Realism Variants: Neorealism, Structural Realism, Mercantilism (in IPE)
30574917 Realism in Education
-
Upload
jnsengupta -
Category
Documents
-
view
223 -
download
0
Transcript of 30574917 Realism in Education
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
1/24
Realism in Education
DR. SURAKSHA BANSAL DR.V.K.MAHESHWARI DR. SAROJ AGARWAL
Ph.D Ph.D Ph.D
Sr.Lecrurer Former Principal Sr.Lecturer
DIMS, Meerut K.L.D.A.V.COLLEGE DIMS, Meerut
India Roorkee . India India
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 believes in a world of Things or
Beings (metaphysics) and in truth as an Observable Fact. Furthermore, ethics
is the law of nature or Natural Law and aesthetics is the reflection of Nature.
The philosophy of realism has had a number of educational spokesmen
through the centuries. While the idealist philosophers have traditionally concernedthemselves with pure philosophy, particularly in its ontological or metaphysicalaspects, the realists have been deeply concerned with the problems of
epistemology. Realists pride themselves on being hard-nosed and not being
guilty of dealing with intellectual abstractions. Even so, the realist ontology can
become very rigid and demanding.
Realism is interested in objects and facts. In general, realists believe in the
independent existence of the experiential universe. They have a healthy respect for
the facts of both the sciences and the social sciences.
In the realist tradition are a number of well known educational spokesmen.
Among these John Amos Comenius, John Locke, and Johann Herbart and Johann
Herbart. More recently, John Wild, Frederick S. Breed, and Harry Broudy have
represented the realistic point of view in educational though. Because of certain
similarities in their educational values and programs, realism and idealism are
often allied in a position referred to as essentialism.
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
2/24
Definition of Realism
Naturalism builds the confidence most people have in the orderliness and
dependability of Nature. Idealism is a comprehensive philosophy which has
resulted from intellectualizing the common belief in the reality of mind and self
.ACCORRESPONDINGLY REALISM IS THE REFINEMENT OF OUR
COMMON ACCEPTANCE OF THE WORLD AS BEING JUST WHAT IT
APPEARS TO BE. According to it, things are essentially what they seem to be
,and, furthermore, in our knowledge they are just the same as they were before
entering our consciousness, remaining unchanged by our experiencing them.
The fundamental and underlying philosophy assumption of the realist is that
reality exists and is totally independent of any Knowledge of it. If objects exist and
is totally independent of any knowledge of it. If objects exist independent of anyknowledge about them, it is obvious that we have an irreconcilable dispute
between the realists and the idealists. Where an idealist would say that a tree in the
middle of the desert exists only if it is in some mind, or if there is knowledge of it;
the realist would hold that whether or not anyone or anything is thinking about the
tree, it nonetheless exists. The realist has revolted against the doctrine that things
that are in the experiential universe are dependent upon a knower for their
existence.
Let us look at the old question about the falling tree on the desert island for a
moment. The question is usually as follows: If a tree falls on a desert island andthere is no one there to hear it, is there any sound? How would the idealist and the
realist differ in looking at and answering this particular question?
Historical Retrospect of Realism
1. Pre-Christian Origins:Although some of the early pre-Christian thinkers dealt with the problems of
the physical world (most notably the early Greek physicist- philosophers,
Democritus and Leucippus) the first detailed realistic position is generallyattributed to Aristotle. Aristotle had been a student of Platos. He was the son of aMacedonian physician and inclined toward the medical and natural sciences. His
writings were much more pedantic than those of Plato and lacked the soaring
vision found in his mentors work. Much of his thinking was either an attempt to
come to terms with Platos idealism in an empirical universe or a reaction toPlatos realm of Ideas. Windelband goes so far as to credit Aristotle with having
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
3/24
solved the Fundamental problem of Greek Philosophy This fundamentalproblem, a problem with which Plato and his predecessors had wrestled, was the
question of the nature of Being or Reality.
Reality, according to Aristotle was distinguishable into form and matter.
Matter is the substance that all things have in common. Form is what distinguishes
them. For Aristotle these to substance were logically separable although always
found together in the empirical world. The more closely anything approaches pure
form, the higher it reigns in the Aristotle hierarchy. At the top of this hierarchy is
pure form which may be viewed as the highest form of reason. It is the Prime-
Mover which gives the universe its orderly nature. Matter, which is at the base of
the hierarchy, is nothing by itself. Closest to the bottom of the hierarchy are such
things as earth and stones. Further up the scale come man, the heavens, and finally
the Prime-Mover which is pure form and reason.
2. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century: Comenius and Locke
John Amos Comenius was a member of the Moravian Brethren and in the
service of his religion rose to the position of bishop. The Brethren were followers
of john Huss, one of the spiritual forbears of Martin Luther. Huss was eventually
burned at the stake in 1415 as a heretic.
Comenius, despite his religious calling was deeply influenced by the then
emerging sciences. In his pedagogical though, Comenius divided schooling into
four levels. The first of these was the mother school or the home. Here the mother
was the most important agent in the educative process. Second came the vernacular
school. Here the emphasis was on learning in the language of the people. This was
a departure from the early emphasis on Latin as the language of all scholarship.
The third level of schooling was the Latin grammar school and the fourth was the
university. A great many of the ideas of this seventeenth century educator were
truly innovative. For example, besides advocating education in the mother tongue,
Comenius believed in physical education and the equal education of both sexes.
Throughout his writings, Comenius emphasizes the primary importance ofthe gathering of knowledge or sense data. In 1658 he published his Orbis Pictus,
one of the earliest through the use of the senses. The Orbis Pictus was an
introductory Latin textbook which had over 150 illustrations, a truly radical
departure for its time. It was the first successful textbook which set out the
doctrines of sense realism. Comenius felt that the human mind, like a mirror,
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
4/24
reflected everything around it. The greatest criticism of the view of the mind is that
it makes man a spectator of the world rather than a participant.
John Locke was a philosopher as Comenius was an educator, and Lockes
writings reflected this orientation just as Comenius showed his lifelong interest inpedagogy. Lockes greatest contribution both to philosophy and to philosophy of
education was his doctrine that ideas are not innate but that all experience is the
result of impressions made on the mind by external objects. The implication of this
are spelled out in his concept of the tabula rasa or the mind as a blank sheet on
which the outside world must leave its impressions. In essence this doctrine says
that man is born with neither ready-made ideas nor with ideas which lie dormant in
the mind. Man is born without innate ideas. At the time of birth, mans mind is a
blank slate upon which sensory experiences of the world create impressions. All
ideas, according to Locke, must come from either sensation or reflection.
The impressions or experiences which we have and which supplies our
understanding wit all the materials of thinking are of primary and secondary
qualities. The primary qualities such as extension in space, solidity, position, and
motion, are the true characteristics of physical objects. Every object shows all the
primary attributes in some degree. The secondary qualities are attributes of a
sensory nature: taste, touch, smell, etc., and it is not necessary that an object have
all of these. We know about the attributes of things through ideas in our mind that
come through sense observation or reflection.
3. Nineteenth Century: Herbart
Herbart argued that all subjects are related and that Knowledge of one helps
strengthen knowledge of the others. He also held that we acquires new contents
they are assimilated with the existing contents. It was Herbarts theory of the
relationship of ideas that was probably his greatest contribution to educational
thought.
The relationships between new ideas and old ideas occurred in what Herbart
called the apperceptive mass. Within the mind, new apperceptions or presentationsunited with older apperceptions and struggled to rise from the unconscious level of
mind to the conscious. Obviously, any teaching must be aimed at making the
greatest number of connections between the new ideas and those which were
already held in the apperecptive mass.
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
5/24
Besides being a philosopher, educator, and musician, Herbart was, for his
day and time, a psychologist. This is not too surprising since most of the
psychological thought of his time found its roots in philosophical speculation.
Nonetheless, Herbart tried to make the rules of psychology as binding and
incontrovertible as those of the physical sciences. To this end he attempted to
develop a science of teaching with its own rules and these he developed into a five-
steps can be seen as having their origins in the theory of sensory experience andthe doctrine of the apperceptive mass.
The Herbartian movement in the United States reached its peak in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century. Because of its formalism it allowed a
teacher to substitute technique for knowledge a long distance. It became a popular
technique to impart to future teachers in normal schools and in other institutes for
teacher preparation. Its very formalism was also its greatest weakness since it
allowed a teacher slavishly to develop a lesson with allowed the rigid teacher toteach rigidly. Herbart himself would probably have shuddered at the misuse of
what he conceived of as creative method for teaching children. For Herbart,
education was applied psychology. The five-step method he developed was as
follows:
Preparation: An attempt is made to have the student recall earlier materials to
which the new knowledge might be related. The purpose of the lesson is explained
and an attempt to interest the learner is made.
Presentation: The new facts and materials are set forth and explained.
Association: A definite attempt is made to show similarities and differences and to
draw comparisons between the new materials and those already learned and
absorbed into the apperceptive mass.
Generalization: The drawing of inferences from the materials and an attempt to
find a general rule, principal, or law. This is a logical step in light of Herbarts
attempt to find a science of education and psychology.
Application: In general this meant the working of academic exercises and
problems based on both the new information and the relevant related information
in the appreciative mass.
4. American Realism: The New Realists and the Critical Realists
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
6/24
The New Realists were so named because they emerged as a reaction to
idealism. Where idealism give special status to mind, seeing it as basically the stuff
from which all other things are created, the New Realists, particularly the
American school, rejected this notion, giving mind no special status and viewing it
as part of nature. For them things could pass in and out of knowledge and would in
no way be altered by the process. Existence, they argued, is not dependent upon
experience or perception, thus mind ceases to be the central pivot of the universe.
For this reason, even if mind is not replaced by matter, it is nonetheless forced to
move over and give it equal status. Speculation, according to the New Realists,
was not as fruitful as the use of the empirical methods of science.
Not all realists felt that they could support the position o the New Realists.
Thus, in 1916 another group was formed consisting of Durant Drake, Arthur O.
Lovejoy, James B. Pratt, George Santayana, Roy W. Sellars, Arthur K. Rogers, and
C.A.Strong. the major difference between the New Realists and this new group, theCritical Realists, seems to have centered around epistemological considerations.
The Critical Realists felt that man could not know the world directly but only
though certain vehicles or essences. Thus, objects are not presented directly to
consciousness but are represented. We do not have direct knowledge of any object
except as it carried to us by our senses. It was felt by the Critical Realists that this
position was the only way to explain errors of perception. In 1920 the Critical
Realists published their platform under the title, Essays in Critical Realism.
Unfortunately the full educational implication of the Critical Realist philosophy
have never been developed, although the perceptual psychologists have worked
along a track which rather closely parallels some of the work of the Critical
Realists.
Philosophical Rationale of Realism
The Universe (Ontology or Metaphysics)
There is great variety in the metaphysical beliefs of realists. There is so
much variety, in fact, that realists could never be grouped together if they did not
have certain common ground. They believe that the universe is composed of matterin motion. It is the physical world in which we live that makes up reality. We can,
on the basis of our experiences, recognize certain regularities in it about which we
generalize an to which we grant the status of laws. The vast cosmos rolls on
despite man. It is ordered by natural laws which control the relationships himself
with it or not. It is not unlike a giant machine in which man is both participant and
spectator. This machine not only involves the physical universe, it operates in the
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
7/24
moral, social and economic sphere as well. The realist sees the immutable laws
governing mans behavior as part of the machine; they are natural law. The realist
may be a monist, believing in one substance; a dualist, believing in two; or a
pluralist, believing in many. Whichever he is, he believes that all substances have a
real existential status independent of the observer. He sees the world as having an
orderly nature and composition which exists independent of consciousness but
which man may know. John Wild has summed up the metaphysical foundations of
realism
Of the several. Different answers to the problem of GOD, it is likely that
everyone is upheld by some member of the family of realists. Of course, there are
realists who are atheistic. Those who define mind in terms of matter or physical
process, and who think of the cosmos in the thoroughly naturalistic sense,ofcourse
have no place for God in there metaphysics.
The following is one representative statement of Montagues. theism---The
God that I believe to be most probable is infinite and eternal like the universe
which is His body, all-perfect in Himself and His will to good, but limited in power
by that totality of possible and actual beings which is within Himself yet not
Himself, and which is what we may call evolution if undergoing the endless
leaving and perfecting that such an infinite chaos would require.
The universe is made up of real, substantial entities, existing in themselves
and ordered to one another by extra mental relations. They are known or not. To be
is not the same as to be known. We ourselves and the other entities around us
actually exist, independent of our opinions and desires. This may be called the
thesis of independence.
Knowledge and Truth (Epistemology)
As idealists emphasize the ontological dimensions of philosophy, the realists
focus upon epistemological concerns. Basically, there are two different schools of
epistemological thought in the realist camp. While both schools admit the
existence and externality of the real world, each views the problem of how wecan know it in a different way.
The neorealist describe the knowing process as closely identifying the
knower with the object known. They say that the object of external world are
presented in consciousness, not represented .They mean to say that when I
perceive an object, it is the same identical object in the world out-there which is in
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
8/24
my consciousness. There is not some go-between which mediates between me and
the object, such as a mental image of the object which is in my consciousness but
not out there in the object.
The first position or presentational view of knowledge, holds that we know
the real object as it exists. This is the positions of the New Realists. When one
perceives something, it is the same thing that exists in the real world. Thus, mindbecomes the relationship between the subject and the object. In this school of
thought there can be no major problems of truth since the correspondence theory is
ideally applicable. This theory states that a thing is true is as it corresponds to the
real world. Since knowledge is by definition correspondence, it must be true. This
thesis of direct realism is well put by John Wild.
These real entities and relations can be known in part by the human mind as
they are in themselves. Experience shows us that all cognition is intentional orrelational in character. Every concept is of something; every judgment about
something. The realist holds that this is a peculiar relation by which the knowing
act becomes united with, in a nonmaterial sense, or directly identified with
something really existent . To know something is to become relationallyidentified wit an existent entity as it is.
The Critical Realists take a different view of knowledge and one which
seems to answer many of Dr. Morris criticisms, as wells dealing with errors in
perception. Their position is a representational view. This position holds that
although something exists in reality our knowledge is not of it, but of a
representation of it. Thus, the Critical Realist is faced with the question of how
knowledge, if it is not direct apprehension of something, gets to our minds. Or to
put it in the terms of the Critical Realists, what is the vehicle of knowledge? We do
not know the world directly (epistemological monism) but by means of some
intervening phenomenon (epistemological dualism) which effects how we perceive
and think about the world. This vehicle or intermediary fifers for different
supporters of this school of thought. Some hold that it is a mental vehicle is neutral
and not an intrinsic part of the physical or mental world.
Values (Axiology)
Among realists, there are at least two general theories of value: (1) that
values are simple indefinable elements, which are experienced for what they are
when we experience them, and (2) that values are dependent upon the attitudes of
the sentient beings experiencing them.
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
9/24
According to the first of these theories, those qualities of our experience,
which we prefer or desire, and to which we attach worth, have something about
them which makes them preferable or desirable. But according to the second
theory, the key to the evaluation is to be found in the interest. Let us now consider
some of the values possible to realists in the fields of ethics, aesthetics, religion,
and social affairs.
1 .Ethical Value
Montague may exemplify a realist approach to moral value, as long as it is
remembered that his metaphysics grants the reality of the spiritual, whereas many
realists are naturalistic in their metaphysical beliefs. Montague finds the ethics of
John Stuart Mill to be quite acceptable: for him, the moral good can be defined
from the vantage point of society as the greatest happiness of the greatestnumber.
2 .Religious Value
One aspect of the relation of axiology and metaphysics can be seen by
looking again at what has been said about realism and belief in God, and then
considering what religious values are possible to realists in the light of this. For
those who do not believe in God, experience will not be rooted in a Divine Being
whom we can worship, reverence, and in whom we can place our trust. Faith and
hope will not have validity as religious attitudes because they will have no real
object. Of course, if it is true that such values have no root in reality, it is well to
know the truth, even so. But there are also realists who believe in God: and for
them many traditional religious values are rooted in realty and therefore are valid.
3. Social Value
It may be that there is more in common in the approaches made to social
philosophy by naturalism and realism than would be expected, inasmuch as there
are realists who are not naturalistic in their metaphysical beliefs. Two attitudes
common to both may be mentioned. In the synopsis of the philosophy ofnaturalism, it was observed that for naturalists the physical universe is much more
commonly the context of life and thought than is society. This is also the case for
most realists.
4. Aesthetic Value
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
10/24
There is a close relation between the refinement of perception and the ability
to enjoy aesthetic values. It holds that ultimate values are essentially subjective. In
other words, he believes that no goal or object is bad or good in itself. Only the
means for acquiring such goals or objects can be judged good or bad insofar as
they enable the individual or the group to attain them.
Thus value in the last analysis rests on the facts of human interest.
Knowledge of the facts of human preference will determine what is politically,
economically, socially;, or educationally worthwhile. He cites the value of
democracy as an example of a natural value derived from the facts of experience
rather than from any transcendental source.
1. What is Good (Ethics)
The realist believes in natural laws. Man can know natural law and live thegood life by obeying it. All mans experience is rooted in the regularities of the
universe or this natural law. In the realm of ethics this natural law is usually
referred to as the moral law. It was to this same moral law that Thomas Jefferson
had reference when, in the Declaration of Independence, he spoke of mansunalienable rights and laws of nature. These moral laws have the same
existential status as the law of gravity in the physical sciences or the economic
laws which are supposed to operate in the free market. Every individual has some
knowledge of the moral and natural law, but this knowledge may bi minimal. By
carful study, particularly of history and psychology, we may learn more clearly to
recognize the moral law and live in accordance with it.
2. What is Beautiful (Aesthetics)
Since the realist place so much value on the natural law and the moral law as
found in the behavior or phenomena in nature, it is readily apparent that the realist
will find beauty in the orderly behavior of nature. A beautiful art form reflects the
logic and order of the universe. Art should attempt to reflect or comment on the
order of nature. The more faithfully and art form does this, the more aesthetically
pleasing it is. Art may extract out that which is essential in the natural order andreduce or remove that which is only peripheral. Thus, in painting, a realist may
enjoy work ranging from the imitation of nature to the most abstract.
Logic of Realism
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
11/24
It can be seen that for realism there is logic of investigation as well as a logic
of reasoning. The one functions largely at the level of sense perception, the other
more especially at the conceptual level. Both are important in any effective
adjustment to the real world and in any adequate control of our experience.
Montague suggests still other ways of knowing which have their
contribution to make to the material of logic (1)The accepting of authoritative
statements of other people, he says must always remain the great and primary
source of our information about other mans thoughts and about thepast(2)Intuition, of the mystical sort, ay also be a source of truth for us, but we
should always be careful to put such knowledge to the test of noninituitative
methods before accepting it.(3) Particularly in the realm of practical or ethical
matters, the pragmatic test, how effective it is in practice may be a valid source oftruth (4) And even skepticism also has its value in truth-seeking; it may not yield
any positive truth for us but it can save us from cockiness and smugness, and helpus to be tolerant and open minded.
Bertrand Russell, who came to philosophy by way of mathematics, has
always held that particular science in high repute as an instrument of truth. As is
the case with many realists. He feels that traditional logic needs to be
supplemented by the science of mathematics because of the inaccuracy and
vagueness both of words and grammer.He thinks that if logical relations are to be
stated accurately .they must be represented by mathematical symbols and
equations, words are too bunglesome.
Concept of Society
From the foregoing, it should now be apparent that the social position of this
philosophy would closely approximate that of idealism. Since the concern of this
position is with the known, and with the transmission of the known, it tends to
focus on the conservation of the cultural heritage. This heritage is viewed as all
those things that man has learned about natural laws and the order of the universe
over untold centuries. The realist position sees society as operating in the
framework of natural law. As man understands the natural law, he will understandsociety.
Since the laws of nature cannot be change, or even amended, society must
function in a particular way. All man can do is serve as a spectator of the society
excerpt where he as an individual fits into the jigsaw puzzle order of natural law
and become a participant. Basically, however, man serves to pass on what is know
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
12/24
to be true knowledge of the immutable laws operating in the moral, economic, and
scientific realms.
The whole social order arises since the earliest times have
chosen to call self-evident truths. Let us look at three different times and threedifferent places for such self-evident truths, all of which have had a profound
effort on the social order.
REALISM AND AIMS OF EDUCATION :
Realists do not believe in general and common aims of education.According to them aims are specific to each individual and his perspectives. . And
each one has different perspectives. The aim of education should be to teach truth
rather than beauty, to understand the present practical life. The purpose of
education, according to social realists, is to prepare the practical man of the world.
The science realists expressed that the education should be conducted on
universal basis. Greater stress should be laid upon the observation of nature and the
education of science.Neo-realists aim at developing all round development of the
objects with the development of their organs.
The realists primary educational aim is to teach those things and values
which will lead to the good life. But for the realist, the good life is equated with
one which is in tune with the overarching order of natural law. Thus, the primary
aim of education becomes to teach the child the natural and moral law, or at least
as much of it as we know, so that his generation may lead the right kind life; one in
tune with the laws to he universe. There are, of course, more specific aims which
will lead to the goals already stated. For example, realists set the school aside as a
special place for the accumulation and preservation of knowledge. Wild neatly
summarizes a number of the more intermediate goals:
Realists just as other philosophers have expressed the aims of education in
various forms. According to John Wild the aim of education is fourfold to discern
the truth about things as they really are and to extend and integrate such truth as isknown to gain such practical knowledge of life in general and of professional
functions in particular as can be theoretically grounded and justified and finally to
transmit this in a coherent and convincing way both to young and to old throughout
the human community.
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
13/24
Breed expressing similar sentiments avers that the chief function of all
education is direction of the learning process. Education should guide the student
in discovering and knowing the would around him as this is contained in the school
subjects.
Russell follows the same line of reasoning in his discussion of educational
objectives. He too would not object to the schools assisting the child to become ahealthy happy and well-adjusted individual. But he insists that the prime goal of all
school activities should be the development of intelligence. The well-educated
person is one whose mind knows the would as it is. Intelligence is that human
function which enables one to acquire knowledge. The school should do all in its
power to develop intelligence. Harry Broudy, a contemporary realist, proposes that
the good life should be ultimate aim of education since it is the final goal of all
human activity.
By way of summary we may say that the aim of education, as the realist sees
it, is fourfold: to discern the truth about things As they really are and to extend and
integrate such truth as is known, to gain such practical knowledge of life in general
and of professional functions in particular as can be theoretically grounded and
justified; and, finally, to transmit this in a coherent and convincing way both to
young and to old throughout the human community.
REALISM AND THE CHILD:
Broudy describes the pupil by elaborating four principles which, according
to him, comprise the essence of the human self. These are the appetitive principle
the principle of self-determination the principle of self-realization and the principle
of self-integration.
The appetitive principle, mentioned first, has to de with the physiological
base of personality. Our appetites disclose the need of our tissues to maintain and
reproduce themselves. Physiological life, and therefore the life of personality, can
not go on unless these necessary tissue needs are supplied. In order for us to do
anything about our tissue needs, except on an animal level, we must be aware ofthem; and in being aware of them, we realize that pleasure and pain are central.
The self has continuity formal structure antecedents in the past and a
yearning toward the future. Our experience has some continuity throughout
changing events and places and in order to explain this we must recognize that the
self is a common factor in all of these experiences even though there are gaps in
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
14/24
consciousness such as when we are asleep or under anesthesia. The self has form
as well as continuity. As for determinism rationality requires that we recognize the
validity and dependability; of cause-and-effect relations but we do not need to hold
to determinism with the meaning that all of our experience is the result of physical
forces. Our power to symbolize is one element of our experience that does not bear
out the truth of this kind of determinism.
The third principle of selfhood, self-realization supplements freedom as such
with value concerns. Freedom does not carry built-in guarantees that it will be
turned to good ends. In order to be freedom it must be free to make us miserable.
The how of choosing, as well as the what which is chosen is a necessary ingredient
of the good life.
Realism in education recognizes the importance of the child. The child is a real
unit which has real existence. He has some feelings, some desires and somepowers. All these can not be overlooked. These powers of the child shall have to
be given due regard at the time of planning education. Child can reach near reality
through learning by reason. Child has to be given as much freedom as possible.
The child is to be enabled to proceed on the basis of facts, The child can learn only
when he follows the laws of learning.
When only one response is repeated for one stimulus, it conditioned by that
stimulus. Now wherever that situation comes, response will be the same; this is
the fact. The child is to be understood a creature of the real world there is no sense
in making him a God . He has to be trained to become a man only.
To the realist, the student is a functioning organism which, through sensory
experience, can perceive the natural order of the world. The pupil, as viewed by
many realists, is not free but is subject to natural laws. It is not at all uncommon to
find realists advocating a behavioristic psychology. The pupil must come to
recognize and respond to the coercive order of nature in those cases where he
cannot control his experiences, while learning to control his experiences where
such control is possible. At its most extreme, the pupil is viewed as a machine
which can be programmed in a manner similar to the programming of a computer.
The student must be disciplined until he has learned to make the proper
responses. Wild says of the student that it is. His duty. to learn those arduousoperations by which here and there it may be revealed to him as it really is. One
tiny grain of truth is worth more than volumes of opinion.
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
15/24
REALISM AND THE TEACHER:
The teacher, for the realist, is simply a guide. The real world exists, and the
teacher is responsible for introducing the student to it. To do this he uses lectures,
demonstrations, and sensory experiences, The teacher does not do this in a random
or haphazard way; he must not only introduce the student to nature, but show him
the regularities, the rhythm of nature so that he may come to understand naturallaw. Both the teacher and the student are spectators, but while the student looks at
the world through innocent eyes, the teacher must explain it to him, as well as he is
able, from his vantage point of increased sophistication. For this reason, the
teachers own biases and personality should be as muted as possible. In order togive the student as much accurate information as quickly and effectively as
possible, the realist may advocate the use of teaching machines to remove the
teachers bias from factual presentation. The whole concept to teaching machines
is compatible with the picture or reality as a mechanistic universe in which man issimply one of the cogs in the machine.
A teacher should be such that he himself be educated and well versed with the
customs of belief and rights and duties of people, and the trends of all ages and
places. He must have full mastery of the knowledge of present life. He must guide
the student towards the hard realities of life. He is neither pessimist, nor optimist.
He must be able to expose children to the problems of life and the world around.
To master ones own environing life natural, social through a knowledge of the
broader life of the ancients.
A teacher should always keep in mind-
Re-capitulation is necessary to make the knowledge permanent.
One subject should be taught at one time.
No pressure or coercion be brought upon the child.
The practice of cramming should be given up.
The uniformity should be the basic principle in all things.
Things should be introduced first and then the words.
The entire knowledge should be gained after experience.
The knowledge should be imparted on the basis of organs.
Straight forward method should be adopted for teaching.
There should be a co-relation between utility in daily life and education.
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
16/24
The child should be told the utility of whatever is taught.
The simple rules should be defined.
All the subjects should be taught in proper order.
Various organs of education should be taught in chronological order. The topic should not be given up unless the boys understand it well.
To find out the interest of the child and to teach accordingly.
REALISM AND CURRICULAM:
According to humanistic realism classical literature should be studied but
not for studying its form and style but for its content and ideas it contained. Milton,
one of the supporters of humanistic realism, has drafted a curricula of education as
follows:
1st yearLatin, grammar, arithmetic and geometry. Reading of simple Latin and
Greek.
2nd yearGreek, agriculture, geography Natural philosophy, mathematics,engineering and architecture.
next 5th yearchief writings of the ancients in prose and poetry on these
Remaining years
Ethical instruction, Bible, Hebrew, Greek, Roman and Saxon Law,
economics, politics, history, logic, rhetoric, poetry-all by reading select writhers.
Social realism was generally recommended for the people of the upper social
class/strata. It combined literary elements with ideals of chivalric education.
Naturally it included the study of literature, heraldry ( the science dealing with
coats of arms and the persons who have right to wear them ), genealogy ( science
of the development of plants and animals from earlier forms ),riding, fencing,
gymnastics, study of modern languages and the customs and institutions of
neighboring countries
Sense-realism- attached more importance to the study of natural sciences and
contemporary social life. Study of languages is not so significant as the study of
natural sciences and contemporary life.
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
17/24
Neo-realism- gives stress on the subject physics and on humanistic feelings,
physics and psychology, sociology, economics, Ethics, Politics, history,
Geography, agriculture varied arts, languages and so on, are the main subjects to
be studied according to the Neo-realists
Subject matter is the matter of the physical universe- the Real World- taught
in such a way as to show the orderliness underlying the universe. The laws of
nature, the realist believes, are most readily understood through the subjects of
nature, namely the sciences in all their many branches. As we study nature and
gather data, we can see the underlying order of the universe. The highest form of
this order is found in mathematics. Mathematics is a precise, abstract, symbolic
system for describing the laws of the universe. Even in the social sciences we find
the realists conception of the universe shaping the subject matter, for they dealwith the mechanical and natural forces which bear on human behavior. The realist
views the curriculum as reducible to knowledge position espoused by E.L.Thorndike that whatever exists must exist in some amount and therefore be
measurable.
John Wild, while differing slightly from the foregoing analysis, describes the
ordering of the curriculum in such a way as to indicate his philosophical
orientation toward realism.
There is certainly a basic core of knowledge that every human person ought
to know in order to live a genuinely human life..First of all
(a) the student should learn to use the basic instruments of knowledge,
especially his own
language. In order to understand it more clearly and objectively, he
should gain some knowledge of at least one foreign language as well. In
addition, he should be taught the essentials of humane logic and
elementary mathematics. Then
(b), he should become acquainted with the methods of physics, chemistry
and biology and the basic facts so far revealed by these science. In the third
place
(c), he should study history and the sciences of man. Then
(d), he should gain some familiarity with the great classics of his own and
of world literature and art. Finally
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
18/24
(e), in the later stages of this basic training, he should be introduced to
philosophy and to those basic problems which arise from the attempt to
integrate knowledge and practice.
Wild goes on to point out the orderly nature of the universe and indicate that
it is possible to find certain solidly grounded moral principles, and that these,
along with the core of subject matter based on the nature of our human world,should be given to everyone.
REALISM AND METHODS OF TEACHING
The method of the realists involves teaching for the mastery of facts in order
to develop an understanding of natural law. This can be done by teaching both the
materials and their application. In fact, real knowledge comes only when the
organism can organize the data of experience. The realist prefers to use inductivelogic, going from the particular facts of sensory experience to the more general
laws deducible from these data. These general laws are seen as universal natural
law.
1. Education should proceed from simple to complex and from concrete to
abstract.
2. Things before rules and words.
3. Students to be taught to analyze rather than to construct.
4. Vernacular to be the medium of instruction.5. The order of nature to be sought and followed.
( The child can rule over the nature if the natural laws are followed. )
1. Repetition is necessary for retention.
2. Individuals experience and spirit of inquiry is more important than
authority.
3. No unintelligent cramming. More emphasis on questioning and
understanding.
4. Methods of scientific thinking formulated by sir Thomas Bacon.( Inductivemethod of education ).
(There are and can be only two ways for investigation and discovery of truth.One flies from senses and particulars, to the most general axioms and from these
principles and infallible truth determines and discovers intermediate axioms.the
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
19/24
other constructs axioms from the senses and particulars by ascending continually
and gradually, so as to teach most general axioms last of all.) Bacon.
Social realists follow the method of travel of journey method, which will
give real experience of varied aspects of life improve knowledge and mental
faculties.
In his method, the realist depends on motivation the student. But this is not
difficult since many realists view the interests of the learner as fundamental urges
toward an understanding of natural law rooted in our common sense. The
understanding of natural law comes through the organizing of data through insight.
The realist in his method approves anything which involves learning through
sensory experience whether it be direct or indirect. Not only are field trips
considered valuable, but the realist advocates the use of films, filmstrips, records,
television, radio, and any other audiovisual aids which might serve in the place ofdirect sensory experience when such experience is not readily available. This does
not mean that the realist denies the validity of symbolic knowledge. Rather it
implies that the symbol has no special existential status but is viewed simply as a
means of communicating about, or representing, the real world. A case in point is
the study of language, which is a symbolic form of communication. According to
John Wild, it should be understood not as an arbitrary convention but rather, as away of reflecting the nature of reality as it really is.
REALISM AND DISCIPLINE:
Discipline is adjustment to objectivity. It is necessary in order to enable the
child to adjust himself to his environment and concentrate on his work. Bringing
out change in the real world is impossible. The student himself is a part of this
world. He has to admit this fact and adjust himself to the world.
A disciplined student is one who does not withdraw from the cruelties,
tyrannies, hardships and shortcomings pervading the world. Realism has
vehemently opposed withdrawal from life. One has to adjust oneself to this
material world.
Thus, the realism has brought great effect in various fields of education. The
aims, the curriculum, the methods of teaching the outlook towards the child, the
teachers, the discipline and the system of education all were given new blood.
Realism in education dragged the education from the old traditions, idealism and
the high and low tides to the real surface.
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
20/24
Realism and school:
John Amos Comenius in his great didactic describes the unique function of
the school in a manner which will symbolize modern realism even though he wrotein the 17
thcentury, long before the school became a universal institution. He said
that man is not made a man only by his biological birth. If he is to be made
aman.human culture must give direction and form to his basic potentialities. This
necessity of the school for the making of man was made vivid for Comenius by
reports which had come to him of children who had been reared from infancy by
animals. The recognition of this by Comenius caused him to consider the education
of men by men just as essential to man birth, as a human creature, as is procreation.
He therefore defined education as formation and went so far as to call the school a
true forging place of man
Criticisms of Realism:
In educational theory and practice, the scientific realists might be criticized
for the following reasons:
1. Most of the philosophical realists of this school pay little or no attention to
developing an educational theory consistent with their basic philosophical
beliefs as Dewey, broody, Adler, And Martian have done.
2. Some of them place tool much emphasis on the individual in the educational
program. Such preoccupation with the individual flouts the reality of thecomplexity and interdependence of modern society.
3. The curriculum proposed by most scientific realists is one-sided since
empirical knowledge holds a position superior to that of the humanistic
studies. This neglect is evident in the absence of a well defined theory of are
and art education.
4. The scientific realists with the exception or Russell stress content much
more than the methods of acquiring knowledge. This emphasis often leads to rote
memorization one of the major weaknesses of the traditional school. Thus lip
service may be paid to the goals of developing critical thinking understanding andother complex intellectual functions but little is done by the student to attain these
goals.
The realist recognizes the origin of knowledge from the datum achieved by
senses and asserts that only objects are main and it is through their contact that
knowledge is acquired. Then how does our illusion arise ? How does knowledge
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
21/24
become fallacious? Where does the external object go in dream ? The realist is
unable to answer these questions satisfactorily.
Today the effect of realism has given rise to the wave of science. It is
right, but there should be no indifference towards art and literature. The realist
supports this negligence
The realist does not accept the existence of transcendental ( not based on
experience or reason ) being. How could be know the non-existence of that which
does not exist? Has non-existence got no existence ? Void ness and non-existence
also are the parts of existence. Here the realist is dumb completely.
Realism admits real feelings and needs of life on the one hand, gives no
place to imagination and sentiment, on the other. What a contradiction ? Are
imaginations, emotions and sentiments not real needs of human life ? Isemotionless life not almost dead life? Can life be lead on the basis of facts only
The realist claims to be objective. Objectivity in knowledge is nothing but
the partnership of personal knowledge. Knowledge is always subjective.
No inspiration to remove the defects of modern education can be achieved
unless the impressiveness of pure and high thought is admitted and attitude is not
confined to present facts only; because the realist is satisfied simply by the
fulfillment of the needs of daily life and be does not care to make life sublime.
Realism recognizes the real existence of the material world. This recognition
remains un objected to unless he says that only material world really exists. The
question arises- Is there no power behind this material world ? Does it have its own
existence ? What is the limit of the universe ? The realist does give reply to these
questions but these replies are not found to be satisfactory. The real existence of
material world may be admitted but how can the existence come to an end in the
world itself.
Realism enthuses disappointment in students and teachers. No progress can bemade by having faith in the facts of daily life and shattering faith in ideals. Life is
but full of miseries and struggles. Sorrow is more predominant than joy in the
world. A person becomes disappointed by this feeling. That is why realists often
appear to be skeptics, Pessimists and objectionists,
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
22/24
While there has been much criticism of the realistic philosophy of education it
has not been neither as vocal nor as persistent as that coming from the critics of
idealism. This is probably because the realistic point of view seems, at first blush,
to be more is tune with the contemporary scientific- industrial outlook. There are,
however, several major criticism which might be reviewed.
Failure to Deal with Error
Both the New Realists and the Critical Realists failed to provide a satisfactory
answer to the problem of error. The New Realist position is the weaker of the two
since direct cognition does not permit error and the rationale employed by Wild,
that Error is the creation of the erring subject is most unsatisfactory if the mind is
viewed purely as relational with no contents of its own with which to create error.
The Critical Realists have solved the problem of error, but in doing so through the
use of an intermediary or vehicle of knowledge; they have created a whole newhost of problems in terms of defining and explaining the nature of the vehicle.
Whether it is of the substance of mind, matter, or some neutral substance is unclear
and varies with the particular philosopher one is reading. Both positions, despite
their differences, create problems for the educator. The New Realist position with
regard to error is manufacture unable, and the Critical Realist lack of clarity with
regard to the vehicles of knowledge means that the teacher cannot control these
vehicles and is to some degree stymied in any hopes of developing knowledge
systematically.
2. Danger of Elitism
Finally, the same criticism of absolutes applies to the realists as applied to
the idealists. There is the constant danger that there will arise a class of persons
who be the ones with the responsibility of identifying and arbitrating questions
concreting absolutes. These may be priests in an idealist society or scientist in a
realist society, but whatever they are, they become an external source of authority
in an area in which people should be speculating and the danger of an inquisition is
always inherent in such a social structure. Whenever we allow any person or group
of persons to tell us what is Truth and what is not Truth, and permit them theauthority to force this point of view on us, we are in danger of losing the very
essence of the truly democratic society.
1. Depends on Cause- Effect Relationships
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
23/24
The next criticism deals directly with the philosophical underpinnings of the
realist position. Almost all the laws of nature that the realists stress are dependent
upon cause- effect relationships. Most philosophers and scientists are chary of such
absolutes. They prefer to deal in the realm of probability. Past activity is no
guarantee of future activity. Because the sun rises in the East every day is no
guarantee that it will rise there tomorrow, although the probability is ridiculously
high. Nonetheless, we cannot talk in terms of absolutes where there is any margin
for error; and if this is true even to a slight degree in the realm of the sciences,
think how much must be in the realm of the social sciences and thearea of morality. Thus, to teach moral absolutes and natural laws is a highly
questionable procedure.
Fails to Deal with Social Change
Like the idealists, the realists are basically conservative in education. Ratherthan concern themselves with social change and educational progress they are most
concerned with preserving and adding to the body of organized truth they feel has
been accumulated. In a period when there was little social change occurring this
type of philosophy may have been adequate. But in an increasingly automated
society operating on an ever-expanding industrial base, many educators feel that
education must be a creative endeavor, constantly looking for new solutions to
problems. This role appears to be incompatible with the realists fundamental
conception of the role of education in the society.
From this very general philosophical position, the Realist would tend toview the Learner as a sense mechanism, the Teacher as a demonstrator, the
Curriculum as the subject matter of the physical world (emphasizing
mathematics, science, etc.), the Teaching Method as mastering facts and
information, and the Social Policy of the school as transmitting the settledknowledge of Western civilization.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 oforder.
Referances -
-
8/4/2019 30574917 Realism in Education
24/24
Breed, Frederick, Education and the Realistic Outlook, Philosophies ofEducation. National Society for the Study of Education, Forty-first Yearbook,
Part 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1942.
Broundy, Harry S., Building a Philosophy of Education. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1961..
Butler, J. Donald, Four Philosophies and Their Education and Religion.
New York : Harper & Row.
Comenius, John Amos, The Great Didactic. London : A & C Black, 1910. The
application of Comenius sense-realism to education.
Herbart, J.F., The Science of Education. Boston : D.C.Heath & Company, 1902.
Locke, John Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Oxford : Clarendon
Press, 1902. The basic statement of Lockes epistemological position.
Weber, Christian O., Basic Philosophies of Education. New York : Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1960. This book, especially in chapters 11-14,.
Wild, John, Education and human Society : A Realistic View, Modern
Philosophies and Education. National Society for the study of Education, Fifty-
fourth Yearbook, Part I. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1955.