PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

Introduction
This course introduces students to the concepts of Philosophy and philosophy of education as
a distinct discipline. The issues to be discussed include: Definitions of Philosophy,
importance of philosophy of education, scope and development of philosophy of education.
Varied definitions of the concept ‘ Education’ and aspects of technical philosophy,
philosophy of education, values and education, teaching, learning, theory and practice of
education, philosophical world views (both traditionalism and progressivism) namely;
Rationalism, Realism, Pragmatism and existentialism; to underscore the relevance of these
philosophical thoughts to education. Finally, to examine contemporary issues in Education in
relation to democracy, discipline, Human rights, HIV/AIDS, Integrity and corruption etc.

Objectives
Philosophy of education is to facilitate and focus on the critical and analytic thinking on
issues in education. It assists student-teachers to analyze and synthesize objectively so as to
make sound and informed decisions concerning philosophical issues in education. It will be
guided by the following specific objectives:
 To introduce the learners to aspects of philosophy of education as a discipline.
 To impart the learners with basic philosophical knowledge of concepts and principles
that enables them to provide a clear frame to the discipline of Philosophy of
Education.
 To introduce the learners to critical and analytical procedures and attitudes towards
pertinent issues in education so as to inculcate novel philosophical outlook and
thinking among the learners.

Learning Outcomes
It helps the learners to be able to demonstrate the role of education in the overall development
of a sound and informed decisions as a result of objective application of critical and
analytical thinking on all fundamental issues in the field of education.
Learners are also expected to critically discuss the key elements in philosophy of education
with a view to be able to realign them to the realities of the present so as to be a good role
model in the public life of the society as enshrined thereof in their professional code of
conduct governing the teaching fraternity in Kenya as well as in other national and
international jurisdictions.

Meaning of Philosophy

The word philosophy is defined as the love of wisdom (knowledge); it is derived from two Greek
words i.e. 'philos' (love) and 'Sophia' (wisdom). Love of wisdom is that it assists in any
philosophy investigation so as to sustain the ultimate goal; in understanding the universe.

Philosophy is a search for a general understanding of values and reality through speculative
means. It signifies a natural and necessary urge in human beings to know their world view and
how to manipulate the same. Philosophy refers essentially as an intellectual quest for truth.

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental concerns such as existence, knowledge,
truth, beauty, law, justice, validity, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from
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other ways of addressing questions, such as mysticism or mythology, by its critical and
systematic approach as well as its reliance on rational thought pattern.

Philosophy is a rational thinking, about systematic study about the general nature of the
world – metaphysics or theory of existence, the justification of belief -epistemology or
theory of knowledge, and the conduct of life – ethics. Philosophy is a rational and organised
body of beliefs about the world as a whole.

Philosophy has a distinctive method focusing on the construction, criticism and analysis of
arguments. Philosophical skills are applicable in any area where arguments are important, not
just in the realms of abstract speculation. Philosophy is an academic pursuit as documented in
the works of Ancient Greek Philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle and Socrates.

Therefore, Philosophy is:

 A doctrine – a belief or system of beliefs accepted as authoritative by some group or

school of thought.
 The rational investigation of questions about existence, knowledge and ethics;
 Any personal belief about how to live or how to deal with a situation is referred to as
personal philosophy of life.
 An academic discipline that is often divided into four major branches:
(i) Logic;
(ii) Metaphysics;
(iii) Epistemology;
(iv) Ethics

Philosophy is a system of beliefs about reality and it emphasizes on one’s integrated view of
the world. It includes an understanding of the nature of existence of man, and one’ s role in
the world. It critically studies fundamental principles of the nature of human beings and
society. Philosophy is the foundation of knowledge and the standard by which ideas are
based.

Philosophy is a necessary product of man's rational mind by which an individual gains

knowledge of the world. It is a critical examination of reality characterized by rational
inquiry that aims at the truth for the sake of attaining wisdom.

Philosophy provides the framework for which man can understand the world (personal
philosophy) thus providing the premises by which man can discover the truth and uses his
mind to support his life.

It is a method of reflective thinking and reasoned inquiry. Socrates believed that one should
not lead an unexamined life. It is a search for comprehensive view of nature, and attempt at a
universal explanation of the nature of things. A personal attitude towards life and the
universe; Philosophy means a point of view or a belief concerning a purpose or value.
Philosophy is a rational thought about all issues that influence human life. It seeks to
understand the mysteries of existence and reality.

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Scope of Philosophy of Education
 It includes Interpretation of human nature about the world and the universe and their
relation with man,
 Interpretation of aims, ideals of education and relationship of various components of
the system of education.
 Relationship of education and various areas of national life and their educational
values.
 Theory of knowledge and its relationship to education. These issues constitute the
scope of philosophy of education. Specifically, the scope of philosophy of education
includes following issues that are discussed hereunder:

a. Aims and Ideals of Education Philosophy

Education critically evaluates the different aims and ideals of education as articulated
by various philosophers in different times; such as character building, harmonious
human development, preparation for adult life, as well as development of citizenship.
It discusses the utilization of leisure, training for civic life, training for international
living, achieving social and national integration, scientific and technological
development - education for all, equalizing educational opportunities, strengthening
democratic political order and human source development.

b. Interpretation of Human Nature

A philosophical picture of human nature is discussed within the philosophical
framework in different context in a broader perspective as compared to the picture of
man drawn by biology, sociology, psychology, economics, anthropology and other
human science.

c. Educational Values
Value is a philosophical subject since it is more abstract, integral and universal.
Philosophy-of education not only critically evaluates the values but also systematizes
them in a hierarchy. Educational values are' determined by philosophical values.
Educational values propagated by different philosophers have been derived from their
own worldview and their outlook on the purpose of human life. The discourses
concerning the worldview, outlook, and beliefs is the specific function of philosophy
and it is necessary for the philosophical treatment of the values.
d. Theory of Knowledge
Education is determined by the source, limits, criteria and means of knowledge. The
discussion of epistemology as one of the branches of philosophy is key area of the
functioning of philosophy of education in relation to theory of knowledge.

e. Relationship of education and various area of national life and various

components of the system of education
Philosophy of education provides the criteria for deciding the relationship of state and
education, economic system and education, curriculum, school organization and
management, discipline etc. These problems have led to the evaluation of different
philosophies of education. The criteria of judgment everywhere are determined by
philosophy; therefore, philosophy of education provides the criteria for critical
evaluation and judgment in these fields.

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CATEGORIES OF PHILOSOPHY
There are two main categories of Philosophy:

 General Philosophy
 Technical Philosophy

General Philosophy
This category of philosophy is also referred to as informal or wide-world of philosophy. This
is the type of philosophy that is common to all people who strive to search for knowledge
without necessarily having gone through formal education.
It is the kind of philosophy possessed by people who struggle to get a solution to problems or
fundamental issues touching on human life. Such individuals are recognized as general
philosophers not in technical manner and they are commonly called wise men, guru,omwami
or mwalimu (the word is expressed differently in different languages). A Wiseman is denied
the title of a philosopher. Examples of general philosophy is the philosophy of life as held by
any individual e.g. a farmer, a parent, political leader such as Nyayo Philosophy of Peace
Love and Unity , Humanism and Ujamaa philosophy in Tanzania.
What normally makes a human thought philosophical in character is the authenticity of the
thought. The term authenticity stands for thinking that is independent, original, critical and
sincere. The concept authenticity is derived from Greek word ‘ authentes’ meaning one who
does things by himself or ‘ autos’ (automatic).

 According to Professors Njoroge and Bennaars, general philosophy refers to wide

world, broad and everyone is regarded as a philosopher.
 It is a wide world view found in all continents and societies etc.
 It is the Philosophy of experience where man’ s struggle to come in terms with his
own environment
 It is a positive attitude towards life e.g. personal philosophy.
 It may refer to ideals, ideologies, policies, local wisdoms of a community or nation,
expressed in proverbs, customs, practices, traditions, objectives, aims, goals, motto,
vision, missions, core values etc.
Technical Philosophy
This is the type of philosophy that is tackled by professional philosophers. Somebody must
have gone to school to acquire knowledge in this aspect. The work of technical philosophy is
documented in text books, journals and other publications. For instance, the works of
philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Karl Marx, Heideggar,
Sartre among others are well documented.

Technical philosophy is:

 a small curious world, belonging to a specialized group of philosophers.

 a dynamic, ever changing and under constant flux.
 concerned with traditional and modern philosophy that originated from the Western
world (Ancient Greek)
 concerned with specific content e.g. Logic, epistemology, axiology and metaphysics.
 critical, systematic, methodic, scientific and reflective in nature and thinking.

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  According to Kenyan scholars and philosophers Njoroge and Bennars, technical
philosophy is narrow, a small world that belongs to trained philosophers,
academicians and scholars.
 Originated from Western Europe, hence formal, concerned with ancient (traditional)
medieval and modern philosophy.
 Has specific content and methodology of inquiry

Distinguishing factors between General and Technical Philosophy.

Distinguishing factors General Philosophy Technical philosophy

Organization Informal, loosely Formal, structured, has a
specific content.
Language
Ordinary language, vernacular Technical terms, universal
that depicts the society way of concepts scientifically
life. analyzed.

Age Old, ancient as mankind found Recent, newly introduced

in all continents. from the Western world as
man discovered the art of
writing.

Originality Originates from man’ s daily Scholarly in nature, western

experiences in the community. oriented in nature.

Content Originated from cultural Content comes from four

heritage, cultural experiences of basic areas Logic,
the people. epistemology, Axiology and
Metaphysics.

Method Commonsense, oral Systematic, methodic

transmissions e.g. myths, songs, reflective usage of reason.
stories oral literature. Content is written.

Propaganda Orally transmitted by word of Written, documented in

mouth, practices, customs and manuscripts, books and
traditions. electronic.

Authority Local wisdom of traditional Logical arguments used to

heritage e.g. wise sayings, teach. The content is written,
riddles, proverbs, it is dogmatic mainly from the western
based on principles of general world. Dynamic, flexible.
simplistic ideas that are The authority lies with
accepted by the majority. professional academicians.
Consensus stressed.

Students Encompasses everyone in the Academia, for students

community as a philosopher. taking professional courses,
specific group of
professionals.
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The process that general philosophy could go through to become technical philosophy are;
Formalization, Westernization and Specialization.
Formalization
This refers to the process of presenting human ideas through writing. The philosophical ideas
being put forward must be written (documented). The writing of philosophical ideas began
with philosophical writing of ancient Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle,
etc. The world today presents the work of technical philosophy through books and other
scholarly writing such as journals, which adheres to certain language, content and methods of
research.

Westernization
There is need for an individual to be familiar with the western philosophy and more so the
Greek philosophy, to claim to be a philosopher. The Greek philosopher is actually referred to
as western philosophy and schools of thoughts such as idealism, realism, pragmatism and
existentialism are built on the thinking of Greek Philosophies.

Specialization
This is the process whereby an individual acquires exceptional knowledge of, or a skill in a
particular subject as a result of constant and intensive study of the subjects so as to qualify as
an expert or specialist in that subject. A specialized field is characterized by special language,
special methods, skills and interest. Concepts like philosophy, logic, metaphysics, ethics,
epistemology and many others are all foreign and western in origin.

Instead of being treated as a single, unified subject, philosophy is typically categorized into a
number of specialties and it is common for contemporary philosophers to be experts in one
field but know little about another. After all, philosophy addresses complex issues from all
facets of life - being an expert on all of philosophy would entail being an expert on all of the
most fundamental questions which life has to offer.

The discipline of philosophy has been used as a tool to investigate other domains of life. For
example: Philosophy of God, Philosophy of religion, Political Philosophy, Social Philosophy,
Philosophy of Science, and Philosophy of Law, Philosophy of Education, Philosophy of
Mathematics, Philosophy of Logic, Philosophy of History. In addition, a range of academic
subjects have emerged to deal with areas which would have historically been the subject of
philosophy. These include psychology, anthropology, and science.

BRANCHES OF TECHNICAL PHILOSOPHY

There are four branches of technical philosophy namely;

 Metaphysics: Deals with the fundamental nature of reality. Concerned with problems
that arises after the physical problems have been solved, that is, it deals with problems
beyond the physical world of our experience (the realm of the supra-sensible)
 Epistemology: The study, the theory of knowledge, it looks at the nature, types,
sources, limits, scope and criteria of valid knowledge.
 Logic: the study of the structure and principles of correct reasoning. It evaluates
arguments, eradicated fallacies.
 Axiology (Ethics): The study of values and value systems of the universe. It includes
religion, aesthetic, ethics.
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Metaphysics

Metaphysics is the foundation of Philosophy. It is the study of reality or existence. Some of

the questions that metaphysics deals with are inter alia, what is ultimate reality? Can reality
be grasped by the senses or is it transcendent? and what is the mind, what is its relation to the
body?. It is the study of all reality, both visible and invisible. Metaphysics thus investigates
the nature of being and the related world view such as cosmology, political culture, theology
and ontology.

It is a branch of philosophy that investigates the principles of reality, transcending those of

any particular science. It is concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and
the world. Metaphysics is the study of the nature of things. Metaphysicians ask what kinds of
things exist, and what they are like. They reason about such things as whether or not people
have free will, in what sense abstract objects can be said to exist, and how it is that brains are
able to generate minds.

It is the foundation of a worldview; it is fundamental view of the world around us. It answers
the question "What is?" It encompasses everything that exists as well as the nature of
existence itself. It attests to the understanding whether the world is real, or merely an illusion.

It is an explanation or an interpretation of the world around us. It determines how individuals

act to preserve their lives. The degree to which our metaphysical worldview is correct is the
degree to which we are able to comprehend the world and act accordingly.

Epistemology

It is the study of knowledge. Epistemology deals with such questions as: what is knowledge?
Is knowledge acquired exclusively through the senses or by some other means? How do we
know that what we perceive through our senses is correct, and how do I know about it?

Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge. Among its central
concerns has been the challenge posed by skepticism and the relationships between truth,
belief and evidence.

Epistemology is the study of the methods of acquiring knowledge. It answers the question on
how do we know. It encompasses the nature of concepts, the constructing of concepts, the
validity of the senses, logical reasoning, as well as thoughts, ideas, memories, emotions and
all things that are mental. It is concerned with how the minds are related to reality and
whether these relationships are valid or invalid.

Epistemology as a branch of philosophy studies knowledge and attempts to answer the basic
question. For instance, what distinguishes true (adequate) knowledge from false (inadequate)
knowledge? These questions translate into issues of scientific methodology: how can one
develop theories or models that are better than competing theories? It also forms one of the
pillars of the new sciences of cognition, which developed from the information processing
approach to psychology and from artificial intelligence, as an attempt to develop computer
programs that embrace a human's capacity to use knowledge in an intelligent way.

Epistemology thus seeks to make explicit the rules of correct belief formation. Everyone
governs their conduct by directing it to desire or valued ends while Ethics, or moral

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philosophy seeks to articulate in rationally systematic form, the rules or principles of
engagement.

It focuses on theoretical questions such as:

 Does God exist?

 Is the world real as it appears to us?
 How should we live?
 What is art?
 Do we have genuine freedom of choice?
 What is the soul or spirit?
 What is the relationship between the mind and the body?

Logic

It is the study of the principles of right reasoning and it is the basic tool that philosophers use
to investigate reality. Among the questions raised by logic are: what makes an argument valid
or invalid, and what is a sound argument? It’ s a science that evaluates arguments.

Logic is the study of methods of reasoning and argumentation, both proper and improper.
Logic deals with patterns of thinking that lead from true premises to true conclusions,
originally developed in Ancient Greece. Beginning in the late 19th Century, mathematicians
such as Frege focused on a mathematical treatment of logic. The subject of logic has two
broad divisions’ namely mathematical logic (formal symbolic logic) and philosophical logic.

Logic comes from classical Greek - logos, meaning the ‘word’, or what is spoken; It referred
to a thought or reason. It is the study of arguments, although the exact definition of logic is a
matter of controversy amongst philosophers. The subject is grounded on the task of the
logician is to advance an account of valid and fallacious inference so as to allow one to
distinguish good from bad arguments. It explores how to distinguish between good (sound
reasoning and bad (unsound) reasoning. It studies of correct reasoning, deals with the
structure and principles of sound argument.

Axiology (Ethics)

The main branches of ethics are meta-ethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. Meta-
ethics concerns the nature of ethical thought, comparison of various ethical systems, whether
there are absolute ethical truths, and how such truths could be known. Ethics is also
associated with the idea of morality. It is often referred to as moral philosophy.

This is the study of what make actions right or wrong, and how theories of right action can be
applied to special moral problems. Sub-disciplines include meta-ethics, value theory, theory
of conduct, and applied ethics.

Ethics is the formal study of moral standards and conduct. It seeks answers to questions such
as: what is good? What is evil? How should I behave - and why? How should I balance my
needs against the needs of others? Ethics is concerned with questions of how persons ought to
act or if such questions are answerable.
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 It is the study of right and wrong in human action or the study of action. Some of the
questions treated by the field of ethics are: what is right? Are there any objective standards of
right and wrong? Are moral values absolute or relative? And what should I do?
It is the study of right and wrong in human endeavors. It is the method by which we
categorize our values and pursue them. Ethics is a requirement for human life as it constitutes
the means of deciding a course of action. Without it, our actions would be baseless.
Therefore, in order to realize an ethical and rational standard, an individual must be able to
correctly organize the goals and actions taking in cognizance the most fundamental values.
For instance, any erroneous application of ethics will profoundly influence our ability to be
successful in all human endeavors.

Conclusion

There is a hierarchical relationship between these branches: at the root is metaphysics: the
study of existence and the nature of existence and closely related to it is epistemology: the
study of knowledge and how we know about reality and existence; dependent on
epistemology is ethics: the study of how man should act; ethics is dependent on epistemology
because it is impossible to make choices without knowledge.

The different branches of philosophy overlap one another. For instance, a philosopher
considering whether people ought to give excess wealth to the poor is asking an ethical
question. However, the investigations might lead one to wonder whether or not standards of
right and wrong are built into the fabric of the universe, which is a metaphysical question. If
one claims that people are justified in taking a particular stance on that question, one is
making at least a tacit epistemological claim. At every step in reasoning one may employ
logic to minimize the chances of being led into an error by the great complexity and obscurity
of the questions. He may very well look to some of the ethical, metaphysical, and
epistemological writings of the past philosophers so as to see how the brightest predecessors
reasoned about the matter hence setting an earlier precedence.

As already highlighted thereof, aspects of each branch of technical philosophy may be

studied in isolation; however, philosophical questions raised can lead to other philosophical
questions; that a full investigation of any particular problem is likely to involve almost the
whole of the philosophical enterprise.

Methods of Philosophy and their applicability to the educative process

 Philosophy originates from Greek terms, “ Philos, Philo, Philein” to mean love and
“ Sophia” to mean wisdom. It is love of wisdom, knowledge.
 Philosophy means a systematic, reflection, critical primarily reason, bound inquiry
into the basic assumption and belief that people use to make sense any dimension of
their lives.
The five methods of philosophy include:
i. Critical method
ii. Speculative method
iii. Rational method
iv. Phenomenal method
v. Pragmatic method

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Critical Method
 Analysis of issues, content, objectives, goals of a lesson.
 It enhances organization, presentation, assessment of the teaching and learning
process. Referred to as Socratic Method, investigation, examination of everything to
arrive at a coherent conclusion.
Speculative method
 Termed as the metaphysical methods concerned with the ‘ why’ question.
 Stretches our capacities mentally to think beyond the ordinary realm so as to get
solutions to the problem, to build systems of thoughts.
Rational Method/Analytical
 Reason bound, in an attempt to clarify meanings of statements, concepts.
 Lesson broken into bits or steps in order for it to be understood.
 Teacher to clarify and explain concepts, statements and terms used.
Phenomenological methods
 Existential method looks at human experience, encounters, and predicaments as
experienced.
 Enhances objectivity, fairness, the teacher able to identify the learner’ s needs,
powers, weakness and guide them effectively in the educative process.
Pragmatic method
 Pragmatism originates from a Greek term “ pragma” which means activity,
workability or utility.
 Whatever methodologies, approaches and strategies used by the teacher in the lesson
presentation must be purposeful goal oriented and workable to produce creators not
creatures.
Role of Philosophy in Human Life
 It assists in inquiring into problems and seeking solutions to them.
 Philosophy assists in judgment of approval and disapproval of rightness and
wrongness, goodness and badness, desirability and undesirability of human action.
This particular role falls under moral philosophy (Ethics).
 Enable us to study the first hand order of thinking and ultimate problems. This takes
us to metaphysics as a branch of philosophy. Metaphysics is a study that goes beyond
‘ nature’ . It is derived from two terms, meta meaning ‘ beyond’ and physics
meaning nature. Metaphysics deals with questions like what is man. Can we reduce
man to a physical being? What is the distinction between mind and soul?
 It enables us to deal with the theories of knowledge by asking questions like, what is
to know. How do we know? This takes us to an aspect of philosophy referred to as
Epistemology.
 Philosophy also focuses on the principles and methods, which are used to distinguish
a correct reasoning from an incorrect one. This branch of philosophy is called Logic.
Logic is used for evaluation and clarification of ideas. It is a science of reasoning that
involves systematic and coherent thinking.
 Philosophy seeks to understand mysteries of existence and reality, to discover the
nature of truth and knowledge, the relationship between man and society. It inquires
analyses, criticizes, interprets and speculates.

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  All other disciplines need philosophy for cogent arguments and clarity of beliefs,
biases and convictions
 Ancient Greek philosophers tried to discover the basic substance that make up the
world (cosmology) and discarded dogmatic beliefs in magic, superstition, religion,
tradition or authority as only sources of knowledge.
 Philosophy has enormous influence on daily life. Daily speech uses philosophical
arguments.
 Philosophical ideas form the basis of institutions law, government, religion, family,
marriage, industry, business or education.
 To Aristotle the intrinsic nature of man is to know and this distinguishes man from
animals. Man seeks for truth which is “ the object of all knowledge” and when this is
attained, man is able to distinguish between appearance and reality in politics, ethics,
epistemology and all other aspects of his life.
 For Kant, the philosopher is the light of existence which leads man through darkness
(ignorance) to the real nature of things through profound questioning of reality. For
Socrates ‘ an unexamined life is not worth-living’ and “ knowledge is virtue and
virtue is happiness” .
 Philosophy stimulates understanding and keeps alive our sense of wonder leading to
intellectual curiosity, objectivity, tolerance, self-discipline, open mindedness and
honesty.
 It helps in the moral, social and economic development of the human personality
which ensures conscientious citizens that help in national development. Knowledge
without morals is worthless, thus an intellectual without moral principles is a threat to
the society. A society caught up in greed and self interest is doomed to fail.
 Philosophy has contributed in cultivating legendary men and women with certain
positive and healthy values and attitudes who have become models for others like
Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Socrates, Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King
Jr., Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela. These men and women of great ideas were
willing to die in order to proof that they were right in their precepts.

 Training in philosophy is not just to get definite answers but for the sake of questions
themselves; because these questions enlarge our conceptions of what is possible,
enrich our intellectual imagination and diminishes the dogmatic assurance which
closes the mind of speculation.
Various usage of the Term Philosophy
 Philosophy is used as an attitude towards certain activities. For example, personal
philosophy (philosophy of life). It is simply means how one looks at life. A teacher
may be wondering why he is teaching and yet the earnings are very low and may not
sustainably cater for his family needs. Students may be reflecting on why they are
pursuing certain professions like law, medicine, engineering that demands a lot, and
took longer years to be completed instead of pursuing other professions that take
shorter time.
 Philosophy may be used as a slogan such as Moi Nyayo Philosophy of Peace, Love
and Unity, Kaunda’ s slogan of Humanism and Nyerere’ s philosophy of education
for self reliance.
 Used as a means of an intensive scrutiny of the views accepted about the world and
man in order to ascertain the same views. This usage focuses on the idea so that

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 people do not simply accept something without questioning. It encourages the critical
function of the human mind.
 It is used as a long- range examination of the immediate problems. That is, instead of
simply looking at the small problem at hand, we are challenged to look at the problem
in a broader perspective.
The Meaning of Education
Etymologically, the word education is derived from educare (Latin) "bring up", which is
related to educere "bring out", "bring forth what is within", "bring out potential" and ducere,
"to lead". In Latin, the word educere/educare or educera (Greek) or Educatio (Roman) means
to grow up, to lead, to nurture, rearing or bring up. These meanings have social implications.
They are looking at education as a social process, which is acquired through socialization.
Socialization is the process through which an individual acquires knowledge, skills, attitudes
and other dispositions so as to become an integrated or a useful member of a society.

Education in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the
mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the
process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills, values and
other dispositions from one generation to another through institutions.

Education means a wide variety of understanding by different people. For instance, education
is equated to schooling in order to get a decent career. Education also implied gaining of life
experience. In Webster’ s Dictionary of 1828, the definition of education is „ the bringing
up, as of a child, instruction; formation of manners; education comprehends all that series of
instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the
temper, and form the manners and habits of youth as well as fitting them for usefulness in
their future stations. Therefore, the main purpose of education is to develop the knowledge,
skills and to in build character formation of the students.

As rightly argued by Socrates that in ancient Greece, education was about drawing out what
was already within the student. The Sophists on the other hand, a group of itinerant teachers,
promised to give students the necessary knowledge and skills so as to gain positions within
the city-state. Thus, there existed different views and understandings of the meaning of the
term education. In the contemporary sense, it has acquired two different meanings namely as:
 An institutional instruction given formally to students in schools, colleges and
universities
 A pedagogical science, studied by the students of education.

Specifically, education can be understood as the deliberate and systematic influence exerted
by a mature person through instruction and discipline. It means the harmonious development
of all the powers of the human being; physical social, intellectual, aesthetic and spiritual. The
essential elements in the educative process are a creative mind, a well integrated self, socially
useful purposes and experience related to the interests of the individual, needs and abilities of
the individual as a social group. Teachers in schools direct the education of students in being
taught a variety of subjects including reading and writing, medicine, mathematics,
Engineering, sciences, history. Art, sculpture, painting, paintings, technology cosmology.

As highlighted thereof, the purpose of education includes but not limited to:

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a. to fit them as useful members for their future stations by training and transmitting
knowledge to the next generation carefully and appropriately taking into cognizance
the fundamental dimensions of education. Education is the knowledge of putting
one's potentials to maximum use. Human being may not be in the proper sense till he
is educated.
b. to form the manners and habits of youth - encourage good work habits and behaviour:
industriousness, truthfulness, honesty, responsibility, patience, resourcefulness,
gentleness, and carefulness.
c. to enlighten the understanding by giving light and clearer views, that illuminate,
instruct, comprehend truth about the reality so as to grasp the faculty of the human
mind by which it apprehends the real state of things presented to it and to receive or
comprehend the ideas which others express and intend to communicate.
d. to correct the temper - instill good character, behavior and communication skills.

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It is imperative to observe that the importance of education is primarily basically for two
reasons as contextualized above:

i. Training of a human mind is not complete without education. Education enables and
individual to be a right thinker so as to make sound and informed decisions that are
vital for sustainable development of mankind.
ii. Enable an individual to receive information from the external world and to acquaint
oneself with past history. So as to take future engagement for betterment of human
development.

The Concept of Education

The term to define has been derived from a Latin word finis, which means a fence or a
boundary. To define something means to put boundaries, limits, conditions, or criteria that
must be fulfilled or followed if one is to use the word or concept correctly.

What is so peculiar with the concept “ Education” when it comes to defining it? There are
three features that appear to make the definition of the concept education peculiar. That is,
the concept education is complex, general and relative. The concept education is a complex
one in the sense that you cannot restrict it to one particular meaning or single idea. Instead,
the moment you hear about this concept, it points to a family of meanings such as growing
up, instruction, schooling, training etc. the concept education is a general one in that you
cannot give it a precise, or a distinct meaning the way we give precise meaning in certain
mathematical concepts like a square, circle, oval etc. Finally, it’ s a relative term and
therefore cannot understand it without relating to the actual situation in which it is used. It is
a relational concept that cannot be understood in isolation from situations, attitudes and goals,
its practices and aims. This is why it is a dynamic concept in meaning and practice.

According to the International encyclopedia of social sciences, education is primarily

understood as instruction. It is written there that “ Instruction is a basic activity of human
kind. Men inform one another conveying beliefs, knowledge and skill as they raise a family,
earn a living, govern a polity, minister a church, nurse the ill, encounter friends……”
Therefore, education can be viewed as “ including all communicating of knowledge and
shaping of values, it is viewed similar to socialization.

The conception of Education in the African Context

Historically, African indigenous education was perceived as beginning at birth and ending
with death. That is, African perceived education as a life long process. The Egyptians and
Greeks held the same notion. For instance, Egyptians believed that education is an activity
that begins from the womb and ends in the tomb. Kenyatta in his book, “ Facing Mount
Kenya” concurs with the above observation that education begins at the time of birth and
ends with death.

As a process of initiation, education incorporates an individual into the society through

socialization. It trains an individual to accept the norms, values and other dispositions so as to
be acceptable member of the society. Remember that curriculum is determined by the culture
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of the people. Culture is the sum total of a people’ s way of life. Therefore, when an
individual is growing up one cannot escape the culture of the people and the society. Some
initiation practices are harsh: that is, they are painful such as circumcision and other forms of
punishment that a child receives while at ‘ school’ in the context of African societies. .
Surprisingly, individuals who have gone through such harsh initiation practices end up being
brave and even boast about it.

The background information which is very important is to know the various perspectives in
which education was regarded through past ages. In traditional African Society, informal
education was basically aiming at instilling moral values. But from Islamic perspective,
Islamic traditional education was rooted in ‘ hadith’ and Islamic law aimed at instilling
religious ethics. On the other hand however, education in the colonial Africa was note
centered on practical knowledge, but for adaptation and assimilation of Western values and
Christian ethics.

During customary initiations Luos used to value removal of six lower teeth for both women
and men. Kikuyus and Luhyas among other valued circumcision. However, lately, there is
controversy over female circumcision and human rights bodies refer to the practice as
“ female Genital Mutilation” (FGM) which is associated with several disadvantages such as
difficulty in child birth, reduced libido etc.

Critically analyzing the above, there is a common moral concern in all traditions; they were
all normative in nature. This is now changing with modernity which emphasizes pragmatism
and neglects morality. This in one way or another provokes a thinker to reflect and analyze.
The relationship between education and ethics and this is done in the normative dimension of
education.

African Philosophical Foundations by J. P. OCITTI

Indigenous knowledge had a philosophical bearing which included communalism or group

cohesion in which parents sought to bring up their children within the community for their
own welfare and that of the wider community. Children were brought up by socialization as
opposed to individualization. This was done deliberately to strengthen the organic unity for
the clan. Freedom of the individual was completely subordinated to the interests of the clan or
tribe and cooperation was preferred to competition.

There was also the ideology of preparationism in which children were prepared to become
useful members of the household, village, clan and tribe. Children were brought up to be
versed in their future roles. The philosophy of functionalism was based on the fact that
indigenous knowledge was strictly utilitarian as an immediate induction into society and a
preparation for adulthood. Children were engaged in participatory education through learning
by doing. Education was therefore an integrated experience, where children learnt by useful
and engaging in productive work. Because children learnt what was of utility to them, they
did not need much motivation to learn.

Traditional knowledge had also strong elements of perennialism in that it focused mainly on
the transmission of a heritage from on generation to another. It aimed at ensuring continuity
and being the instrument by which their civilization was perpetuated. Through education,
members of the society made sure that behaviours necessary for the survival of the cultural

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heritage were learnt. It was a collective means through which society initiated its young
generation.

Perennialists believe that one should teach the things that one deems to be of everlasting
importance to all people everywhere. They believe that the most important topics develop a
person. Since details of fact change constantly, these cannot be the most important.
Therefore, one should teach principles, not facts. Since people are human, one should teach
first about humans, not machines or techniques. Since people are people first, and workers
second if at all, one should teach liberal topics first, not vocational topics. The focus is
primarily on teaching, reasoning and wisdom rather than facts, the liberal arts rather than
vocational training.

Above all, traditional knowledge involved the principle of holisticism which means multiple
learning without room for early specialization. Aims, content and methods were inextricably
interwoven. Farmers, for instance, were not only required to build their own houses and
granaries, but they could be skilled craftsmen and hunters. The holistic approach to learning
developed children into being “ jacks of all trades and masters of none” .

Definition of the Concept Education by Various Scholars

The scholars to be examined are:

 Richard Stanley Peters
 Njoroge and Bennaars

Conception of Education by Richard Stanley Peters (1919-2011)

R.S. Peters defined education as a three fold conception; he holds that for an activity to be
termed education it must satisfy three criteria.
i. Value criterion/normative/desirability condition of education.
ii. Knowledge criterion/cognitive condition.
iii. Procedural criterion/condition of education.

R.S. Peters defines education throughout as the transmission of knowledge and skills. He
perceives education as an initiation. Initiation in the sense that education is conceived as a life
long process and it changes an individual from one stage of life to another. That is, from
childhood to adulthood education imparts relevant knowledge and experience at every stage
of life until one dies. He noted that “ education is complex a phenomena with a meaning not
exhaustible by a single definition. Therefore, he held the view that education is a multi-
dimensional.

According to R.S. Peters’ conceptual analysis of education, he identified three criteria for an
activity to be called education. These criteria are the normative, the cognitive and the
procedural. Normative dimension defines education as transmission of desirable qualities.
True education selects and imparts knowledge and skills essential to the individual acquiring
the knowledge and skill essential to the environment that surrounds them.

R.S. Peters; as an analytical philosopher observed that education is an activity aiming at

conferring what is considered valuable to learners. Therefore, according to him, education
aims at instilling values, qualities, skills, and it is these that he calls it the “ value condition’

15
of education. He further defines this as the ‘ normative criterion’ , since values are often
explicated in norms, and from all these we arrive at a normative dimension of education.

Value Criterion/Normative condition education

The normative aspect holds the view that education involves the transmission of what is
worthwhile to those who are obliged to it. This criterion implies that something worthwhile is
passed on to those aspiring to it. In regard to this, it would be logical contradiction to claim
that an individual is educated yet he has not improved in any desirable manner. In such
circumstances nothing worthwhile would have been passed on to the learner. Therefore, the
activity does not justify to be called education. It is a matter of choice for an activity or a
value to be considered worthwhile by various individuals, societies or nations.

 R.S Peters sees education as the transmission of what worthwhile valuable is or

desirable.
 This is the normative dimension of education, transmission of norms, values, morals
to enable a person fit and function well in society.
 It depicts the values worth possessing by the learner.
 Education is a moral undertaking said John Dewey. Normative aspects of education
are prescriptive in nature.
 It looks at what ought to happen, what is the ideal, desirable norms, rules, guidelines
to be adhered to.
 Education is seen as a process of initiating socializing the learner into the norms,
moral values and moral theories to enhance moral autonomy/moral sensitivity.
Major features of the normative dimension of education

 The normative dimension of education or applied ethics looks at education as the

transmission of norms, values and conventions of rightness and wrongness.
 Education is a worthwhile endeavour, desirability condition of education.
 Whatever is taught either explicitly or implicitly is idea, worthwhile desirable.
 Normative dimension of education prescribes the idea to be followed, what ought to
happen.
 Education is geared towards specific goals and objectives e.g. promotion of national
unity as a goal for education.
 Moral values, moral theories, moral education given to enhance moral autonomy,
moral sensitivity.
 Education becomes a form of socialization to impart values, norms, life skills to the
learner to be able to make informed decisions.

Knowledge/cognitive criteria of education

The cognitive aspect focuses on the point that education must involve knowledge and
understanding. The argument is that we cannot claim that an individual who is simply
informed in certain skills without proper contextualization of issues or conceptual framework
is educated. The core issues is that an individual must be able to cognize both the theoretical
and the practical facts. If these two attributes are in harmony, then the cognitive aspect is
fulfilled.

Cognitive dimension highlight the involvement of mental abilities in the acquisition of

knowledge and skills. Education that does not involve the mind will likely achieve no goals.
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For example, if an individual has the theory of how a wheelbarrow works and is able to
fabricate one, then the cognitive aspect of education is fulfilled
 Involves the transmission of knowledge skills, capacities to the learner.
 Content, courses, curriculum imparted to create awareness, impart skills, be it
theoretical or practical.
 Knowledge is seen as a form of enablement, transformative and liberates from
ignorance gives wisdom and a sense of direction.
 Makes the learner have a wider perspective towards life.
 Looks at the content, the learner and the teacher.

Procedural dimension also called creative dimension holds that there should be willingness
on the part of the individual acquiring knowledge and skills. In other words, education
respects moral norms. The criterion of educational process (procedural) argues that education
at least rules out some procedures of transmission, on the grounds that they lack willingness
and voluntariness on the part of the learner. The implication is that not every method of
bringing up or nurturing an individual falls within the range of offering education. The
individual should have the ability and interest in the activity.

In spite of this and in certain circumstances where the individual is not interested or fears the
activity, some forceful methods have to be used and are still being practised (for instance,
forced circumcision). Surprisingly, some of those individuals who have gone through such
harsh initiation practices have ended up becoming brave, they like the practice and even boast
about it.
Procedural criterion or conditions of education
 Refers to the methodologies of, pedagogies, approaches and strategies used in the
transmission of what is worthwhile such as teaching aids, methods, effective lesson
plans, and schemes of work, mastery of content.
 Classroom presentation of the lesson.
 Taking care of learners, potentials, uniqueness, and capabilities to make them
creative, creators not creatures.
 Education can only have lasting effects or changes on the learner’ s life if the
procedures used are effective.
In order to realize quality education, “ Holistic Education should integrate both
Cognitive and Normative Dimensions of education”

 Education comes from Latin words ‘ educere’ to mean lead out and ‘ educare’ to
mean bring up, to raise. It is a worthwhile adventure.
 It involves the transmission of knowledge, skills and attitude; it leads to liberation of a
learner from chains, shadows and enslavement of life.
 R.S. Peters defines education as the transmission of what is worthwhile, desirable, it
involves knowledge understanding, moral values and procedures used in transmitting
what is worthwhile.
 For quality, holistic education, the dimensions of education are a must. They include
the following:
o Cognitive dimension – knowledge
o Normative education – norms
o Creative
o Dialogical

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a. Cognitive Dimension
 Knowledge, knowing, awareness and understanding.
 Education stresses the teacher, content, learner and examinations.
 It liberates from ignorance, empowers and widens our horizon to reality
enables us to grasp to understand yourselves and the environment.
 At each level of learning, there are exams, certification to evaluate standards.
 Standardization too in form of exams hence providing unity and objective.
 Cognition involves memory perception, judgment and understanding.
 This is liberative and transformative in nature.
b. Normative
 The desirability, education is the transmission of what is worthwhile desirable,
valuable.
 Concerned with values and ideals worth processing. Describes the norms,
valuable, dispositions, qualities, what ought to happen, the objective, the goals
of education.
 The objective, goals of education.
 Gives theories of moral obligation that determines the rightness and
wrongness of behavior in society.
 Leads to moral, reasoning, moral apprehensiveness.
 Dewey says that all educational activities should be moral in nature.
 Enable the learner use his conscience, choose between alternatives e.g. moral
education.
 Cognitive and normative dimension can produce quality holistic education
through :
o Transmission of knowledge, understand to eradicate ignorance,
primitivity, valid for growth of a country.
o Gives certificates, diploma and degrees for job placement and service
to community.
o A status, social class, career that requires quality education.
o Examinations at national lvel e.g. KCPA, KCSE promotes equality,
objectivity and a sense of nationhood.
o Normative dimension enhances morals, moral reasoning, and moral
apprehensiveness.
o Learners are given moral theories to settle moral conflict, moral
dilemmas and lead a happy life.
o Teachers become mentors, co-parent, guiders and counselors to
produce academic giants and morally sober persons, capable of making
right decision and acting soberly in society.
o Knowledge, plus moral values, makes a person human, morally sober,
knowledgeable and humane.
 However, the two dimensions of education i.e. cognitive and normative
dimensions are not complete, holistic education need for dimensions of education
namely, cognitive, normative, creative and dialogical.
 A creative dimension sees a learner with talents, potentialities to grow, become a
better person. Become creative and critically conscious, humane and human. A
creator nor a creature, able to use his knowledge, skills and circumstances of life,
be creative and become self reliant.

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  Education becomes liberating agent; it liberates man from chains, shadows and
enslavement, enabling him to utilize his potentials to the fullest.
 Enhances not only knowledge, but skills to perfom, to be able to critically
consciously think reflectively and adjust to the situation in a new way i.e
creativity.
 Creative dimension very vital to production of holistic person. It liberates man’ s
conscience, so that he becomes critically conscious not only of his capabilities, but
his entire being, his strength, weakness and also his environment and changes it
for the betterment of man.
 Dialogical dimension of education highly needed to make the learner a complete
person i.e. communication.
 The learner is able to communicate and inter-communicate, establish relationship
through interaction.
 Appreciate himself and uniqueness of other persons around him and be able to
share ideas and resolve conflicts through dialogue.
 Communication leads to peace and understanding, sharing of ideas hence
innovativeness and creativity.
 About all a holistic person should be able to settle disputes, conflicts in the society
although through dialogue.
 Dialogue is the only way to solve conflicts, tension, misunderstandings in the
community. It involves the expression of our being.
 It instills the following qualities, the ability to learn from others, sharing of ideas,
inquiring mind, self confidence, critical thinking, enabling one to make sound
judgment concerning people, his encounters and dilemmas in his life.
“ Philosophy as love of wisdom should encourage teachers to be life long learner”

 The term philosophy traces its origin from the Greek word ‘ philosophia, philos,
phileo-love, sophia-wisdom. Hence, the definition of philosophy as love of wisdom.
 Wisdom is the study of things in their general and deepest aspects, the result is
knowledge.
 A tenacious attempt of reasoning men to think through the most fundamental issues of
their lives, to reach a coherent sound conclusion.
 A habit, an attitude, the ability to live by rational principle, a rather peculiar sort of
occupation and a life long one, where we continuously reflect and think critically and
examine fundamental principles of reality.
 According to the Indian Philosopher Tagore Rabindranath, “ A teacher can never
truly teach, unless one is still learning as a lamp can never light another lamp unless it
continuous to burn its own flame.
The teacher as a life long learner requires philosophy due to the following:
a) Search for more knowledge from the contributions of philosophers such as plato,
Socrates, Augustine, Descartes, Dewey, Rawls to have a clear perception and
education, its theories and practices.
b) Enables a teacher to be flexible, open minded, able to detect change, innovative and
embrace new ideas and be creative.
c) It liberates a teacher from chains, shadows of life, removes a conservation, outdated
perception of all educational issues.

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 d) For one to be wise, a teacher must use philosophy to critically analyze terms,
concepts, issues and even situations and eradicate fallacies in his argumentation and
communication.
e) Application of philosophical ideas to guide and counsel students to guide them to be
morally sober.
f) Personal intellectual growth and self actualization.
g) Philosophy as love of wisdom is the mother of science, source of spring board of
knowledge.
h) It questions assumed presuppositions in educational theory and practice.
i) Enhances research, problem solving and clarification in educational issues.
j) The teacher is able to understand his professional duties and improve and above all
understand the meaning of life and existence – “ know thy self’ said Socrates.
k) Philosophy enhances creativity, innovativeness, self reliance and a pragmatic
approach to education in general.
l) Philosophy is the logical analysis of language and clarification of the meaning of
words, concepts in education and in daily life to enable a teacher teach effectively.
m) To be able to form their personal philosophy, core values that give an individual a
sense of direction in life.

Philosophy is divided into general and technical philosophy to make the teacher not only
wise, but critical, analytical, speculative and rational in nature.

Njoroge and Bennaars’ Definitions of Education

They formulated four dimensions that should be fulfilled before we can refer to any activity
as education namely: normative, cognitive, creative and dialogical dimensions.

Normative Dimension

Under this dimension, Njoroge and Bennars perceive education as a process of socialization.
Socialization is the process through which an individual acquires certain knowledge, skills,
attitudes and dispositions that makes one a useful member of the society. The implication is
that education is an activity which has specific aims to achieve. For this reason, education is a
purposeful activity, which is pre-determined by the society or the nation. It is because of its
purposefulness that motivates society to shoulder all it takes in terms of mobilizing resources.

However, it is difficult or there is a disagreement about what is actually meant to be valuable

in any society. For example, you will realize that a modern man in a modern society is
clamoring for certain rights. Rights to learn or not to learn certain values etc Therefore, the
normative dimension of education become elusive as the issue of defining what is worthwhile
varies greatly from one individual to another or from one society to another. It is important to
note that the traditional African Education aimed at initiating the young members into a well
established norms and values of the society without much questioning. Unlike what is
happening today, whereby the young individuals are sort of dictating their imaginative norms
and values to the society.

We realize that there is conflict of what is valuable by the society and what is valuable by an
individual. The conflict touches on issues like moral values, career choices, social equality,
human rights etc. For instance, a modern man would want to be a doctor and not a herbalist,
an engineer and not a mechanic etc. The normative dimension serves as a guideline to the
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future. It also refers to norms as standards to guide the educational activities. It ultimately
serves as a principal guideline for educational theory and practice.

Cognitive Dimension
Cognition is the scientific term for "the process of thought. It implies to conceptualization" or
recognition). It involves the processing of information, applying knowledge, and changing
preferences. In relation to education, cognitive dimension of education is that which deals
with knowledge.

Education is normally equated with acquisition of knowledge. Learning can not be said to
have taken place if no knowledge has been passed to the learners. In fact, knowledge is
whatever remains after all has been forgotten. Education has explicit task in society to
develop the learner’s cognition. Choices are made regarding the learning environment and
permitted actions that lead to a formed experience. There are a lot of cognition processes that
take place for learning to occur. Therefore, the learning environment (teachers, resources, etc)
are important components of knowledge acquisition.

Njoroge and Bennaars perceive education as schooling which is characterized by formal

arrangements such as fixed timetables, well planned syllabi, class set up, specified
assessment approaches etc. Schools, colleges and universities are seen as knowledge
industries that convert learners (learners are taken as raw materials) from being non-useful to
useful members of the society. That is, these educational institutions equip learners with
specialized knowledge, which is on demand in the labour market. Currently, it occurs that the
most marketable products or graduates are the ones who are easily absorbed into the labour
market.

Challenges of examination oriented system of education in reference to cognitive

dimensions
Education is a multi dimensional concept.
Njoroge and Bennars says that education has four dimensions or aspects namely cognitive,
Normative, creative and dialogical.
Education defined as the transmission of skills, knowledge, values and attitudes,
understanding and the methods used in the transmission of what is worthwhile.
An education system which focuses exclusively on examinations fails to develop the
learner’ s abilities. The above statement indicates cognitive dimension of education of
education.
 The Kenyan education system 8-4-4 is cognitive oriented, focuses on learner’ s
academic performance, examinations and certificate.
 At every stage of education i.e. nursery, primary upto university is marked by exams.
 The stress is cognitive aspect of education, knowing, understand, recall, exams.
 Teacher centred type of learning.
 Banking system of education, where the teacher deposits knowledge to the passive
learner (Banks)
 When exams come, the learner reproduces all he has crammed to pass exams, be
graded, and promoted to the next grade.
 Exams are for certification purposes, job placement.
 This creates tension, cut-throat, and competition from nursery to university.
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  The stress is syllabus coverage, revision, tuition and drilling to pass exams at all costs
even cheating in exam.
 Other aspects of education such as normative, creative and dialogical aspects are
ignored, education is narrowed to cognitive aspects that centers on exams.

This fails to develop the learner’ s abilities due to the following implications;

1. Learner’ s needs, uniqueness, strengths and weakness are not catered for
2. Education is quantitative (content) rather than qualitative.
3. Learners are passive, silent recipient.
4. Methodology is not very important but mastery of content.
5. Learners and teachers overworked with syllabus coverage, drilling, cats, exams.
6. It dehumanizes learners, enslaves then, no room for liberation but cramming content
and passing exams.
7. Cognitive aspect is over stressed, leading to lack of critical consciousness and
creativity.
8. Acquisition of irrelevant skills not useful to the youth who remains jobless resorting
to crime.
9. Learner’ s capabilities are assessed by academic performance, not morals, creativity
or dialogue.
10. Learners are treated like marketable commodities; exams are standardized tools for
certification, job placement.
11. The end result is an educated population with a high academic qualification, anti
dialogue and orally empty e.g. corruption, hate speech, greedy etc.
12. Learner’ s inner potentials are suppressed. The preference is academics, academic
giants. Not what other potentials the learner has.
13. Education instead of being transformative becomes oppressive, a tool of perpetuating
the status quo.
14. Crowded curriculum and co-curriculum programmes leave the child will little room to
explore, experiment, discover and learn.

Creative Dimension

Under this dimension education is perceived as growth; growth in terms of creating new
ideas. Man is supposed to be creative in producing new culture in terms of law, language,
science, technology and innovation among others. Education is seen as liberating process that
increases man’ s freedom to be creative. To achieve this, education is supposed to be work
and action oriented. A creative learner or human being is one who is able to respond to new
situations and be able to survive.

Dialogical Dimension

According to Njoroge and Bennaars, education is a social dimension. People learn in

communion with others where dialogue is crucial in attaining the desirable concepts. This
dimension assumes that education is a human affair involving inter-personal relationships or
dialogue. That is, education should allow for exchange of ideas between the learners and the
teachers so that they arrive at a consensus or an agreement. Under this principle learning is
not supposed to be imposed on learners, instead learners are supposed to choose what to learn

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or not to learn, and are expected to take part in arguments that pose challenges to the teacher.
The atmosphere of dialogue allows the learners to develop all his/her mental faculties without
clashing with the interest of others.

It is a common knowledge that learners thrive best under the atmosphere of freedom that
allow them to make contributions during the teaching-learning process. Any system which
seeks to impose a rigid uniformity of ideas suppresses the potential of learners and therefore,
dialogical approach breaks the barrier. This approach seems to encourage child-centered
learning whereby the role of the teacher is simply to guide the learners.
“ Dialogical aspect of education is no longer tenable in schools due to overworked
teachers and students” .

 Dialogue is communication between two individuals on equal terms, interaction and

interrelationships occurs where there is dialogue.
 Dialogical aspect of education sees education as communication and
intercommunication.
 Stresses individual learning and catering for learners uniqueness, capabilities and
even limitation.
 In the classroom context dialogue occurs in the following encounters:
1. Teacher learner dialogue.
 Teacher initiates the dialogue a learner responds.
 Teacher evaluates the learning. This is termed as I.R.R., Initiation,
Response, Evaluation or I.R.F., Initiation, Response, Feedback.
2. Between learner dialogue, learner/learner dialogue e.g. group discussions, debates,
project work, experiments etc.
3. Within learner dialogue- student and text book.
 Refer to inner speech, learner reads a text book, internalizes the content.
4. Within learner dialogue – Reflection and problem solving
 Inner speech, the child reflects on the problem at hand, comes up with
concrete answers e.g. a test exam.
 Learner able to reflect empirically as problem solver.
Due to overworked teachers and students dialogue is not tenable in schools due to the
following reasons.
1. Over enrollment in schools due to free primary education since 2003.
2. Teache rlearner ration, where 1 teacher handles a class of over 60 learners. Lack of
enough teachers in schools.
3. Lazy uncommitted teachers who are ever absent from school.
4. Limited time allocation per subject.
5. Rigid curriculum, where finishing the syllabus, revision and testing are the yard stick
of good teaching not dialogue.
6. Too many duties, work, assignments, home work, tests that overworks both the
teacher/learner.
7. Commercializion of education, the stress is passing exams better grades, better
ranging, more learners in the school, more money.
8. Promotion of teachers is graded on merit, not dialogue.
9. Dialogical aspect as well as normative aspect feature very little in the school
curriculum.
10. Hostile school administration and teachers blocks dialogue in the schools.

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 11. In Kenya, many conflicts are settled by violence, fighting, quarrels, division, disunity
ybe in our homes, churches and even politically. It is after fighting, strikes, conflicts
and its effects that people rush to dialogue e.g. post election violence 2007-2008 and
Kofi Annan mediation. The June-July 2013 teachers strike.
12. Lack of culture of peace and dialogue in Kenya, due ethnicity, pride and
individualism, agreed.
13. Negative influence of the mass media, internet, social sites like face book, Twitter,
My space where Kenyans depict violent, anti dialogical society, prone to mob justice.
14. The advent of Mobile phone, Internet (ICT) has made human beings to be more
occupied with electronic gadget instead of dialogue with their fellow men on equal
terms.
15. Poor guidance and counseling in families, homes, churches even schools leading to
production of a generation that hardly communicate well.
16. Generation gap, language barrier between the young and the old e.g. usage of sheng.
17. Clannism, ethnicity, politics hinders dialogue, communication.
18. Lack of written literature, movies, films, books that can enhance dialogue in our
society.
19. Intellectual arrogance and social class stratification in our society blocks dialogue
between the educated and illiterates the poor and the rich classes hardly communicate
properly.

Aims, Goals and Objectives of Education in Kenya

The national goals of education are derived from the general aims of education. General aims
being broad and often abstract in their expression are unable to offer particular achievements
within specified time limits therefore are used to offer general guidance on educational
intention and to guide the formulation of educational goals. Due to their significance in
offering specific direction, Kenya has kept reviewing its goals of education to suit her
prevailing circumstances.

In 1963, Kenya inherited a system of education that had been designed in colonial times to
suit the needs of the colonial administration. The post colonial government found it necessary
to revise the whole school curriculum and state clearly the national goals of education to
reflect the realities of an independent state. This important task was first undertaken by the
Kenya Education commission in 1964 later to be known as Ominde Report. It outlined six
National Goals of Education which the educational system was expected to fulfill the
following:
1. To promote the social, economic, technological and industrial needs for national
development: Education should prepare the youth of the country to play an effective
and productive role in the life of the nation.
 Social needs: Education in Kenya must prepare children for the changes in
attitude and relationships which are necessary for the smooth process of a
rapidly developing modern economy. There is bound to be a silent social
revolution following in the wake of rapid modernization. Education should
assist our youth to adapt to this change.
 Economic needs: Education in Kenya should produce citizens with skills,
knowledge, expertise and personal qualities that are required to support a
growing economy. Kenya is building up a modern and independent economy
which is in need of adequate domestic manpower.
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  Technological and industrial needs: Education in Kenya should provide the
learners with the necessary skills and attitudes for industrial development.
Kenya recognizes the rapid industrial and technological changes taking place
especially in the developed world. We can only be part of this development if
our education system deliberately focused on knowledge, skills and attitudes
that will help prepare the youth for these changing global trends.

2. To foster nationalism, patriotism and promote national unity: Kenya`s people

belong to different ethnic groups, races and religions but these differences need not
divide them. They must be able to live and interact as Kenyans. It is a paramount duty
of education to help the youth acquire this sense of nationhood by removing conflicts
and by promoting positive attitudes of mutual respect which enable them to live
together in harmony, and foster patriotism in order to make a positive contribution to
the life of the nation.
3. To promote sound moral and religious values: Education should provide for the
development of knowledge, skills and attitudes that will enhance acquisition of sound
moral values and help children to grow up into self-disciplined, self-reliant and
integrated citizens.
4. To promote respect for and development of Kenya’ s rich and varied cultures:
Education should instill in the youth of Kenya an understanding of past and present
cultures and their valid place in the contemporary society. The learners should be able
to blend the best of traditional values with the changed requirements that must follow
rapid development in order to build a stable and modern society.
5. To promote international consciousness and foster positive attitudes towards
other nations: Kenya is part of the international community. It is part of the
complicated and interdependent network of people and nations. Education should
therefore lead the youth of the country to accept membership in this international
community with all the obligations and responsibilities, rights and benefits that this
membership entails.
6. To promote positive attitudes towards good health and environmental
protection: Education should inculcate in the youth the value for good health in order
to avoid indulging in activities that will lead to physical or mental ill health. It should
foster positive attitudes towards environmental development and conservation. It
should lead the youth to appreciate the need for a healthy environment. From the
above, it can be seen that goals of education seek to answer the question, “ What
purposes should the educational system seek to attain? “ “ What qualities of mind,
what knowledge, skills, values, do we wish our learners to acquire?” The formulation
of the goals of education is meant to specify more precisely, what qualities are
thought most desirable to develop among the citizens of the country. This assists those
charged with the promotion of education in the country to organize appropriated
programmes of study. As opposed to objectives, national goals of education are a
massive objective whose achievement can only be evaluated at the end of school. This
means that what is seen in the Kenyan society today is the reflection of the level of
achievement of the national goals of education.
7. To promote individual development and self-fulfillment: Education should provide
opportunities for the fullest development of individual talents and personality. It
should help its recipients to develop their potential interests and abilities. A vital
aspect of individual development is character building.

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 8. To promote social equality and responsibility: Education should promote social
equality and foster a sense of social responsibility within an education system which
provides equal education opportunities for all. It should give all learners varied and
challenging opportunities for collective activities and corporate social services
irrespective of gender, ability or geographical environment.

Factors which hinder the Role of Schools in the Achievement of National Unity in
Kenya
One of the 8 national goals of education is that education should promote national unity,
cohesion and national integrity. Thus, education should fight tribalism, ethnicity, clanism,
enable learners appreciate unity in diversity. Education should enhance a nationalistic
approach towards issues and avoid:
 Corruption/bribery
 Nepotism/favouritsm
 Negative ethnicity/ tribalism
 Clanism, ethnicity/tribalism
 Clanism, ethnic conflicts, hostility
 Ignorance, poverty
 Social injustice
 Political instability, propaganda
 Lack of national policy approach that stresses brotherhoodness e.g. ujamaa in
Tanzania.
 Unequal distribution of national wealth, resources.
 Religious and cultural differences each claiming to be superior.
 The culture of greed, grabbling, looting, embezzlement.

Values of Philosophy

A value is a motive power behind purposeful action. It is virtually an end to how we act.
Indeed, value specifies a relationship between a person and goal. Therefore, value is
relational, and it requires a person and a goal. Values are essential to ethics and concerned
with human actions and the choice of those actions. Ethics, understandings so is a code of
values.

What is learned in philosophy can be applied in virtually all endeavors. This is because
philosophy touches on so many subjects and, especially, because many of its methods are
usable in any field. These values include:

General Problem Solving

The study of philosophy enhances, in a way no other activity does, one's problem-solving
capacities. It helps one to analyze concepts, definitions, arguments and problems. It
contributes to one's capacity to organize ideas and issues, to deal with questions of value, and
to extract what is essential from masses of information. It helps one to distinguish fine
differences between views and to discover common ground between opposing positions. It
assists to synthesize a variety of views or perspectives into a unified whole.

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Communication Skills
Philosophy contributes uniquely to the development of expressive and communicative
powers. It provides some of the basic tools of self-expression such as skills in presenting
ideas through well-constructed and systematic arguments. It helps one to express what is
distinctive of one's view; enhances one's ability to explain difficult material as well as to
eliminate ambiguities and vagueness from one's writing and speech.

Persuasive Powers

Philosophy provides training in the construction of clear formulations, good arguments, and
apt examples. It helps one to develop the ability to be convincing e.g to build and defend
one's own views and to appreciate competing positions, and thus useful when one considers
one's own views preferable to alternatives. These capacities can be developed through the
philosophical dialogue, in and outside the classroom.

Writing Skills

Writing is taught intensively in many philosophy courses, and many regularly assigned
philosophical texts are unexcelled as literary essays. Philosophy teaches interpretive writing
through its examination of challenging texts, comparative writing through emphasis on
fairness to alternative positions, argumentative writing through developing students' ability to
establish their own views, and descriptive writing through detailed portrayal of concrete
examples: the anchors to which generalizations must be tied. Striker and technique, then, are
emphasized in philosophical writing. Originality is also encouraged, and students are
generally urged to use their imagination and develop their own ideas.

Assist in overcoming narrow mindedness by contemplating the whole of the universe

impartiality.

Discovering unsuspected possibilities by becoming uncertain about those that are given e.g.
uncertainty is very stimulating both cognitively and practically.

Values and Education

Values: hold in high esteem; regard highly
Values Concepts: ideas, beliefs or understandings one has that guide and are reflected in one's
behavior
Values Education: the process of providing opportunities for the continuous development in
all students of the knowledge, skills and attitudes related to certain values which lead to
behavior exhibiting those values
Character: attributes or features that make up and distinguish the individual; the complex of
mental and ethical traits making a person, group or nation
Character Concepts: actions, attitudes and practice that characterize a person. Acting
honorably under all circumstances, even when it is to the disadvantage of the self
Character Education: the process by which positive personality traits are developed,
encouraged and reinforced through example, study (history and biography of the great and
good) and practice (emulation of what has been observed and learned)
Citizenship

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  Democracy: government of, by and for the people, exercised through the voting
process
 Respect for and acceptance of authority: the need for and primacy of authority,
including the law, in given circumstances
 Equality: the right and opportunity to develop one's potential as a human being
 Freedom of conscience and expression: the right to hold beliefs, whether religious,
ethical or political, and to express one's views Justice: equal and impartial treatment
under the law
 Liberty: freedom from oppression, tyranny or the domination of government
 Tolerance: the allowable deviation from a standard. Indulgence for beliefs or practices
differing from or conflicting with one's own
Patriotism:
 Courage: willingness to face danger with determination
 Loyalty: steadfastness or faithfulness to a person, institution, custom or idea to which
one is tied by duty, pledge or a promise
 Honor: a keen sense of ethical conduct one's word given as a guarantee of
performance
 Respect for the Natural Environment: care for and conservation of land, trees, clean
air and pure water and of all living inhabitants of the earth
 Conservation: avoiding waste and pollution of natural resources

Respect for others

Altruism
Concern for and motivation to act for the welfare of others
 Civility and cheerfulness: courtesy and politeness in action or speech
 Compassion, kindness and generosity: concern for suffering or distress of others and
response to their feelings and needs
 Courtesy and cooperation: recognition of mutual interdependence with others
resulting in polite treatment and respect for them
 Integrity: confirmed virtue and uprightness of character, freedom from hypocrisy
 Honesty: truthfulness and sincerity
 Truth: freedom from deceit or falseness; based on fact or reality
 Trustworthiness: worthy of confidence
 Fairness and good sportsmanship: freedom from favoritism, self-interest or
indulgence of one's likes and dislikes; abiding by the rules of a contest and accepts
victory or defeat graciously
 Patience: not being hasty or impetuous

Respect for Self

Accountability
 Responsibility for one's actions and their consequences
 Commitment: being emotionally, physically or intellectually bound to something
 Perseverance and diligence: adherence to actions and their consequences
 Self control and virtue: exercising authority over one's emotions and actions
 Frugality: effective use of resources; thrift

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Self-Esteem
 Pride and belief in oneself and in achievement of one's potential
 Knowledge: learning, understanding, awareness
 Moderation: avoidance of unreasonably extreme views or measures
 Respect for physical, mental and fiscal health: awareness of the importance of and
conscious activity toward maintaining fitness in these areas.
 Cleanliness: good habits of personal hygiene and grooming

Work Ethic
 Belief that work is good and that everyone who can, should work
 Punctuality: being on time for attendance and tasks
 Accomplishment: appreciation for completing a task
 Cooperation: working with others for mutual benefit
 Dependability: reliability; trustworthiness
 Diligence: attentiveness; persistence; perseverance
Pride
 Dignity; self-respect; doing one's best
 Productivity: supporting one's self, contributing to society
 Creativity: exhibiting an entrepreneurial spirit inventiveness; originality; not bound by
the norm.
 School pride: playing a contributing role in maintaining and improving all aspects of a
school's environment, programs and activities within the context of contributing to the
betterment of the city, county and state

Principles that promote Effective Character Education in schools

 Core ethical and performance values as the foundation of good character.

 The school defines “ character” comprehensively to include thinking, feeling, and
doing.
 Need for a comprehensive, intentional, and proactive approach to character
development.
 Creating a caring community.
 Provides students with opportunities for moral action.
 Offers a meaningful and challenging academic curriculum that respects all learners,
develops their character, and helps them to succeed.
 Fosters students’ self-motivation.
 Staff is an ethical learning community that shares responsibility for character
education and adheres to the same core values that guide the students.
 Fosters shared leadership and long-range support of the character education initiative.
 Engages families and community members as partners in the character-building
effort.
 Regularly assesses the culture and climate, the functioning of its staff as character
educators, and the extent to which its students manifest good character.

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Relationship between Philosophy and Education

 Philosophy is mainly concerned with determining what constitutes a good life or life
worth living. On the other hand, the task of education is to make life good or worth
living. Therefore, the relationship between philosophy and education is very close.

 Philosophy tells us the goal and essential elements of good life, while on the other
hand education tells us the means to achieve these goals and learn essentials of good
life. It can therefore be said that philosophy is the theory and education is the practice.
For this reason, education is the applied philosophy.

 Philosophy deals with the ends, education deals with the means and techniques of
achieving the ends. Although philosophy puts down the ends or takes note of the ends,
it also wishes that the means must be constantly looked into in order to realize the
ends.

 Philosophy is the abstract and education is the practice or the concrete. This is an
agreement by what has been observed by philosophers such as Socrates, Plato,
Aristotle, and Thales of Greece, John Dewey of America; Rousseau of France,
Gandhi of India; Fichte of German and James Ross of Britain. For example, Fichte
observed that you couldn’ t produce a complete man without philosophy. And James
Ross noted that education is the dynamic side of philosophy.

The implication is that philosophy is the theory of education. This is because

philosophy offers thousands of questions pertaining to the field of education. For
example, a philosopher may ask if a child is to be educated, by whom has he to be
educated? Why is he to be educated? For what is he to be educated? How is he to be
educated? How should the curriculum be organized? These are some of the questions
that are answered by philosophy in the field of education. Other issues examined by
philosophy are: classroom problems related to freedom and discipline, methods and
techniques of teaching or learning, classroom management, guidance and counseling.

 Education transmits to the learners that wisdom which philosophy has expounded for
the good of mankind. The implication is that all education programmes become
consistent and useful if their foundations are laid on sound philosophy. That is,
philosophy coordinates the diverse influence of the learner, family, community and
school among other institutions. Indeed, philosophy helps in the reconstruction and
re-adaptation of education to suit the needs of contemporary society.

 Education has also drawn its material from different philosophical bases. Education,
like Philosophy is also closely related to human life. Therefore, being an important
life activity education is also greatly influenced by philosophy. Various fields of
philosophy like the political philosophy, social philosophy and economic philosophy
have great influence on the various aspects of education like educational procedures,
processes, policies, planning and its implementation, from both the theoretical and
practical aspects.

 Forms of wisdom, knowledge a form of enablement a body of thoughts, concepts.

 Philosophy when used to study education becomes philosophy of education.
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  Philosophy of education is critical, speculative, analytical and reflective in nature.
 A basis of morality guidance and counseling for teachers and learners.
 Personal intellectual growth, life long learner.
 It questions assumptions, presuppositions in education theory and practice/beliefs.
 Equips teachers with logical skills for constructive reasoning on education theory and
practice.

Meaning of Philosophy of Education

Philosophy of education can be defined as the study of the purposes, processes, nature and
ideals of education.
The word ‘ education’ derives from one or both of the following concepts:
 ‘Educare’ – to draw out and realize potential;
 ‘Educere’ – to bring up and nurture.

‘ Educare’ and ‘ educere’ come together here, because ‘ development’ indicates growth
and the ‘ preferred direction’ indicates a specific direction for that growth to occur.

Philosophy of education is the study of such questions as what education is and what its
purpose is, the nature of knowing the mind and the human subject, problems of authority, and
the relationship between education and society. Philosophy of education has been linked to
greater or lesser degrees to theories of human development where the philosophy of
education recognizes that the enterprise of civil society depends on the education of the
young.

To educate children as responsible, thoughtful and enterprising citizens is an intricate,

challenging task requiring deep understanding of ethical principles, moral values, political
theory, aesthetics, and economics within the context of that society.

Philosophy of education deals with how children should be educated, what they should be
educated in, and what the ultimate purpose of education should be for society. If a person
wants to be a more effective teacher, practically he or she needs to have sound philosophical
perspectives that help the teacher to see the interaction among students, curriculum,
administration, aims and goals of education.

Philosophy of education is essentially a method of approaching educational experience rather

than a body of conclusions. It is the specific method which makes it philosophical.
Philosophical method is critical, comprehensive and synthetic.

Therefore,
 Philosophy of education is the criticism of the general theory of education.
 It consists of critical evaluation and systematic reflection upon general theories.
 It is a synthesis of educational facts with educational values.
It is a philosophical process of solving educational problems through philosophical method,
from a philosophical attitude to arrive at philosophical conclusions and results. Thus, it aims
at achieving general as well as comprehensive results.

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It is the application of philosophy to the field of education to equip individual with the skills
and substantive knowledge that allows them to define and to pursue their own goals and also
allows them to participate in the life of their community as full fledged autonomous citizens.
Is a comprehensive undertaking that is distinctly philosophical to discussion of problems and
issues within an educational theory? Is a set of implications for educational practices that
directly follow from philosophical thought?

Philosophy of education is the philosophical study of education and its problems. It is the
application of philosophical methods to the theory and practice of education. Philosophy of
education examines the nature of learning, especially in children; the purpose of education,
particularly the question of whether the chief goal of educators should be imparting
knowledge, developing intellectual independence, or instilling moral or political values; the
nature of education-related concepts, including the concept of education itself; the sources
and legitimacy of educational authority; and the conduct of educational research.

Definitions of Philosophy of Education as understood by various scholars:

 Aristotle: It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without

accepting it.
 De Montaigne On the Teaching, Philosophy of Education observed that philosophy is
the art which teaches us how to live, and since children need to learn it as much as we
do at other ages, why do we not instruct them in it? But in truth, according to him
philosophy of education is the greatest and the most important difficulty known to
human learning seem to lie in that area which treats how to bring up children and how
to educate them.
 Jean Jacques Rousseau From an endeavor to understand Philosophy of Education,
he gave a metaphor that plants are shaped by cultivation and men by education...we
are born weak, we need strength; we are born totally un-provided, we need aid; we are
born stupid, we need judgment. Everything we do not have at our birth and which we
need when we are grown is given to us by education.
Development of Philosophy of Education (John Dewey 1859-1952)

Just like any other discipline, philosophy of Education has an origin. John Dewey (1859-
1952) is considered as the father of modern Philosophy of Education in America and in the
world today. In the late 19th century, a pragmatic view of life, which placed behavior at the
center of human life, was born in the United States. John Dewey (1859-1952) advocated
instrumentalism, asserting that the intellect is a tool useful for behavior and that thinking
develops in the process of a person’ s effort to control the environment.

According to him, “ education consists primarily of transmission through communication,”

and “ education is a constant reorganizing or reconstructing of experience.” This
transmission should be achieved through the medium of the environment rather than directly
from adults (teachers) to children. Stating that “ education is all one with growing; it has no
end beyond itself,”

Dewey argued that no kind of purpose should be set in advance for education, but instead,
education should be regarded as growth. Through such education, society develops. What
Dewey intended to achieve was a kind of practical, technical education aimed at the
reconstruction of society. The image of the ideal person, in Dewey’ s theory of education
was that of an “ active man who learnt by doing through his theory of ‘ learning by doing’ .
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 He reacted strongly against authoritarian approach in education, which regarded the teacher
as the sole authority in classroom and which made the learners to follow whatever the teacher
was teaching. Dewey made an observation that knowledge is found within ordinary
experiences as an individual interacts with the environment.
Dewey, in his Pedagogic Creed believed that:
 All education proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social
consciousness of the race.
 The only true education comes through the stimulation of the child's powers by
the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself.
 This educational process has two sides - one psychological and one sociological;
and that neither can be subordinated to the other nor neglected without evil
results following. Of these two sides, the psychological is the basis. The child's
own instincts and powers furnish the material and give the starting point for all
education.
 The psychological and social sides are organically related and that education
cannot be regarded as a compromise between the two, or a superimposition of
one upon the other.
 The teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas or to form certain habits
in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the influences
which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these
influences.
 The teacher is engaged, not simply in the training of individuals, but in the
formation of the proper social life.”

According to Dewey, education is life in itself and not merely a preparation for life. For this
reason, education should be based on the needs, interests and abilities of the learners. He
noted further that education involves living through a continuous reconstruction of
experiences. The implication is that education is the development of all those capacities or
abilities in the individual, which enable him or her to control the environment.

In the words of Dewey: “ Education is laboratory in which philosophic distinctions become

concrete, and are tested” . Philosophy is wisdom; education transmits that wisdom from one
generation to the other. Philosophy represents a system of thought; education embraces that
thought in the content of instruction. Philosophy embodies a way of life; education is the
preparation for life. Philosophy is the knowledge obtained by natural reason; education is the
development of that reason and other powers of mind.

Dewey proposed an approach of teaching that is child-centered referred to as a project

method of teaching. Under this method of teaching children learn better by taking an active
part in the actual teaching – learning process. And that the role of the teacher is one of a
guide to a child. That is, to encourage the child to participate in projects.

The project method is a common practice in Kenyan schools, colleges and universities.
However, of late this method has turned out to be very expensive. There is also a problem of
overloaded curriculum and therefore the project method is becoming unpopular.

33
Contributions of John Dewey to Educational Theory and Practice

 An American education, thinker and philosopher founder of pragmatism. Other

pragmatic philosophers included Charles B. Pierce, William James etc.
 Their philosophy can be traced from the ancient Greek thinker Protagoras a sophist in
ancient Greece. He held that ‘ man is the measure of all thing whether right or
wrong’ .
 Pragmatism was also influenced by the utilitarianism advanced by British
philosophers Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill and William James i.e the utility
principle.
 Pragmatism originates from a Greek word “ pragma” which means action, practice,
activity.
 An idea is true if it works. Everything is tested on the touch stone of experience.
 An idea is true if it works, can be verified, validated and corroborated otherwise it is
discarded.
 Beliefs and idea are true if they are workable and profitable otherwise false.
 Truth is cash value of an idea.
 Pragmatism believes in change, innovativeness, nothing is fixed; everything is
experimented, changes inevitable, change without permanence.
 Methodologies of teaching and learning aims at creativity i.e. experiments,
demonstration, exploration, projects, and field trips.
 According to Kwame Nkurumah the first president of Ghana, “ theory without
practice is dead, so theory is complemented in practice by pragmatism.
 Pragmatism helps the learner to use the knowledge and skills gained by being
innovative, creative.
 According to White Head, the learner should be able to use knowledge they gain or
else it becomes useless. Hence, knowledge gained must be put into work to solve
societal problems and needs e.g. ICT, technological innovations.
 Education should lead to change in the society, not static, by dynamic, creative, ever
changing.
 Man has the capacity to change for better and this is the sole purpose of education.
 Education should impart norms. Dewey sees education as a moral undertaking, a
moral process that instills, discipline, social efficiency, culture and personal
refinement improvement of character.
 Education is not a mere means but should liberate man, make him socially conscious.
 The teacher should guide and direct the learner to be creative.
 A child centred approach, require conducive environment for learners to be creative
e.g. good classes, laboratories and concrete materials for learners creativity.
 Dewey recommends that a learner should learn through experience, active inquiry and
creativity.
 Values stressed in education are efficiency, scientific spirit, utility and critical
consciousness.
 Maximum freedom to the child to explore, experiment, be given to the learner to
utilize his potentials to the fullest.

Functions of Philosophy of Education

34
a. Determining the aims of education:- Philosophy of education provides original
ideas regarding all aspects of education particularly educational aims. Though,
educational philosophy gives different views, it helps in providing education
according to the need of society. As of philosophy of education reflects the
multiplicity and diversities of human life. Philosophy of education guides the process
of education by suggesting suitable aims from the diversities of life and selecting the
means accordingly.
b. Harmonizing old and new traditions in the field of education: - The old traditions
become outdated and are replaced by the new traditions. However, the process of
replacement is not always smooth as they faced opposition from certain orthodox
sections of the society. It is gratifying to note that there is need to integrate the old and
the new in order to maintain the harmony between both. This function can be
performed by philosophy of education.
c. Providing the educational planners, administrators and educators with the
progressive vision to achieve educational development: - Spencer has rightly
pointed that only a true philosopher can give a practical shape to education.
Philosophy of education provides the educational planners, administrators and
educators with the right vision which guides them to attain the educational goals
efficiently.
d. Preparing the young generation to face the challenges of the modern time: - The
present period of history sometimes referred to as information age and for others it is
post modernity, later modernity, high modernity or even the age of uncertainty e.g the
Age of Globalization, liberalization and Information Communication Technology
(ICT)

e. Philosophy determines the real destination towards which education has to go:
Philosophy has always inspired educational theory as well as practice. As it
determines the real destiny of education.

f. Philosophy determines the various aspects of education: Every aspect of education

has a philosophical base. There is no aspect of education – aims, curriculum,
methods, text books, discipline, teacher etc. which is not influenced and determined
by philosophy. Height and breadth of education is probed by philosophy. It is
philosophy which provides aims to education and these aims determine the
curriculum, the methods of teaching, the text books, the role of the teacher and the
school discipline.

g. The philosophy of education is important because it explains how educational

theories arise. By examining the philosophy of education, we are able to see why and
how theories complement or oppose to each other. An understanding of philosophy is
therefore useful in guiding and critiquing the development of educational theory.
Philosophical knowledge may provide a justification for teaching methodologies;
reveal and challenge assumptions about the nature of teaching and provide a language
for educational debate.

h. Philosophy is vital for the promotion of teaching as a scholarly and professional

activity. Education has been recognized as a subject in its own right. Arguably, many
educational theories are drawn from other disciplines, and a philosophy of education
thus provide a pedagogical history of ideas, theories and vocabulary. It helps to place

35
 the educational discipline on a similar philosophical footing to other disciplines
through the establishment of a distinct discourse and rationale.
i. In the educational field, the philosophy of education:
 shows that opposing positions such as idealism and empiricism are defensible;
 enables us to consider the origin and provenance of educational practices;
 provides a language for educational discourse and debate;
 presents well thought-out arguments for different theoretical stances;
 Challenges faulty argument, superficial debate and educational fads; and
ultimately provides a source of alternative ideas to challenge prevailing
orthodoxies; analyses education’ s aims, roles and methods.
j. For the education profession, the philosophy of education:
 justifies educational practices as it contributes to the scholarship of teaching;
 provides education with deep intellectual roots;
 links educators with a tradition of educational discourse;
 facilitates argument and debate;
 helps develop evaluative and critical thinking.
k. For the individual educator, the philosophy of education:
 enriches and deepens personal experience;
 gives intellectual credence to instinctive or intuitive practice;
 provides pleasure in the exploration of educational ideas;
 provides intellectual backing for educational views;
 facilitates open-mindedness by presenting alternative perspectives.

Importance of Philosophy of Education to a Teacher

 It enables the teacher to have a view of what he is out to accomplish in the field of
education (school).
 Shows the teacher how his aims of teaching or schemes of work are related to the
basic problems of reality. That is, it enables the teacher to relate the people’ s
philosophy of life or the society’ s culture to the aims of education. It guides action in
educational institutions so as to realize the national educational objectives. For
example, Kenyan education system is expected to achieve national unity,
development, cultural heritage, social equality, individual fulfillment and international
consciousness.
 It enables the teacher to understand how his subject fits in the general scheme of work
or lesson plan.
 The teacher is able to understand the limitations of his subject and its relationship to
other subjects.
 The teacher is able to have a clear view of the role of the school in relation to other
social institutions like the church, the family, the government among others, so that he
avoids pre-emptying the responsibilities of these institutions.
 It prepares the teacher for his role as an instructor, guidance and counseling and in
classroom management.
 It helps teachers analyse problems and seek alternatives solutions to them.
 It prepares the teacher for critical thinking, which is necessary for curriculum
development. That is, it enables the teacher to see education in broader perspectives
and think clearly on how to get solutions to educational problems.

36
 It enables the teacher in the clarification of ideas and arguments in order to avoid
vagueness and/or ambiguity. This enhances effective communication so that what is
to be said must be said clearly.
 It enhances the teacher’ s critical thinking, which assists in choosing the best idea or
remedy from the prevailing alternatives. In this case, a teacher is seen as a philosopher
and is therefore expected to be wise in choosing the best from the prevailing
alternatives.
 It helps educators develop the ability to think clearly and link education to humanity
and society.
 Philosophy does not provide all answers but a means of enquiry and see beyond
ourselves.
 Studying philosophy of education enables teachers recognize the philosophical
perspectives of educational theories and practice according to the changing society.
 Knowing how to ask and interpret philosophical questions helps teachers build their
educational philosophies and defend their philosophical views (if you can answer a
question, what you will do?).
 Philosophy frees the teacher’ s imagination and controls his intellect to apply his
mind systematically to issues of education that have been clarified and refined. He
will become an effective teacher.
 Personal educational philosophies and schools of philosophy help teachers plan
goals, curricular focus and perceived roles.
 Equips teachers with logical skills for constructive reasoning in education theory and
practice.
 Moral intellectual autonomy for teacher/learner/school.
 Detecting fallacies in educational theory and practice during the teaching learning
process e.g. lesson presentation.
 Appreciation of the works of great educational thinkers/philosophers who have
shaped educational theory and practice e.g. Socrates, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Aristotle
etc.
 Springboard, source of all knowledge, philosophy is mother of all sciences and arts.
 Enhances skeptical approach towards issues in education leading to further research
for better education system practices and theories.
 Personal intellectual growth, a teacher is a life long learner.
 Provides a unified view on educational objectives, goals and aims, policies.
 Enhances research on educational policies, practices and theories.
 Removes conservative dogmatic view so as to enable educators embrace change, new
approaches.
 Open minded, flexible, radical and pragmatic in his/her approach and be able to
institute and embrace changes in education theory and practice to education e.g.
Vision 2030 enhancement through education.
 Integrates all relevant educational theories, practices/courses into comprehensive
view.
 Shapes the teacher personal outlook towards reality and entire life i.e. personal
philosophy. Promote personal intellectual growth so as to understand the practices
and theories in education.
 Clarification, analysis of what we believe and stimulated to think critically, logically
and analytically. It equips the teacher with critical, analytical, rational, philosophical
methods, not only of teaching, evaluation but also day to day encounter with learners.
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  Enhances formulation of good classroom methodologies, evaluation procedures and
enabling the teacher handle students in a more confident way provides reasons with
faith.
 Every situation of society is based on philosophical ideas. These are translated into
goals, objectives, vision, mission and motto. This yardstick shows the way forward in
educational theory and practice. Indeed, philosophy of education provides a clear
vision for education theory and practice e.g. aims, goals, objectives of education in
Kenya
Relevance of Philosophy of Education for the teacher in a developing country like
Kenya.
 Philosophy is the love of wisdom, knowledge.
 Philosophy if the tenacious attempt of reasoning men to think through the most
fundamental issues of life to reach a reasonable conclusion.
 Philosophy of education is the sum of the practical ideas of a society in general which
guide the content and practice of education.
 Seeks to clarify the objectives of education and terms used and reasons out gives
critical judgment on issues of education.
 Philosophy of education is relevant for the teacher in a developing country like
Kenya.
1. Philosophy is the love of wisdom, knowledge, challenges, teachers to be life long
learners.
2. Personal intellectual growth, knowledge for acknowledges sake: man by nature
desires to know” said Aristotle.
3. Helps teachers to integrate personal philosophy of life with philosophy of education.
4. A basis of morality for teachers as moral educators and co-parent.
5. Equips teachers with logical skills for constructive reasoning, able to think logically,
avoids fallacies in argumentation.
6. Enhances reflection, critical and analytical skills that are vital in affecting teaching
and learning process.
7. Removes conservativeness, rigid dogmatic approach towards life, innovation,
enabling a teacher to embrace changes and tackle emerging issues.
8. Makes teachers flexible, open minded, gives them a wider horizon towards reality.
9. Enhances research, problem solving in education clarifies the meaning and purpose of
education for the individual society.
10. Formulation of good classroom methods, procedures of handling students, makes the
teacher more confident, provides reasons with faith.
11. Enables teachers appreciate the works of great philosophers e.g. Socrates, Nyerere,
making teacher relies their potential becomes creators not creatures.
12. Provides logical coherence in pedagogic curricular and administrative matters.
13. Make the learner skeptical, able to question assumed presuppositions in educational
theory and practice.

Study Questions
 What is the meaning of Philosophy of Education to you?
 List down the elements of philosophy of Education.
 Distinguish between philosophy and philosophy of education.
 Define philosophy of education and state its importance to a student teacher.
 Critically examine the relationship of philosophy to education.
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  Discuss the meaning of the statement that “ education is life in itself and not merely a
preparation of life” as asserted by John Dewey.
 Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the project method as used in our schools,
colleges, and universities.
 Examine the contributions of John Dewey to the development of philosophy of
education.

Forms of Education

There are four forms of education namely: Liberal Education, Formal, Non-Formal and
Informal Education.

Liberal Education

Aristotle claimed that the good life can be achieved through an education in the liberal arts,
where knowledge is valued for its own sake and is its own reward. A liberal education is
devoted to the study of first principles, or theoretical ideas, because humanity’ s goal is to
acquire knowledge.

Aristotle’ s reasons for the promotion of liberal education were not related to the mind alone.
A liberal or free education consists of subjects suitable for the free citizen, and includes
literature and the arts which develop the whole person. Newman claims that a liberal
education promotes the attributes of freedom, equitableness; calmness, moderation and
wisdom – in short, a philosophical habit of mind (Heath, 1959). On the contrary, ‘ illiberal
subjects’ like trades and skills ‘ absorb and degrade the mind’ and are only suitable for
slaves and wage-earners. Therefore, no subject should be included in the curriculum simply
because of its vocational value.

The role of the liberal education teacher or curriculum designer is to introduce learners to the
finest examples of thought from all ages. According to Hirst (1965), a British educationalist,
the curriculum must initiate the learner into all the major forms of thought. The curriculum
should therefore be broad and wide-ranging. Even when the overall concept of a liberal
education was under attack from narrow vocationalists in the twentieth century, it survived in
a subject called Liberal Studies, taught as part of further and higher education.

This type of education is supposed to be offered for its own sake, to free the individual’ s
mind to think broadly. That is, education is meant to liberate man from narrow mindedness.
According to Greeks, liberal education is supposed to free the mind of the learner so as to
function according to its true nature; to enable an individual to identify good reasoning from
erroneous one, and to redirect conduct from wrong to right. In essence, the outcome of a
liberal education is to enable the consumer to be a useful member of the society.
Educational Implications of Liberal Education
 Liberal education introduces learners to a range of disciplines and ways of thinking.
 A balanced curriculum is necessary to develop the whole person intellectually and
morally.
 Education is valued for its own sake rather than for its usefulness.
 Teaching is a complex human activity demanding personal characteristics and insight.
 Some subjects are more highly valued than others – for example, the arts and
humanities are valued over vocational subjects.

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  Debate and discussion are encouraged in liberal classrooms.
Formal Education
Formal education has the following characteristics:
 It is carefully structured in terms of syllabuses, content, methods and subjects put on
time table.
 The teaching is supervised and the teachers are well trained and paid to teach.
 The outcome of teaching-learning process is assessed by use of tests and examinations
and the achievement is recognized by a word of certificates.
Non Formal Education
It has the following characteristics
 It is less structured and flexible in terms of content, methods of teaching and
timetabling.
 It is open membership and meeting places.
 It is normally organized outside the normal formal time in the school. This includes
cases of adult education, family planning programmes, seminars, club activities in
schools among others.
 It is aimed at specific learning needs of a particular group of people in the
programme.
 Learning may be evaluated, tested or not at all.
Informal Education
This type of education has the following characteristics
 Takes place anywhere and at any time.
 It may take place almost unconsciously, for instance when learners interact with
teachers, guests, peers etc.
 It is haphazard and there is no award of certificates.
 It leads to the acquisition of good habits and behaviours during interactions.
Study Questions
1. What do you understand by the concept “ Education” ?
2. Critically examine the meaning of “ Education as an initiation” and Education as a
dialogue.
3. Distinguish the definition of education by R.S. Peters and that of Njoroge and
Bennaars.
4. Define liberal education and describe its characteristics.
5. Discuss the extent to which formal education and informal one contribute to
dissemination of knowledge in our schools/colleges/universities.
6. Describe how you would determine the value of an educational activity you intend to
teach.

Relevance of Technical Philosophy to Education

Logic and Education

Introduction
This is the branch of technical philosophy that deals with the studies of methods and
principles used to distinguish a correct reasoning from the incorrect one. It helps us to avoid
misunderstanding or misinterpretation. Logic also examines how arguments are constructed
and how fallacies can be detected and avoided.
The Importance of Logic
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  Enhance correct reasoning that assists to eliminate confusion during teaching learning
process.
 Assist in clarification of ideas, that is knowledge of logic enhances justification of
arguments during discussions.
 The teacher is able to employ deductive or inductive arguments correctly because he
has background knowledge.
 Enables the teacher to analyze ideas, concepts and examine the thoughts of the
learner.
 Helps the teacher to pin-point the confusion that may arise when a learner responds to
a question.

What is an argument?

An argument is a group of statements or prepositions one of which the conclusion is claimed

to follow from the other premises. What is a premise? A premise or a proposition is a
statement or ideas on which reasoning is based. From a statement we can derive a major
premise and a minor premise from which a third statement can be proved to be true
(illustrations later). There are two broad types of arguments or reasoning, namely; the
deductive and inductive ones.

Inductive argument or induction is the reasoning process that proceeds from certain premises
to uncertain but probable conclusion. Inductive arguments lead to probable conclusion, that
is, it provides room to strengthen or weaken the conclusion and is common in natural
sciences.. Deductive argument or deduction is the reasoning process that moves from certain
premises to a certain conclusion. Deductive argument allows for a definite conclusion and is
common in mathematics.

a. An example of inductive argument:

A student conducted an experiment of heating various metals and came up with the following
results:
Metal R when heated expanded
Metal S when heated expanded
Metal T when heated expanded
Metal U when heated expanded.
Metal V when heated expanded
The student came up with a conclusion stating that it appears like all metals expand when
heated.
b. An example of deductive argument
All human beings are mortal
Socrates is a human being
Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
The above argument can be represented symbolically:
Let human beings be A
Mortals be B
Socrates be C
Then the three premises can be represented as below:
 A B
 C A
 C B
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Inductive Reasoning
 Inductive reasoning or Logic is concerned with Critical investigation of facts.
 The inductive argument is scientific in nature.
 The conclusion is claimed to follow only probably from the premises.
 Inductive argument is an argument in which premises are claimed to support the
conclusion in such a way that it is improbable that the premises to be true and the
conclusion false.
 A process where a general law or conclusion is inferred from particular instances
(practical deductive argument/reasoning).
 Theoretical, knowledge apriori, innate knowledge.
 Premises are claimed to support the conclusion.
 The conclusion is claimed to follow necessary from the conclusion.
 It involves necessary reasoning; there is necessary relationship between the premises
and the conclusion.
 A process where a particular conclusion is inferred from general premises.
Deductive Reasoning
 Knowledge apriori, innate knowledge.
 Premises are claimed to support the conclusion.
 The conclusion is claimed to follow necessary from the conclusion.
 It involves necessary reasoning; there is a necessary relationship between the
premises and the conclusion.
 Theoretical in nature, knowledge that.
A Fallacy
A fallacy is an argument that may appear to be true but on close examination it ends up not
being true. That is, a fallacy is an argument, which appears to be correct, but proves upon
examination not to be so. A fallacy can also be defined as a logical inconsistency that may
arise from use of vague and/or ambiguous concepts.

Vague term
A vague term is the one that its usage is not clear. For instance, when we talk of the age at
which children in Kenya join primary schools to be 6 years. This definition is not clear
because we have international schools which admit children at an age lower than six years.
Likewise, in highly populated urban centres with limited primary schools will admit children
in standard one at an age more than six years in Kenya.

Ambiguous term
An ambiguous term is the one that has more than one literal meaning or interpretation. For
example concepts like ‘ pen’ and ‘ bank’ . A pen can be taken to imply a tool for writing or
a place where cattle retire to rest after grazing. On the other hand, a bank could mean an edge
of a river or a place where money is kept for customers and is paid out on demand.
Examples of Fallacies are;
Since the time of Aristotle, various methods of classifying fallacies have been attempted.
However, no one method has been agreed upon. This difficulty in categorizing fallacies is
well observed by a logician, Augustus de Morgan when he said; ‘ there is not such thing as a
classification of ways in which men arrive at an error; it is much to be doubted whether there
ever can be” . In general, there are two main categories of fallacies, namely formal and
informal fallacies. A formal fallacy is one that may be categorized by analyzing the relation

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between what is asserted and the premises. Below is an illustration of a deductive argument
that commits a formal fallacy.

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An example of a formal Fallacy:
 Education (A) is Pleasant (B)
 Punishment (C) is Education (A)
 Therefore, Punishment (C) is Pleasant (B)
Through the scrutiny of the premises and the conclusion, the above argument is valid. This
implies that the conclusion logically follows from the premises. However, the contradiction is
that a punishment as an activity is never pleasant. Symbolically we can represent this
argument as follows:

 All A B
 All C A
 All C B
The second type of fallacies is what had earlier been labeled as informal fallacies. These
fallacies originate from errors in reasoning which educationists, learners and listeners may
fall in. this may occur as a result of careless thinking regarding the content of educational
objectives and also when one is misled by some vague or/and ambiguous terms and
statements used in educational policy objectives. Examples of informal fallacies are
provided below.

Argumentum ad populum (Appeal to the people)- a case whereby the 8-4-4 education
system was thought of being capable of alleviating the problem of unemployment but on the
contrary it has not achieved much. Appeal to the people. What the majority believes
something to be true, than that is the reason to assert that it is really true e.g. “ Our people,
united, together we never be defeated”

Argumentum ad Hominens (Appeal to the threat) – this kind of fallacy is committed, for
example, when a teacher forces a learner to accept his point of view without any challenge.
For example, attacking the person who made the statement and not the argument made. A
fallacy, since the truth of a statement or assertion has nothing to do with the motives of the
speaker. This fallacy appeals to force, emotions and pity. For instance, premises that are not
relevant to the conclusion are deliberately used as an instrument to manipulate, misled the
beliefs of the listeners/readers e.g. propaganda / incitement.
Fallacy of composition: this one is committed when what is true for a part of a system is
generalized to be true for the entire system. For instance, if in a national examination the
outstanding pupil in KCPE is from Kiambu County, it is a fallacy to conclude that all the
pupils who sat for KCPE in Kiambu County passed the examinations. Similarly, this arises as
a result of the careless or deliberate usage of generalization. Usage of an individual case to
conclude or sum up the great run of cases e.g. John Mwangi is aggressive and loves money.
Mwangi is Kikuyu, therefore all Kikuyus are aggressive and loves money.

Fallacy of division: it is opposed of the fallacy of composition. This type of fallacy is

committed when a conclusion for the whole system (of education) is assumed to be true for
its parts.

Argument from Ignorance: Proposition is true simply because it has not been proven false,
or it is false because it has not been proven true, e.g. Traditional African Culture, the
common belief was that women had to be submissive, to be seen not to be heard. Men rule.
Scientific discoveries of Galileo, Copernicus resisted in the Middle ages.

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Avoidance of Fallacies

Most fallacies in the field of education come about through vagueness and/or ambiguity of
language. However, there are some political, social and economic factors that influence
committing of fallacies. Since there are many factors that contribute to fallacious arguments,
then certainly there are many ways in which we can avoid fallacies.
There are six ways that can be employed to avoid fallacies:
 Educators should have a thorough understanding in both language and
philosophical analysis in order to avoid loose language.
 Educationists should consult education consumers before policies are formulated.
 Tentative policy objectives should be subjected to debate before the final version
is adopted.
 Avoid interference from the politicians.
 The policy makers and educators should be open and honest enough in regard to
interpretation of educational goal/activities.
 All those concerned with education must have the obligation to translate the
declared educational goals/activities into reality through a concrete programme of
action.

Epistemology and Education

The concept Epistemology is derived from two terms that is logia meaning study and
episteme meaning knowledge. Epistemology is the study of theories of knowledge.
Philosophers employ epistemology to reflect on the nature of knowledge by asking questions
like; what is knowledge? What does it mean when I say that I know something? Such
epistemological question goes beyond observable facts. For example, if a teacher told the
learners that it is raining; how can it be verified that it is actually raining; and that the teacher
is not day dreaming or making a false claim? To get an answer to the above questions one has
to employ epistemology.

Note that in disciplines like Psychology, Sociology, History and Geography among others,
also study issues related to knowledge but do so differently from philosophy. This is because
most disciplines rely on factual issues or observable ones while a philosopher thinks before
and after the scientist has done his work thereby challenging the scientist on many occasions.
Theories of knowledge are explained by various schools of thought such as rationalism,
Empiricism, Pragmatism and Existentialism.

Rationalism is a school of thought, which believes that the ultimate truth is the one that
comes to us through reasoning. Implication is that reasoning is necessary to acquisition of
knowledge. Empiricism believes that the ultimate truth comes to us through sense
experiences. Pragmatism postulates that the truth is the one that works. It is an action -
oriented philosophy. Finally, existentialism is the combination of the above three schools of
thought. The existentialists believe that the existence of man precedes essence. That is, any
contribution one makes is essential in life.

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Meaning and Nature of Knowledge

What is Knowledge?

 Knowledge can simply be defined as a justified true belief.

 Knowledge is awareness, consciousness of some reality.
 It is a form of enablement, empowerment.
 It is a coherent system of ideas.
 It is also a compass through which man directs the course or the destiny of one’ s life.
 It is rational true belief.
 The study of knowledge is called epistemology.
 Knowledge according to Plato is defined as justified true belief.
 Awareness, conviction beyond doubt.
 Descartes sees knowledge as certain and not doubtable.

 Socrates asserts that knowledge is knowledge of self, as expression in his dictum

borrowed from the Delphic Oracle “ know thyself; the unexamined life is not worth
living.
 Knowledge is a warranted belief, evidence of justification.
 Aristotle says that “ all men by nature desire to know”

For an activity to qualify to be called knowledge, it must satisfy the following three
conditions:
 Belief condition
 Truth condition
 Evidence condition
Belief condition
 A conviction, awareness of something as it exists
 Mental or psychological state of conviction but subject to proofs.
 A conviction beyond doubt that such is the case, not mere opinions or hearsay.
 It enables man to establish habits of action e.g. a belief in God, love etc changes the
way a person acts or behaves.
The term belief refers to the conviction or the psychological state of feeling that something is
true. The belief condition is the first step to acquisition of knowledge. Knowledge is different
from issues related to superstitions, opinions, telepathy, instruction and instincts. For
instance, if a student believes in the teacher, he is in a better position to grasp or understand
what is being taught. That is, he is in a position to accept the authority of the teacher and of
the text books that are used as sources of references.

Truth condition
 Agreement, correspondence between our thoughts and reality.
 Truth is a generalized conclusion, facts, a postulate, a justified belief.
 Truth is timeless, it may be crushed or hidden but it always triumphs.
 Beliefs or claims must survive test of truth for them to be regarded as knowledge or
wisdom.
 A belief is true if it agrees with facts.
 A generalized conclusion, a postulate correspondence of our idea in their mind with
reality or what we see or observe.

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Truth condition implies that an activity is in accordance with fact or reality. That is, the
activity is the actual one as opposed to what is thought or believed. There are various theories
that explain truth namely:
 Correspondence theory of truth
 Coherence theory of truth
 Pragmatic theory of truth
Correspondence theory of truth postulates that something is true if it correspondence (is in
line with) with the characteristics of reality. For instance, if a teacher states that the objects he
is holding is a plant, then, the object must be having characteristics that correspond to those
ones of a plant. Coherence theory of truth observes that something is true if it is consistent or
fits the proposed definition. For example, if a teacher is describing someone as a good
student, then that individual should have the requisite characteristic that fits the qualities of a
good student. On the other hand, the pragmatic theory of truth notes that an object is true or is
the actual one as you are seeing it, if it is able to work in the expected manner. For instance, a
telephone is real when it performs the expected functions.

Evidence (Ground) Condition

 Refers to support, reasons of knowing something.
 Justification for the claims held.
 Refers to grounds for knowing
 The claims to know must be justified with certainty beyond doubt, to eliminate error,
fallacies and mere opinions or hearsay.
 Knowledge is justified through principles of correct reasoning done by the learner i..e
deductive or inductive reasoning.
 Knowledge is justified based on its sources which includes reason, sensation,
authority, revelation and intuition.
 Justification of true beliefs involves high order reasoning, thinking i.e high order
thinking in taxonomy of educational objectives includes application, analysis and
review or evaluation.
This condition proposes that something is true if reasons or justifications are given to satisfy
the claim. For instance, if a teacher claims to know something or to have a true belief, he
must be able to give reasons to satisfy the claim. Like in the case of refraction, the teacher
must show students that when a stick is placed in a glass of water in presence of light, when it
is observed from both sides, the stick appears bent. The teacher must offered reasons why the
stick appears bent for the student s to understand this aspect of knowledge.

Forms of Knowledge
 Scientific Knowledge based on experience
 Philosophical knowledge based on reasoning
 Religious knowledge based on faith
 Ethical knowledge based on moral

Scientific Knowledge: Scientific knowledge involves the first order activity that provides us
with facts obtained through direct observation, which is through our sense experiences. It
provides us with valid and reliable data about educational problems.

Philosophical knowledge: Involves second order activity, which reflects on facts provided
by science. To arrive at philosophical knowledge reasoning is paramount. This is because a
philosopher thinks about education before and after the educational scientist has done his
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work. The philosopher questions that assumption of various educational concepts, content
and methods.

Religious knowledge: Is the one that is justified on supernatural grounds, by means of what
is known as divine revelation. This is the form of knowledge that is revealed to people by
faith. It is much associated to faith by believing in the creator. It is a metaphysical type of
knowledge.

Ethical knowledge: This is the kind of knowledge acquired when an individual is taught
about what is normally good or bad, right or wrong. This form of knowledge focuses on
human behavior and is acquired either consciously or unconsciously.

Teacher usage of different sources of knowledge during the Teaching and Learning
Process
Sources of knowledge

 Revelation
 Empiricism
 Reationalism
 Authority
 Intuition

The usage of five sources of knowledge

(i) Revelation
 Revealed knowledge of God, expressed in religious writings, the Bible, Quran
and cultural traditional religions.
 Manifests in practices, laws, rules, rituals, prayers etc.
 Supernatural diving, spiritual divine.
 Faith is the key in revealed knowledge.
 Teachers to be role model, exemplary to be emulated by learners.
 Reciting the scripture, reading memory cards, depicting bible or Quran.
 Pastoral studies, CRE, Islamic studies applicable.
(ii) Empiricism
 Appeal to experience as the source of knowledge advanced by British
philosophers John Locke (1632-1714). Others include Aristotle, Thomas
Aquinas, and Bertrand Russel among others.
 The word empiricism originates from a Greek word ‘ empeirial” or Latin
“ experiential” meaning experience, observed or practical.
 An epistemological theory of knowledge which emphasizes that all human
knowledge is acquired only through sense, experience, perception or
sensation.
 John Locke holds that ‘ man is born tabula rasa, blank, empty slate” .
 Sensation, experience, interaction with the environment.

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  Inductive, demonstrative, explorative and reliable, predictable, procedural,
scientific.
 Knowledge is practical, a posteriori.
Learner Centred type of learning in the class usage

 It is learning by doing, practical, and knowledge how.

 Mastery of skills, through demonstrations.
 Experimentations in the laboratories.
 Maximum usages of sense to explore, touch, observe and acquire knowledge.
 Manipulation, psychomotor skills e.g. computer typing, cooking.
 Conducive learning environment to cater for learner’ s needs.
(iii)Rationalism
 Depicts the human mind to have the ability to know, knowledge is innate,
inborn, apriori, deductive, declarative. Rene Descartes held that the mind has
the capacity for certain and indubitable knowledge. “ I think therefore I am” .
 Rationalists include Plato, St. Augustine of Hippo, Benedict Spionza and
Hegel.
 All true knowledge comes from the mind, inborn not acquired.
 Teacher centred- teachers to prepare well to teach. Maximum usage of the
intellect, reason, mind, thought process – man is a thinking being, -
knowledge that.
 Common is art, humanities, languages, music, maths.
 In the classroom set up, the teacher can do the following:
o Initiative discussion, debates, public speech.
o Drama, imitation, dance.
o Group work
o Calculation of mathematical problems
o Give rules, regulations and explain them.
(iv) Intuition
 Knowledge gained without the intervention of the senses and reason.
 Immediate apprehension of an object by the mind without the intervention of
the reasoning process.
 It is the knowledge of self i.e. our existence.
 The teacher needs intuitive knowledge to know the needs, problems and
weaknesses/strengths of each learner and cater for them in the teaching and
learning process.
 Guidance and counseling require intuition to discover how best to help the
learner.
 Matters of discipline and correct of learner’ s mistakes, needs teacher
intuition.
 Intuition is the sixth sense necessary for discernment and wisdom.
(v) Authority
 Authority refers to people who hold superior position, accepted without
questions. e.g. parents, teachers, elders, journalist, politicians.
 As a legitimate source of knowledge, authority must be based on free and
honest inquiry to the validity of its assumptions.
 Competence in a given field needed for one to be an authority.
 Authenticity of its evidence – a must.

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  In the teaching and learning process authority includes:
o Training experiences
o Documented materials/sources.
o Instructional media. Syllabus.
o Government institutions, prescriptions such as from T.S.C., K.I.E.,
school rules, constitution, school anthem etc.
Criterion of knowledge and their educational relevance
 To know means to be aware, conscious of some reality, that such is the case or is not
the case.
 Knowledge is defined by Plato as a justified true belief.
 Jomo Kenyatta on 12th Dec 1966 said that knowledge is a powerful weapon that a
human being can have; it eradicates error, removes illusions and gives us a wider
horizon towards life.
 It is a rudder, a compass of an engine by which man directs the course of his life.

Educational importance of reason as a source of knowledge

 Reason is knowledge that, a priori, inborn, innate.
 Deductive, enhances the art of analysis, critical and rational abilities.
 Common in arts e.g. History, Music etc subjects that makes maximum usage of the
intellect.
 Rene Descartes says that reason is the source of all knowledge and it is certain and
indubitable.
 Man is being that thinks, doubts, affirms “ I think therefore I am” , said rene
Descartes.
 Emphasis of mind, spirit, mental aspects to enable the learner reason and be creative.
 Emphasis is on book knowledge that depicts, past man’ s innovation, cultural
heritage that have shaped man’ s destiny on earth.
 Advocates rigid discipline and teach moral principles and religious beliefs.
 Recommends universal education to enable all children have access to education and
exploit their capacities to the fullest.
 Promotes cultural heritage, achievement in literature, art, music, mathematics, society
way of life.
 Teacher-centred enhances professionalism as the teacher is in charge of the teaching
and learning, must prepare well to be effective.

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  Promotes learners participation in the learning process through self discovery of
knowledge i.e. discussions, reflective reasoning.

Application of the Knowledge of Epistemology in the field of education

 Enables philosophers and more so the teacher, to reflect on the nature of knowledge
that is offered in our educational institutions and its relevance.
 It’ s necessary in the study of theories of knowledge such as realism, rationalism,
Pragmatism, and Existentialism that provide guidelines on the construction of
educational curriculum.
 Enables the students and teachers to seek solutions to fundamental issues about
knowledge and truth by asking questions such as: what is to know? What is truth?

 The knowledge of Epistemology assists educators in the planning, implementation

and practice of education policies.
Axiology and Education
The concept Axiology is derived from two terms: Axia meaning values and logia meaning
study. Therefore, Axiology is the study of values and value systems of the society. Axiology
is divided into four main areas;

 Ethics
 Aesthetics
 Political philosophy
 Philosophy of culture
It is concerned with cultural, social and political values, customs, norms and standards in the
society.

Ethics reflect on the origin and nature of moral values and more so human behavior. It
inquires into the meaning of what is right/good and what is wrong/bad. The knowledge of
Ethics is useful when it comes to guidance and counseling in our educational institutions.

Importance of character education and integrity for teachers

 Teachers become morally aware of their role as ethical educators.

 Teachers are empowered to anchor moral conduct on moral knowledge.
 Teachers grasp the moral principles upon which teaching profession is ethically
based.
 Teachers acquire skills to be role models to learners at school and in society.
 Teachers clarify the relevance of morality in school discipline
 Teachers critically analyze principles of social morality
 Teachers become active agents in social moral education
 Teachers help learners acquire skills at rational defense of ethical conduct.
Examine the role of the teacher in the development of character and integrity in the
learner
Development of character and integrity refer to the process of acquisition (self appropriation)
and gradual improvement of a learner in the moral knowledge and application of moral
concepts, principles and reasoning as means to direct moral decisions for responsible actions.
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  Teacher is supposed to be constant role model
 Teacher to be offering guidance and counseling services to learners
 Teachers to engage in pedagogy of care for moral well being of learners.
 Teacher to be fare and just to all learners.
 Teacher to use learner-centred approach in moral education
 Teacher to invite resource persons to give motivational talk to learners.
 Teacher to collaborate with other teachers, with parents and other social institutions to
help learners to see relevance of moral uprightness in society.
Elements that characterize the nature of a teacher as a moral agent in the society

 Knowledge: a teacher should possess knowledge on moral principles, values, norms

and moral skills in critical assessment and evaluation of ethical reasoning. This is
cognitive aspect or element in a moral agent. Reason possessing moral knowledge is
theoretical aspect of moral agent.
 Willing: good will is imperative in moral conduct. It is the desire to act on basis of
moral knowledge. Will without light of reason is blind thus it should desire to do what
is rational and reasonable in light of moral knowledge possessed by the reason. Will is
practical reason in moral agent.
 Acting: this is the behavioural and overt aspect of moral agent. The observable action
performed by a teacher as a moral agent should be responsible as model to be imitated
and emulated by learners.
Role of the Teacher Moral Educator according to Kevin Ryan
 According to Kevin Ryan, a teacher has a very important role in moral education in
the growth and maintenance of a disciple school and morally autonomous individual.
 Moral education forms character, mental enabling the learner fit and function well in
society.
 Moral education can be defined as a process of instilling values, norms, dispositions,
qualities and aspiration to learners.
 Helps learners to become ethnically mature, adult, and capable of moral thought and
action.
 Kevin Ryan proposes six Es for teachers as moral educators.
Example
(i) Teachers are role models of moral excellence.
(ii) Must be exemplary to be emulated by learners.
(iii) The life of the teacher has great impact as learners admire and copy from them
how to act and respond to situations as grown ups.

Explanation
(i) Why be good, be explained to learned.
(ii) Emile Durkheim stresses that to teach morality is neither to preach nor to
indoctrinate but to explain.
(iii) Rules, norms, constitution, laws be explained.
Exhortation
(i) Teachers should encourage and urge them not to give up.
(ii) Build and maintaining a moral classroom environment is a continuous
struggle.
(iii) Rebuke, correct, have heart to hearth talk to encourage the faint hearted.
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Environmental expectation or Ethos
(i) The environment the learner finds himself in is valid for healthy moral character
and growth
(ii) Teachers ought to provide a lead in setting certain standards to be of moral
excellence to be followed.
Evaluation or the expectations of excellence
(i) For learners to grow up as disciplined people, they must develop the ability to
evaluate themselves as moral agents or actors.
(ii) Teachers should not just correct mistakes but empower the learners with the
ability to evaluate themselves in an objective way.
Experience
(i) Teachers to provide real life opportunities for learners to exercise goodness.
(ii) Avenue such as clubs, societies, charity movement be established in school for
learners to dray moral lessons from such activities.

Usefulness of Ethics to Guidance and Counselling Master

 Knowledge of Ethics enables the teacher to advice the learners about what is good or
desirable/right in our educational institution in comparison to what is not desirable or
good.
 Assists the learners to solve social and academic problems.
 Increases the teacher’ s confidence to do his work as a guide.
 Knowledge of values enables the teacher to advise learners on career opportunities
basing on their needs, interests and abilities.
 The teacher is a co-parent and a moral educator and must be exemplary to impart
morals to the learner.
 Teacher should love, guide the children the right path, by avoiding excessive rewards
and punishment.
 Need to understand the psychology of the learner, various developmental stages to
cater for their needs effectively.
 Learning institutions should establish a favourable moral environment/culture for
learners to gradually learn to be morally autonomous.
 Teachers, schools, learning institutions should come up with rules, code of regulation
to guide the actions of the learners.
 Forums for learners to learn what being good entails be given e.g. Guest speakers be
invited to talk to learners, clubs, peer groups be enabled in the schools.
 Elaborate and well funded guidance and counseling programmes be developed to
journey with learners morally and socially.

Relevance of Moral Education in Schools

 One of the most difficult issues that our society and schools have to struggle with is
the role of schools in the moral and ethical development of adolescents. In this secular
and multicultural society there are no easy answers. In fact, we can't agree on what
moral education is, let alone offer a "curriculum." However, addressing the question
of how we support the development of good character in students is essential. A
bright, well-educated and talented young person who has no moral center, who does
not have the tools and understanding to lead an ethical life concerned with the
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 meaning of actions and committed to the good of others as well as to himself, is
ultimately useless and often dangerous.
 Postmodern culture is characterized by conflicting values and notions of what it
means to be "good." Schools must share with families and other social institutions the
responsibility of helping young people sort out these values and provide them with
tools for making ethical choices in a world that will continue to present them with
fluctuating and often competing values. Most young people want to be good, want to
behave in an ethical way, want to be respected and respect others. It is up to adults in
schools and elsewhere to foster that impulse toward health and goodness that is,
admittedly, buried very deep in some.
 Schools need to assert that what kind a person you are is as important as what you
know and can do. Education does not equal goodness, and the importance of goodness
needs to be made explicit wherever and whenever one can. Nor does goodness, like
any true accomplishment, come from a timid failure to take risks thereby avoiding
censure, mistakes and, incidentally, any growth.
 Schools need to teach young people to be led by their conscience, to be aware of
what is right and wrong, resides within and not in a set of external rules and laws, in
any civilized society e.g young artists are asked all the time to listen to themselves,
know themselves, and take responsibility. No one else can learn an actor's lines as it
appears on stage
 The development of character means encouraging students to be true to their own
beliefs and truths and acknowledging how hard that can be; especially when there is
great pressure to betray the self for others. For instance, study of the arts is about
clarifying and being true to oneself; to one’s own vision, even when there is little
apparent support for that vision.
 Morality is embedded in life and not separable into a discipline. Students learn what it
means to be an ethical human being by working with and observing adults who strive
to live an ethical life and accept responsibility for fostering that in students. Students
learn about morality by observing how adults act, how they treat each other as they
pursue their assigned tasks either in their families or their workplace. Adults are
always under the scrutiny of the unforgiving adolescent eye and, although they deny
it, adolescents imitate what they see, not what they hear e.g arts students have an
advantage in that they are quite ready to honor and follow their teachers and their
teachers consider it part of their teaching responsibilities to foster the development of
a reflective self because art is the product of such a self.
Performance can allow both participant and viewer the experience of transcendence
rarely felt in schools or society at large. Spiritual life is concerned with the meaning
of things, of events, of ideas. It is important to spiritual development to seek meaning
and be able to articulate the meaning to oneself and to others. So as to search for and
articulate the deeper meaning of the work and to find the impulse that inspires
creation.

Relevance of Moral Education to human life

Moral education even though criticized, shunned, challenged by those who think it is
irrelevant to one’ s success in life, due the fact that the society seems to glorify greed,
corruption, shut-cuts if all these makes someone wealthy. But without morals everything
comes crushing down and destroying the individual’ s successes in life.
Hence moral education is very relevant for one to succeed in life due to the following:

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 1. Moral sensitivity, apprehensiveness giving a person, a society, a clear direction in
life.
2. Enables people to cherish social harmony, social peace and mutual co-existence
where morals refrain people from infringing in other people’ s rights.
3. Moral education is for life, it determines the kind of life one lives, the kind of the
society we have.
4. Transforms, changes the society to seek good, know the good and lead a good life
– “ knowledge is virtue” . Said Socrates.
5. Money, wealth, fame, career may come and go, but morality comes and grows
increasing the individual self worth and safeguarding his dignity.
6. Moral education contains a mastering of cultural norms, practices and techniques
and function well in the society.
7. It fosters socialization among learners, teachers, people and the community.
8. For stability of social institutions such as the family, the church, etc. moral
education is a must. These institutions must provide rules, norms and direction to
the young people in the society.
9. People who are respected as heroes or role models have a stand, a philosophy in
life. And are appreciated by the entire world e.g. The Late Wangari Mathaai won
a noble prize of fighting corruption and environmental conservation.
10. Moral education reflects a society’ s fundamental assumptions about itself,
individuals and the entire societal fabric, culture concerning right or wrong.
11. Academic success, wealth, power becomes complete with moral.
12. To safeguard the individual from self destructive activities such as drugs, alcohol,
crime, reckless sexual relationships violence that may hinder the individual from
exploiting his potentiality to the fullest.
13. To develop the will power, moral reasoning to act morally right.
14. Moral education helps to fight societal ills, vice e.g. corruption, hate speech.
15. Instills freedom with responsibility, people become responsible of their actions;
masters of their destiny.
16. Moral education is a must; most parents have abdicated their role as moral
educators leaving it to the teachers and the internet. That vacuum is filled by
moral education.
17. To curb negative effect of mass medial internet (social sites) e.g. pornography,
hate speech, rumour mongering etc.
18. Protects the dignity of life, human rights.
19. Instills life skills for problems solving in life.
20. Makes people human, humane and tolerant of each other and sober, whether poor
or rich.
Challenges facing Teachers as Moral Educators in Schools

Moral education refers to general techniques and processes that are aimed at enabling the
learner evaluate, scrutinize and make the right judgment and choices regarding value and
system. According to Kevin Ryan, teachers work is not only to teach but to make the learners
morally good and sober however, they face the following challenges:
 Rigid school curriculum with limited time for moral education.
 Overworked teachers and learners.
 A morally sick and corrupt society and where right is wrong, wrong is right.
 Cognitive (academic) aspects preferred than dialogue/morality.
 Lack of role models in the ever changing society.
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  Effect of I.C.T., Mass media, Internet, Social sites like Face Book, Twitter, My space
that gives conflicting cultures to the youth.
 Lack of support from parents. Most parents have no authority, the youth are too
powerful, and parents frustrate teacher’ s efforts on moral education.
 Lack of written literature, materials on moral education in schools.
 Peer pressure.
 Most parents have abdicated their roles as moral educators at home, overworking the
teachers.
 Language barriers/generation gap.
 Breakdown of traditional norms, cultural values, homes, families due to
westernization, divorce, HIV and aids, political instability leaves a big vacuum in
society.
Importance of Moral Education in solving Contemporary Social Challenges in Kenya

 Moral education enables the learner to develop a sound mind in a sound body, teaches
virtues of oneness, decency in public life, good manners and behaviours.
 Moral education refers to general techniques processes that are aimed at enabling the
learner evaluate, scrutinize and make right judgment and choice.
 Moral education is what the school does to make learners not only smart (academics)
but also good so that they can fit and function well in society.
 Equips learners with moral knowledge and life skills to be able to fit and function
well in society.
 A form of power or enablement to tackle all kinds of problems effectively and
circumstances of life, without being crushed, destroyed by them.
 Enhances freedom and responsibility, responsible leaders are an asset to the society,
they give direction and urges the citizens to take full control of their lives.
 Bring up of a stable, well mannered and cultured people, nation with integrity
removes social ills in the society.
 Good morals provide peace, harmony, and co-existence, a good environment for
political and economic growth and stability.
 Avoidance of conflict, hatred, prejudice, strikes and tribal animosity as people respect
the rule of law, constitution and don’ t infringe in others rights, and lives.
 Helps in eradication of primitive retrogressive cultural practices that endangers social
peace and harmony e.g. cattle raiding, FGM, early marriages clan and tribal conflicts
in North Eastern Kenya.
 To curb self destructive activities such as drugs, alcohol, prostitution and crime. Good
morals protests citizens from self destructive life style.
 Empowers the people with moral sensitivity, enabling them to be incharge of their
actions and develops the art of self evaluation to correct mistakes and failure in their
lives.
 Many modern parents are busy with career and have abdicated their duty of instilling
moral value, traditions so teacher and schools must teach moral education.
 Collapse of traditional African family bonds, cultural norms, customs, practices,
death, leaves the vacuum that must be filled by moral education to protect the
hopeless youth.
 To curb the negative influence of mass media, internet, mobile phone technology,
effects of social twitter on behavior.
 Arming the learner with the power of moral reasoning and desire to act morally.
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  For nation unity, national cohesion, and integration and good politics and governance,
moral education is vital.
Moral education instills a culture of ethical consciousness among Kenyans enabling the
country curb all kinds of social evils, injustices and moral decadence.
Causes of Indiscipline in Schools
 Poor communication between school management and students.
 Dictatorial administration.
 Incompetent head teachers.
 Incompetent school boards.
 Lack of adequate facilities in schools.
 Irresponsible parents.
 Drug abuse/substance misuse.
 Peer group influence.

Implications of Emmanuel Kant’ s categorical imperative and its impact of moral

character and discipline in schools

 Emmanuel Kant (1724-1804) a German Philosopher advanced a deontological theory.

His views are termed as categorical imperative.
 Duty and moral taught is stressed in Kant’ s dictum “ Act only on that maxim
through which at the same time will that should become a universal law.
 Treat other people with the same respect and dignity that you expect to be treated
with. Kant refers to the good will in our actions.
 We cannot think of anything in the world outside of it that could be purely-good
something that is good in itself, without qualification except a good will.
 A person of good will unlike the hereronomous moral agents always acts out of duty.
 A person of good will can be dependent on to do what is right even when other
motives are absent.
 Man is rational, capable of making right, even when other motives are absent.
 Man is rational, capable of making right decisions.
 We should treat others with dignity and self worth.
 Never to treat others as stepping stone to our own interests.
 Categorical imperative is a moral principle that reminds us that as rational persons
moral obligations are categorical or unconditionally binding upon us.
 Reason is the foundations of morals.
 The categorical imperative is summed up into two major moral guidelines.
o Act only on that maxim through which at the same time will that it should
become a universal law.
o So act to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of any other,
in every case as an end in itself, never as a means only.
Impact of Categorical Imperative to moral character and discipline in schools

 Enhances cultivation of good habits (virtues), eradication of bad habits.

 Encourages formulation of clear rules, guidelines, moral code to guide the young in
the school, home, church, rule and family.
 Performance of duty be internalized without supervision since man is rational nature.
 Production of autonomous individual who exercises self rule – very important.
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  Promotion of critical consciousness, moral sensitivity, moral appraisal and
responsibility.
 Reflection, evaluation and critical thinking before an action instilled.
 Teachers are moral educators, co-parent and guiders and counselor, must be morally
sober to be emulated by learners.

Metaphysics and Education

Metaphysics is derived from two terms, meta meaning beyond and physics meaning nature.
Therefore metaphysics is the study of issues that goes beyond nature. It deals with questions
that focus on what thrives after or beyond the physical world of sense experiences.
Metaphysics is divided into four areas;
 Cosmology
 Theology
 Ontology
 Rational psychology
Cosmology is the study of universe. It is derived from two terms, cosmos meaning universe
and logia meaning study. Cosmology aims at explaining the origin and nature of the universe
in relation to the myths of time and eternity, permanence and change. Theology is the rational
investigation of supernatural beings. It focuses on religious concepts and beliefs such as the
meaning and existence of God. Ontology is the philosophical study of beings. It studies
things the way they are. That is, it is the study of whatever is, both living and non-living
things.
Ontology is the study of being ‘ being qua being’ (Study of vital forces). Rational
psychology focuses on philosophy of the mind that examines terms like perceiving,
dreaming, imagining, remembering, feelings, understanding, willingness, determination etc.
It raises the questions regarding the relationship between the mind and the body.

The Concept of Soul

The concept of soul (or psyche in Greek) was associated with life. The Greek philosophers
such as Plato and Aristotle thought that the soul is what makes something (animals and
plants) alive. Other communities in the world such as the Africans and Hindus also hold the
same thought about the soul. In some philosophies and religions, the soul is believed to
survive bodily death and hence is conceived of as immortal. But the opinions about its
character, origins and ultimate end vary greatly from one society to another.
For instance the western thought believed that the soul is phantasm of the person with height,
sight, speech and ability to move. The early Greek philosophers had a materialistic (physical)
interpretation of the soul, the Socrates and Plato emerged with the idea of an immaterial
(spiritual) soul.
Plato believed the soul pre-existed the body and that it was immortal. This leads to a school
of thought known as “ immortal-soul doctrine” . The immortal soul doctrine states that a
person is a composite (made of different materials) being with a body that cease to live after
sometime, and a soul that survives the bodily death. For the duration of an individuals’ life
time, the soul is somehow attached to, incorporated into or imprisoned in its body.
Aristotle thought that the soul was the form of the body and it is made up of the matter of the
body into a human being. He believed that there was a very intimate connection between the
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soul and the body which is referred to as a relationship between form (soul) and matter
(body). Aristotle is unclear about how the soul survives in the body but seems to conclude
that it does so by the survival of the mind (or nous in Greek).
Thomas Aquinas thought that the soul is spiritual and intellectual and also the form of the
body. He believed that it would ultimately be re-united with the body at the last judgment;
Aquinas view about the soul leads to “ Reconstitution doctrine” which claims the
resurrection of the body and then the reconstitution (re-union of soul and body) of the person.
Descartes claim that the soul and the body interact through the pineal gland, but it is not clear
how two things of different nature i.e. the body is matter which occupy space can interact
with the soul which is spirit that does not occupy space. Descartes further argues that the soul
is like a pilot in a ship in that it can affect the direction but not the amount of bodily
movement.

The Biblical Concept of the Soul

The Old Testament concept of man is that of a single unit, not a union of soul and body. The
Hebrew word Nefesh was and is still frequently translate d as ‘ soul’ . Therefore, Nefesh
(soul) is the principle of life and the seat of the psychological activity but it is never
conceived as operating separately from the body. In the New Testament, the word Psyche is
often translated as ‘ soul’ ‘ life’ , ‘ vitality’ or the self (by Greek philosophers). While
most Christians believed in life after death (reflect on both immortal-soul) doctrine and
reconstitution doctrine. The bible does not provide a clear description of how a person
survives after death.

The Eastern Thought about the Soul

The Hindus thought the soul or the atman as it is called usually is conceived as identical with
the body in the world or Brahman. They argue that the soul passes from one incarnation to
the next.
In Buddhism, there is no surviving self such as the atman (soul). They argue that meditation
leads to the awareness, that the idea of self or atman is more illusion. Buddhism argument
about the soul leads to “ shadow-man doctrine” . Shadow-man doctrine claims that a person
is a kind of shadow (illusion) that has a problem of identification with the familiar flesh and
blood person.

The concept of Soul by American Negroes

The term soul is used to express the essence (most important quality) of life as perceived by
the black people.

Relevance of the Knowledge of Metaphysics in the Teaching Profession

 Enables one to present coherent and consistent picture of reality in the field of
education.
 Metaphysics offers critical examination of the underlying assumptions of various
theories of knowledge such as realism, idealism, pragmatism, and existentialism.

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  Enables the teacher to understand the learners so as to impart the right kind of
knowledge.
 Generates discussion of questions that lack scientific answers such as inter alia,
‘ what are soul or spirit, time, change, and God.
 Necessary for policy makers and teachers to know mind-body issues that is helpful in
designing the education curriculum by identifying the correct aims, content and
methods of teaching.
 Exposes the learners to value divine assistance
 Enhances the development and exploitation of the learner’ s talents. It shows
interconnection between education, religious values and society.
 It’ s good for the search of new knowledge.
 It values the sacredness and the dignity of human life refraining from destructive
activities such as drugs and violence.
 Interprets educational theories and practice.
 Enhances creativity and innovativeness

Study Questions
1. Discuss the features that make a human thought to be philosophical in character.
2. Using appropriate examples, distinguish between a fallacy and an argument.
3. Illustrate the difference between a vague term and an ambiguous one.
4. Define knowledge and describe the conditions that an activity has to fulfill for it to
qualify to be called knowledge.
5. Briefly define the following areas of philosophy and examine their importance to a
teacher.
a. Logic
b. Epistemology
c. Ethics
d. Metaphysics
PHILOSOPHICAL SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT AND RELEVANCE TO EDUCATION
The following are the main schools of thought to be discussed in this course.
 Rationalism/Idealism
 Realism/Empiricism/Naturalism
 Pragmatism
 Existentialism
 Rationalism and Education

Idealism is the philosophical theory that maintains that the ultimate nature of reality
is based on the mind or ideas. It holds that the external or, real world is inseparable
from mind, consciousness, or perception. Idealism is any philosophy which argues
that the only things knowable are consciousness or the contents of consciousness;
not anything in the outside world, if such a place actually exists. Idealism takes the
stand point that the only real things are mental entities and not physical things and
argues that reality is somehow dependent upon the mind rather than independent of
it.

Idealism is essentially the understanding of reality as it reflects the workings of our

mind. The properties of objects have no standing independent of minds as they
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perceived them. For instance, reality is dependent on one issue that has divided
idealists of various sorts. Some argue that there is some objective mind outside of
nature; while others argue that it is simply the common power of reason or
rationality. Some argue that it is the collective mental faculties of society and some
focus simply on the minds of individual human beings.

The main tenet of idealism is that ideas and knowledge are the truest reality. Many
things in the world change, but ideas and knowledge are enduring. Idealists believe
that ideas can change lives. The most important part of a person is the mind which
should be nourished and developed for continued penetration of humanity.

Underlying Principles
 Ultimate truth comes from the mind.
 Our senses experiences can mislead us.
 Man has the mind to create values of life.
 The law of reason governs nature (knowledge is innate)
 Education should develop the spiritual self that can be perfected through learning.
 Argued that human mind is not an empty slate. It has an inborn knowledge and
believe that man is the noblest work of God.
 Believe in high ideals of education.
Aims of Education
 Education should develop a complete man or human personality.
 Education aims at self realization.
 Education should foster mental development for high thinking.
 Education should foster preservation of culture and moral values.
 Education fosters creative powers e.g. man should adapt the environment to his needs.
Content/subject matter
The subjects recommended by idealist to be taught include:
 Physical activities (fitness of the body and skills)
 Intellectual subjects, languages, maths, geography.
 Moral and religious education.
 Arts and Aestheties
Learners’ activities
 Learning by doing
 Learners have freedom and responsibility to choose what to learn.
 Role of the teacher – guide, direct, control, counsel and offer suggestions.
 Individual participation/creative.
 Free interaction among the learners.
Discipline of Learners
 Students and environment should be controlled and guided by rules and regulations.
 Expect the teacher to serve as an example/role model to the learners.
 Show affection and sympathy through counseling.
Teaching Methodology
 Froebel kindergarten methods – songs and role playing.
 Plato conversational approach – referred to as dialectics.
 Aristotle inductive-deductive approach/method.
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  Others are discussion, story-telling, drama to lecture methods.

Realism and Education

Realism holds the view that reality, knowledge, and value exist independently of the
human mind. The world of ideas and matter defined in idealism by Plato and
Socrates do not exist separately and apart from each other for realists. Realists
contend that material things can exist whether or not there is a human being around
to appreciate or perceive them.

Realists believe that the study of ideas can be enhanced by the study of material
things. They believe that knowledge is power, and acquiring knowledge allows
individuals to deal with problems and to face life effectively. If the mind is a blank
slate, then knowledge comes from sources other than the mind, those things gained
from sensation and reflection. Moreover, realists hold that the essence of things is
objectively given in nature, and that our classifications are not arbitrary. As such,
realism is contrasted with nominalism, the theory that universals are merely names or
general terms.

Realism is a philosophical theory that emphasizes the existence of some kind of things or objects, in
contrast to theories that dispense with the things in question in favour of words, ideas, or logical
constructions. The term realist stands for the theory that there is a reality quite independent of the
mind. In this sense, realism a s opposed to idealism argues that only minds and their
contents exist.

Underlying Principles
1. All knowledge comes to us through experience.
2. Ultimate truth comes to us through our sense experiences i.e we can smell, see, touch,
taste and hear.
3. Experience rather than reason is the source of knowledge.
4. Human mind contains nothing (i.e. tabu la rasa’ ) except what experience has put
there.
5. Nature is the best teacher (learn from the immediate environment)

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Realist Teacher’ s views on
 Aims of Education
o Education should enable the learners to discover the world and get as much
knowledge as possible.
o Main objective of education is to enable the learners to struggle for their
existence so as to ensure their own survival.
 Content/subject matter.
o Learners’ abilities, needs and interests should determine the content of
learning.
o Focus on teaching of science subjects e.g. physics, chemistry etc.
o Recommend the teaching of activities that involve the learners e.g. music,
drama, arts and drawing etc.
 Role of the Teacher
o Merely an observer
o Protector
o Stage setter
 Role of the learner
o Encouraged the learners to be creative by use of discovery method,
(experiments and trial and error approaches).
o Freedom enhances social interaction among the students and teachers, to
freely exchange ideas and new knowledge.
 Teaching Methodology
o Recommend child centred methods of learning
o Learning by doing e.g. discovery, project, and experimentation.
o Observation and inductive reasoning (Syllopism)
 Discipline of learners
o Advocate for maximum freedom and against any form of physical
punishment.
o Only discipline they seem to agree is the one through natural consequence.
o Freedom is perceived to be the greatest good and overshadows the use of the
cane.
Complimentary Nature of Rationalism and Empiricism

Rationalism Empiricism
Maximum usage of the intellect, reason, Maximum usage of senses to perceive,
mind, thought process observes, explore, discover.
Art oriented subject part of the school Science oriented subject part of the school
curriculum curriculum.
Methodologies of teaching recommended Methods used are experimentation,
includes lecture, discussion, debates question exploratory, discovery projects etc.
and answer illustration.
Knowledge that, declarative, explanatory. Knowledge how, demonstrative.
Theories, concepts explained, crammed Theories, ideas put in practical usage inform
memorized. of techniques/technical skills.
Teacher centred, banking system of Learner centred, practical oriented.
education.
Deductive/theoretical inductive/practical

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states hypothesis, ideas, concepts Tests hypothesis facts, ideas concepts and
verifies them.
Propositions, statements may be full of Propositions, hypothesis tested, experimented
fallacies needing critical analysis. to produce knowledge that is objective,
verified.
Critical, analytical and rational. Manipulative, synthetic in nature.
Truth is permanent, static, dogmatic, consists Truth is relative, dynamic. Subject to change
of related ideas/concepts. incase of new evidence relativity.
Moral value, faith, cultural, reason oriented. Psychomotor, technical know-how, life skills
Good for teaching morality and religious put in practical, usage in daily life situation.
beliefs.
Advocates rigid discipline and teaching of Discipline, morals learnt by natural
moral values, cultural norms. consequences of one’ s actions advanced by
Jean Jacques Rousseau. No formal discipline
but by natural consequences of our actions
(negative education).
Propositional knowledge is declarative. Procedural, demonstrative practical.

Both Rationalism and Empiricism enhances interactions, dialogue, creativity and cognition in
the learning process.
Pragmatism and Education

According to pragmatism, the truth or meaning of an idea or a proposition lies in its

observable practical consequences rather than anything metaphysical. It can be summarized by the
phrase whatever works, is likely true. Because reality changes whatever works, will also change -
thus, truth must also be changeable and no one can claim to possess any final or ultimate truth.
Pragmatism is the philosophy that encourages individuals to seek out the processes and do things that
work best to help us achieve desirable ends.

Pragmatism is a practical, matter-of-fact way of approaching or assessing situations or of solving

problems. However, one might wonder why people insist on doing things and using processes that do
not work. Several true reasons for this to happened is because the weight of the customs and tradition,
fear and apathy, and the fact that habitual ways of thinking and doing seem to work even though they
have lost use in today’ s world.

Pragmatism as a philosophical movement began in the United States of America in the late 1800s, but
it roots can be traced back to British, European, and the Ancient Greek philosophical traditions. It’ s
a philosophical school of thought that represents the practical mind of the American people.
Charles Pierce Sender was the first to introduce the concept of pragmatism in American
philosophy and the world at large. Other proponents are William James and John Dewey.
One important element of this tradition is the development of world-view with regards to scientific
revolution. The questioning attitudes cultivated by the Enlightenment and the development of a more
naturalistic humanism also have outgrows in this movement. The background of pragmatism can be
found in the works of such people like Francis Bacon and John Locke.

Pragmatism has contributed a lot to the theory and practice of education in terms of aims,
methods of teaching, role of the teacher and the learners’ activities and the issue of

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discipline of learners. Pragmatists believed that knowledge is not merely a record of the past
but a continuous reconstruction of the present directed to solve future problems.

Underlying Principles

 Enhanced social efficiency

 Action oriented philosophy and believed that the idea is through if it works (a
practical situation e.g. adaptation to the environment).
 Ideas are instruments for change or for solving problem.
 Reject authoritarianism in education institutions.
 Create self reliance and make learners practical oriented individuals.
 Believed in cause and effects (events) ideology.

The views of a Pragmatist teacher regarding the:

Aims of education
 Problem solving e.g. use of real life situations
 Social efficiency
 Adaptation to the environment
Teacher’s Role
 A helper
 Guider
 A stage setter
Content of Teaching
 Physical education, hygiene, environment studies, natural sciences (physics, biology,
chemistry, zoology, botany etc).
Learner’s activities
 Learning by doing
 Learners should be creative
 Learners should be cooperative
 Learners should utilize sense experience and reasoning.

Advantages of pragmatism
 Encourages creativity or discovery.
 Encourages democracy
 Creates awareness that teachers must be alert and watchful.
 Enhances education necessary for solving human problems.
Disadvantages
 Democratic education may be wasteful
 There are not systematic objectives for education
 Teachers are given too much responsibility.

Existentialism and Education

Existentialism is mainly a European philosophy that originated before the turn of the
twentieth century, but became popular after World War II (1939 – 45). The seeds of
existentialism may be traced back to an earlier period of the history of philosophy. During the
18th century, reason and nature were given more importance, objectivity was very much

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emphasized and leading to industrial and technological developments and science was given
utmost importance. From the scientific viewpoint, man was also regarded as an object.

Man became a slave to machines in developing industrial society. Against this situation
existentialism emerged as a protest against the society and asserted the supremacy of
individuality of man. The existentialist philosophy is not a creation of any single philosopher.
The existentialist writings scattered in the works of many philosophers, the important ones of
which are: Friedrich Nietzsche, Soren Kierkegaard, Gabriel Marcel, Martin Heidegger, Jean
Paul Sartre, Karl Jaspers, Abbagnamo, Bardyaev and Albert Camus etc. In American
education, such people as Maxine Greene, George Kneeler, and Van Cleve Morris, are well-
known existentialists who stress individualism and personal self-fulfillment.

Basically, existentialists focus primarily on matters such as choice, individuality, subjectivity,

freedom, and the nature of existence itself. The nature of reality for existentialists is
subjective, and lies within the individual. The physical world has no inherent meaning
outside of human existence. Individual choice and individual standards rather than external
standards are central. Existence comes before any definition of what we are and define the
relationship that exist when we make choices.

Individuals should not accept others predetermined philosophical system; rather, they must
take responsibility for deciding who they are. The focus is on freedom, the development of
authentic individuals, as we make meaning of our lives. Existentialism is a twentieth century
philosophy that is concerned with human existence, finding self, and the meaning of life
through free will, choice, and personal responsibility. The belief that people are searching to
find out who and what they are throughout life as they make choices based on their
experiences, beliefs, and outlook without the help of laws, ethnic rules, or traditions.

Existentialism stresses that a person’ s judgment is the determining factor for what is to be
believed rather than by religious or secular world values. Among the major philosophers
identified as existentialists are Soren Kierkegaard and Jean-Paul Sartre. The philosophers
who support this school of thought has made tremendous contribution to philosophy of
education in regard to the aims of education, curriculum, content, discipline of learners, role
of the teacher, learners’ activities, teaching methodology etc.

Basic Principles of Existentialism

The essentialist offers three basic educational principles as follows:
 They recognized the right of an immature student to be the guided by a well-educated,
caring and cultured teacher.
 They proposed that an effective democracy demanded a democratic culture in which
the teachers impart the ideals of the community to each succeeding generation of
learners.
 They called for a specific program of studies that required thoroughness, accuracy,
persistence, and good workmanship on the part of the students.

Underlying Philosophical Basis:

 Existentialist is grounded in a conservative philosophy that accepts the social,
political, and economic structure of American society.

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  It contends that schools should not try to radically reshape the society. Rather,
existentialists argue that schools should transmit the traditional moral values and
intellectual knowledge that make the students as good role models.
 Existentialists believe that teachers should instill such traditional virtues such as
respect for authority, perseverance, fidelity to duty, consideration for others, and
practicality.

The views of an existentialist teacher regarding the aims of education, curriculum, content,
discipline of learners, role of the teacher, learners’ activities, and teaching methodology:

Aims of Education

Existentialists believe that the most important kind of knowledge is about the human
condition and the choices that each person has to make. Accordingly, education is a process
of developing consciousness about the freedom to choose and the meaning of responsibility
for one‘ s choices. They rejected the notion of group norms, authority and established order
(social, political, philosophical, religious, and so on). The existentialists recognize few
standards, customs, traditions, or eternal truths. Existentialism is diametrically opposed to the
ideas of idealism and realism.

The existentialists aimed at total development of personality through education. Education

should aim at the whole man. It should aim at character formation and self – realization. In
the existentialist classroom, subject matter takes second place so as to help the students to
understand and appreciate themselves as unique individuals who accept complete
responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, and actions. The existentialists demand the
education of the whole person, not just the mind and the aims should specifically address the
following issues that:

 Education should make learners realize themselves.

 Education is a means of preparing the student for an occupation.
 Education should put man at the centre of discussion.
 Man is the creator of values, hence values are not fixed.

Curriculum
Existentialists prefer to free learners to choose what to study and also determine what is true
and by what criteria to determine these truths. The curriculum would avoid systematic
knowledge or structured disciplines, and the students would be free to select from many
available learning situations. The learners would choose the knowledge they wish to possess.
The humanities are commonly given tremendous emphasis.

Humanities are explored as a means of providing students with vicarious experiences that
will help unleash their own creativity and self – expression. Existentialists focus on the
actions of historical individuals, each of whom provides possible models for the students’
own behaviour.

While the realists exclusively emphasize science, the existentialists find out that science and
objective education severs our relation with ourselves. Science cannot help in inner
realization and achievement of peace. Hence, there is need to include humanities, ethics and
religion in the curriculum. The classroom should be rich with materials that put emphasis on

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self-expression. The school should be a place in which the teacher and students could pursue
dialogue and discussion about their lives and choices.

Content/subject matter

Existentialist advocate for the teaching of a core set of knowledge common to members of a
culture or society. It strives to instill among students with the "essentials" of academic
knowledge and character development. The foundation of essentialist curriculum is based on
traditional disciplines such as mathematics, natural science, history, foreign language and
literature.

Essentialists emphasized the teaching of vocational courses. In the essentialist system,

students are required to master a set of information and basic techniques for their level before
they are promoted to the next higher level. Basically they emphasized the teaching of the
following content /subject matter:

 Recommend teaching of both arts and science subjects.

 Subjects such as literature, arts, drama, philosophy and science etc
 Subjects most often associate with the development of creativity (Art&music)
be provided.
 Students require mastering of a body of information and basic techniques.
Leading progressively from acquisition of less/simple to more complex skills
and detailed knowledge. Promotion should be based on mastering the required
materials from one level to another.
 The teaching of religion and moral education should allow a person to develop
himself. Religious education gives him an understanding of his existence in
the cosmos. It shows the religious path of self – realization. It enables an
individual to utilizing faith so as to attain self – development.
 Moral education is closely related to religious education. Both develop the
inner self and help in the realization of the moral and religious development of
the learners.

Learner’ s Activities in the Classroom

The essentialist classroom is centered on students being taught about the people, events,
ideas, and institutions. Essentialists hope that when students leave school, they will not only
possess basic knowledge and skills, but they will also have disciplined, practical minds,
capable of applying lessons learned in school to the real world situations.
Essentialist programs are academically rigorous, for both slow and fast learners. Punishment
is deemed necessary for any student whom it was found to have gone astray during the
teaching-learning process. They believe in strict classroom management for two reasons.
i. The students will team up and concentrate better when they are not distracted.
ii. The teacher can teach better with few distractions.
Existentialist emphasize on:
 Learning by doing.
 Learners have freedom and responsibility to choose what to learn.
 Role of the teacher – to guide/role model and stage setter.
 Individual participation/learners should be creative.
 Free interaction among the learners.
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Discipline of learners
 Essentialists emphasizes on strictness.
 If a student does something wrong, he /she should be punished instantly.
 The teacher and learner should choose discipline approach of their own will
 Teacher must not impose discipline on the learners.
 Instead the teacher should ask each student to accept the discipline that one finds
desirable for his or her own intellectual development or class harmony. It calls for
more core requirements, a longer school day, a longer academic year, and more
challenging textbooks so as to keep the learners more engaging and busy rather than
being idle.
Method of instruction
Students should receive instruction in skills such as writing, reading, measurement, and
computers. These are subjects most often associated with the development of creativity such
as Art and Music. The students are required to master a body of information and basic
techniques, gradually moving from less to more complex skills and detailed knowledge.
Only by mastering the required material for their level, the students are promoted to the next
level. Hence, existentialists emphasize the following methods of teaching:
 Sound proven instructional methods as opposed to soft pedagogy.
 Recommend dialogue
 Discussions
 Active participation
 Conversation

Role of a teacher

According to the existentialists the teacher creates an educational situation in which the
student may establish contact with himself, become conscious of it and achieve self –
realization. This requires existential approach in the teacher himself. He should also have an
experience of self – realization so that he may be capable of guiding the students in this
process.

The teacher‘ s role is to help the students to define their own essence by exposing them to
various paths they may take in life and creating an environment in which they may freely
choose their own preferred way. Existentialist methods focus on the individual. Learning is
self-paced, self directed, and includes a great deal of individual contact with the teacher, who
relates to each student openly and honestly. The existentialists maintain that:

 The teachers or the administrators should decide what is most important for the
students to learn, they should put little emphasis on student interests, when they divert
time and attention from the academic curriculum.
 The classrooms should be oriented around the teacher – ideally, serving as an
intellectual and moral role model for the students.
 Teacher focuses heavily on achievement tests scores as a means of evaluating
progress of the learner.
 The teachers should try to integrate moral values and virtues among the students (such
as respect for authority, perseverance, fidelity to duty, consideration for others,
practicality and intellectual knowledge so as to become model citizens).
 Existentialist stresses on child-centred education that gives full freedom to the child.

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  The teacher should help the child to know himself and recognize his being. Freedom
is required for natural development.
 Education should convert imperfection into perfection. Education should be provided
according to the individual‘ s needs and abilities of the child. The relation of the child
to himself should be strengthened by education.

Teaching and Learning

Definition of teaching
 Teaching is an intention to bring about learning.
 Imparting knowledge so as to bring about positive change in behavior.
 Communication of knowledge, skills and attitudes by the teacher to the learner as a
professional activity.

Learning
Just like teaching, learning is defined differently by various scholars. However, we can define
learning simply as having an experience that can be remembered. That is learning is the
process by which we acquire knowledge, form attitudes and develop skills that cannot be
attributed to inherited behavior or physical growth. It is a relatively permanent change in
behavior that comes as a result of practice of activity.

The use of the term ‘ permanent’ excludes behavior that is temporary like drunkenness and
behavior due to illness i.e. madness. The use of the term behavior implies that learning is not
directly observable but manifests itself in one’ s response to issues. The term practice is used
in the definition to exclude change in behavior that is due to maturation, disease or physical
change.

Learning includes acquisition of experience as one interacts with environment (people, places
etc.) some things are learned accidently. For example, we touch a hot object and get burned,
so we learn that hot objects should not be touched with bare hands. Later, the knowledge is
applied in the kitchen, industries etc.

Conditions necessary for learning to occur

 Clear objectives of what is to be learnt.
 Readiness on the part of the learner in terms of intellectual ability and physical,
emotional or social maturation etc.
 Appropriate teaching methods and language.
 Application of full attention to what is being learnt and concentration throughout the
learning process.
 Motivation or encouragement of the learner.
 Participation in learning process by the teacher and the learner.
 Feedback through questioning or testing.
How to tell whether learning has taken place
 Asking questions before and at the end of learning process and if the learners show
improved and positive response the teacher can tell they have learnt something.
 Observing learners’ participation in the learning tasks.
 By asking questions several days later to assess the retention of what was previously
learnt.

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Categories of Learning
Bloom’ s taxonomy of learning offers three categories of learning namely:
 Cognitive domain
 Psychomotor domain
 Effective domain
Cognitive learning involves mental operations or thinking. Psychomotor learning involves
combination of muscles and the brain e.g. writing skills, balancing on a bicycle etc. effective
learning is where an individual develops aspects related to feelings, attitudes, appreciation of
values among others, which in turn influences the individual personality.

Main activities performed by the teacher as:

a. Classroom Instructor (instruction)
 Well prepared in content mastery and methodology – communicate
knowledge, skills and attitudes to the learners.
 Content or the subject to be communicated – must be purposeful and relevant
to the learners.
 Methods of teaching – carefully planned and to take into account the needs of
the learners.
 Needs of the learners should be taken into account during teaching learning
process.

b. Classroom Management
 Well planned teaching – learning processes and activities.
 Implementation of the plans.
 Organize the students and materials so that learning can take place.
 Assigned extra curricular duties e.g. games master, class master etc.
 Responsibilities require the teacher to interact with various individuals and
groups of learners.
 Assessment of the learning outcome is imperative.
c. Guidance and counseling
 Assist the learners to solve problems.
 Collect information about the learner’ s educational opportunities, occupation
and their requirements.
 Record and interpret information collected.
 Use information for placement and follow up activities.
 Assist learners develop good moral behavior.

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN EDUCATION

The following themes have been suggested to be included in this book
 Democracy and Education
 Human Rights and Education
 HIV/AIDS and Education
 Indiscipline and Education
Democracy and Education
Democracy is a process of self-government in which individuals operate upon their
environment directly and indirectly. Directly, as they make decisions for themselves, pursue
careers, enter into relationships with others, and otherwise live their lives and indirectly
through political representatives accountable for them. The system of government makes
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possible centralized decision making and rule-setting in matters that affect all citizens (the
responsibility that accompanies all freedoms), and decentralized decision making and rule-
setting in those best addressed on the local level (Lakoff, 1996:32).

It is a way of life. It can also be the degree to which individuals associate and choose
education programmes and careers. Democracy is the best basis for social organization
because the logic of democracy denies that absolute truth can be known with certainty, and
therefore allows for diversity, tolerance, openness to change and recognition of error.
Democracy maximizes the opportunities for self-determination, for persons to live under laws
of their own choosing. It facilitates moral autonomy, the ability of each individual citizen to
make normative choices and thus to be, at the most profound level, self-governing (Diamond,
1999, p.3).

As educated persons, students should possess not only communication skills (the abilities to
speak, listen, read, write, and view effectively), affective skills (the abilities to acknowledge
and understand emotions and their relationship to action, knowledge, and values), but also
skills for living in a democracy. These would include tolerance, critical thinking and decision
making, thinking together and making meaning, power sharing and empowerment, individual
responsibility and civil involvement with others. These elements of democracy will prepare
students to lead productive lives consistent with the tenets of a democratic society.

The future of democracy depends on our ability to deal with complex social problems and
this ability can be achieved while thinking together and making meaning to create a shared
perception of events that help us all get more of what we want in a situation when what we
want is good for all of us. This means sharing the mutual tasks for the orderliness and welfare
of the groups as well as for personal interdependence. Since democracy envisions a dynamic
society in which the individuals play a deciding role in its governance, critical thinking and
decision-making are two important characteristics of the members of a democratic society.

The future of democracy depends on our success in getting along. Sometimes people draw
bold lines between those they consider to be like themselves and those they view as different.
People (especially young people) should be helped both to affirm their own individual and
group identities and to respect and appreciate the identities of others. If people are brought
face-to-face with the negative consequences of prejudice and hate, they will be challenged to
examine their own lives. To understand how this might happen, we first need to understand
tolerance. To become tolerant, one can follow a number of steps:

 Learn about the background of another individual by asking that individual to tell
his/her story
 Listen without making judgments
 Ask questions to be sure of an accurate understanding, to compare one's belief system
to the other individual's belief system
 Identify similarities and differences between the two belief systems
 Evaluate the differences
 Determine through advocacy and inquiry if one belief or the other is open to change
 Test the legality and ethics of both positions. If both positions are legal and ethical
and neither position is open to change, both persons can decide to be tolerant of one
another (Fisher & Brown, 1988).

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Critical thinking is widely agreed to be an important goal of education. It is closely associated
with goals such as rationality, autonomy, and perhaps, creativity and intelligence. People who
think critically proceed on the basis of careful evaluation of the premises and evidence and
come to conclusions as objectively as possible by considering all pertinent factors and using
valid logical procedures (Good, 1973).

Siegel (as cited in Husen & Postlethwaite, 1994, pp. 1206-1207) proposed a justification of
critical thinking in education in the following terms:

a. The ideal of respect for others requires respect for a student’ s right to question, to
seek reasons, explanations, and justification.
b. Critical thinking is necessary to develop a student’ s independent judgment required
for self-sufficiency in adulthood.
c. Critical thinking fosters in students these previously stated (a. and b.) dispositions,
attitudes, and skills.
d. Critical thinking is central to the kind of intelligent judgment required by citizens in a
democracy.

While thinking critically, sometimes we face common problems that get in the way when we
try to tell ourselves the truth about the things we are doing and the decisions we are making.
Callahan (1998) identified the following issues that we need to avoid in critical thinking:

 Overgeneralization (or going too far) may occur when we go beyond the “ truth” of a
situation, when we wrongly assume that a small sample is representative of the whole
population.
 Getting personal describes a situation in which we stop thinking about the issue and
attack the person who is presenting the idea. This means that we try to win an
argument but instead of focusing on the issue, we ignore it and we attack the other
person by saying nasty things to/about him.
 “You’ re another” is a tactic that it is often used from a defensive position: instead
of dealing with the issue, we switch the topic to the other’ s weaknesses. As opposed
to listening to the criticism and using it to improve our own thinking we attack the
person presenting it.
 Cause and effect are sometimes confused and people assume that because one thing
occurred after another, the first caused the second.
 Making false comparisons, or saying that two things are alike when they are more
different then similar is a tactic that occurs for the sake of expediency or because we
are thinking of very limited aspects of the objects or situations under consideration.
While these false analogies may help in the short run, they may cause a variety of
problems if we consistently try to force their application.
 Experts can be wrong. This is to say that just because a person is an expert in an area
he or she is not an expert in all areas. Additionally, just because they are experts does
not mean that they are always correct regarding every statement they make even in the
area of their expertise.
 Appeal to the crowd, in other words, we say things that a lot of people will agree with
and we use their agreement to support our ideas or positions. This is a way to get
people to believe one thing by linking it to the way lots of people think.

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  Arguing in circles occurs when one uses a conclusion to prove itself. Sometimes we
use what we are doing as the reason for doing it.
 A self-evident truth, or “ everybody knows it” , means that sometimes we think
something is so true that everyone should just believe it, even if it’ s not true. The
idea that some information can be considered as self-evident truth creates the illusion
that a statement is true simply because we say so, when it may or may not be true.
 “It’ s either black or white” - people try to find solutions to complex situations
using ideas that are too simple, they try to avoid seeing the shades of gray that exist
particularly when they are dealing with people who are different from one another. A
situation can rarely be either…or, one must look at both sides and positions of an issue
and reach an agreement, or a common understanding.
 Guilt by association is a situation that occurs when someone makes a link between
two unrelated persons or events and thus creates an association between the two that
may or may not be valid.
Decision making in democracies is a process of reaching agreement in group situations
through discussion, debate, and analysis. Democracy envisions an open and dynamic society
in which individual citizens are privileged to play the deciding role in its governance.
Citizens in a democracy make a host of decisions that affect their own welfare as well as the
welfare of others. Two levels of decision making are involved.

At the first level, citizens must gather necessary information using inquiry skills (observe,
describe, compare, identify, etc.). Then they must decide on the reliability of the information
that they use as evidence to support their positions on complex social problems. From the
competing claims to truth, citizens must decide what to believe. They must learn to
distinguish claims to truth that have validity from those that do not. However, common
problems do occur when using critical thinking (for instance, getting personal, making false
comparisons, saying things everyone will like, arguing in circles, etc.) (Callahan, 1998).
These problems get in the way when we try to tell ourselves the truth about the things we are
doing and the decisions we are making. Citizens need to recognize these problems and be
prepared to deal with them.

At a second level, citizens must decide how to deal with complex social problems: how to
define the problem, what values should be pursued, what public policies should be supported,
what candidates should be elected to office, what actions should be taken with respect to
social concerns (Engle & Ochoa, 1988, p. 61). To do that, citizens should follow a model that
could improve what they think and believe. They can do this by taking the following steps:

 Describing the situation to others

 Checking to see if they have the right information and if there is any bias in their
thinking
 Relating the situation to their personal beliefs
 Using emotions to indicate importance but not as the only basis of behavior
 Differentiating between the problem and the possible solutions
 Thinking individually of different ways to proceed and determining what situations
would influence the limitations of each possible solution
 Thinking collaboratively of different ways to proceed
 Deciding which ways are the best and what should be done next
 Using third party stories and advocating through disclosure
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  Relying on the others’ support of your thinking
 Relating the decision to something that is important to the organization, sharing a
common cause with it
 Thinking individually of different ways to reduce one’ s uncertainty
 Testing the solution to see how it turns out and eventually modifying the solution based
on the results
 Preparing a plan for potential negative consequences and/or unintended positive
consequences

Contribution of the virtues of Democracy to Educational Thought and practice

 Development of individual needs, interests and abilities.
 Learners and teachers exercise tolerance to each other.
 Every individual has an equal chance to participate in the social life/ with others – on
the basis of love, sympathy, helpfulness, liberty and equality.
 Freedom of expression is allowed.
 Allows for exchange of ideas to arrive at consensus.
 Enhances critical examination of fundamental issues and making of fine and sound
judgments.
 Allow creation of new value/discoveries.

Factors that encourage Democracy in the Field of Education

 Suitable learning environment (freedom and adequate facilities)
 Encouragement/motivation - this enhances participation in learning.
 Good political and administrative leadership.
 Abandoning negative cultural beliefs.

Application of Democracy on the Education

Ideas on education in democracy are based on democratic thought. Dewey’ s theory of

education played a major role throughout the first half of the 20th century. Democracy is not
a cult, but a convenient means through which the emancipated energies of men may be
allowed to display themselves in utmost variety. Democracy is best conceived not as a remote
goal, however radiant, but as the pervasive spirit of every present freedom. Responsibility is
of the essence of this freedom.

Duties keep rights from canceling each other out. The test of equal treatment is the taproot of
democracy, whether it is of rights to be shared or of duties to be shouldered. Democratic
education, is a system of education for life in a democracy will rest upon the recognition of
the worth and dignity of the individual. It will be so organized as to provide educational
opportunity in accordance with the abilities and aptitudes of each person.

Through content and methods of instruction it will foster freedom of inquiry, and training in
the ability to analyze critically. It will encourage a wide discussion of factual information
within the competence of students at different stages of their development. These ends cannot
be promoted if the work of the school is limited to prescribed courses of study and to a single
approved textbook in each subject. The success of education in a democracy cannot be
measured in terms of uniformity and standardization. Education should prepare the individual
to become a responsible and cooperating member of society.

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 The ideal of democratic education is to nurture democratic citizens, who, while observing the
principles of democracy, such as the idea of the people, majority rule, and equality of equals,
will respect the rights of others and will fulfill their own responsibility, and upon that basis
will claim their own rights and will make effort to perfect their own personality. The purpose
of democratic education, therefore, is the perfection of character and the nurturing of
responsible members of society. Its image of the ideal person is that of a “ democratic person
of character.”

Challenges facing the ideals of democracy in Kenya’ s field of Education

 Inadequate resources and facilities for each individual to learn at his/her pace e.g.
slow and fast learners must be taken into consideration.
 Rigid rules and regulations in our educational institutions.
 Misunderstanding of certain virtues of democracy can lead learners astray.
 Poor/leadership suppresses practices of democracy in our education institutions.
 Certain aspects of our culture discourage democracy i.e. the belief that certain
programmes are suitable for either men or women.

Study Questions
1. Distinguish between scientific and philosophical methods of research.
2. Discuss the circumstances under which a student undertaking a study in the field of
education would use;
a. Speculative method
b. Critical method
c. Conceptual method
3. Explain the importance of philosophical methods of research to a student of
education.
4. Discuss at least three main functions of a teacher.
5. Define teaching and learning, and state how one would tell whether each one of them
has taken place.
6. Distinguish between cognitive and effective learning.
7. Specify the activities performed by the teacher when carrying out each of the
functions listed below:
a. Classroom instructions
b. Guidance and counseling
c. Classroom management.

CREATIVITY AND EDUCATION

Creativity is a complex term and embraces many aspects. It is a process of interacting with
the organism to bring out desired learning outcome, ability to generate novel ideas
spontaneously, adapting to situations, using the immediate environment for effective
communication.

 Creativity is a mental process whereby an individual produces something uniquely

new to himself.
 Creativity is a capacity, which leads to innovations in various fields of knowledge. It
can be considered a way of life.

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  Creativity is the process of sensing gaps and discovering missing elements, forming
hypotheses or ideas concerning them, testing these hypotheses and communicating
their results.
 Creativity ia a problem-solving activity.
 Creativity is a capacity in persons to produce composition.
 Creativity is the capacity of the individual to avoid the usual routine conventional
way of thinking and doing things and producing a quantity of ideas, which are
original, novel and which are workable.

'Creativity' is:

 A Mental ability consisting of many component abilities.

 A Capacity to do a thing or produce something of a particular nature
 A Subjective experience or process having special characteristics.
The concept of creativity can best be explained clearly with the help of its dimensions such as
Fluency, Originality, Flexibility, Elaboration, Divergent Thinking, Convergent Thinking,
Novelty, Ability to produce greater and total number of ideas, uniqueness, usefulness,
independent in judgment, resourceful, independent in thought and action etc.
To measure Creativity, three dimensions namely, Fluency, Originality, and Flexibility are
taken into account namely:
 ‘ Fluency’ of thinking is an important aspect of creativity, as it deals with fertility of
ideas. It is the ability to produce ideas to fulfill certain requirements in a limited time.
 Originality, another dimension of creativity deals with unusual or uniqueness of
responses, that the person involved, is endowed with.
 'Flexibility'. Flexibility is doing away with stereotyped ways of thinking and striking
out new directions.
Enhancing Creativity in the Classroom
 Question and challenge. Creative pupils are curious, question and challenge, and
don’ t necessarily follow the rules.
 Make connections and see relationships. Creative pupils think laterally and make
associations between things that are not usually connected.
 Envision want might be. They imagine, see possibilities, ask ‘ what if?’ , picture
alternatives, and look at things from different view points.
 Explore ideas and options. Creative pupils play with ideas, try alternatives and fresh
approaches, keep open minds and modify their ideas to achieve creative results
 Reflect critically on ideas, actions and outcomes. They review progress, invite and use
feedback, criticize constructively and make perceptive observations.
To encourage the above is likely to require a change in the way schools are run and the way
teachers teach.

Creative Teaching

Creative teaching may be defined in two ways: firstly, teaching creatively and secondly,
teaching for creativity. Teaching creatively might be described as teachers using imaginative
approaches to make learning more interesting, engaging, exciting and effective. Teaching for
creativity might best be described as using forms of teaching that are intended to develop
students own creative thinking and behaviour. However, it would be fair to say that teaching

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for creativity must involve creative teaching. Teachers cannot develop the creative abilities of
their students if their own creative abilities are undiscovered or suppressed.

Teaching with creativity and teaching for creativity include all the characteristics of good
teaching – including high motivation, high expectations, the ability to communicate and
listen and the ability to interest, engage and inspire. Creative teachers need expertise in their
particular fields but they need more than this. They need techniques that stimulate curiosity
and raise self esteem and confidence. They must recognize when encouragement is needed
and confidence threatened. They must balance structured learning with opportunities for self-
direction; and the management of groups while giving attention to individuals.

Teaching for creativity is not an easy option, but it can be enjoyable and deeply fulfilling. It
can involve more time and planning to generate and develop ideas and to evaluate whether
they have worked. It involves confidence to improvise and take detours, to pick up
unexpected opportunities for learning; to live with uncertainty and to risk admitting that an
idea led nowhere. Creative teachers are always willing to experiment but they recognize the
need to learn from experience. All of this requires more, not less, expertise of teachers.

Creative teachers need confidence in their disciplines and also in themselves. There are many
highly creative teachers in our schools and many schools where creative approaches to
teaching and learning are encouraged. But many schools and teachers do not have access to
the necessary practical support and guidance in developing these approaches Consequently
there are important issues of staff development.

It is important to reduce or eliminate the factors which inhibit the creative activity of teachers
and learners and give priority to those that encourage it. There are, in education,
extraordinarily high levels of prescription in relation to content and teaching methods. There
are huge risks of de-skilling teachers and encouraging conformity and passivity in some.

We have an interesting paradox. We have industry commentators saying that, for a successful
future, we need people who think, are creative and innovative and yet our education systems
seem to be working against this. At a national level government has a responsibility to reduce
these risks and to promote higher levels of teacher autonomy and creativity in teaching and
learning.

Dialogue and Education

Dialogue is derived from two Greek terms dia meaning two and logos which means study. It
is communication between two individuals on equal terms. Dialogic education means
teaching for dialogue as well as teaching through dialogue.

 Dialogical dimension sees education as a process of individualization where each

learner is unique and special, has individual needs, interest and uniqueness that must
be addressed in the teaching and learning.
 Education is seen as interaction, communication and inter-communication a social
process.

Dialogic Teaching involves:

 Questions are carefully framed to encourage reflection and good answers.

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  Answers are not end points but a stimulus for further questions in a long chain of
dialogue.
 The teacher’ s role is to weave contributions into a coherent whole, leading children
to find meaning and helping them think of further questions.

Applying dialogic education in the classroom

Dialogic education means teaching in a way that draws individual into thinking by drawing
them into dialogue. Anything can be taught in a way that frees children to think at the same
time as they learn. Teaching for dialogue, gives focus on the skills and the confidence to
effectively think and learn together with others. This Thinking Together approach developed
several lesson plans and activity ideas for creating a talking and thinking atmosphere in the
classroom. The following ‘ ground rules’ have been found to be effective collaborative
learning, but mainly from our experience in classrooms:
 All relevant information is shared.
 The group seeks to reach agreement.
 The group takes responsibility for decisions.
 Reasons are expected.
 Challenges are acceptable.
 Alternatives are discussed before a decision is taken.
 All in the group are encourage speaking by other group members.
It has been found that effective teachers:
 Reminded learners to use the ground rules for talk once they were established, often
use talking partners and small groups so that questions and ideas are talked over.
 ‘ Modeled’ the kinds of language they wished to hear. For example, teachers used
the whole class sessions to ask ‘ Why?’ and ‘ How?’ questions which
 Provided examples of how can this can help make thinking explicit to others.
 Used questions not just to test learners on specific items of knowledge, but used a
series of related questions to lead the class through a line of reasoning. This ‘ guided
reporting’ is a common feature of classrooms, it means that the teacher elicits a
response from a learner, then asks others to build on this contribution in a way that
helps the entire class to come to a joint understanding of a topic. This way of
provoking discussion through targeted questioning and active listening is a strategy
children can usefully learn and subsequently offer to another when working without
teacher support in a small group.
 Helped learners to recognize and value the language and reasoning skills they are
developing. For example, learners can consider whether using the ground rules is
changing how they talk and work together; and what benefits they perceive

According to Lyn Dawes it gives a useful guidance for dialogic teaching in practice. For
instance, encouraging learners talk can be difficult. Learners may not listen to each other and
while some children may refuse to engage, others may be too aggressive in challenging.
Planning for talk can help overcome these problems.

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Suggestions for improving teaching:
 Using plenary to analyze the talk that has gone on in any activity, asking children to
evaluate its quality and impact.
 Another technique is to have a ‘ dialogue star’ . ‘ Choose a learner who is expected
to make the initial contribution and change every week so each child in class
eventually takes this role’ .
 In preparing activities plan for ‘ Why?’ , ‘ How?’ or ‘ What do you think?’
questions to help start up dialogue.
These principles and guidelines for teaching from the Thinking Together approach are highly
compatible with Alexander’ s Dialogic Teaching approach. Sylvia Wolfe worked with Robin
Alexander and developed a list of strategies through which educationally productive streams
of dialogue appeared to be triggered. These include:
 Asking real questions.
 Pausing to allow children time to think and respond in order to express ideas more
fully.
 Using words such as ‘ perhaps’ and ‘ might’ as invitation to a range of possible
actions.
 Developing a line of argument with one child through a sequence of connected
questions.
 Accepting responses without evaluating them.
 Engineering opportunities for students to participate actively in talk in the classroom.
 Building on learners interests.
 Providing opportunities for children to ask questions and make statements.
According to Wolfe these teaching strategies presuppose the existence of at least
some of the following features of classroom life:
 Teachers have a good knowledge of curriculum content and understanding of the
issues that are likely to confuse children or challenge their thinking.
 Teachers’ questions match the instructional purpose. Some questions will invoke a
range of responses and encourage divergent thinking; others will require only single
word responses. In the chaining of question and answers ideas are developed or
changed.
 Teachers encourage learning talk through activities that require children to respond in
extended utterances. They model language that goes beyond what learners are able to
produce alone.
 Teachers listen and respond to the content of students’ utterances, challenging,
probing and extending their meanings.
 Learners are offered constructive and formative feedback on performance.
 Parties to the dialogues in the classroom are comfortable living with provisionality
and uncertainty.
 Learners can initiate in dialogue and at times the teacher withdraws from the floor.
 Students are sometimes expected to address the whole class in an intelligible and
articulate way and to listen carefully to each other’ s contributions.

Most important learning is creative in that it requires a leap to see things in a new way. It is
hard to understand how this is possible until we see people getting ‘ carried away’ and
‘ drawn out of themselves’ when talking together with others. In dialogues, people often
find themselves saying things that, before the dialogue, they did not yet know that they knew.

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It is in this active response to the voices of others that the experience of understanding
occurs.

This is why dialogic education has to be at the heart of education for understanding. By
teaching learners to engage more effectively in dialogues with others (and with otherness in
general) we are teaching the most general thinking and learning skill of all. So called ‘ higher
order thinking skills’ , skills such as creativity, reasoning, evaluating and reflective self-
monitoring, all appear to originate in, and to be continuously practiced in the context of
meaningful dialogues.

One of the most general and useful ‘ thinking skills’ is the skill of being able to suspend all
worry about identity. Learning to think well is not only about acquiring tools and strategies,
although these may help, it is more centrally about becoming more dialogic, which means
becoming more open and responsive to others and to new ideas, while also being more
comparative, critical and challenging. Becoming more dialogic is also about feeling more at
home living in a space of dialogue where there are always many voices and where there is
never any certainty.

Four types of dialogical encounters in a classroom include:

i. Teacher learner dialogue
 The teacher initiates the dialogue
 Both the teacher and learner are actively involved in the working out solutions
in the classroom educational experiences.
 This interaction reveals a symmetrical power relation in the classroom.
Discourse dialogue.
 It is termed as IRE initiation, response evaluation or IRE initiation Response
feed back.
 The teacher initiates the dialogue; he receives responses from the learner and
evaluates the learning process.
ii. Learner – Learner dialogue
 Learner reasons with each others hares ideas.
 Group work, discussion, debates
 Each assigned a task to contribute to the group.
 Leads to interaction, socialization, relationships, teamwork vital for the
academic success of the class.
iii. Within learner dialogue (student text or learner text dialogue)
 The learner engages with a written assignment, think and works out the
solution.
 It could be a text book or exercise book or a take away assignment.
 He makes correct interpretation of the meaning of the learning experiences.
 The learner becomes more reflective. Analytical, high order thinking.
iv. Within learner dialogue – intra dialogue/reflection and problem solving
 Learners think about answers to provide to a question
 They reflect deliberately on an idea experience thoughtfully in their mind.
 It is inner speech a child reflects on the problem at hand and comes up with
solutions such as tests, exams, CATs etc.

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  This encounter depicts the main purpose of education that is to produce
reflective persons who express their reflection in the empirical order as
problem solvers.
In Dialogical dimension of education, “ both the teacher and the learner teaches and
learns”

 Dialogue is very vital in the learning process. It refers to communications between

individuals on equal terms.
 A human affair, it is interactional and according to Freire, dialogue involves
communication and inter-communication.
 Dialogue comes from Greek terms dia=two and Logos=study.
 In the dialogical dimension of education, teaching and learning is an active and
cooperative adventure.
 It breaks the transmission model i.e. some teacher others learn, in dialogue both the
teacher and the learner teaches and learns as depicted in the four classroom dialogical
encounters namely:
o Teacher- learner dialogue
o Learner – learner dialogue
o Within learner dialogue – student text book.
o Within learner dialogue – reflection and problem solving

Ways a teacher can use the four types of dialogue to enhance participation in class:
a) Effective communication by the teacher where the content, concept is defined,
explained or demonstrated effectively.
b) Conflict resolution mechanism put in place to avert tension in the class and enhance
active participation of learners.
c) Usage of concrete materials, teaching aids to demonstrate, describe, and explain what
is taught-moving from the unknown to unknown.
d) Encourage deliberate thinking which is reflective in nature, and allow them to express
themselves freely.
e) Question and answer, discussion at class level and group discussion to share their
idea.
f) Free expression in form of debates, public speaking, dances, play, drama, imitation,
verse speaking, songs, where all learners participate.
g) Equal treatment all be allowed to share, do group discussions, equality be stressed in
the distribution of tasks.
h) The teacher should cater for learners’ needs, uniqueness, limitations, strengths and
weakness in the schemes and lesson plans.
i) Weak learners be encouraged to speak, share and if erroneous answers are give, the
teacher should assist the learner to know that mistakes are permitted and the best way
to learn.
j) In conclusion, dialogue enables the learners to share, to learn together, to think,
reflect, explore various point of view and express themselves.

Relevance of Paulo Freire Educational Theory and Practice to Education in Kenya

Paulo Freire criticized the traditional model of education that is the cognitive aspect. He
termed it as the banking system of education.

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  The teacher narrates all they know; the learners consume every word without
alteration or questioning.
 Learners perceived as empty vessels to be filled by teacher.
 Education is an act of depositing. The teacher is a depositor and the learner a
depository (Bank)
 Teacher centred type of learning which has a lot of effects e.g. the teacher and learner
are overworked with syllabus coverage, revision exams.
 Paulo Freire proposes a learner centred approach in the teaching and learning process.
 Education is dialogue which involves communication and intercommunication.
 Dialogue or communication brings love, honesty and interrelationships in the teaching
and learning process.
 It is democratic in nature, liberating the learner from chains of life.
 Education is liberation instills critical consciousness, rational critical character.
 Removes oppression of the learners by the teacher.
 Learners become critically aware able to analyse facts, problems.
 Invoking concrete responses hence effective problem solving capacities enhanced.
 Learner centred approach liberates the learner but becomes a form of enablement,
where the learner moves from shadows or chains in life and becomes critical
conscious.
 The learner becomes fully aware of his shortcomings, possibilities and opportunities,
thus becoming creative and self reliant.
 He gets the power to create recreate and utilizes his potentialities to the fullest.

How education as a dialogue enhances communication and intercommunication

According to Paulo Freire in his book “ Education for Critical Consciousness, arguably
noted that education as dialogue involves communication and intercommunication, that is the
teacher and the learners are actively involved in the teaching and learning process. Education
as dialogue is interactional in nature; learning becomes a relationship of people relating to
each other. Both the teacher and the learner teach and learn.

Education as dialogue is communication and intercommunication as expounded in the four

dialogical contexts in the classroom set up namely:

 Teacher-learner dialogue
 Between learner dialogue
 Within learner text book dialogue
 Within learner dialogue-reflection and problem solving.
Teacher- learner dialogue
 Focuses on the teacher/class interaction. The teacher initiates the conversation, learner
responds, the teacher evaluates the lesson taught or the learning process. It is teacher
centred approach.
 IRE – Initiation Response Evaluation
 IRF- Initiation Response Feed back.
Between Learner dialogue – learner/learner dialogue

 Learners reason with each other hence its emphasis is centrally learner centred
approach depicting maximum learner participation.
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  Group work, discussion, projects, debates.
 Focuses on collaboration between learners among learners.
 Enhances discovery expression and exploration of new knowledge.

Within learner-text dialogue

 Student inner speech and inner voice is imperative. It focuses on learner-centred

approach.
 Student inner speech, internal encounter.
 Learner engages with a written assignment, tests thinks and works out a solution.
 Learner makes correct interpretation of the learning experience.
 Become more analytical higher order thinking.
 Learner questions and reasons out internally and attempts to think and work out
solutions.
Usefulness of Paulo Freire’ s dialogical education in addressing problems of banking
education in Kenya today.

 Paulo Freire in his book “ Education for Critical consciousness” , sees education as
dialogue which involves communication and inter-communication.
 Dialogue is the only way to solve the problems facing mankind, it involves the
expression of our being.
 According to Freire, Dialogue unfreezes the role of the teach and the learner. It breaks
the transmission model i.e. some teach, others listen, some knows, others don’ t,
some transmit others listen.
 It assumes that both teacher and the learner teaches and learn.
 Dialogue is communication between the two parties on equal terms.
 In the classroom situation there are four types of dialogical encounters in the teaching
learning process:
o Teacher-learner dialogue
o Learner-learner dialogue
o Within learner dialogue – student and text book.
o Within learner dialogue (Reflection and problem solving)
 Paulo Freire recommends radical shift from teacher-centred approach which put a lot
of stress on cognitive aspect.
 He terms this as the banking system of education.
 The banking system of education perceives learners as empty vessels to be filled by
teachers.
 Learning becomes an act of depositing, banking the content to the learner (bank) by
the teacher who is a banker.
 Banking system of education dehumanizes the learner, stifles critical consciousness
and creativity.
 Banking system of education has amny problems that only dialogical education can
solve.
Problems of Banking System of Education in Kenya
1. Normative, creative and dialogical dimension of education ignored cognitive
dimension over emphasized.
2. Teachers/learners overworked with exams, cats, drilling, finishing the syllabuses.
3. Passing of exams to get good grades, certificates, diplomas, and degrees.
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 4. Product of the Kenyan education system prefers white collar jobs, than manual work
and self employment.
5. This leads to rural-urban migration, crowding in towns as people come there to look
for white collar jobs.
6. Commercialization of education.
7. High school drop outs repetition, low retention rate.
8. Enhances competition, social class stratification in society.
9. Little emphasis given on life skills, psychomotor and manipulate skills necessary for
self reliance and survival in society.
Dialogical dimensions solve the above problems in the following ways:
1. Establishment of relationships, peaceful co-existence and economic growth becomes
possible where dialogue not violence is used to solve problems. Conflict.
2. Dialogue leads to critical consciousness, critical analysis, concrete answers.
3. Concepts such as equality and justice becomes possible where dialogue prevails.
4. Individual uniqueness, talents, problems are catered for.
5. Dialogue sees society as people relating to each other on equal terms and not objects
to be silenced, oppressed and crushed.
6. Leads to liberation of the individual from all kinds of chains, entanglements that may
hinder him from exploiting his potentials to the fullest.
7. Dialogue is a panacea to all selected ills, it promotes peace, reconciliation, exchange
of ideas. It is a solution to individual and societal ills. Enable the community address
emerging issues and transforms their society.

Value of Technical Philosophy as used by Teachers to improve Critical Thinking in a

School Environment.
i) Analysis of every idea, content, problem, situation issues to arrive at a coherent
conclusion.
ii) Speculation: Termed as metaphysical method. It helps us to answer the ‘ why
question’ . It stretches our minds, mental capacities to think beyond the ordinary
realms to get solutions to our problems.
iii) Rational reflection: Imaginativeness, critical assessment of whatever is studied be it in
class, by examining what the learner already knows to get objective knowledge.
iv) Pragmatic: Using our ideas to solve problems, creativity and innovativeness,
usefulness, our knowledge environment for survival in the society.
v) Moral apprehensiveness moral reasoning: Looking at issues, people, events, situation
deeply, to reflect before any decision or act.
vi) Existential approach: The learner actively participates, interacts with others, the
environment, his experiences and thinks critically.
Implications of an educational system which has its central focus on learners’ academic
performance and certification.

 Education is defined as the transmission of skills, knowledge, values, attitudes and

understanding and the methods used to transmit what is worthwhile.
 Education is a form of liberation, transformative in nature, liberates the person and the
society from chains, enslavement and shadows of life.
 Gives him the power to be self reliant, and according to Nyerere, one becomes a
creator not a creature. Become human and humane, develops a critical consciousness
said Paulo Freire.
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  There are four dimensions of education according to Njoroge and Bennars. That is
cognitive, Normative, Creative and Dialogical dimensions.
 The dimensions that focuses its main agenda on learner’ s academic performances
and certification is the cognitive dimension of education.
 The main concern of the cognitive dimension of educationis content, coverage, testing
the learner, certificates be it diplomas, degrees etc.
 The Kenyan system of education is heavily cognitive. Education is equated to
schooling and great emphasis placed on three elements that are operative, namely the
teacher, the learner and the content.
 Academic competencies and performance are ascertained through examinations,
evaluation, where those wh pass are awarded either certificates, diplomas and degrees.
 The learning process is clearly determined by the curriculum, with clearly stated
objectives, has an entry point and exit point, and each stage e.g. std eight, form four,
such as KCPE and KCSE.
 This type of education has merits and demerits.
Merits

 At every stage of education is marked by examinations from nursery, primary,

secondary school upto University.
 Learner’ s abilities are enhanced by evaluation, standardization to ascertain a to
whether they have the relevant skills and knowledge for job placement.
 It promotes recall, memory of the content, learned equipping the learner with
knowledge that skills to tackle life challenges.
 Teacher able to assess his teaching capabilities, to foster better teaching-learning
methodologies, teaching resources.
 A tool for promotion to the next level based on the learner’ s academic performance.
 A sense of self fulfillment, actualization, individuation and self esteem achieved
through good academic performances.
 Academic performances gives the learner, the career to choose in life e.g. medicine,
law etc.
 It creates uniformity, universality of knowledge e.g. sane curriculum, programmes,
and common examinations nationwide.
 Assessment, cats, tests, examinations enhances easy administration of standards-this
leads to stiff competition.

Demerits

 Paulo Freire, an educator from Brazil South America, terms education system that
focuses on exams and certification as banking system of education. It stressed on
memorization, cramming and recall.
 The learners are banks, depositories; the teachers are bankers or depositors.
 Teaching and learning is teacher centred. He knows everything, the learner knows
nothing. He is a passive receipt of the content from the teacher.
 The learner reproduces the crammed content during tests and examination.
 According to Paulo Freire, modern education suffers from ‘ verbal diarrhea’ .
Education emphasizes having certificates rather than being morally sober.
 To pass exams, some learner’ s even teachers may resort to exam irregularities,
cancellation and dehumanization of the learner.
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  Over emphasis of certificates and performance, does not cater for learner’ s needs,
talents and uniqueness, limitations, individual differences.
 Results in the cut-throat. Competition in the class, schools, regions and nationwide
hindering national unity. Cohesion and mutual co-existence e.g. recently when St.
Anthony Boys Kitale, an extra county boy school passed highly than St. Joseph Kitale
Boys a national school, the latter pelted St. Anthony boys with stones cutting short
their lives celebration parade Kitale town this year.
 Good certificates leads job placement, white collar jobs, learners are marketable
commodities, manual work and self employment is shunned by man, Kenyan
graduates and school leavers.
 Those with good certificates migrate to towns, urban areas to seek for jobs crowding
urban centres, straining the infrastructure, jobless youth resort to drugs, alcohol and
crime.
 Good certificates, good jobs may not always translate to a happy good life, and
meaningful development of the nation.
 The moral aspect, the creative and dialogical aspects of education are downgraded, it
leads to production of academic giants who are morally empty and corrupt turning the
society into a moral garbage (rotten society) e.g. the standard and the Nairobian
newspaper of 26th March, 2015 depicts a corrupt society from the family, the church
and the society at large.
 Teachers are overworked, underpaid, and dehumanized, learners are over worked,
stressed with Cats and homework, revision and exams, not time to play or even
effective socialization.
 Education is quantitative not qualitative.

Need to change from teacher centred to learner centred approach of teaching.

It is important to note that teacher centred approach manifests the following traits:
o Teacher knows everything learners know nothing.
o Learners are banks; teachers are bankers, depositors, and the owner of
knowledge.
o Education is quantitative not qualitative.
o This kind of education is suppressive, does not cater for individual differences
or uniqueness.
o Cognitive oriented, the stress is passing exams, certification.
o Teacher/learner overworked.
o It ignores the normative creative and dialogical dimensions of education.

Teacher centre approach must embrace dialogue and shift to learner approach in the
following ways:
 Learners needs uniqueness, limitations and capabilities be catered for in the teaching
and learning process.
 Creativity in the teaching and learning be enhanced. Education becomes growth and
development of all the capacities.
 Change of methodologies of teaching learning from lecture method, recall rote
learning to practical, projects, experimentation that targets the learners individuality,
uniqueness and potentials.
 Both the teacher and the learner can be involved in the teaching and learning.

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  Thus dialogue be enhanced. And according to Brian Wren, dialogue unfreezes the role
of the teacher. It breaks the transmission model i.e. some tech, others learn, some
know, others don’ t. in dialogue both the teacher and learners teachers and learn.
 Education moves from being theoretical to practical.
 Knowledge becomes learner centred, an empowerment to make man “ human,
humane, a creator not a creature” said Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.
 This type of knowledge not only empowers the learner, but liberates hom from chains
and entanglements, enhances critical consciousness.
 The teacher becomes democratic, a stage setter and protector of the child.
 Learner-centred approach advocate is Jean Jacques Rousseau who advocates return to
nature, nature is the best teacher. The child is given freedom to explore, learn and
experiment with nature.
Fredrick Froebel (1782-1852)

 Fredrick August Froebel born in 1782, S.Germany, a writer, a great thinker and
teacher.
 The teacher of kindergarten, nursery schools. He built them in Germany and
Switzerland.
 His ideas have greatly influence early childhood education world wide.
 He write many books to expound his philosophy mainly Education of Man among
others.
 His educational philosophy still very relevant today. It includes the following:
o Creativeness of childhood, child is creative rather than receptive by nature and
self activity is one of the best way a child can learn.
o Play very essential factor in the growth.
o The teacher is a gardener, who carefully nurses and protects the child to secure
their development and growth.
o Schools are children’ s garden they must be conducive for the child to be
creative.
o Pre-school education or kindergarten is very important for the children. Since
the early experience of childhood is very vital for the future development of a
child’ s personality.
o Methods of teaching advocated to enhance creativity includes songs, plays,
gestures, construction, observation, exploration and demonstration.
o Concrete objects be given to the learner to make maximum usage of his senses
and learn practically.
o Sense training valued, and today audio visual teaching aids, pictures, concrete
objects, form an integral part of teaching hence creativity.
o Teachers must love their work and the children they teach. Froebel invites
teachers to live for the children they teach, make schools happy places not jails
or prisons.
o Therefore, teachers ought to be committed, kind, loving and protective and
must study the nature of the child, to assist the learner become creative.
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1812-1887)

 Jean Jacques Rousseau was born in 1712 AD, a French man, political thinker, an
educator and a philosopher, whose ideas continue to influence modern education
theory and practice.

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  He wrote many books such as The Social Contract on politics, Emile and Sophy and
education, was also a critic to the encyclopedia.
 His philosophy is naturalism, return to the state of nature, to cure the world of its
chaos and miseries.
 Despite Rousseau restless and erratic behavior, he contributed a lot to education,
philosophy and politics.
 His educational philosophy stresses on creativity. His philosophical ideas includes the
following:
o Father of child centred education: progressivism, the needs, the nature,
capacities of the children be taken care to enhance creativity.
o Sources of education according to Rousseau includes education of nature,
education given by men and from natural circumstances.
o Nature is best teacher said Rousseau.
o The child/s nature is basically good, creative, innovative and innocent. It is the
society culture, practices that ruins the nature of the child “ Everything is good
as it comes from the hands of the author of nature (God) but it degenerates in
the hand of men” .
o Rousseau, a contemporary of David Hume the British Philosopher was mainly
concerned with “ state of nature, natural man and natural civilization that
ensured man’ s creativity and innovativeness became a reality.
o Education should liberate man from chains of life, hindrances, roadblocks that
hindered man’ s creativity and exploitation of his potentialities. Hence
Rousseau held that “ civilized man, though born free is everywhere in chains.
Leave him alone” .
o A child be allowed to be a child not a miniature adult. To be given maximum
to grow naturally.
o No place for books, formal lessons and schooling, these hindered creativity.
o Therefore a child should be left free to explore, experiment with the
environment and lean.
o Formal lessons are easily forgotten, it is man making education. Nature being
the best teacher.
o Education for sense training and he recommended the best methods for
creativity in the teaching and learning, includes observation, discovery,
exploration, experimentation, natural consequences, learning by doing,
inductive, demonstrative.
o The teacher is a stage setter, observer and should study the learner’ s nature,
talents.
o Maximum freedom of the child in the learning process, his talents should not
be hindered.
o The education for by (Emile) is practical, sophy (the girl) too ought to get
practical education to make her a good wife, obedient and loyal to the
husband.
o Subjects such as religion, morality, music, needlework, domestic chores,
dancing are the best subjects for the girl child to enhance creativity, morals
and production of an obedient wife.
o Practical education for the girl, will enable women fulfill their duties towards
man, “ to train him in childhood (mother) to tend to him in womanhood and to
counsel him throughout life (wife).
Relevance of Jean Jacques Rouseau’ s naturalism in Kenya
89
 Jean Jacques Rousseau born, lived between 1712-1778. A French-Swiss Philosopher,
educator and political thinker.
 Had a miserable childhood, los this mother at birth, raised by relatives, found solace
in the natural environment.
 Considered to be father of child centred education and an advocate of naturalism.
 In his books, Emile and Sophy outlined the education for the boy and girl.
 He advocated return to nature to cure the world of its evil.
 Nature is the best teacher (Naturalism)
 Sources of education according to Rousseau include education of nature, education
given by men and education from circumstances.
 No place for book learning, the child to be given freedom to explore the natural
environment and learn.
 Advocate of the child centred education.
 The role of the teacher is that of a stage setter, protector.
 Child’ s natural instincts, impulses should not be hindered or blocked
 Rousseau advocates for a conducive, natural environment for teaching and learning.
 No imposing of morals nor discipline. It is negative education, discipline by natural
circumstances.
 Concrete materials, objects be provided for learners to explore, play with manipulate
and learn.
 Education should liberate man from chains or obstacles, limitations that hinder him
from actualizing his potentials to the fulles.
 Rousseau a contemporary of David Hume was mainly concerned with “ the state of
nature, natural man and natural civilization. This can be summed up in the opening
sentence of his book Emile.
“ Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the author of nature, but it
degenerates in the hands of man.”
 Physical facilitates such as schools, laboratory, natural environment be put in place
for the child to learn naturally.
 Provision of conducive environment for teaching and learning.
 Practical, experimentation, discovery projects, is the best methods for
teaching/learning for maximum usage of the learner’ s senses.
 Approaches such as tuition, drilling hinders the child’ s natural capabilities, over
works him with book work binding his natural impulses, freedom be abolished
completely in our education system.
 Child should be allowed to be children not miniature adults, the Kenyan Child is an
overworked person with academics, no time to play or explore due to rigid
curriculum, teachers strikes etc.
 The children’ s needs, problems, talents and uniqueness be catered for in our
education system.
 Teacher-centred approach be gradual be replaced by child-centred approach.
 Kenya has abolished corporal punishment in schools, but it stills persist. It should be
replaced with mentoring, guidance and counseling, moral education.
 Education should be a life long process to satisfy the needs of the child at every stage
(wholistic in nature).
 Maximum freedom given to the learner, dialogue is enhanced in the teaching and
learning process.

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  Education for creativity, exploitation of the learners’ potentials to survive in society
to become self reliant.
 Teachers should refrain from using abstract objects, must use concrete objects, relia
for teaching/learning.
 Rousseau was gender biased in favour of the boy education – Emile, while Sophy the
girl was to be trained to be a good wife, mother, loyal and obedient to her husband.
Kenyan teachers should be gender sensitive as per the constitutions the needs of the
boy and girl child be catered for.
 Our education system should liberate us from all kinds of chains such as ignorance,
hatred, poverty, crime, disunity, hate speech, clannism, tribalism and retrogressive
cultural practices.

Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere

 Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere philosophical ideas offer a comprehensive blend
of both creative and dialogical dimensions.
 Nyerere was born in 1922, Musoma on the shores of Lake Victoria, Tanganyka
colony.
 He was educated at Makerere College Uganda, and became a teacher hence the term
mwalimu.
 Got his masters at Edinburg University Scotland. He was a teacher, philosopher and
political thinker. First president of Tanzania (Tanganyika, Pemba, Zanzibar).
 Nyerere sees education as growth, creativity, self reliance, unit and development.
 Education must produce a lasting positive change, effect in the life of the learner and
the society at large.
 According to Nyerere, education must serve the common good and foster the social
goals of living and working together.
 Also developed a sense of commitment to the society, to be educated, one ought to
learn how to become a person.
 One must realize his powers, potentials and even limitations. So that education turns
him into a creator not a creature.
 Education makes man aware of his powers, potentials, limitations and the powers to
tackle, use circumstances.
 A true education leads to utilization of knowledge skills to be creative, it should not
turn human beings into marketable commodities but creative persons.
 Nyerere saw education for self reliance as a tool to enhance creativity in the learners,
education then is a preparation for life.
 Education should liberate man from chains and entanglement of life, enable him to
think critically, understand his powers and limitations and develop a sense of
responsibility.
 Education should make one human and humane, make one not only creative but a
better person.
 Education should give the skills knowledge attitude to the learner to enable him use
them to exploit his potentials and for his survival in the society.

Relevance of Mwalimu Nyerere’ s Self reliance theory of education in the realization of

national development

 Mwalimu Julius Nyerere was born in Tanganyika modern day in Tanzania in 1922.
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  Schooled at Makerer College, Uganda, got his Masters degree at Edinburg Scotland.
He became a teacher, hence the title Mwalimu.
 Entered politics, became the first President of Tanzania and introduced Ujamaa
philosophy and the theory of self reliance.
 He wrote very many books e.g. education for self reliance among others.
 His major philosophical ideas centred around self reliance, brotherhoodness and
creativity.
 Self reliance theory was introduced in Tanzania to address problems of the colonial
education system that manifested the following features:
o Elite type of education for white collar jobs.
o Education divorced its participants from society.
o Schooling, the stress to pass exams acquire certificates was the type of
education given.
o Students not productive or self reliant.
 So Mwalimu Nyerere redefined education as that which instills skills, knowledge,
attitude to the learner to them self reliance, creators not creatures.
 Education stressed the cooperative endevour not individual and prepare the youth
people for duty in society.
 Various changes were undertaken to implement education for self reliance in
Tanzania such as:
o Exams down graded, skills valued.
o School education became community based.
o Productive work became an integral part of the school curriculum e.g. school
farms, workshops.
o All youths had to attend National Youth service to enhance national unity and
self reliance.
o Everyone with an education had to work.
o Entry age to primary school changed from 5 to 7 years, so that the young
people are mature by the time they leave schools.
o Each stage or level of education became complete in itself and not preparation
to another stage e.g. primary school graduates could go to college.
Self reliance theory advanced by Mwalimu Nyerere is valid for the realization of nation
development
1. Education system should not only prepare learners for white collar jobs, but give the
individual skills for economic autonomy.
2. Self reliance would solve the problem of idle youth, crime and unemployment of
university graduates.
3. Knowledge obtained in school is not just for passing exams but for survival, to
address individual and social problems and societal problems.
4. Self reliance should prepare the young people for duty, manual work, productivity and
self employment.
5. Liberation from the culture of free things, greedy, poverty, make learners creators not
creatures.
6. Education became not only a tool of teaching self reliance, but brotherhoodness and
instill a sense of national unity every essential in national development.
7. Learners to use their skills, knowledge to survive in society, it becomes
transformative, utilization of the individual’ s potential to the fullest.

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 8. Community based education would solve economic problems in rural areas making
the country more productive and economically stable.
9. Self reliance means creativity, utilization of natural resources to meet the country’ s
economic needs, liberating Kenya from poverty, social ills and making its people
human, humane and more united.
Study Questions
1. Explain the philosophical principles underpinning African indigenous education
2. Identify and explain the philosophical methods you would use in addressing problems
of :
a) Truancy among students
b) School strikes
3. Discuss the contributions of the following scholars to the study of philosophy of
education:
a) Plato
b) Socrates
c) John Locke
d) John Dewey
4. What are aims of education? Propose some aims of education for Kenya. Justify your
proposals
5. Propose and explain a philosophy of education for Kenya
6. Explain the role of and the challenges facing a Kenyan teacher as a “ care giver”
7. Discuss the role of education in producing morally upright citizens
8. There have been calls to scrap the 8-4-4 system of education. Are the calls justified?
Explain
9. Explain why it is important for a practicing teacher to be aware of the conditions of
knowledge
10. ‘ An education that liberates should aim at developing critical consciousness in the
learners’ . Discuss this statement and explain the various ways in which the Kenyan
school system promotes/hinders the development of critical consciousness among
learners.
11. Education is a human right. Discuss
12. Discuss the role of education in the achievement of MDGs.
13. How can education help in producing a working citizenry?
14. Discuss the role of education in curbing the spreading of HIV/AIDs.
15. The teaching profession has lost its past glory. Discuss

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Prof.T.K. Ronoh
Course Lecturer

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