1. Dr Joseph Jinja Divala
B-Ring 438
011 559 2902
jdivala@uj.ac.za
EDUCATION STUDIES 3B
PHILOSOPHY OF
EDUCATION
2. GENERAL INTRODUCTION AND
EXPECTATIONS
Theoretical perspectives
•Unit 1: Equality and Emancipation - Dr Dirk Postma
•Unit 2: Aims of education and critical thinking –Dr
Joseph Divala
•Theory of Knowledge – Dr Solomon A. David
•Reading all three chapters concurrently
3. Operational matters
• Students in fixed class venues.
• Lecturers rotate periodical with specific topics.
• Tutors are attached to topics
• (How to read a philosophical text in a simple way - to be
dealt with on 20 Feb)
4. UNIT 2: AIMS OF EDUCATION AND
CRITICAL THINKING
Discuss for 3 minutes
•Why this?
•What is the distinction between an aim and
action?
5. 5
CONCEPTS AND THEIR PLACE IN
EDUCATION
• The distinction between words and Concepts?
• A word as a language vehicle for communication
• A concept as a connection of words forming up a single
idea.
• What is a concept? Do concepts exist? Where do they
exist?
• Basically: Mental Constructs
• Connected to reality affirmatively or in disjunction.
6. 6
CONCEPTS, ARGUMENTS, ASSUMPTIONS AND
EDUCATION DISCOURSE
• A concept as a primarily a reference to mental contents
• Whether sourced from experience (through induction) or
from other concepts (deduction).
• An argument is interested in the sense/coherence of
concepts within a premise and between premises.
• A break in this coherence is called a fallacy or simply a bad
argument.
• An assumption is either right or wrong but primarily is
something not clearly stated in an argument.
7. 7
MEANINGS, REASONING AND
EDUCATION.
• Reason and reasoning in life.
• What is a reason (in general)?
• What is reasoning?
• Could it be a form of explanation or belief?
• Are there any distinctions between “reason (in general)” and
“reasoning”?
• Sufficient Reason
• A condition of life / existence /action
• That which makes us be what we are or do what we do.
• Do you think education can exist without reason?
8. What is education?
• Is it teaching?
• Is it schooling?
• Is it teaching and learning?
• Is it human development?
• What is education?
• Why education?
• How does schooling relate to education?
• What are schools for??
• Can schools do their job if they fail to develop critical
minds???
9. What is education? What does being educated
entail?
• One has a body of knowledge and a degree of
understanding involving a conceptual scheme by
reference to which what one knows is more than a
collection of disjointed facts.
• Such knowledge cannot be inert in the sense that it can
be hived off as it were, and thereby fail to characterize
one’s way of looking at things for “education” implies
that one’s outlook is transformed by what one knows. 9
10. • One has what he calls a cognitive perspective whereby
one does not have an impossibly limited conception of
what one is engaged in.
• Unlike being trained, an educated person is not merely
competent at performing a particular task, rather one’s
competence is linked to a much wider belief system than
someone merely trained.
10
11. Why should we accept the definition of
education provided so far?
11
12. • Some of the most influential trends in thinking about
education suggest that the real purpose of education is to
free the human mind and free the person from his /her
physical limitation.
• This is equivalent to freeing the imagination or thinking
capacity of the human mind.
• Hence the development of the rational mind /the capacity
of the person to think for oneself is isolated as the core
function of education.
12
13. A distinction between core functions and other
functions
Developing
thinking
capacity
Education
for work
Education
for well-
being and
happiness
13
14. What is the role of education in
developing these functions?
How are we to determine what is
worthwhile?
Why should we even bother finding out?
14
15. What is the connection between education and
critical thinking?
• Teaching children to become effective thinkers is
increasingly recognized as an immediate goal of
education.
• IF students are to function successfully in a highly
technical society, an increasingly complex society -
socially and economically, THEN they must be
equipped thinking skills necessary to acquire and
process information in an ever-changing world.
• This means the development of thinking skills
becomes a lifelong learning process.
15
16. http://www.che.ac.za/documents on the
purpose of (higher) education
• “One of the fundamental purposes of higher
education is to address the development needs of
society and provide the labor market, in a knowledge-
driven and knowledge-dependent society, with the
ever-changing high-level competencies and expertise
necessary for the growth and prosperity of a modern
economy.
• Higher education teaches and trains people to fulfill
specialized social functions, enter the learned
professions, or pursue vocations in administration,
trade, industry, science and technology and the arts”
(http://www.che.ac.za/documents) 16
17. What is the purpose of higher order thinking in
education?
• Higher order thinking skills are important because of
their relationship not simply to knowledge and skills
required by further education and training and
employment pathways, but also to their role in student
self-development.
• A key component of this process is the development of
practices of self-reflection.
17
18. How can we develop critical thinking as a core
function of education?
• One approach is the development of generic skills such as
problem solving, thinking critically, creative thinking and
making judgements with sufficient reasons.
• These abilities are considered essential for University
students to develop, regardless of the discipline area of
study (i.e. generic skills).
• There was a need to assess a broader range of learning
outcomes, which has arisen due to the change in
conceptions of the goals of a university education.
18
19. What then is critical thinking in education?
• No clear consensus about what is meant by the term
critical thinking.
• Most people propose a set of thinking skills, such as:
The ability to recognize the uncertainties in a
problem that might prevent a single “correct”
solution.
The ability to frame a problem adequately. This
involves organizing and analysing information,
understanding alternative viewpoints, and
recognizing and controlling for initial biases.
19
20. The ability to reach, articulate, and defend a
solution as most reasonable.
The ability to recognize the limitations of a
solution and to consider possible re-
evaluations as new information becomes
available (see also Wolcott,2003)
20
21. The Nature of Critical thinking
• Critical thinking is a systematic way to form and shape
one’s thinking.
• It functions purposefully and exactingly. In other
words, it is disciplined, comprehensive, based on
intellectual standards, and as such it is a result correct
reasoning.
• Critical Thinking is distinguishable from other
modes/types of thinking because the thinker is
thinking with the awareness of the systematic nature
of high quality thought.
• In addition, one is continuously checking up on himself
or herself, striving to improve the quality of thinking. 21
22. Nature (cont. 2)
•Critical thinking is not just a random
series of characteristics or components.
•All of its components –its elements,
principles, standards and values – form
an integrated, working network that can
be applied effectively not only to
academic learning, but to learning in
every dimension of living (Paul,1995).
•Critical thinking’s most fundamental
concern is excellence of thought. It is
based on two assumptions: 22
23. The assumptions:
•That the quality of our thinking affects the
quality of our lives.
•That everyone can learn how to continually
improve the quality of his or her thinking.
•Therefore, Critical Thinking implies a
fundamental, overriding goal for education in
school and in the workplace: always to teach so
as to help students their own thinking.
24. Nature (cont. 3)
•a university education should lead students
to “the imaginative acquisition of
knowledge”. This ‘’imaginative
understanding is ‘reminiscent of the often-
articulated aim that students in higher
education should develop the ability to think
critically’’., A.N Whitehead 1929
24
25. WHY Critical Thinking
• Today’s need for teaching thinking skills is created
by the rapid changes taking place in society.
• Knowledge and information are becoming ever
more complex and soon may be dated. Children
therefore, have to be equipped with skills of
evaluating choices, and identifying and solving
problems using logical reasoning.
• Thus it is not enough to have a considerable amount
of knowledge at one’s disposal (declarative
knowledge), but the questions of how to acquire
knowledge and how to apply this knowledge are
also important(procedural knowledge). 25
26. • Students (all levels) should develop from the
uncritical acceptance of orthodoxy to creative
dissent.
• This involves giving the intellect an opportunity to
be stretched to its capacity, sharpening the critical
faculty to the point at which it can change ideas.
• Hence we need to ask:
• What kind of educational system do we have?
• What kind do we need?
• How do we get from one to the other?
• Can education develop students as critical thinkers,
skilled workers, and active citizens?
• Can education promote democracy and serve all
students equitably?
26
27. How does critical thinking assist the process of
education
• Critical thinking abilities are indispensable in helping
one to:
• Challenge prejudice.
• Avoid over-generalization.
• Be aware of misconceptions and their harm on free
thinking.
• Prevent self-deception, rigidity and narrowness.
27
28. WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT WAYS IN
WHICH THE TERM EDUCATION IS USED? IS
EDUCATION SCHOOLING?
29. 29
SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW OF EDUCATION
•Idea that “education” does not only take
place in a formal institution, neither does it
mean “formal teaching or learning”.
•Focuses on socialising norms and practices.
•Irrespective of whether the norms are true,
valid, good or worthwhile
•Assumes that one will later assume
expected social responsibilities.
30. 30
THE INSTITUTIONAL VIEW OF
EDUCATION
• The development of the person as a result of institutional
influences.
• Assumes that education only takes place in formal institutions.
• That all who have gone through the same institutions are
similarly “educated”
31. 31
THE GENERAL ENLIGHTENMENT
VIEW OF EDUCATION
• Education beyond socialisation and formal schooling.
• Education as a form of human achievement
• Development of the mind.
• Characterised by knowledge and understanding
32. 32
IMPLICATIONS OF UNDERSTANDING
EDUCATION AS HUMAN
ENLIGHTENMENT
• That education is intrinsically valuable
• The intrinsic – extrinsic distinction
• Conceiving education as a means to something is different from
considering education as desirable and worthwhile in itself.
• Intrinsic value draws us to something as good for its own sake
and not for some other ends.
• In this case the primary purpose of education is the development of
the mind, and the capacity to think.
33. 33
• Education involves knowledge and understanding for its own
sake
• The simplest denominator of knowing may refer to (simple)
acquaintance of different objects, for instance that there are 5 people
living in the second floor of my flat.
• Understanding shows a deeper awareness of the connections between
the different elements under consideration.
34. 34
IN GENERAL WHO CAN BE CONSIDERED
AS AN EDUCATED PERSON?
• One who has mastered a wide range of types of knowledge.
• More than superficial acquaintance.
• Depth and breadth compliment each other in the “educated”
person.
• Q: Is it possible to have an educated person who has never gone to a
formal school?
• The depth and breadth enable a person to have a unified coherent
view of life.
36. 36
THREE DIMENSIONS IN THE
“CONCEPT OF EDUCATION”
Education
General
Enlightenment
Sociological Institutional
37. KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
• This is the central role of education
• Education has the capacity to liberate a person from the here and
now.
• It has the capacity to engage people in worthwhile activities that
develop the rational mind and the capacity to think.
38. WHAT KNOWLEDGE SHOULD SCHOOLS BE
PROMOTING?
• Knowledge for Its own sake
• Knowing sth for the sake of knowing it and not using that to one’s
advantage
• Knowledge for work.
• The most popular usage of knowledge.
• Knowledge enabling one to perform certain tasks.
• Knowledge for well-being
• For the advancement of the human kind.
• Enabling the person to fulfill one’s desires
• Enabling one to make significant options in life.
