Philosophical Foundations

• Plato


  Proponent of Idealism
• John Locke


  Proponent of Realism
• John Dewey


  influenced the use of learning by doing
• Idealism


  Recalling knowledge and ideas. Education is properly concerned with conceptual matters
• Realism


  Based on natural law
• Pragmatism


  also known as experimentalism, is based on change, process, and relativity
• Charles Pierce and William James


  Developed the principle of pragmatism
• Existentialism


  students are free to choose how and what they study
• Kierkegaard


  Proponent of Existentialism
• Perennialism


  oldest and most conservative educational philosophy and rooted in realism
• Perennialism


  relies on past and traditional values
• Thomas Aquinas


  Proponent of Perennialism
• Essentialism


  Back to basic educational approach
• William Bagley


  Proponent of Essentialism
• Progressivism


  developed from pragmatic philosophy. Focus on interdisciplinary subjects
• John Dewey


  Proponent of Progressivism
• Reconstructionism


  Based on socialistic and utopian ideas. To improve and reconstruct society
• Theodore Brameld


  Proponent of Reconstructionism