or physics, without any reference to hypothetical inner states of organisms as causes for their behavior. Less radical varieties are unconcerned with philosophical positions on internal, mental and subjective experience. Behaviorism takes a functional view of behavior. According to Edmund Fantino and colleagues: “Behavior analysis has much to offer the study of phenomena normally dominated by cognitive and social psychologists. We hope that successful application of behavioral theory and methodology will not only shed light on central problems in judgment and choice but will also generate greater appreciation of the behavioral approach.”.[27]

Behaviorist sentiments are not uncommon within philosophy of language and analytic philosophy. It is sometimes argued that Ludwig Wittgenstein, defended a behaviorist position (e.g., the beetle in a box argument), but while there are important relations between his thought and behaviorism, the claim that he was a behaviorist is quite controversial. Mathematician Alan Turing is also sometimes considered a behaviorist,[citation needed] but he himself did not make this identification. In logical and empirical positivism (as held, e.g., by Rudolf Carnap and Carl Hempel), the meaning of psychological statements are their verification conditions, which consist of performed overt behavior. W.V. Quine made use of a type of behaviorism, influenced by some of Skinner's ideas, in his own work on language. Gilbert Ryle defended a distinct strain of philosophical behaviorism, sketched in his book The Concept of Mind. Ryle's central claim was that instances of dualism frequently represented "category mistakes," and hence that they were really misunderstandings of the use of ordinary language. Daniel Dennett likewise acknowledges himself to be a type of behaviorist,[28] though he offers extensive criticism of radical behaviorism and refutes Skinner's rejection of the value of intentional idioms and the possibility of free will.[29]

This is Dennett's main point in "Skinner Skinned." Dennett argues that there is a crucial difference between explaining and explaining away… If our explanation of apparently rational behavior turns out to be extremely simple, we may want to say that the behavior was not really rational after all. But if the explanation is very complex and intricate, we may want to say not that the behavior is not rational, but that we now have a better understanding of what rationality consists in. (Compare: if we find out how a computer program solves problems in linear algebra, we don't say it's not really solving them, we just say we know how it does it. On the other hand, in cases like Weizenbaum's ELIZA program, the explanation of how the computer carries on a conversation is so simple that the right thing to say seems to be that the machine isn't really carrying on a conversation, it's just a trick.)

— Curtis Brown, Philosophy of Mind, "Behaviorism: Skinner and Dennett"[30]

21st-century behavior analysis

As of 2007, modern-day behaviorism, known as "behavior analysis," is a thriving field. The Association for Behavior Analysis: International (ABAI) currently has 32 state and regional chapters within the United States. Approximately 30 additional chapters have also developed throughout Europe, Asia, South America, and the South Pacific. In addition to 34 annual conferences held by ABAI in the United States and Canada, ABAI held the 5th annual International conference in Norway in 2009. The independent development of behaviour analysis outside the US also continues to develop, for example in 2013 the UK society for Behaviour Analysis [31] was founded in order to further the advancement of the science and practice of behaviour analysis across the UK.

The interests among behavior analysts today are wide ranging, as a review of the 30 Special Interest Groups (SIGs) within ABAI indicates. Such interests include everything from developmental disabilities and autism, to cultural psychology, clinical psychology, verbal behavior, Organizational Behavior Management (OBM; behavior analytic I–O psychology). OBM has developed a particularly strong following within behavior analysis, as evidenced by the formation of the OBM Network and the influential Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM; recently rated the 3rd highest impact journal in applied psychology by ISI JOBM rating).

Applications of behavioral technology, also known as Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA, have been particularly well established in the area of developmental disabilities since the 1960s. Treatment of individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders has grown especially rapidly since the mid-1990s. This demand for services encouraged the formation of a professional credentialing program administered by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, Inc. (BACB) and accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies. As of early 2012, there are over 300 BACB approved course sequences offered by about 200 colleges and universities world wide preparing students for this credential and approximately 11,000 BACB certificants, most working in the United States. The Association of Professional Behavior Analysts was formed in 2008 to meet the needs of these ABA professionals.

Modern behavior analysis has also witnessed a massive resurgence in research and applications related to language and cognition, with the development of Relational Frame Theory (RFT; described as a "Post-Skinnerian account of language and cognition").[32] RFT also forms the empirical basis for the highly successful and data-driven Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). In fact, researchers and practitioners in RFT/ACT have become sufficiently prominent that they have formed their own specialized organization that is highly behaviorally oriented, known as the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS). It has rapidly grown in its few years of existence to reach about 5,000 members worldwide.

Some of the current prominent behavior analytic journals include the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA), the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB) JEAB website, the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM), Behavior and Social

Issues (BSI), as well as the Psychological Record. Currently, the U.S. has 14 ABAI accredited MA and PhD programs for comprehensive study in behavior analysis.

Behavior analysis and culture

Cultural analysis has always been at the philosophical core of radical behaviorism from the early days (as seen in Skinner's Walden Two, Science & Human Behavior, Beyond Freedom & Dignity, and About Behaviorism.)

During the 1980s, behavior analysts, most notably Sigrid Glenn, had a productive interchange with cultural anthropologist Marvin Harris (the most notable proponent of "Cultural Materialism") regarding interdisciplinary work. Very recently, behavior analysts have produced a set of basic exploratory experiments in an effort toward this end.[33] Behaviorism is also frequently used in game development, although this application is controversial.[34]