Course: Foundations of Education (6500)
Semester: Spring, 2022
ASSIGNMENT No. 1
Q. 1 What is Education and how can it develop the Man? What should be the aims of education in global perspective?
Education is a social science that encompasses teaching and learning specific skills. Practicing teachers in the field of education use a variety of methods and materials in their instruction to impart a curriculum. The goal of education is the growth of students so that they become productive citizens of a dynamic, ever changing, society. Fundamentally, the imparting of culture from generation to generation promotes a greater awareness and responsiveness through social maturity to the needs of an increasingly diversified society. Education is the key to social change in general, and a sustainable future in particular. Basic education today is considered those skills that are necessary to function in society.
It reflects the diversity of the disciplines that make up our college community, the myriad pedagogical philosophies we bring to the classroom each day, and the strengths of our education and training. Faculty are vested with the primary responsibility for the development of new courses and programs and the revision of existing courses and programs. The college’s course outlines and degree and certificate programs reflect our own academic mission and philosophy.
Q.2 Compare the basic philosophies e.g. Ontology, Epistemology and Axiology? Apply these philosophies to the field of education.
Epistemology, Ontology and Axiology are often unspoken assumptions about knowledge. People in society, and our values that rest beneath our favorite research. Each of them corresponds to a branch of philosophy, which can be very abstract. Let’s not let that confuse us, because most people, doing research don’t spend a vast amount of time writing directly about Epistemology, Ontology or Axiology. The way it normally plays out is that researchers are just going about their research and these areas or assumptions remain implied beneath the surface. The research will leave clues, and so if they’re so assumed, or beneath the surface, then why do we even talk about them? Well, understanding these three areas will help us gather a better appreciation, and be able to compare and contrast different areas of research at a much more sophisticated level. So there is some payoff here. So let’s start with epistemology. We’ll go from general to specific.
Epistemology
When solving some Attitude problem or reading something then there we require knowledge to understand the world, which is known as Epistemology.
Also Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that studies knowledge or knowing.
They ask questions like: How do we know what we claim to know? That’s the classic epistemological question. That we can see in a lot of theory and research textbooks. A researcher might assume for example, that knowledge is already out there, just waiting to be discovered. And so, it’s our job as researchers to uncover this universal, unchanging and absolute truth.
Q.3 Elaborate the Islamic philosophy of education and its application in the present education system.
Islam has presented the concept of accountability of deeds in hereafter and the universal philosophy of life. Islam is the discipline or religion created by Allah. It is the religion of nature. Accordingly men being the creation of Allah are free from all kind of defects and faults. Islamic philosophy lays down the most precious and valuable principles of Islamic way of life including the doctrines of unicity of Allah and the prophet hood of the Holy Prophet peace be upon him. They can be regarded as the guiding principles of Islamic concept of philosophy. The holy prophet peace be upon him preached that ISALAMIC CONCEPT OF EDUCATION IN THE LIGHTS OF HOLY QURAN:
Acquisition of knowledge is obligatory upon both Muslims male and female
He also acknowledge the importance of travelling to far off place to enhance the experience
Acquire knowledge even if you have to travel to china
Islamic philosophy of education envisages “righteous thinking and action” to make the individual aware about his purpose of creation and to identify him self and to have cognizance of Allah.
Islamic concept of philosophy preaches that the purpose of life is “achievement of pleasure of Allah.” This pleasure does not restrict the human activities to mere worships of Allah but it educates the people to realize the system of rights of all the living creatures and also the non living things which are the requirements to establish an exemplary worth living society.
Surah 96 is said to be the very first chapter to be revealed of the Holy Quran. It starts with the word “read”. It says “read in the name of the Preserver, who created, who created man from a clot of blood. Read and thy Preserver is the greatest Benefactor: he taught through the pen. He taught man what he did not know.”
From this already, we see a strong bias in Islam in favour of Education. This book was revealed when reading and writing was well known, unlike other Scared Books, which were revealed before the art of reading and writing was current.
Surah-i-Baqar emphasizes Study and Observation of the Universe and Nature, for these “are the signs of Allah for those who use their brains.”
Q.4 Elaborate the philosophy of idealism in the context of Metaphysics. Determine the relationship of idealism with aims and processes of education.
Idealism is the metaphysical and epistemological doctrine that ideas or thoughts make up fundamental reality. Essentially it is any philosophy which argues that the only thing actually knowable is consciousness whereas we never can be sure that matter or anything in the outside world really exists thus the only the real things are mental entities not physical things which exist only in the sense that they are perceived. A broad definition of idealism could include many religious viewpoints although an idealistic viewpoint need not necessarily include God, supernatural beings or existences after death. In general parlance, “idealism” is also used to describe a person’s high ideals (principles or values actively pursued as a goal) the word “ideal” is also commonly used as an adjective to designate qualities of perfection, desirability and excellence.
Definition:
“Idealistic philosophy takes many and varied forms but the postulate underlying all this is that mind or spirit is the essential world stuff, that the rule reality is a material character”.
Idealism in education:
Idealism pervades all the creation and it is an underlying, unlimited and ultimate force which regions supreme overall mind and matter. They all advocate its great importance in education and lay more emphasis on aims and principles of education than on models, aids and devices.
Q.5 Discuss the fundamental principles of the four traditional philosophies of education and highlight the aims of education of each philosophy.
Plato is one of the first philosophers to discuss what might be termed idealism. Usually Plato referred to as Platonic Realism. This is because of his doctrine describes forms or universals. (Which are certainly non-material “ideals” in a broad sense). Plato maintained that these forms had their own independent existence. Plato believed that “full reality” it is achieved only through thought and could be describe as a non-subjective “transcendental” idealist. The term metaphysics literally means “beyond the physical” This area of Philosophy a focuses on the nature of reality. Metaphysics attempts to find unity across the domains of experiences thought. At the time metaphysical level there are four broad philosophical schools of thought that apply to education today. They are idealism, realism, pragmatism (sometimes called experientialism and existentialism). Plato was an idealist philosopher who founded the first school of philosophy in Athens. His work forms the foundation of western philosophy. His presentation of philosophical works in the form of “Dialogues” gave the world of philosophy the dialectic. Plato took Socrates’ maxim “virtue is knowledge” and extrapolated it into an elaborate theory of knowledge which envisaged a level of reality beyond that immediately available to the senses but accessible to reason and intellect. The students of Plato’s academy the first school of philosophy in Athens, were to go beyond the concrete world of perception and come to understand the universal “ideas” or forms which represented a higher level of reality. Plato’s idealism extended to the concept of an ideal state as outlined in his “Republic”. This was a state ruled by an intellectual elite of philosopher kings.