Schools of Educational Thought

2. KKAS 2101 Schools of Educational Thought ktk.ulapland.fi/KKAS2101

3. Truly meaningful and relevant knowledge result in: seeing the overwhelming greatness of creation, and feeling small and humble (not humiliated) before the greatness of creation. • Seeing greatness involves ‘romantic wonderment’ in creation: the ability to be amazed, intrigued and delighted by things that are of no immediate use or amusement to oneself; the fruit of true knowledge is always humility; therefore, arrogance is an outcome of ignorance. • Structure: (1) presentation of a statement or claim, (2) questions to understand the statement/claim, (3) rational (not ad hominem) arguments to support or refute the claim — based on one’s sincere opinion! • The purpose of argumentation is not to win an ‘argument’ but to search for genuine meaning; thus, successful argumentation results in new collective understanding (win-win), not ‘victory’ over others (win-loose). Lecture structure (idea):

4. EdPhil/1.1 Given the rapid change of our world, the globalizing paradigm of the human society, and the innate need of each citizen of this planet to live a meaningful life, the potential significance of education cannot be overestimated: education needs to become change-agent for a sustainable future! • EdPhil/1.2 A relevant and provocative question (1) is: Is education, as a science, capable of addressing the educational needs of human development? • EdPhil/1.3 A relevant and provocative question (2) is: Is there any justification for education to be designated as a science? • EdPhil/1.4 In natural sciences there are basic coherent assumptions and presuppositions about physical reality that the generality of the scientific community agrees upon! • EdPhil/1.5 There are virtually no ontological assumptions about human reality that would be accepted by the majority of scholars in human sciences! EdPhil/1 The role of education and the science of education in a changing world:

5. EdPhil/2.1 There are two central concepts in the philosophy of science: ontology and epistemology; ontology signifies what things are in their own essential reality, epistemology signifies how we can obtain knowledge about those essential realities! • EdPhil/2.2 The aspiration of all science is the pursuit and acquisition of verifiable knowledge; the aspiration of technology is to apply and implement that knowledge to practical use! • EdPhil/2.3 Science is a form of search after truth — scientific knowledge, while studying the workings of particular phenomena, seeks in the last analysis to understand the essence of things in a credible and verifiable manner! EdPhil/2 Science, the scientific method, and universals (cont’d … ››):

6. EdPhil/2.4 In the science of physics: the aim is not only to explain isolated physical events and observations but also to decode the essential principles of the material reality, to find core natural laws that govern and explain the physical universe! • EdPhil/2.5 The aspiration for essentiality, in science, focusses the overall direction of science on the universal qualities of reality (not on the particular cases and isolated phenomena), also known as universals! • EdPhil/2.6 In pursuit of scientific universals, it could be argued that ontology is always objective and ultimately unattainable, epistemology is always subjective and progressively attainable (towards more relative objectivity); in other words, scientific theories are approximations of reality, not reality itself! • EdPhil/2.7 Neither the science of education, nor the academic community around it, are focussed on the universals of human reality and education, a vision that would have a more universal appeal to the human mind; as long as mental limitations persist, such visionary approaches are considered either irrelevant or impracticable! • EdPhil/2.8 There are justified grounds for lack of interest in, even fear of, educational universals: the millennial experience of humankind with the abuse of social, political and religious authority has bred apprehension of the use of intellectual and spiritual leadership, particularly in relation to the interpretation of human existence! • EdPhil/2.9 The repercussions of dread of doctrinal orthodoxy are manifested in the fear of the scientific study of human (and educational) universals, particularly in the Western world (elsewhere, the effect is somewhat less dramatic but, since academic tradition is Western in origin, this is true for most academic people worldwide)! EdPhil/2 Science, the scientific method, and universals (‹‹ … cont’d):

7. EdPhil/3.1 Everyone entertains some view of human reality, whether explicitly or implicitly, whether consciously or subconsciously, whether articulate or intuitive — and this is particularly true of educationalists and their work! • EdPhil/3.2 “Every education teaches a philosophy; if not by dogma then by suggestion, by implication, by atmosphere ... If it does not all combine to convey some general view of life, it’s not education at all.” (G. K. Chesterton, 1950)! • EdPhil/3.3 The existence of background philosophies behind various modes of thought in social and behavioural science is both recognized and discussed by various scholars of the field; however, these historical philosophical views, particularly those concerning the reality and evolution of human society, are so varied that they appear almost incompatible! EdPhil/3 Schools of educational and pedagogic thinking (cont’d … ››):

8. EdPhil/3.4Positivism is the scientific approach demanding that any view that is adopted must be based on ‘positive knowledge’, on empirically verifiable facts; thus, positivism regards metaphysical questions as unanswerable and, therefore, irrelevant! • EdPhil/3.5Behaviourism is a materialist-naturalist approach that can be seen as ‘offspring’ of positivism; it seeks to gain knowledge about behaviour based squarely on measurable phenomena; behaviourism assumes that such empiricism is intrinsic to human reality, i.e. measurable facts are all there is to human reality, or at least human behaviour! • EdPhil/3.6Instrumentalism and pragmatism draw on a utilitarian and pragmatic philosophy; instrumentalism holds the various forms of human activity to be instruments devised by humans to solve complex individual and social problems; here, truth has no transcendental or eternal reality and emerges almost exclusively from experience! • EdPhil/3.7Cognitive psychology seeks to examine internal mental processes such as problem solving, memory and language; it holds that psychological phenomena could not be properly understood simply by merely identifying and analysing their elementary parts — that the whole is different from and more than the sum of the parts! • EdPhil/3.8Constructivism assumes that learning is at its best when the learner is actively constructing his or her understanding; cognitive constructivism focusses on the developmental phases of a child as it grows and matures; social constructivism emphasizes the influence and instrumentality of cultural and social contexts in the learning process! EdPhil/3 Schools of educational and pedagogic thinking (‹‹ … cont’d):

9. EdPhil/4.1 In the background of the actual schools of thought within social and behavioural science that have highly influenced educational philosophy there are general modernist and postmodernist schools of philosophy! • EdPhil/4.2Phenomenology maintains that anything that is not immediately received by human consciousness has to be discarded; this method seeks to realise only the immediate object, the phenomenon, and to grasp its ideal meaning through an instant act of intuition or vision! • EdPhil/4.3Hermeneutics is a rather old school of thought, originally related to the interpretation and biblical criticism, but it found new impetus in beginning of the 20th century; some of its modern forms focus on the problem of being and its temporality, with a deep concern for various aspects of human existence and the anguish of modern society! • EdPhil/4.4Existentialism dates back to the 19th century, but its modern forms influenced strongly by hermeneutics and phenomenology; existentialism values subjective truth when attained with sincerity and intensity of the commitment; this culminated in the assertion that all values are subjective, that there is nothing to guide us in our decisions! • EdPhil/4.5 The emergence of the various schools of social and behavioural thought represents a consistent tendency from static and passive (‘eternal’) conception of knowledge to an adaptive and active (‘temporal’) one! • EdPhil/4.6 The emergence of the various schools of social and behavioural thought represents a consistent tendency of scientific method gradually assuming the role of, and transmuting into, ontology and epistemology! • EdPhil/4.7 RE: In pursuit of scientific universals, it could be argued that ontology is always objective and ultimately unattainable, epistemology is always subjective and progressively attainable (towards more relative objectivity); in other words, scientific theories are approximations of reality, not reality itself! EdPhil/4 Background philosophies of social and behavioural sciences:

10. EdPhil/5.1 The incompatibilities, discrepancies, vagueness, and uncertainty have brought the evolution of human sciences to a point where universal ontological premises are avoided to the last; if not openly dismissed as irrelevant and nonsensical, they are unconsciously avoided and intuitively regarded as useless philosophy or metaphysical abstractions! • EdPhil/5.2 Most research in education has come to be essentially descriptive, and of the smaller number of non-descriptive studies, only very few deal with universal concepts; pedagogical research is mainly concerned with surveying educational situations, cases, models, or specific phenomena — not developing the theory of education as a whole! • EdPhil/5.3 The quest for universals has, in recent decades, broadened the perspective of educational research and paved the way for a richer and more holistic investigation into the phenomenon of education; surprisingly, the outcomes are most visibly present in the domain of educational application! • EdPhil/5.4 Development-oriented educational approaches, such as action research and learning organization, share an aspiration to reorient, by means of renewal of everyday practice, the community’s social life; while seemingly pragmatic in appearance, such approaches are often philosophical in foundation! EdPhil/5 The dilemma of universals, the science of education and human progress:

11. EdPhil/6.1 Acquiring scientific knowledge calls for vision with a universal appeal to the human mind; there is a need for vision and holism, on the one hand, and systematic and methodical means, on the other! • EdPhil/6.2 The terms reductionism and holism are often, mistakenly, taken almost as synonyms for ‘scientific’ vs. ‘religious’ — the former implying systematic and critical acquisition of knowledge, the latter implying a vague and uncritical (and often authoritarian) formation of doctrines; this interpretation is inaccurate! EdPhil/6 Scientific belief vs. dogmatic belief — need for holistic vision (cont’d … ››):

12. EdPhil/6.3 The dichotomy of scientific belief vs. dogmatic belief is a very old philosophical dilemma! • EdPhil/6.4Religious faith, as such, cannot be automatically equated with “dogmatic belief” — only the dogmatic expressions of religious faith can be thus characterized; moreover, academic knowledge, as such, cannot be automatically equated to “scientific belief” — only critically tested expressions of academic knowledge can! • EdPhil/6.5Dogmatic belief is: conviction in particular views without solid rational grounds and adequate factual justification, and doctrinal belief in an incoherent and atomistic collection of tenets — in short: unfounded and unconnected set of beliefs! • EdPhil/6.6Scientific belief is: careful choice of theorems (‘tenets’) using critical criteria, well-thought-out justifications and even attempts to falsify its own assumptions, and a pursuit of coherence — in short: tested and coherent system of ‘beliefs’! • EdPhil/6.7Holistic vision seeks scientific knowledge — not just by testing its claims before adopting them — but by seeking to link and connect the various ‘truths’ it has found and formulate them into a coherent whole! EdPhil/6 Scientific belief vs. dogmatic belief — need for holistic vision (‹‹ … cont’d):

13. EdPhil/7.1General Systems Theory is one of the most credible efforts to describe universals and to pursue holistic vision in science; it challenges the Cartesian view of the mechanistic-deterministic-reductionistic universe as a ‘clockwork’ and calls for a holistic approach to reality that sees systemic interconnectedness as the prime quality in creation! • EdPhil/7.2 General Systems Theory, rather than reducing a given entity to the qualities of its constituent elements, shifts the focus to the relationships of the elements and, more importantly, to their connection with the whole of which they are parts! • EdPhil/7.3 General Systems Theory maintains that the same conceptual ideas and principles underline very different domains of reality and, hence, different disciplines (physics, biology, technology, sociology, education etc.); “there exist models, principles, and laws that apply to generalized systems or their subclasses” (Ludvig von Bertalanffy, 1968)! • EdPhil/7.4 General Systems Theory postulates that reality as a whole is governed by certain universal principles that apply to all kinds of systems and that reality is, in the last analysis, one holistic entity; moreover, it maintains that all systems are synergic: they are more than the sum of their constituent elements! EdPhil/7 General Systems Theory and its basic assumptions (cont’d … ››):

14. EdPhil/7.5 Systemic universals include (1) the principle of systemic hierarchy: reality has a hierarchical structure where each higher level includes the qualities of lower levels as well as additional qualities of its own! • EdPhil/7.6 Systemic universals include (2) the principle of bifurcation: open systems can be in the state of instability — a non-linear and chaotic situation, a crisis in pursuit of new order; a system in this state of bifurcation can undergo a breakthrough into a new stable order, but it can also give in to entropy and experience a breakdown! • EdPhil/7.7 Systemic universals include (3) the principle of unity in diversity: systems emerge towards greater unity among constituent elements, exhibiting holistic qualities not reducible to the attributes of individual elements; high level of diversity and complexity of elements is needed for qualities of the system to emerge! • EdPhil/7.8 Systemic universals include (4) the principle of macrodeterminism in living systems: the development of living systems is non-deterministic; the details of their future is not fully determined by their past; living systems evolve macrodeterministically towards higher complexity and more sophisticated order! • EdPhil/7.9 Systemic universals include (5) the principle of evolutionary development: living systems undergo a progressive but non-linear evolution with a tendency towards sophistication and refinement; this macrodeterminism is caused by the potential inherent to the system; the system can evolve only in the direction of its potential! • EdPhil/7.10 Systemic universals include (6) the principle of historical social progress: social systems undergo a progressive evolution with the potential towards greater unity and more refined order, i.e. larger and better organized societies! EdPhil/7 General Systems Theory and its basic assumptions (‹‹ … cont’d):

15. EdPhil/8.1 The inorganic nature (such as minerals or air or water) displays no trace of consciousness and its elements merely exist and interact within basic laws of physics; this is the most basic and most primitive level of contingent existence! • EdPhil/8.2Basic biological systems (such as monocellular organisms or plants) demonstrate a goal-oriented growth, endued with the power of growth and guided by both a genetic program as well as environmental conditions; this is the first level of organic existence! • EdPhil/8.3Animals show clear signs of awareness or consciousness, exhibiting in varying intensities ability to perceive their environment through senses and react to its stimuli through movement, activity, and even emotions; this is the first level of conscious existence! • EdPhil/8.4 The Earth was formed about 4’600 million years ago; inorganic evolution continued for about 800 million years before biological evolution could start; after the lapse of 1’300 million years more, monocellular systems evolved into primitive multicelled vegetation; after another 1'600 million years, with the appearance of first primitive animals, the evolution of consciousness emerged (i.e. 900 million years ago)! • EdPhil/8.5 The first level of contingent existence was the ruling form of existence during the first 17% of the Earth’s life; the first level of organic existence (monocellular or plant life) was the highest level of evolutionary order for 63% of the existence of the Earth; the first level of conscious existence was the most advance level of existence for 20 % of the Earth’s history! • EdPhil/8.6 The beginnings of social evolution can be traced back to the emergence of the primitive human species, referring to the time of human influence on earth; this period comprises only a few million years, i.e. a mere 0.1 % of the Earth’s life! EdPhil/8 Biological and social evolution, and the evolutionary time-frame:

16. EdPhil/9.1 Biologically, there is no point in separating human beings from the rest of the animal kingdom: there are no biological evolutionary leaps significant enough to separate man as a distinct life form from animals (such as the distinction between plants and animals)! • EdPhil/9.2 In terms of consciousness, an evolutionary leap seems to have taken place: it is possible to detect equally significant differences between human consciousness and animal awareness, as there are between animal awareness and plant non-awareness! • EdPhil/9.3 Animals are aware, through their senses, of their surroundings and are able to react, through their instincts, to these stimuli; this can be called instinctive consciousness and results in what we call “animal behaviour”! • EdPhil/9.4 Human beings appear to possess at least two additional (and fundamentally different) forms of consciousness: (1) consciousness of ego or rational consciousness; (2) consciousness of potential or ideal consciousness; these describe the evolutionary level of what one might call meta-conscious systems! • EdPhil/9.5Rational consciousness includes: consciousness of self, that not only the environment exists but “I” exists in that environment, an awareness of one’s relationship with the surrounding reality, a capacity for rational thought and the volition to act deliberately, and to imagine and create new things through the rational application of latent talents! • EdPhil/9.6Ideal consciousness includes: consciousness and innate awareness of the possibility for progress and ascendance, of a purpose and of some truth or reality greater than ones ego, the conception of ethical right vs. wrong, commitment to high principles and ideals! EdPhil/9 Differences in human vs. animal consciousness:

17. EdPhil/10.1 The central dilemma of philosophy of science and the science of education is whether all aspects of reality (physical, mental, spiritual) belong to one universal whole, whether reality is one; this assumption alone would have unprecedented consequences, if taken as a basic postulate of science! • EdPhil/10.2 The systemic view tends to address holism also in terms of education: all systems have a potential, typical to their own level; education can be defined as the process through which that potential can be progressively realized and harnessed! • EdPhil/10.3 A cynical and non-holistic world-view can prevent us from overcoming the obstacles in the way of our first global breakthrough and, instead, actualize the looming breakdown; our mode of thought is critical to our common future: world-view and world order are intimately interwoven — and in this age, they are interwoven globally! • EdPhil/10.4 Globalization is contextual condition; in this condition any social or political or economic ‘feature’ can become globally dominant or widespread (similarly, in a national or local context any feature can become nationally or locally dominant or widespread)! • EdPhil/10.5 The problem is not with globalization per se, but with what is made global through individual and collective human choices, which, in turn, are dependent on the moral maturity of the human race; human beings tend, however, to first misuse any potentially wonderful thing before learning to use it as it is supposed to be! EdPhil/10 Education and the current paradigm of globalization (cont’d … ››):

18. EdPhil/10.6 Like a stubborn growing child often fails to welcome his maturation, likewise, humankind is persistently clinging to its childish tenets: its fragmented world-view, its obsolete modes of interaction, its outdated social structures, its immature political organization! • EdPhil/10.7 Like an adolescent at the peak of his physical development, humankind is physically and materially highly advanced; we have the perfect machinery for the needs and life of a matured humanity; now, it is maturity itself that needs to be attained! • EdPhil/10.8 The watchword for humanity’s global maturity, and its touchstone, is the principle of unity in diversity; it presupposes that the diversity of humankind is fundamental to the social reality and is also a valuable resource for the entire humanity; it also insists that unity is needed in matters that are intrinsically universal or global! • EdPhil/10.9 Unity of purpose, unity of vision, unity of core values, unity of law and of principles of global governance are, not only practically indispensable for the management of human affairs, but also sit at the heart of humanity’s identity in its new global attire! • EdPhil/10.10 There is a basic futuristic choice that our global paradigm of change presents: Do we want to be reactive pawns drifting in the flow of global change, or do we want to have some control over our futures and manage change towards a desirable and sustainable paradigm of globalization? It is this latter choice that brings educational reform to the centre of discussion! EdPhil/10 Education and the current paradigm of globalization (‹‹ … cont’d):

19. “Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom.” -- Bahá’u’lláh (circa 1880) --