KING’S COLLEGE OF THE PHILIPPINES

Magsaysay Hill, Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya

Subject: THE TEACHING PROFESSION

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Topic: TEACHER’S PHILOSOPHICAL HERITAGE
We are heirs to a rich philosophical heritage. Passed on to us are a number of philosophies of various thinkers who
lived before us. These thinkers reflected on life in this planet. They occupied themselves searching for answers to questions
about human existence. These existential questions come in different versions:
What is life?
Who am I?
Why am I here?
What am I living for? etc.
In the school context, these existential questions are:
Why do I teach?
What should I teach?
How should I teach?
What is the nature of the learner?
How do we learn?
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Activity: Determining Your Philosophy

Find out which philosophy you adhere. To what extent does each statement apply to you? Rate yourself by determining
how much you agree with the following statements. Use the scale below for your reference.
4 – Always agree 2 – Sometimes agree
3 – Often agree 1 – Do not agree

Statements 4 3 2 1
1. There is no substitute for concrete experience.
2. Teachers must not force their students to learn the subject matter if it does not interest
them.
3. In the classroom, students must be encouraged to interact with one another to develop
social virtues such as cooperation and respect.
4. Help students expand their knowledge by helping them apply their previous experiences
in solving new problems.
5. The focus of education should be the ideas that are as relevant today as when they were
first conceived.
6. Schools must develop students’ capacity to reason by stressing on the humanities.
7. Students should read and analyze the Great Books, the creative works of history’s finest
thinkers and writers.
8. Our course of study should be general, not specialized; liberal, not vocational;
humanistic, not technical.
9. There is no universal, inborn human nature. We are born and exist and then we
ourselves freely determine our essence.
10. Schools should help individuals accept themselves as unique individuals and accept
responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, and actions.
11. An individual is what he chooses to become not dictated by his environment.
12. A learner must be allowed to learn at his own pace.
13. Human beings are shaped by their environment.
14. Change of environment can change a person.
15. Something beautiful for one, may not be beautiful for you.
16. A scientifically developed code is preferred over one that is derived from the history and
culture of particular groups.
17. Schools should stress on the teaching of basic skills.
18. Curriculum should emphasize on the traditional disciplines such as math, natural science,
history, grammar, literature.
19. For the learner to acquire the basic skills, he must go through the rigor and discipline of
serious study.
20. The teacher and the school head must prescribe what is most important for the students
to learn.
 Interpretation: If you have two (2) answers of four (4) in numbers

1,2,3,4 = you are more of a progressivist

5,6,7,8 = you are more of a perennialist
9,10,11,12 = you are more of an existentialist
13, 14, 15, 16 = you are more of a behaviorist
17, 18, 19, 20 = you are more of an essentialist

Characteristics of the Five Philosophies of Education

1. Essentialism
 Teachers teach for learners to acquire the basic knowledge, skills, and values.
 Teachers transmit traditional moral values and intellectual knowledge rather than to radically reshape
society.
 It emphasizes on academic content – (3 Rs) reading, writing, arithmetic; right conduct – as these are
essential for adult life.
 It includes traditional disciplines like math, natural science, history, foreign language, and literature.
 It focuses on what is most important for students to learn and place little emphasis on students’ interest.
 Teachers emphasize mastery of subject matter.
 Teachers rely heavily on the use of prescribed textbooks, the drill method, and lecture method. It stresses
on memorization and discipline.

2. Progressivism
 Teachers teach to develop learners into becoming enlightened and intelligent citizens of a democratic
society.
 Teachers teach learners so they may live fully NOW not to prepare them for adult life.
 It accepts the impermanence of life; everything else changes; change is the only thing that does not
change.
 It emphasizes on need-based and relevant curriculum.
 It responds to students’ needs and interests and relates to students’ personal lives and experiences.
 Teachers teach the learners with skills to cope with change.
 It focuses on teaching skills needed in problem-solving.
 Teachers expose students to new scientific, technological, and social developments.
 Teachers give problems to solve in the classroom similar to those that they solve outside school.
 Teachers employ experiential methods. They believe that one learns by doing.
 Book learning is no substitute for actual experiences (John Dewey).

3. Perennialism
 It develops the rational and moral powers of students. Depriving the students’ reasoning skills, according
to Aristotle, deprives them of the ability to use their higher faculties to control their passions and
appetites.
 It generally views that all human beings possess the same essential nature.
 It relies heavily on the humanities and on general education.
 It is a generalized curriculum, not a specialized one.
 There is less emphasis on vocational and technical education.
 Teaching is centered on the teachers.
 Students’ interest or experiences do not substantially dictate what to teach.
 It applies the Socratic dialogue or inquiry sessions to develop understanding of history’s most timeless
concepts.
4. Existentialism
 It helps students understand and appreciate themselves as unique individuals who accept complete
responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, and actions.
 Since “existence precedes essence,” the teacher helps students define their own essence by exposing them to
various paths they take in life and by creating an environment in which they freely choose their own preferred
way.
 Since feeling is not divorced from reason in decision making, the existentialist demands the education of the
whole person, not just the mind.
 Teachers provide wide variety of options from which students choose.
 Humanities are given emphasis for students to unleash their own creativity and self-expression.
 In History, for example, the teacher focuses on actions of historical individuals, each of whom provides
possible models for the students’ own behavior.
 Vocational education is regarded as a means of teaching students about themselves and their potential than
of earning a livelihood.
 In teaching art, existentialism encourages individual creativity and imagination more than copying
established models.
 Existentialist methods focus on the individual.
 Learning is self-paced, self-directed.
 It includes a great deal of individual contact with the teacher, who relates to each student openly and
honestly.
 Teachers employ value clarification strategy – teachers remain non-judgmental and do not impose values
because these are personal.

5. Behaviorism
 It modifies and shapes students’ behavior by providing a favorable environment, since it believes that
students are a product of their environment.
 It teaches students to exhibit a desirable behavior in society.
 Teachers teach students to respond favorably to various stimuli in the environment. This is premised on
the idea that people are a complex combinations of matter that act only in response to internally or externally
generated physical stimuli.
 Teacher arrange environmental conditions so that students can make the responses to stimuli.
 Physical variables like light, temperature, arrangement of furniture, size and quantity of visual aids have to
be controlled to get the desired responses from the learners.