Philosophy in the Classroom

A teacher who has read the previous three articles may still ask the practical question: so what? What changes in my Monday morning lesson because I know what metaphysics or epistemology means?

Philosophy meets the classroom in three places. Call them three dimensions of the same problem. Each one points at a real decision a teacher has to make, and each one is improved by thinking philosophically about it.

Dimension 1: the importance of philosophy in education

Philosophy and education are old neighbours. Both deal with teaching, learning, and discovery. The first universities in the ancient world were schools of philosophy. The first formal teachers, from Athens to ancient India, were philosophers. Education did not later add philosophy as a topic; education grew up inside philosophy and only slowly grew its own boundary.

Most of the developments a modern teacher takes for granted came from a philosopher first.

1. The idea that a child has a mind worth taking seriously came from Rousseau.
2. The idea that learning is doing came from Dewey.
3. The idea that children pass through developmental stages came from Piaget.
4. The idea that a prepared environment can teach without a teacher came from Montessori.
5. The idea that schooling is a form of social conditioning came from the critical theorists.

A teacher who reads only methods, never philosophy, ends up using ideas they did not understand. A teacher who reads the philosophy first knows where their methods came from and what those methods assume.

Flashcard

What is the first dimension where philosophy meets education?

Tap to reveal

Answer

The importance of philosophy in education

Both fields share the same activities: teaching, learning, and discovery. Most educational progress (the developmental stages, learning by doing, the prepared environment) came from a philosopher first.

Dimension 2: a value-driven curriculum

A curriculum is a list. It is the list of what a society has decided is most worth knowing. The list is never neutral. Every item on it reflects a value. Every item left off it reflects a different value.

A country whose curriculum centres on its own history values national identity. A country whose curriculum centres on world history values international citizenship. A country whose curriculum centres on religious texts values a religious identity. None of these is automatically right or wrong. Each one carries a philosophy of what knowledge matters and why.

Inside a classroom, the value-driven shape of the curriculum shows up in small choices.

1. Which authors get into the literature course and which do not.
2. Which scientists are named and which are quietly skipped.
3. Which historical events are taught in detail and which are mentioned in a single line.
4. Which languages are taught alongside the national language.

A teacher who has not thought about the values behind the curriculum will teach the curriculum as if it had no values. A teacher who has thought about the values can teach the curriculum honestly, including the bits where a value-judgement has been quietly made for them.

Flashcard

What is the second dimension where philosophy meets education?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Value-driven curriculum

A curriculum is a list of what a society treats as most worth knowing. Every item on it carries a value. Every item left off carries a different value. Curricula are never neutral.

Dimension 3: the teacher’s own methodology

The third place where philosophy shows up is the most personal. It is the teacher’s own way of teaching.

A teacher carries their philosophy in their hands. Two teachers can be given the same syllabus, the same students, and the same forty minutes, and produce two completely different lessons. The difference is rarely talent. It is method. And the method, when followed back, rests on a philosophy.

A teacher whose philosophy says knowledge is transmitted will lecture. A teacher whose philosophy says knowledge is built will run discussions. A teacher whose philosophy says knowledge is discovered will hand students a problem and step back. A teacher whose philosophy says knowledge is performed will set students to roleplay or simulation.

None of these is wrong by default. Each one fits some topics better than others. A teacher who knows their philosophy can choose its strongest fit and use a different method when the topic asks for something else. A teacher who has not named their philosophy uses the same method on every topic and wonders why some lessons land and some do not.

To improve a methodology, then, requires inspecting the philosophy behind it. A teacher who only studies methods is studying surface patterns. A teacher who studies the underlying philosophy can invent their own methods for situations no textbook covers.

Flashcard

What is the third dimension where philosophy meets education?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Teaching methodology

The teacher’s philosophy shapes how knowledge is delivered, not only what is delivered. Two teachers with the same syllabus produce two different lessons because they hold different beliefs about how a student comes to know.

How the three dimensions fit together

The three dimensions answer three different questions:

1. Importance: Why think philosophically at all?
2. Value-driven curriculum: What gets taught and why?
3. Teaching methodology: How does the teacher actually teach it?

Why, what, and how. A teacher who has only worked on the how (their methodology) is shallow. A teacher who has only worked on the what (the curriculum) is bureaucratic. A teacher who has only worked on the why (the importance) is abstract. The three together make a teacher who is both grounded and adaptable.

Flashcard

What three questions do the three dimensions answer?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Why, what, and how

1. Importance of philosophy answers the why.

2. Value-driven curriculum answers the what.

3. Teaching methodology answers the how.