Philosophical Foundations of Education

• Idealism, as defined by Plato, posits that nothing exists except in the mind of a man, and what we want the world to be.
• Realism, as defined by Aristotle, Herbart, Comenius, Pestalozzi, Montessori, Hobbes, Bacon, and Locke, is the full mastery of knowledge.
• Behaviorism, as defined by Skinner, is always guided by standards or by procedure, with the purpose of modifying the behavior.
• Existentialism, as defined by Kierkegaard and Sartre, focuses on the self or the individual.
• Pragmatism or Experimentalism, as defined by William James and John Dewey, is learning from experiences through interaction to the environment, emphasizing the needs and interests of the children.
• Perennialism, as defined by Robert Hutchins, focuses on unchanging or universal truths.
• Essentialism, as defined by William Bagley, is teaching the basic or essential knowledge, focusing on basic skills and knowledge.
• Progressivism, as defined by Dewey and Pestalozzi, focuses on the process of development, emphasizing the whole child and the cultivation of individuality.
• Constructivism, as defined by Jean Piaget, is focused on how humans make meaning in relation to the interaction between their experiences and their ideas.
• Social Reconstructionism, as defined by George Counts, recognizes that education is the means of preparing people for creating his new social order, highlighting social reform as the aim of education.