Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A. (Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D.
Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India
Mrs Sudha Rani Maheshwari, M.Sc (Zoology), B.Ed.
Former Principal,A.K.P.I.College, Roorkee, India
“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” -William A. Ward
Teachers hold in their hands the success of any country and the wellbeing of its citizens; they are the critical guardians of the intellectual life of the nation. Teachers are one of the main pillars of a sound and progressive society; they bear the weight and responsibility of teaching, and, apart from parents, are the main source of knowledge and values for children. A good teacher is like a candle, it consumes itself to light the way for others, he affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.
Interdependence of philosophy and education is an essentiality for human development, both represents two side of a coin, both are equally important. PHILOSOPHY DETERMINES THE VIEW OF LIFE WHILE EDUCATION DETERMINES THE WAY OF LIFE. They are so interlocked that without the one the existence of the other is beyond comprehension.
The inter-dependence of philosophy and education is clearly seen from the fact that the great philosophers of all times have also been great educators and their philosophy is reflected in their educational systems.
No teacher however effective in practice can avoid assumptions, conscious or unconscious, as to what it is that he is about. These assumptions, it should be pointed out, are the material of theory, not of practice, and they need both to be examined critically and to be related to other assumptions in the largest context of belief, in order to be adequate as a basis for practice
IDEALISM- THE CONCEPT OF TEACHER
From this very general philosophical position, the Idealist would tend to view the Learner as a microscopic mind, the Teacher as a paradigmatic self, the Curriculum as the subject matter of symbol and idea (emphasizing literature, history, etc.) The educational approach of this philosophy is of a holistic nature. In which self-realization and character development is strongly supported. The idealist feels that with the growth of a fine moral character as well as personal reflection, wisdom is gained. Information across curriculum
Idealists have high expectations of the teacher. The teacher must be excellent, in order to serve as an example for the student, both intellectually and morally. No other single element in the school system is more important than the teacher. The teacher must excel in knowledge and in human insight into the needs and capacities of the learners; and must demonstrate moral excellence in personal conduct and convictions. The teacher must also exercise great creative skill in providing opportunities for the learners’ minds to discover, analyze, unify, synthesize and create applications of knowledge to life and behavior.
The idealist holds the role of the teacher to be that of an important position. The teacher serves as a model for the student by teaching through example and guidance the lifelong habits of patience, tolerance and perseverance towards a goal. It is the teacher’s responsibility to encourage the students and to provide them with materials to encourage them to work to achieve higher goals.
Just as personality is a major factor in the idealist view of the student, it plays a major part in the idealist view of the teacher. The teacher is seen as having perhaps the most important single role in the educative process. The teacher serves as a living ideal or model for the student and represents, to some degree, what the student can become.
The idealist teacher “tries to be the right sort of person himself and to develop the right sort of personality in his pupils. The teacher should be close to the Absolute and should be, in a very real sense, a co-worker with the Absolute in developing the pupil’s capacities and guiding him closer to knowledge of the Ideal. The teacher should be close to the Absolute in developing the pupil’s capacities and guiding closer to knowledge of the Ideal. The teacher should set an example that the student will follow. This is, of course , compatible with the notion that the real world (the world of the senses) is a copy of the Absolute. Thus, the closer we are to come to the Absolute, the more we must model our behavior upon those persons that we know are paradigm cases.
Since idealists believe in character development, they also believe that the teacher should be a role model for students to emulate. Teaching is considered a moral calling. The teacher’s role is to be a skillful questioner who encourages students to think and ask more questions in an environment that is suitable for learning
NATURALISM – THE CONCEPT OF TEACHER
Naturalism is a concept that firmly believes that ultimate reality lies in the nature of the matter. Matter is considered to be supreme and mind is the functioning of the brain that is made up of matter. The whole universe is governed by laws of nature and they are changeable. It’s through our sense that we are able to get the real knowledge. The senses works like real gateways of knowledge and exploration is the method that helps in studying nature. Naturalism is a term loosely applied in educational theory to systems of training that are not dependent on schools and books but on manipulation of the actual life of student. Naturalism is an artistic movement advocating realistic description: in art or literature, a movement or school advocating factual or realistic description of life, including its less pleasant aspects. In literature, the doctrine rejecting spiritual explanations of world: a system of thought that rejects all spiritual and supernatural explanations of the world and holds that science is the sole basis of what can be known. a belief that all religious truth is derived from nature and natural causes, and not from revelation
The teacher’s role is to remain in background. The natural development of child should be stimulated. Since, Nature is considered to be best educator,
According to naturalists the teacher is the observer and facilitator of the child’s development rather than a giver of information, ideas, ideals and will power or a molder of character.In the words of Ross “teacher in a naturalistic set up is only a setter of the stage, a supplier of materials and opportunities, a provider of an ideal environment, a creator of conditions under which natural development takes place. Teacher is only a non-interfering observer”.
For Rousseau, the teacher, first of all, is a person who is completely in tune with nature .He has a profound faith in the original goodness of human nature. He believes that human beings have their own time-table for learning. “Emile organized education according to Emile’s (a boy) stages of development. For each stage of development, the child, shows certain signs that he is ready to learn what is appropriate to that stage. Appreciating the educative role of the natural environment as an educative force the teacher does not interfere with nature, but rather cooperates with the ebb and flow of natural. forces. Significantly, the teacher who is aware of human nature and its stages of growth and development, does not force Emile to learn but rather encourages learning, by insulating him to explore and to grow by his interactions with the environment.
Rousseau opines that teacher should not be in a hurry to make the child learn. Instead he should be patient, permissive and non-intrusive. Demonstrating great patience the teacher can not allow himself to tell the student what the truth is but rather must stand back and encourage the learner’s own self discovery. According to him the teacher is an invisible guide to learning. While ever-present, he is never a taskmaster. Naturalists are of the view that teacher should not be one who stresses books, recitations and massing information in literary form, “rather he should give emphasis on activity, exploration ,learning by doing”.
Great emphasis was placed upon the study which teachers should make of the environmental background of each student, since unacceptable behavior was rooted there rather than in the pupil’s ill will. Teachers were advised to learn of the racial, national, and religious backgrounds of their students if a pupil caused trouble or lacked initiative in school, the home conditions should be studied to see whether a home broken by divorce, death, or marital conflict is responsible for the child’s difficulties. If a teacher were unable to manage a class , he was held responsible because he lacked insight into child nature
PRAGMATISM- THE CONCEPT OF TEACHER
According to William James “Pragmatism in education came into prominence to fulfil an obvious need in the educational thought of America. With education becoming available to all men rather than to a select few, the country was searching for a way of viewing the educational process other than through the framework provided by the older “elitist” philosophies of You see by his what I meant when I called pragmatism a mediator and reconciler……. She has in fact no prejudices whatever, no obstructive dogmas, and no rigid canons of what shall count as proof. She is completely genial. She will entertain any hypothesis, she will consider any evidence. It follows that in the religious field she is at a great advantage over both positivistic empiricism, with its anti-theological bias, and over religious rationalism, with its exclusive interest in the remote, the noble, the simple, and the abstract in the way of conception.
Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.The role of the teacher is important in successfully educating children. The teacher must capture the child’s interest and build on the natural motivation that exists. Teachers need to remember to vary their teaching methods to accommodate each individual learning style. Not all children learn at the same pace or are at the same point; therefore, the teacher must vary his/her style. Dewey believed that knowledge should be organized and relate to current experiences.
The teacher, for the pragmatist, is a member of the learning group who serves in the capacity of helper, guide, and arranger of experiences. He is as involved in the educative process as are this students.
Thus, the pragmatic teacher does not abdicate responsibility. If anything’s just the opposite is true. The teacher is responsible for wiring with the students and helping them develop their own projects. He advises and directs projects and activates that arise out of the felt needs of the students rather than those of the teacher. He must arrange the conditions by, as Dewey indicates, simplifying, purifying, ordering and balancing the environment is such a way as to provide the experiences that will contribute the most to the growth of this students.
REALISM – THE CONCEPT OF TEACHER:
From this very general philosophical position, the Realist would tend to view the Learner as a sense mechanism, the Teacher as a demonstrator, the Curriculum as the subject matter of the physical world (emphasizing mathematics, science, etc.), the Teaching Method as mastering facts and information, and the Social Policy of the school as transmitting the settled knowledge of Western civilization. The realist would favor a school dominated by subjects of the here-and-now world, such as math and science. Students would be taught factual information for mastery. The teacher would impart knowledge of this reality to students or display such reality for observation and study. Classrooms would be highly ordered and disciplined, like nature, and the students would be passive participants in the study of things. Changes in school would be perceived as a natural evolution toward a perfection of order.
For the realist, the world is as it is, and the job of schools would be to teach students about the world. Goodness, for the realist, would be found in the laws of nature and the order of the physical world. Truth would be the simple correspondences of observation.
The teacher, for the realist, is simply a guide. The real world exists, and the teacher is responsible for introducing the student to it. To do this he uses lectures, demonstrations, and sensory experiences, The teacher does not do this in a random or haphazard way; he must not only introduce the student to nature, but show him the regularities, the “rhythm” of nature so that he may come to understand natural law. Both the teacher and the student are spectators, but while the student looks at the world through innocent eyes, the teacher must explain it to him, as well as he is able, from his vantage point of increased sophistication. For this reason, the teacher’s own biases and personality should be as muted as possible. In order to give the student as much accurate information as quickly and effectively as possible, the realist may advocate the use of teaching machines to remove the teacher’s bias from factual presentation. The whole concept to teaching machines is compatible with the picture or reality as a mechanistic universe in which man is simply one of the cogs in the machine.
A teacher should be such that he himself be educated and well versed with the customs of belief and rights and duties of people, and the trends of all ages and places. He must have full mastery of the knowledge of present life. He must guide the student towards the hard realities of life. He is neither pessimist, nor optimist. He must be able to expose children to the problems of life and the world around..
EXISTENTIALISM-THE CONCEPT OF TEACHER
Existentialism is the most individualistic of all modern philosophies. Its overriding concern is with the individual and its primary value is the absolute freedom of the person, who is only what he makes himself to be, and who is the final and exclusive arbiter of the values he freely determines for himself. Great emphasis is placed on art, on literature, and the humanistic studies, for it is in these areas that man finds himself and discovers what values he will seek to attain.
Existentialism represents a protest against the rationalism of traditional philosophy, against misleading notions of the bourgeois culture, and the dehumanizing values of industrial civilization. Since alienation, loneliness and self-estrangement constitute threats to human personality in the modern world, existential thought has viewed as its cardinal concerns a quest for subjective truth, a reaction against the ‘negation of Being’ and a perennial search for freedom.
The teacher’s role is to help students 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. Since feeling is not divorced from reason in decision making, the existentialist demands the education of the whole person, not just the mind.
There are five characteristics of this ideal that are formulated by this existential framework. These include becoming more authentic, more spiritual, having a critical attitude, having a clear sense of personal identity and a developing empathetic awareness towards others.
Teachers are potentially able to offer a very valuable ‘other horizon’ which is able to assess qualitatively the understandings of students. Teachers can be most influential in the educational development of students’ spirituality if, through their interaction, ‘crises’ can be created. Teachers can be the learner’s ‘best enemy’), able to ‘wound’ most provokingly. This is somewhat like playing the ‘devil’s advocate’ in order to test and to clarify the understandings of others.
In order to exercise one’s freedom in an authentic manner it is also necessary that the teacher develop a critical attitude. Having a critical indicates that persons appreciate that they have a certain degree of unquestioned meanings that constitute how they make sense of, and give value and purpose to life. It is recognized that the teacher be necessarily a life-long learner.
The teacher’s characteristic of being ‘open’ to possibilities includes a willingness to allow others to re-evaluate those aspects of one’s understandings that can be articulated. If one chooses to ‘close’ oneself off from the criticisms of others, one is no longer teacher. Having’openness’ in this regard allows one to come to an understanding of self and others.
The teacher should become aware of how s/he relates to the entire curriculum. One is understood to be ‘in’ truth by critically examining and reflecting upon all which one understands. Therefore, the traditionally accepted meanings attached to various issues should be “touched with a hammer” both to ‘sound them out’ and to examine how the learner is attuned to them. Understanding, creating and choosing one’s personal identity – who one is and what one stands for – is a desirable characteristic of a teacher. Personal identity may reference historical, sociological, religious and biological frameworks,
An important characteristic of a teacher is that they have the ability to make judgments with regards to what is worthwhile and valuable in them and in others. This should be demonstrated by an empathetic awareness for others whom they are in-the-world-with
Existentialists do not wish the teacher to be social minded umpire or provider of free social activity or a model personality to be limited, by the students. He must himself be a free personality, engaged in such relations and projects with individual students that they get the idea that they are too are free personalities. He may indirectly influence them about his values but he should impose his cherished values on them, test his values become the code of conduct for the students, who may begin to accept them without thought. Instead of expecting them to imitate he should help them to be ‘original’ and ‘authentic’.
His effort should be that students’ mind should have autonomous functioning so that they become free, charitable and self-moving. The role of teacher is very important because he is the creator of such as educational situation in which the student can establish contact with his self by becoming conscious of his self and can achieve self-realization.
The teacher must build positive relationships between himself and his students. He should avoid applying labels to children (such as ‘lazy’, ‘slow learner’ etc.) for individuals may indeed come to think of themselves this way. The teacher is also changing and growing as he guides the pupil in his discovery of self.
HUMANISM- THE CONCEPT OF TEACHER
Philosophical Humanism is any outlook or way of life centered on human need and interest. Sub-categories of this type include Christian Humanism and Modern Humanism. Modern Humanism, also called Naturalistic Humanism, Scientific Humanism, Ethical Humanism and Democratic Humanism is defined by one of its leading proponents, Corliss Lamont, as “a naturalistic philosophy that rejects all supernaturalism and relies primarily upon reason and science, democracy and human compassion.” Modern Humanism has a dual origin, both secular and religious, and these constitute its sub-categories.
The role of the teacher is important in successfully educating children. Theteacher must capture the child’s interest and build on the natural motivation that exists. Teachers need to remember to vary their teaching methods to accommodate each individual learning style. Not all children learn at the same pace or are at the same point; therefore, the teacher must vary his/her style. knowledge should be organized and relate to current experiences Teacher is a facilitator; helper; partner; promotes, but does not direct learning, sets mood for learning, acts as a flexible resource for learners
There are a variety of ways teachers can implement the humanist view towards education. Some of these include:
Allow the student to have a choice in the selection of tasks and activities whenever possible.Help students learn to set realistic goals.
Have students participate in group work, especially cooperative learning, in order to develop social and affective skills.
Act as a facilitator for group discussions when appropriate.
Be a role model for the attitudes, beliefs and habits you wish to foster. Constantly work on becoming a better person and then share yourself with your students.
Humanistic educators believe that both feelings and knowledge are important to the learning process. Unlike traditional educators, humanistic teachers do not separate the cognitive and affective domains:
PERENNIALISM-THE CONCEPT OF TEACHER
Perennialism philosophy of education is a very conservative and inflexible philosophy of education. Perennialists believe in acquiring understandings about the great ideas of civilization. These ideas have the potential for solving problems in any era. The focus is to teach ideas that are everlasting, to seek enduring truths which are constant, not changing, as the natural and human worlds at their most essential level, do not change. Teaching these unchanging principles is critical. Humans are rational beings, and their minds need to be developed. Thus, cultivation of the intellect is the highest priority in a worthwhile education. The demanding curriculum focuses on attaining cultural literacy, stressing students’ growth in enduring disciplines. The loftiest accomplishments of humankind are emphasized– the great works of literature and art, the laws or principles of science
Perennialists disapprove of teachers requiring students to absorb massive amounts of disconnected information. They recommend that schools spend more time teaching about concepts and explaining they are meaningful to students.
The teacher, to the perennialist, is a mental disciplinarian with highly developed logical skills, capable of teaching logical thinking and the use of reason to his students. The teacher must have the ability to work with the natural tendencies of the students toward reason. He must serve as a benevolent taskmaster, exercising the minds of the students in order to help them develop their rational faculties.
Thus, besides having been trained in logic, the teacher must have the proper spiritual orientation. Nor is this all. Since the teacher is to train the students in reason, memory and will power, he must certainly have these three qualities if he is to help the student on the road to knowledge and the development of his faculties.
Education requires hard work and effort. If the student is interested in the subject, well and good, but if not, s/he still must be required to do the tasks. After all, the student does not know what s/he will need in the future. Motivation is fine, and if the teacher can provide it, well and good, but if not, the student must work at the task regardless
Perennialists believe that reading is to be supplemented with mutual investigations (between the teacher and the student) and minimally-directed discussions through the Socratic method in order to develop a historically oriented understanding of concepts. They argue that accurate, independent reasoning distinguishes the developed or educated mind and they thus stress the development of this faculty. A skilled teacher would keep discussions on topic and correct errors in reasoning, but it would be the class, not the teacher, who would reach the conclusions. While not directing or leading the class to a conclusion, the teacher may work to accurately formulate problems within the scope of the texts being studied, Perennialism, typically considered to be teacher-centere. However, since the teachers associated with perennialism are in a sense the authors of the Western masterpieces themselves, these teachers may be open to student criticism through the associated Socratic method, which, if carried out as true dialogue, is a balance between students, including the teacher promoting the discussion
MARXISM- THE CONCEPT OF TEACHER
The teacher’s role in habit formation is crucial according to Marxist educational theorists. First, the teacher teaches more by example than by precept (especially with younger children). In all his word and actions the teacher must be a perfect example of the ideal Communist so that his pupils will emulate him. The teacher who does not reflect true Soviet recognition of the power of good example, children are expected to attend nursery schools when they are three years old. At this tender age a well-disciplined cadre of Communist teachers can mold the personality of the child to fit the pattern of behavior drawn up by the leaders of the party
ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY- CONCEPT OF TEACHER
The goal of education for an analytic philosopher is making individual aware of the meaning of homeless, of being at home, and of the ways of returning. In the strict sense the teacher is concerned principally with open ended education. Freedom to his students from his isolation and his anonymity, freeing him seeing his situations and powers. So much so that the role of teacher seems similar with psychiatric therapy. No educationist today is more concerned with education in this sense than an Analysis teacher. Every analysis philosopher is a doctor and its missionary… for the purpose of encouraging individuals of all kinds and conditions to understand their situations and themselves. And it is the starting pint of every analysis’s that no other modern philosophy has taken the self i.e. the student and its situation seriously enough to make the saturation the subject matter of its inquiry. All analysis’s star with the individual who chooses his course and who dies in disquietude. And all of them protect against the forces within man and his contemporary situation that discourage him from being at home, or, worse from seeing himself as both mortal and responsible.
According to analysis the teacher shows by his example that education is a concentration on personal freedom-one which encourages the student to accept the facts and beliefs which have relevance for him. Nietzsche for criticizing the role of teacher in relation to traditional method (historic-scholastic method) of teaching of mother tongue:
People deal with it as if it were a dead Language and as if the present and the future were under no obligation to it what so ever. The historical method had become so universal in our time that even the living body of language is sacrificed for the sake of anatomical study…The historical method may certainly be a considerable easier and more comfortable one for the teacher; it also seems to be compatible with a smaller display of energy and will a part. But we shall find that this observation hold good in every department Pedagogical life.
With equal Force Nietzsche criticizes the teaching of German Composition in the Public schools.
Owing to the very fact in this department it is an almost always the most gifted Pupils who display the greatest eagerness, it ought to have been made clear how dangerously stimulating, precisely here, the task of the teacher must be. German composition makes an appeal to the individual and the more strongly a pupil is conscious of his various qualities, the more personally will he do his German composition.
Nietzsche than goes on to tell what the typical teacher in the public school does with the pupil’s first attempt at expressing his individuality in composition.
What does he (The Teacher) hold most reprehensible in this class of work? What does he call pail’s attention to? To all excesses in form or characteristics of the individual…in short, their individuality is reproved a rejected by the teacher in favour of an unoriginal decent average. On the other hand, uniform mediocrity gets peevish Praise.