What Is Idealism In Education?

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What Is Idealism In Education
Idealism in education is a belief that knowledge comes from within. Originally conceived by Plato, idealism states that the only true reality is the reality within the mind. For teachers, this implies the need to develop children to their true potential and guide their minds so that they are living up to their purpose.
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What is idealism in education example?

Understanding the 4 Main Schools of Philosophy: Principle of Idealism Understanding philosophy is important for educators not only so that they possess an individual philosophy but gain more awareness to the philosophies of their students and administrators.

In this series on the four main schools of philosophies idealism, realism, postmodernism, and pragmatism will be reviewed to assist with understanding the elements of philosophy. This article focuses on idealism. Philosophy has a number of well-defined schools of thought. Philosophical schools of thought have had a profound influence on approaches to teaching and learning, as well as on the progression of human society.

The role of teachers also evolves according to the dominant accepted philosophy of the time. The underlying principle of idealism is that reality is largely an extension of mental processes, which are the true reality. Idealism proposes that ideas are universal and eternal, unlike physical objects, which are subject to the alteration of the forces of nature.

Idealism can be categorized into three main sections: classical, modern, and religious. Classical idealism refers to the set of theories put forward by Socrates and Plato (427–347 BC) in their search for an Absolute Truth. Socrates and Plato questioned the fundamentals of reality, knowledge, and human nature.

From these teachings emerged the Socratic method—the process of gaining knowledge by carefully questioning and then criticizing the answers. Socrates believed that all humanity possessed and was capable of such knowledge. Plato believed his ideas, referred to as forms, were all connected and arranged in a hierarchy, with the greatest of all forms being the Forms of Good.

  • He believed that only the most knowledgeable would reach ultimate truth.
  • Religious idealism theorizes that there are two separate worlds: the worlds of God and humanity. St.
  • Augustine (AD 354–430) was a religious idealist who speculated that God created knowledge and that we must uncover this unchanging truth.

Throughout the history of the United States, the religious idealism of Christianity has been the most influential on education, although idealism from other religions is a strong part of education worldwide. Modern idealism is hypothesized by both René Descartes (1596–1650) and George Berkley (1685–1753).

  • Modern idealists also believed in two worlds: a material world and a world of the mind.
  • Modern idealists questioned existence, God, and perception, most famously in Descartes’ declaration: “I think, therefore I am.” Modern idealist educators consider their students to be rational, thinking beings who are capable of seeking and understanding the truth.

They generally believe in going beyond the mere development of the mind and seek to bring about an overall character development in their students. These idealist educators act as moral and mental role models for their students and encourage them to achieve ideas of the highest quality possible by learning from the wisdom of great thinkers of the past.

The approach to teaching is generally governed by the concept of viewing the world as the sum of many parts, with the core skill required being to generate and analyze ideas to gain an understanding of the whole. Idealist educators highly value self-directed activity, engaging their students in activities and reading materials that encourage reflection on their own nature, as well as promoting a comprehensive understanding of the world at large.

Reform schools provide a good example of an idealist education. Reform schools typically seek to train students that need further instruction in character development, creating or strengthening morals and values in each of the students, all while teaching the basic core curriculum that is taught in a typical school.

  1. Based on the three segments of idealism what is your philosophy and does it align with your school’s education system? It is necessary to know the philosophy behind your school because as a teacher you are viewed as one who is upholding these values and beliefs.
  2. Continue reading the other sections of this series to understand the schools of thought pertaining to philosophy.

: Understanding the 4 Main Schools of Philosophy: Principle of Idealism
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What is idealism in simple words?

Idealism (NOTE: You must read only those linked materials that are preceded by the capitalized word READ,) IDEALISM This is the view that the only reality is the ideal world. This would be the world of ideas. It is the view that there is no external reality composed of matter and energy.

  1. There are only ideas existing within minds.
  2. Idealism is the metaphysical view that associates reality to ideas in the mind rather than to material objects.
  3. It lays emphasis on the mental or spiritual components of experience, and renounces the notion of material existence.
  4. Idealists regard the mind and spirit as the most essential, permanent aspects of one’s being.

The philosophical views of Berkeley, Christian Science, and Hinduism embrace idealist thought as they relate it to the existence of a supreme, divine reality that transcends basic human understanding and inherent sensory awareness.- Omonia Vinieris (2002) IDEALISM of Plato A well known exponent of this view was Plato, a philosopher in ancient Greece (428-347 B.C.).

  1. Plato believed that the physical world around us is not real; it is constantly changing and thus you can never say what it really is.
  2. There is a world of ideas which is a world of unchanging and absolute truth.
  3. This is reality for Plato.
  4. Does such a world exist independent of human minds? Plato thought it did, and whenever we grasp an idea, or see something with our mind’s eye, we are using our mind to conceive of something in the ideal world.

There are a number of proofs of this ideal world. The concepts of geometry, such as the concept of a circle, which is a line equidistant from a point, is something which does not exist in the physical world. All physical circles, such as wheels, drawings, etc.

  1. Are not perfectly round.
  2. Yet our mind has the concept of a perfect circle.
  3. Since this concept could not come from the physical world, it must come from an ideal world.
  4. Another proof is that from moral perfection.
  5. We can conceive of a morally perfect person, even though the people we know around us are not morally perfect.

So where does someone get this idea of moral perfection? Since it could not have been obtained from the world around us, it must have come from an ideal world. Platonism has been an extremely influential philosophy down through the centuries.- Omonia Vinieris (2002) READ George Berkeley was an Anglican bishop from Ireland who challenged the irrationality of the notion that matter exists autonomously outside the mind as Locke and other contemporaneous empiricists speculated.

  • Berkeley’s immaterialist ontology maintained material substance cannot be real beyond the confines of the mind because inanimate objects do not have the ability to operate as causal agents.
  • It is nonsensical and foolish to designate the causal qualities of humans, or spirits, to inert matter.
  • Only life forces, such as spirits or souls, are able to function causally through perception and are the only substances that really exist.

Knowledge springs from perceptions, and because material objects are not causal agents, they unquestionably do not arouse perceptual activity. Berkeley says that only an infinite being may produce and direct causally the perceptions that humans (spirits) have of physical matter.

  1. But whatever power I may have over my own thoughts, I find the ideas actually perceived by sense have not a like dependence on my will.
  2. When in broad daylight I open my eyes, ‘tis not in my power to choose whether I see or no, or to determine what particular objects shall represent themselves to my view; and so likewise to the hearing and other senses, the ideas imprinted on them are not creatures of my will.

There is therefore some other will or spirit that produces them,” (Principles). Berkeley asserted that man’s ideas are emitted from the Divine, and thus all humans are merely ideas in the mind of God. When he thinks of us, we are begotten and our existence activated.

  1. Yet, God still remains ineffable as he is beyond our comprehension.
  2. It is ultimately God who causes us to sense the physicality of objects by means of his direct volition.
  3. First He will conceive the idea that we humans sense or perceive an object and then we actually do as He thought.
  4. Hence, the effect of God’s mind on the mind of humans is required for sensation to occur.

Berkeley explicates that all physical objects are perceived via sensation. Material objects are merely ideas obtained through perceptual activity and their attributes are sensible rather than being physical properties. Sensation is therefore impossible without the presence of ideas or else anything sensed would be unperceived or unthought.

In conclusion, Berkeley asserts that all physical things in this world are ideas of the Divine and specifies this concept as esse est percipi, Latin for “to be is to be perceived.” Omonia Vinieris (2002) Christian Scientists generally believe that God is a disembodied spirit who is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.

They set all being in His mind. He is and encompasses all aspects of existence as he is referred to as “God is All-in-all.” Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, states that due to God’s spiritual nature, humanity (the product of His creation) must also appropriately be spiritual and not material.

The concept of additional spiritual deities is excluded because of His “All-in-all” totality. The true universe in its entirety, according to divine metaphysics, or Christian Science, is comprised of ideas that are completely spiritual and fashioned by divine thought, just as Berkeley espouses in his immaterialist views.

Therefore, Christian Scientists specify that we as humans are in truth spirits produced by divinity, and in consequence are all incarnations of God. If we ignorantly deny the truth of God’s spiritual existence, it is then that we will mistakenly envision the world in the form of material, as it will be an illusion.

All ideas hostile to God’s infiniteness, permanence, and goodness, such as conceptions of death, hell, and evil, are flawed and wicked hallucinations and are NOT real. God envelops all that is real, and therefore, everything he is (eternal, omni beneficent, etc.) is justifiably real. Everything else is just mortal error.

“Wipe out or eliminate all that can be called a material universe or a material man, and the true man, the true expression of God, still remains, and will forever remain, no more subject to change or annihilation than is God, the infinite Principle, in whom man lives, and upon whom he depends, and whom he represents,” (Christian Science: Pure Metaphysics, Dr.

Fluno). – Omonia Vinieris (2002) Hinduism There is the and in it a The concept that all experience emanates from the mind of Brahman (God) is incredibly important in Hindu epistemology, as it is predominant in most religious works, such as the Upanishads, ancient philosophical texts, and the Bhagavadgita.

In accordance with idealist thought, Hindus counter material existence outside the mind. The mind itself is even held to be unreal and is epitomized as the nemesis and interruption of the liberation of the soul as it amalgamates with Brahman (moksha).

  1. Matter exists only as it is perceived” is the central premise recounted in a legendary myth of Brahman and one of his multiple manifestations, Vishnu.
  2. The Upanishads further explicate that Brahman as totality of all existence “permeates the universe.” His very essence transcends all our comprehension, yet we are partially capable of obtaining merely a nominal understanding unless we submit to self-enquiry (Atmavichara) and self-realization.

These processes allow one to negate the obstacles of the mind and the concept of the ego because the Self is really and truly a manifestation of Brahman that yearns for union with its divine source. Of course, once we comprehend the Self and unite it with Brahman, we may then come to comprehend his true being.

  • The Self, however, can willingly choose to disjoin itself from Brahman.
  • Mortality and suffering are illusions that obstruct the reality of the Self, instigated by the fabrications of the Mind that is artificial.
  • Ing Janaka says, “The mind is the thief stealing my natural bliss,” The mind is the demarcation of the Self and of one’s total consciousness.

By means of self-realization, one may achieve union with the infinite reality of Brahman and merge with his perpetual intransience. The real is always existent, unlike the physical body that is finite. It is said that Brahman is the real source of all physical (tactile, auditory, gustatory, auditory, and visible) sensation and perception, although he remains transcendent of these senses.

  1. Thus man does not perceive because he opts to, but more accurately because Brahman promptly instructs him to as He is the ontological origin of all that is potentially sensed in this universe.
  2. This is why the Self must look to desist the mind of its deceptive conduct and encase itself in the authenticity of Brahman.

“all natures are from Me, but I am not in them, they are in Me,” (Brahman in the Bhagavadgita). – Omonia Vinieris (2002) ***************************************************************************

FORMS OF IDEALISM Skeptic Idealism- starts with the thought that there is no proof that there are material objects outside of thought. Problematic idealism- is the belief held by Descartes where we can only hold one empirical truth, which is that I exist.

Dogmatic- starts with the assumption that there are no material objects outside of thought and the belief that space is an inseparable condition to all objects and that this space is can’t exist in itself. Thus it also says that all things in this space also can’t exist and are merely images.

This is Berkeley’s position. Since all that we think we perceive through our senses that gives us evidence of a universe beyond our own mind is evidence which exists in our mind there is a problem with verifying anything outside of the realm of thought. We could all be merely sets of thoughts in the universal set that is GOD.

God thinks of everything and God’s thought are those things. God thinks of us and of us sitting at our computers and in a room with other people at the same time that God thinks of those rooms and people and computers and that is all that we are: thoughts in God’s mind.

  1. For an overview of Challenges to this Metaphysical Position: Idealism If we could all be merely sets of thoughts in the universal set that is GOD and God thinks of everything and God’s thought are those things.
  2. God thinks of us and of us sitting at our computers and in a room with other people at the same time that God thinks of those rooms and people and computers and that is all that we are: thoughts in God’s mind.

PROBLEM: What then becomes of Free Will? What then becomes of a conception of a deity that is all good?
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What is the main idea of idealism?

This article is about the metaphysical perspective in philosophy. For the psychological attitude, see optimism, For the concept in ethics, see Ideal (ethics), In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding ; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to ideas, Idealist perspectives are in two categories: subjective idealism, which proposes that a material object exists only to the extent that a human being perceives the object; and objective idealism, which proposes the existence of an objective consciousness that exists prior to and independently of human consciousness, thus the existence of the object is independent of human perception.

The philosopher George Berkeley said that the essence of an object is to be perceived. By contrast, Immanuel Kant said that idealism “does not concern the existence of things”, but that “our modes of representation” of things such as space and time are not “determinations that belong to things in themselves”, but are essential features of the human mind.

In the philosophy of ” transcendental idealism ” Kant proposes that the objects of experience relied upon their existence in the human mind that perceives the objects, and that the nature of the thing-in-itself is external to human experience, and cannot be conceived without the application of categories, which give structure to the human experience of reality.

Epistemologically, idealism is accompanied by philosophical skepticism about the possibility of knowing the existence of any thing that is independent of the human mind. Ontologically, idealism asserts that the existence of things depends upon the human mind; thus, ontological idealism rejects the perspectives of physicalism and dualism, because neither perspective gives ontological priority to the human mind.

In contrast to materialism, idealism asserts the primacy of consciousness as the origin and prerequisite of phenomena. Idealism holds that consciousness (the mind) is the origin of the material world. Indian and Greek philosophers proposed the earliest arguments that the world of experience is grounded in the mind’s perception of the physical world.

Hindu idealism and Greek neoplatonism gave panentheistic arguments for the existence of an all-pervading consciousness as the true nature, as the true grounding of reality. In contrast, the Yogācāra school, which arose within Mahayana Buddhism in India in the 4th century AD, based its “mind-only” idealism to a greater extent on phenomenological analyses of personal experience.

This turn toward the subjective anticipated empiricists such as George Berkeley, who revived idealism in 18th-century Europe by employing skeptical arguments against materialism. Beginning with Kant, German idealists such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, and Arthur Schopenhauer dominated 19th-century philosophy.

  1. This tradition, which emphasized the mental or “ideal” character of all phenomena, gave birth to idealistic and subjectivist schools ranging from British idealism to phenomenalism to existentialism,
  2. Idealism as a philosophy came under heavy attack in the West at the turn of the 20th century.
  3. The most influential critics of both epistemological and ontological idealism were G.E.

Moore and Bertrand Russell, but its critics also included the new realists, According to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the attacks by Moore and Russell were so influential that even more than 100 years later “any acknowledgment of idealistic tendencies is viewed in the English-speaking world with reservation”.

However, many aspects and paradigms of idealism did still have a large influence on subsequent philosophy. Phenomenology, an influential strain of philosophy since the beginning of the 20th century, also draws on the lessons of idealism. In his Being and Time, Martin Heidegger famously states: If the term idealism amounts to the recognition that being can never be explained through beings, but, on the contrary, always is the transcendental in its relation to any beings, then the only right possibility of philosophical problematics lies with idealism.

In that case, Aristotle was no less an idealist than Kant. If idealism means a reduction of all beings to a subject or a consciousness, distinguished by staying undetermined in its own being, and ultimately is characterised negatively as non-thingly, then this idealism is no less methodically naive than the most coarse-grained realism.
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How is idealism applied in education?

In idealism, the aim of education is to discover and develop each individual’s abilities and full moral excellence in order to better serve society. The curricular emphasis is subject matter of mind: literature, history, philosophy, and religion.
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What is the best example of idealism?

Practical Examples of Idealism in Everyday Life – While you may not have really considered what idealism means from a philosophical perspective before, chances are that you have said or been told things that reflect this perspective.

You’ve probably heard someone say that a person who is inherently honest tends to assume others are telling the truth, while someone who is inherently dishonest tends to assume that others are lying. This illustrates the idea that a person’s perception of reality is based on how their own mind works. The phrase “perception is reality” is one that you’ve probably heard or said many times. Someone in a high-level job might think that they have outstanding leadership skills. However, in fact, that’s really up to the employees’ perceptions, If employees don’t see their manager as a good leader, then that’s their reality. If you’ve ever watched the early episodes of a televised singing competition, you’ve probably witnessed some really poor singers on the show. Why did they try out if their singing is so bad? Chances are that in their own minds, they have fabulous voices and are surprised to find themselves on the blooper reel. The saying “mind over matter” is another one that provides an example of idealism in everyday life. The idea behind that saying is that if you believe something to be true and focus on that, then ultimately it will come to reflect your reality. When a person engages in negative self-talk, they can perceive themselves as failures, leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy, Or, they can choose to focus on an ideal to which they aspire such that it comes to represent reality to them, whether or not it matches how others perceive them.

The idealistic view suggests that people view the world through the lens of their own mind, ultimately creating the perceived reality in which they exist.
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What is the teachers role in idealism?

Idealistic Teacher Idealism is an ancient philosophy that had a strong influence on education through the 20th century. Recently, this position has been overshadowed by realism, however, the influence of idealism can still be felt in education to this day.

In this post, we will describe idealism, explain its implications, and examine how an idealistic teacher views education. Description Idealism is focused on reality as consisting of ideas, the mind, and the self. In other words, the mind makes the material world rather than the other way around as found in realism.

Plato is the primary author of this philosophy. The context of Plato’s life was one of change. This was during the time of the Persian Wars in which Greece, Athens in particular, did remarkably well. War naturally brought new ideas to both countries which was leading to changes.

  • In addition, there was a push for individualism from a group of philosophers known as the sophists which were straining the communal culture of Athens.
  • Some have stated that Plato’s idealism was a reaction against this threat of change.
  • Truth for Plato was permanent and unchanging.
  • Since the world was changing, there could be no truth in this world.

Truth must be found somewhere else. The real truth was found in the world of ideas a place that was beyond the senses used in this world. Plato has rather negative views towards the senses. In his “Allegory of the Cave”, Plato essentially asserts that people who go by their senses are chained and trapped inside a cave of ignorance where they are bound to watch shadows of reality.

  • Those who break free from these chains are those who have gone beyond their senses and used their intellect to reach the world of ideas.
  • Naturally, only an elite handful of chosen ones or philosopher kings are able to do this.
  • Philosophical Implications For idealists, the source of knowledge comes from intuition (knowing without conscious thought), revelation (knowing through supernatural encounters), and rationalism (knowing through conscious thought).

What is important here is what is missing, which is empiricism (knowledge through the senses). Idealists do not require empirical verification of what is true. In the world today, this is almost laughable but was a core component of education for centuries.

Ethically, idealism emphasizes a belief in an external ethical standard for man. Man cannot be the one to decide what is right or wrong. Instead, morals are determined by the world of ideas through the intellect. There is something called the Absolute self that the individual self is trying to imitate.

This Absolute Self is considered by many to be God as seen from a Christian perspective. Again this is something that would not be considered seriously by many educators. There is an eternal consistency to truth for an idealist. Something is true when it fits with the harmony of the universe.

Even art must make sense and must be used in a way that is consistent with the perfect form of the world of ideas. This explains the sonority of early forms of music that have been lost gradually over time. Idealism and Education An idealistic teacher is going to focus on the development of the student’s mind.

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There is a constant striving for perfection in the study of various subjects. Speaking of subjects, the curriculum consists primarily of the humanities and math. History and literature help students to see what is ideal for humans and the study of math is powerful because of its universal nature along with it being self-evidently true.

  1. Generally, any subject that brings students into contact with ideas rather than things should be considered for the curriculum The teacher’s responsibility is to pass their knowledge of the ultimate reality to the student as the teacher has more experience in this and the Absolute Self.
  2. Therefore, the teacher is an example for the student.

Knowledge is seen as something that is transferred from the teacher to the student either verbally or in writing. This implies that lecturing and are key methodologies. One of the more shocking positions of the idealistic teacher is that the school is not an agent of change.

The idealistic teacher and the idealistic school do not train and educate “change agents”. Rather, since absolute truth is unchanging the school should naturally reflect an unchanging nature and support the status quo. Anyone familiar with education in universities today would find this difficult to accept.

Conclusion With a focus on an otherworldly perfect standard, idealism is strongly out of place in a world that is governed or perhaps controlled by what they see and experience. Whenever people try to appeal to some sort of unqualified standard it is looked upon almost with ridicule.

The exception seems to be when people share an emotional objection to something. Feelings have replaced some form of ethereal standard because emotions are experienced rather than thought about. The overemphasis on ideals is perhaps the weakness of idealism. Plato thought that people who only rely on their senses were trapped in a cave and unaware of true reality.

However, the same can be said of a person who is trapped in the world of ideas. The person who is truly free is the one who can move between the senses and the mind or who can move between the reality of t ideas and the physical world. Moving between these positions provides a flexibility that neither has by itself.
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What are the main features of idealism in education?

IMPLICATION OF IDEALISM IN MODERN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM INTRODUCTION Education and philosophy are closely inter-related. Philosophy is love of knowledge and education is acquisition of knowledge. Philosophy is the corner stone of the foundation of education.

  1. Education is practical activity of philosophical thought.
  2. Without philosophy, education would be a blind effort and without education, philosophy would be crippled.
  3. Philosophy answers thousands of questions pertaining to the whole field of education.
  4. Philosophy of education can refer to either the academic field of applied philosophy or to one of any educational philosophies that promote a specific type or vision of education, and/or which examine the definition, goals and meaning of education.”The art of education will never attain complete clearness without philosophy” Fichte.

“Education is the Dynamic side of philosophy” James Rose. Idealism is the oldest philosophical thought. Human life has two dimensions- Spiritual and Material. When the emphasis is on the spiritual life, it is called Idealism. The word idealism is derived from two distinct sources- the idea and the ideal.

Idea means true and testified knowledge. The word ideal stands for the perfected form of an idea or ideas. An idealist does not have considerations for material values of life. A thinker who idolizes ‘Mind and Self’ is an idealist. Protagonists of idealism are- Socrates, Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, Burkley, Kant, Fitche, Schelling, Hegel, Green, Gentile (the Western); From Vedas and Upanishads to Aurobindo Gosh (the Eastern philosophers).

DEFINITION OF IDEALISM To make the meaning of Idealism more clear give below some important definitions as given by eminent scholars- i. “Idealism holds that ultimate reality is spiritualism.” D.M. Dutta ii. “Idealistic philosophy takes many and varied forms, but the postulate underlying all this is that mind or spirit is the essential world stuff, that the true reality of is of a mental character” J.S.

  • Ross iii. FUNDAMETAL PRINCIPLES OF IDEALISM The fundamental principles of idealism are as under- TWO FORMS OF THE WHOLE WORLD Idealism believes in two forms of the world-(1).Spiritual world (2).Material world.
  • Idealists give more importance to spiritual world in comparison to the material world.
  • They believe that spiritual world is real and the ultimate truth where as the material world is transitory and mortal.

To know the reality of the spiritual world is to know the reality of mind and soul. It is a sort of self- realization – the main aim of human life. According to Horne- “Idealism holds that the order of the world is due to the manifestation in space and time of an eternal and spiritual reality.” 2.1 IDEAS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN OBJECTS According to Idealists, knowledge of mind and soul can be obtained through ideas only.

  • Hence, they have given more importance to ideas over the objects and material or later.
  • In the ideas are realities and ultimate entities of the material world.
  • In the words of Plato-“Ideas are of the ultimate cosmic significance.
  • They are rather the essences or archetypes which give form to cosmos.
  • These ideas are eternal and unchanging.” IMPORTANCE OF MAN OVER NATURE To Idealists, man is more important than material nature.

It is because man can think and experience about material objects and material phenomena. Hence, the thinker or the one who experiences is more important than the object or the phenomena experienced. Man is endowed with intelligence and a sense of discrimination.

Thus, he is not a slave of the environment as animals are, but the moulds and transforms the environment for his on good and welfare of the society. In short, he creates his own world of virtue and his creativity achieves higher and higher levels of art in many areas. The following words speak this truth-“The spiritual and cultural environment of man’s own making, it is a product of man’s creative activity.” – R.R.

Rusk FAITH IN SPIRITUAL VALUES According to Idealists, the prime aim of life is to achieve spiritual values. They are- Truth, Beauty and Goodness. These spiritual values are undying and permanent. The realization of these values is the realization of God.

In the pursuit of these absolute values man rises higher and higher in the moral plane till he attains Divinity. For the achievement of these spiritual values of all the capacities of man are to be harnessed to the full. These capacities are – knowing, feeling and willing. By the fullest use of these capacities man can achieve the highest spiritual values and thus realize his true and ultimate self.J.S.

Ross also opines-“Goodness, truth and beauty are seen to be absolutes each existing in its own right and entirely desirable in it.” IMPORTANTS OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT Idealists give much importance to the Self of the individual. Hence, they insist upon the fullest development of the personality of an individual.

  1. According to them the development of personality means achievement of Perfection.
  2. Plato rightly speak that each individual has an ideal Self.
  3. He tries to develop that ideal Self more and more.
  4. This is self- realization in the true sense of the term.
  5. It may be noted that self -realization means knowledge of the self or soul.

The self -realization can only be achieved in society. In short, Idealism believes in the welfare of whole human community. FULL SUPPORT TO THE PRINCIPLE OF UNITY IN DIVERSITY Idealists give full support to the principle of Unity in Diversity. This underlying divine force maintains the existence and working of all entities.

  • IDEALISM AND AIMS OF EDUCATION
  • The following are the aims of education according to the philosophy of Idealism.
  • 3.1 SELF REALIZATION OR EXHALTATION OF PERSONALITY

According to Idealism, man is the most beautiful creation of God. Hence, the advocates of Idealism lay great stress on the exhalation of human personality. By exhalation of human personality, they mean self-realization. Self-realization involves full knowledge of the self.

Hence, the first aim of education according to Idealism is to develop the ‘Self’ of the individual higher and higher till self-realization is achieved.3.2 TO ENSURE SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT Idealists give greater importance to spiritual values in comparison with material attainments. Thus, according to them, the second aim of education is to develop the child mentally, morally and above all spiritually.

Thus, the teacher should so organize education as to develop the child spiritually.3.3 TO CULTIVATE TRUTH, BEAUTY AND GOODNESS Idealists assert that to develop spiritual values in the individuals, pursuit of highest ideals namely- Truth, Beauty and Goodness should be encouraged more and more.

The more an individual realizes these ideals, the more spiritually developed he will become. Hence, education should strive its utmost in developing the child morally and spiritually so that he achieves self-realization. CONSERVATION, PROMOTION AND TRANSMISSION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE The cultural heritage is of immense worth and value.

It belongs to whole humanity and it is the purpose of education to preserve, deserve, develop and transmit it. It is for education to acquaint the child with cultural heritage so that he conserves, promotes and transmits it to the rising generation. This is done through the process of self-estrangement.

CONVERTION OF INBORN NATURE INTO SPIRITUAL NATURE Idealists hold the view that the inborn instincts and inherent tendencies of the child should be sublimated into spiritual qualities and values. This is real development of the individuality. Only then, it will be possible for the individual to attain fullest and highest development of personality.

PREPARATION FOR HOLY LIFE In the words of Frobel “the object of education is the realization of a faithful, pure, inviolable and hence holy life”. This may be possible by developing courtesy i.e. politeness good breeding, urbanity, docrum, modesty, respect for public opinion, liberty etc; Justice i.e.

honesty, speaking truth, integrity, uprightness etc; respect for low. DEVELOPMENT OF INTELLIGENCE AND RATIONALITY Adams has defined education from the point of view of an Idealist. According to him there is a purpose in all objects and natural phenomena. He has further said that the world is planned and well-organized.

There are set principles working in this creation. An Idealist always tries to discover and understand this principle so that on the basis of moral elements the world remains organized.

  1. EDUCATION TO THE LEVEL OF CAPACITY
  2. The individual aim of education has been clearly expressed by Sir Pery Nunn; “Nothing good enters into the human world except in and through the free activities of individual men and women, and the educational practice must be shaped to accord with the truth”.
  3. ‘Education’, therefore must serve for everyone “the conditions under which individuality is most completely developed”.
  4. IDEALISM AND CURRICULUM

While structuring curriculum, Idealists give more importance to thoughts, feelings, ideals and values than to the child and his activities. They firmly hold that curriculum should be concerned with the whole humanity and its experiences. These experiences can be imbibed by two ways namely- (1) from the physical environment and (2) from contacts with other fellowmen.

In this way, in an Idealistic curriculum, both the scientific subjects as well as the humanities are included. In the following discussion we are throwing light on the ideas of Plato, Herbart, Nunn and Ross about curriculum.A. PLATO Plato was staunch idealist. According to him, the aim of life is to realize God which is possible only by pursuing high ideals namely Truth, Beauty and Goodness.

These high ideals can be attained by three types of activities namely intellectual, aesthetic and moral.B. HERBART According to Herbart the Idealistic aim of education is the promotion of moral values. Hence, he gave prime importance to subjects like Literature, History, Art, Music, Poetry, together with other Humanities and secondary place to scientific subjects.C.

  1. NUNN Views of Nunn about curriculum are also based on the philosophy of Idealism.
  2. According to him, it is the function of schools to promote and maintain morality and the historical tradition to preserve and develop its achievements more and more.
  3. This is possible only when the school includes those activities and subjects in its curriculum which reflect the achievements of human culture and civilization.

Hence, Nunn emphatically advocates the inclusion in the curriculum, those attainments which reflect the highest creations of human mind and those activities which involve the noblest expressions of human ingenuity and creative intelligence. Nunn has divided these activities into two categories: (1) Physical, Social, Moral and Religious and (2) Literary and Aesthetic.D.

ROSS He holds the view that one can develop spiritually when he is developed physically and these are both important for physical skill and health education. He wanted to teach physical exercise, intellectual exercise with the help of literature, language, history, geography, science and mathematics along with ethics for moral development.

For spiritual development he wanted aesthetics to be taught with fine arts and religion with religion and metaphysics. IDEALISM AND TEACHER In the realm of Idealism, the role of teacher is very important and glorious. Idealistic philosophy believes that this planned creation has two parts-(1) The teacher and (2) The child as student.

Both aims at one target only- The development of the individual child in a spiritual way. The realization of this great aim is possible only through education and the essential agent, the teacher. In reality an Idealist teacher is imbued fully with high degree of self-knowledge, self-dynamism and essential qualities of spiritualism.

By his own model of life, he tries to shape the individuality of the child to a life of purity, virtue and great achievements. He creates a wholesome conducive atmosphere by his own activities and planned experiences for the child. He guides the child with such genuine love, affection and sympathy that he attains his full mental and spiritual development.J.S.

Ross aptly remarks- “The Naturalist may be content with the brains, but the Idealist wants fine roses. So the educator by his efforts assists the educand, who is developing according to the laws of his nature to attain levels that would otherwise be denied to him.” IDELISM AND TEACHING METHODS The aims of Idealism are concrete and definite.

But there is no specific method for achieving them. Socrates used Question-Answer method Plato emphasize Discourse Method and Aristotle advocated Inductive-Deductive method. In the works of Hegel, Logical Measuring is evident. Descrates employed the device of Simple to Complex.

  1. Pestalozzi laid stress on education of the physical organs and allied activities.
  2. Herbart advocated Instruction Method.
  3. Frobel insisted upon Play – way Method.
  4. Not only this, other Idealists advocated many more methods namely – Discussion, Lecture, Talk in groups.
  5. In this way, according to Idealists no specific method is to be adhered to.

In their opinion any and every method may be employed to realize the ideals set and determined before. Butler has rightly remarked – “Idealists consider themselves as creators and determiners of methods, not devotees of someone method”.

  • IDEALISM AND DISCIPLINE
  • Discipline is to be inculcated through morals for which the following needs to be remembered.
  • · Moral education is training in habits and not an inculcation of mere theoretical views.

· A mechanical virtue, in which a youth exercise a minimum moral choice and obeys an external rule prescribed for him, is to be inculcated. In this lowest species of moral discipline the youth learns self denial and self control. There are to be inculcated as an elementary base of moral code of discipline.

  1. Lack of discipline in a school scope the moral character of the pupil.
  2. It allows him to work merely as he pleases, and he never can reinforce his feeble will by regularity, punctuality and sympathetic industry.
  3. He grows up in such a way that neither he does unreasonable and nor allows others to do so.

Too strict discipline undermines moral character by emphasizing too much the mechanical duties and especially the phase of obedience to authority, and it leaves the pupil in the state of perennial minority. He does not assimilate the law of duty and makes it his own.

  1. The law does not touch his heart but is on his lips only.
  2. He fears it but not love it.
  3. The tyrant teacher produces hypocrisy and deceit in his pupils.
  4. Even when there is simple implicit obedience in the place of fraud, there is no independent character development to take correct decision.
  5. The best help that one can give to his follows is that which enables him to help them.

The best school is that which enables the teachers to help themselves. The best instruction is morality makes the pupil a law up to himself. IDEALISM AND SCHOOL School is a place where the capacities of logical thinking, reasoning and evaluating of the child are progressively sublimated and developed by teachers and the school environment into desirable channels so that high spiritual ideals and values are gained.

  1. EVALUATION OF IDEALISM
  2. Proper evaluation of Idealism is possible only when one reviews its merits and demerits in greater detail.
  3. DEMERITS OF IDEALISM

The common criticism regarding Idealism is that it is an abstract and vague doctrine. It avoids the present realities and prepares the child for the next world. It is concerned with the ultimate end of life. It avoids the real problem day to day living.

  1. Education should be such as to make individuals capable to solve the problems to confront them from time to time and are able to lead happy and contented life.
  2. Idealism lays more emphasis on thinking and mental activities.
  3. This increases the importance of intellectualism unnecessarily.
  4. It emphasizes upon the achievement of immortal VALUES NAMELY, Truth, Beauty and goodness.

These values are not absolute. Idealistic education gives more importance to teacher in relation to the child. Modern psychology emphasizes the prime and central importance of child. Idealistic methods of teaching emphasize cramming and rote memory. In modern education, these methods are given little importance.

  • In idealistic education humanities are given greater importance for the spiritual development of the child, while the present age of science lays great stress upon scientific subjects in the curriculum.
  • MERITS OF IDEALISM In the realm of aims of education, Idealism has made signal contribution.
  • It is only this philosophy wherein a detailed exposition of aims has been emphasized.

Idealistic education emphasizes the inculcation of highest values namely, Truth, Beauty and Goodness. This will lead to the development of a moral character of the child. It aims at self – realization of all individuals by one’s own efforts. Hence, it promotes universal education.

In the process of idealistic education, the teacher assigned a very important role. The teacher influences the child by his high ideals of life and by his sympathetic encouraging behavior. This achieves the fullest development of child’s personality. Idealism respects the individuality of the child and tries to stimulate his creative energies.

Thus, Idealism has influenced other philosophies as well. Idealism emphasizes the principle of self-discipline. This principle leads to the development of the ‘Self’ of an individual. Because of the Idealistic philosophy and education, the school has grown into an important social organization.

  • The above discussion clearly shows that Idealism has merits as well as demerit.
  • In the present world of today which is full of stresses, strains, conflicts, envies and material struggles, the need of idealistic education is greatly essential for peaceful living of human beings devoted to social good and national welfare.

CONCLUSION Idealism is basically a philosophy of life and it has exercised, like all philosophies of life, a general rather than a specific influence on education. In philosophy it has taken many forms but all of them agree to the view that the universe is an expression of intelligence and will; that there are certain absolute and eternal truths of life; that the ultimate reality is in the nature of mind rather than in the nature of mater.

The latter is perishable and changing; it is an external manifestation of a reality which is not affected by the phenomenon of change. Through the whole of the universe is running a spirit which along is a reality, and knowledge of and reconciliation with that spirit of the individual’s soul is real knowledge.

That is the real truth. Appreciation of that truth in its various forms is real art- a thing of real beauty. Conformity of the human will with the moral administration of the universe is real goodness. The difference between idealism and materialism is fundamental-whereas idealism regards mind as the sole explainer of reality, materialism regards that as a phenomenon of matter.

Idealism lays emphasis on the study of all subjects but stresses the importance of literature, ethics and religion which are recognized to that degree by other philosophies. The teacher has a very important role in education for it is he who leads the individual from darkness into light and who helps him to exalt his personality.

As a philosophy idealism with its old form has been sometimes dubbed as rigid and conservative but the modern idealistic outlook is broader and the world is fast realizing how a rejection of the eternal values of life is creating a vacuum into which have crept in so many evils and which may be ultimately fatal to the whole civilization.
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Is idealism teacher centered?

The purpose of this study is to examine the philosophical preferences of classroom teachers, their teaching styles and the relationship between the two variables. Participants are 301 volunteered classroom teachers who teach at the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th classes in primary schools.

To collect the data, philosophical preferences assessment form which was developed by Wiles and Bondi (2007) and adapted to Turkish by DoÄŸanay and Sari (2003), and Teaching Styles Questionnaire which was developed by Grasha and Reichmann (1994) and adapted to Turkish by SaritaÅŸ and Süral (2010) were used.

Analyses figure out that classroom teachers mostly prefer experimentalist philosophy and have facilitator teaching style. Examining the relationship of educational philosophies and teaching styles of teachers, there is a positive and significant relationship between the adopted educational philosophy and teaching style.

Key words: Classroom teacher, educational philosophy, teaching style. The basic element of learning and teaching environments is the teacher. The teacher plans the learning and teaching process by considering the variables such as instructional purposes, students’ characteristics and physical conditions, moreover his/her own skills, teaching styles and educational philosophy or philosophies.

In this context, it is important to know about teachers’ teaching styles and educational philosophies. In general, philosophy is a field of knowledge constructed as a result of systematic, deeply and speculative thinking on the relation of human and the universe (Gutek, 2006: 2).

While Kant identifies philosophy as “a form of intellectual activity which has a claim of justifying itself based on mind”; Jasper proposes it as “being on road forever” (Arslan, 2014). Philosophy is an effort of looking at life and its problems from an overall perspective (Ornstein, 1988: 25). Ertürk (1988) defines it as process and product.

He stated that philosophy as a process is an effort to comprehend the reality and its phenomenon in its integrity by gathering and reorganizing all information. Furthermore, it is an effort to investigate the sources of information methods and values, what are they and their importance.

  • Besides, philosophy as a product is a total of “general beliefs, principles and attitudes”, and values which philosophy as a process can form and which human uses as a decision base.
  • Philosophy helps us to be interested in personal beliefs and values, understand who we are and the reason of our existence and to some extent where we go.

Philosophy is a total of connection process based on grounding the reality and products obtained at the end of this process (Demirel, 2005: 20). Just like philosophy is connected to all fields of science, they are connected to philosophy as well. Education is the science which has a close connection to philosophy in constructing a theoretical base and as well as in its practices.

According to Patel (1958), philosophy needs the clear and precise expressions of education and education needs the guidance of philosophy (DoÄŸanay and Sari, 2003). Educational philosophy can be defined as a form of applied philosophy which handles education in a philosophical manner or methods (Cevizci, 2011: 11).

Educational philosophy studies the theoretical bases on which the available educational practices are based, and criticize them. Educators can only reveal and solve the strength of theoretical foundations which they strictly hold and consider the best via a philosophical approach (Fidan, 1987).

Educational philosophies can be categorized differently in terms of criteria undertaken in literature. As for a common classification, they are undertaken under four titles named “perennialism, progressivism, essentialism and reconstructivism” (Demirel, 2005; Fidan, 1987; Saylan, 2009). In “Philosophical Preferences Assessment” form which was developed by Wiles and Bondi (2007) and adapted to Turkish by DoÄŸanay and Sari (2003), there are five educational philosophies; perennialism, idealism, realism, experimentalism and existentialism.

In order to be consonant to the questionnaire, this study also examines the philosophical approaches under these five categories. Perennialism Perennialists emphasize on forming education according to certain universal realities. They think that the human nature, moral values, reality and the truth are universal phenomena (Demirel, 2005; Ercan, 2009; Fidan, 1987).

They claim that human nature is perennial. Human beings have the ability of questioning and understanding the universal realities of nature. The purpose of education is to educate reasonable people by carefully training the mind, to uncover the universal truth and to provide the accordance with eternal truth not the reality of today (Ercan, 2009; Gutek, 2006; Ornstein, 1988; Sönmez, 2007; Wiles and Bondi, 2007).

As the truth is the same everywhere, the education should be the same everywhere as well. Education is the preparation to life not a copy of the life. It is defended that the ideal one should be presented in educational settings, not the real life itself (Arslan, 2012; Demirel, 2005; Ercan, 2009; Sönmez, 2007).

  • Perennialism indicates human sciences are important as it clarifies the concepts of good, truth and beauty (Özdemir et al., 2008, 223).
  • The perennialist curriculum is subject-centered.
  • The knowledge and the expertise of teachers cannot be questioned and they are accepted as the authorities.
  • Moreover, the teacher should be the master of his/her subject and the instruction, and direct the discussion.
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Instruction is mainly based on Socratic Method. The teacher should be a role model by means of oral speech, explanation and interpretation. The student will learn by imitating the teacher (Ornstein, 1988; Sönmez, 2007; Scoot, 1994). Idealism It claims that reality is closely related to idea, thought and mind rather than the earthly power.

  • According to the idealists, reality is idea, thought and soul.
  • It does not accept the scientific method as the only way for reality; but assumes intuitional thought as important as the scientific method.
  • In idealist educational philosophy, which expresses a teacher centered approach, the teacher is required to reveal the embedded knowledge in students’ subconscious and be a good role model both as morally and culturally.

The subjects are in a hierarchical order and Socratic Method is adopted. The teacher is qualified and well-donated; order, discipline and authority is a matter of fact (Cevizci, 2011; Gutek, 2006; Ornstein, 1988; Terzi et al., 2003). Realism The realists perceive the world in terms of subjects/ objects and substances.

People can understand the world via senses and logic. The source of everything is nature and formed by the rules of nature. According to realism, the purpose of education is to make people happy by furnishing them the best and the most perfect abilities. While it enlightens the students in fields of knowledge, it also aims to develop the mind which is the most important ability and power of human, and to encourage what they want in their choices, expressing themselves with a perfect potential and identify their own identities (Gutek, 2006).

In realism, which a teacher centered approach is adopted, a teacher is an instructor or educator rather than a scientist or researcher who is an expert in his/her field, and knows the maximum required truth about the field. The teacher is a professional instructor in terms of both expertise knowledge and instructional ability (Cevizci, 2011).

He/she provides students to gain certain knowledge and proficiency. Students are supposed to be ready to learn the required things and be eager to make an effort (Özdemir et al., 2008: 216). Experimentalism One of the pioneers of experimentalism is John Locke. According to Locke, mind is like a white paper or blank slate that nothing is in and on before the experiment and all sources of knowledge come from observation and the data in mind as a result of the usage of senses.

Idealism in Education (What is Idealism in Education, Idealism in Education Explained)

In short, there is no innate knowledge in human mind and the source and tool of all kind of knowledge is the experiment (Arslan, 2012: 72). Another pioneer who comes to mind first for experimentalism is John Dewey. For Dewey, thinking and action cannot be separated and thought is incomplete without realization.

  • Basic thinking involves the problems which a person encounters and solves by scientific method.
  • Problem solving is as well a social process as an individual phenomenon.
  • As sharing is more, the opportunities of development are greater as well (Gutek, 2006).
  • Experimentalism which is based on pragmatism helps human to improve his/her environment and adaptation to environment.

It accepts change as the base of reality and assumes that education is continuously improving. The child should be active in educational settings which are organized according to his/her interests. Knowledge, which is an important tool for gaining, improving and regulation of the experiences, should be obtained with interaction and is dependent on the interests of the child.

The responsibility of the teacher is to guide students. School should encourage students to collaborate rather than race in democratic school environments; what is more school is the most appropriate environment for learning (Demirel, 2005; Ergün, 2003; Gutek, 2006). Existentialism The existentialist sees the world in terms of personal subjectivity.

Goodness, truth and reality are individually defined. Reality is a world of existing, truth is subjectively chosen and goodness is a matter of freedom (Wiles and Bondi, 2007: s.45). The basic foundation of existentialist philosophy is that a person has a freedom of choice by defining him/herself (Gutek, 2006: 133).

Existentialists give importance to human. In existentialism, education is an activity which provides an individual to experience success, failure, ugliness, beauty, struggle and pain without exaggerating but honestly (Sönmez, 2007, 81). Education should enable a person to identify his/herself with his/her real characteristics.

In teacher-students interaction, the responsibility of the teacher is to help students to learn and know themselves (Fidan, 1987; Wiles and Bondi, 2007). According to Alkan (1983), a good existentialist teacher does not aim to train copy personalities.

He/she tries to balance the content and student, and be sensible to students. An existentialist teacher makes an effort for three purposes: processing the content, mind’s functioning independently and creating a belief about reality for students ( ArslanoÄŸlu, 2012). Change in school environments would be embraced as both a natural and necessary phenomenon.

Nonschooling and an individually determined curriculum would be a possibility (Wiles and Bondi, 2007: s.45). The subject matter of education and philosophy is human. The viewpoint for human can affect all the components of education. In other words, human is handled and education is organized according to this viewpoint (Sönmez, 2009).

  • Teacher employs an educational philosophy when he/she starts to think on concepts and knowledge of human nature and society (Gutek, 2006).
  • Educational philosophy is a discipline of philosophy which discusses education, and questions and solves the concepts and practices of education ( Cevizci, 2011: 11).

Educational philosophy helps the educator and the teachers to comprehend education with its all aspects. The meaning and the importance of educational practices can only be possible by a clear thinking system that the philosophy provides (Fidan, 1987).

Additionally, philosophy provides a structure and a base for organizing school and classroom settings for educators. It helps to understand what the schools are for, which subjects are valuable, how the students learn and which methods and strategies are used (Demirel, 2005). Teaching styles have a key role to organize the learning and teaching process as a reflection of educational philosophy adopted by the teacher (Gencel, 2013: 644).

Grasha (1994, 2002)I who explains learning and teaching process as an interaction between students and teachers, which defines teaching styles as the continuity and consistency of teachers’ behaviors and approaches in this process; and moreover a personal model that the requirements, beliefs and behaviors of the teachers construct.

According to Dunn (1979), teaching styles are attitudes and behaviors of teachers towards instructional programs, methods, settings and equipment. Fisher and Fisher (1979) define teaching styles as instructional behaviors which a teacher consistently displays in teaching process. How the teacher presents knowledge in learning and teaching process, how they interact with students and their behaviors about students’ socialization are all the reflections of their teaching styles (Üredi, 2007).

In addition, a teaching style refers to how the teacher behaves with students while teaching, not who the teacher is. For instance, how a teacher asks questions, how he/she uses his/her voice, how he/she addresses the students, how he/she makes exams, how he/she moves inside the classroom and presents his/her ideas.

  • These are all observable behaviors of teachers, not the personal qualifications such as IQ (Hyman and Rosoff, 1984).
  • In literature, teaching styles are classified differently such as; instructor, problem solver, consultant (Broudy, 1972); the behaviorist, the structualist, the functionalist, the humanist (Bromstrom, 1975); field-dependent, field-independent (Witkin, 1979); task-oriented, cooperative planner, child centered, subject centered, learning centered, emotionally exiting (Fischer 1979); educational philosophy, student preferences, instructional planning, student groupings, room design, teaching environment, teaching characteristics, teaching methods, evaluation techniques (Dunn 1979); concrete-sequential, abstract-sequential, abstract-random, concrete-random (Butler, 1984); the command style, the practice style, the reciprocal style, the self-check style, the inclusion style, the guided discovery style, the convergent discovery style, the divergent discovery style, the learner-designed individual program style, the learner-initiated style, the self-teaching style (Mosston and Ashworth, 1986); the information processing models, the personal models, the social-interaction models, the behavior modification models (Joyce and Weil, 1986); expert, provider, facilitator, enabler (Heimlich and VanTilburg, 1990); directive, authoritative, tolerant and authoritative, tolerant, uncertain and tolerant, uncertain and aggressive, repressive, drudging (Brekelmans, Levy and Rodirguez, 1993); disseminator-transmitter, lecturer-dramatist, inducer/persuader, inquirer/catalyst, facilitator/ guide (Reinsmith, 1994); assertive, suggestive, collaborative, facilitative (Quirk, 1994); expert, formal authority, personal, facilitator, delegator (Grasha, 1996); teacher-oriented, student-oriented (Levine, 1998); planner, formal, ongoing, attractive (Evans, 2004) (Altay, 2009: 47).

As the “teaching style” instrument which was developed by Grasha (1996) was used in this research, the teaching styles are examined in five categories: Expert: He/she has the required experience and knowledge for the students. He/she pays attention to preserve his/her status as an experienced person who develops his/her students’ abilities and present his/her extended knowledge.

  1. He/she is interested in knowledge transfer and training better students.
  2. Formal authority: In terms of his/her knowledge and role, he/she is like a college teacher for his/her students.
  3. He/she has a characteristic that has his/her own rules, expectations and purposes, reinforces students depending on the situation and does not hesitate to give negative feedback under any unwilling circumstances.

Personal: He/she believes in instruction of personal examples, constructing a basic model about how they should be thought and behave. He/she encourages students to follow their way, supervise them on what they should do, guides and manages them. Facilitator: He/she emphasizes teacher-student relationship as a very natural personal characteristic.

His/her guidance and course management is to ask questions, to develop choices, to present alternatives, to encourage students about developing the scientific criteria that they have constructed. His/her main purpose is to develop students’ performance which is for initiative and responsibility in their personal activities.

Delegator: He/she is interested in improving the students’ capacity by independently doing his/her responsibility. In the courses of teachers who have this style, students study independently in projects or as a part of independent teams. The teacher interferes when the students ask them as a source person.

  1. Teaching style refers to distinctive properties which is consistent in time and transferred from situation to situation (Fischer 1979).
  2. According to Heimlich and Norland (1994) teaching style includes philosophical practices in which there are attitudes, values, beliefs, teaching and all elements in students’ change (Fries, 2012).

Fritz (2008) quoted from Kauchak and Eggen (2011) and Elias and Merrium (1995) that educational philosophy provides a framework for teachers to think on a variety of ideas, beliefs, actions and educational matters which guide them. Heimlich and Norland (1994) expressed that teachers’ beliefs about how learning and teaching should contribute to their skills.

  1. Teachers who knows their beliefs, regulate their behaviors and balance the two skills gain the experience of freedom; furthermore, explore experiences that they have never lived before, reflect these experiences, practice and improve them (Fritz, 2008).
  2. The philosophy which is constructed by these views and beliefs guides the teacher in determining purposes, regulating learning-teaching settings and choosing an evaluation method (Ediger, 2000).

Educational philosophy would affect the roles of teachers and students in the classroom, how curriculum is developed and evaluated, which methods and techniques will be used and the factor of educational beliefs of teachers in society (Fritz, 2008). The philosophy undertaken determines the view for human and educational system is organized according to this view (Sönmez, 2007).

Livingston (2001) narrated from Kagan (1995), Gutek (1995) and Burbles (1989) that every classroom teacher has different views on the framework of educational facilities provided for school and students. Therefore, every teacher has an educational philosophy because “aims, behaviors, content, learning and evaluation process should be arranged according to the criteria of the adopted philosophy” (Sönmez, 2009).

In this research, it is aimed to reveal which educational philosophy the classroom teachers adopt, which teaching style they have and is there any relationship between them. In this context, the following research questions were asked: 1. What are the educational philosophies adopted by classroom teachers? 2.

Which teaching style do the classroom teachers have? 3. Is there any relationship between the educational philosophies and teaching styles of classroom teachers?The basic element of learning and teaching environments is the teacher. The teacher plans the learning and teaching process by considering the variables such as instructional purposes, students’ characteristics and physical conditions, moreover his/her own skills, teaching styles and educational philosophy or philosophies.

In this context, it is important to know about teachers’ teaching styles and educational philosophies. In general, philosophy is a field of knowledge constructed as a result of systematic, deeply and speculative thinking on the relation of human and the universe (Gutek, 2006: 2).

While Kant identifies philosophy as “a form of intellectual activity which has a claim of justifying itself based on mind”; Jasper proposes it as “being on road forever” (Arslan, 2014). Philosophy is an effort of looking at life and its problems from an overall perspective (Ornstein, 1988: 25). Ertürk (1988) defines it as process and product.

He stated that philosophy as a process is an effort to comprehend the reality and its phenomenon in its integrity by gathering and reorganizing all information. Furthermore, it is an effort to investigate the sources of information methods and values, what are they and their importance.

  1. Besides, philosophy as a product is a total of “general beliefs, principles and attitudes”, and values which philosophy as a process can form and which human uses as a decision base.
  2. Philosophy helps us to be interested in personal beliefs and values, understand who we are and the reason of our existence and to some extent where we go.

Philosophy is a total of connection process based on grounding the reality and products obtained at the end of this process (Demirel, 2005: 20). Just like philosophy is connected to all fields of science, they are connected to philosophy as well. Education is the science which has a close connection to philosophy in constructing a theoretical base and as well as in its practices.

  • According to Patel (1958), philosophy needs the clear and precise expressions of education and education needs the guidance of philosophy (DoÄŸanay and Sari, 2003).
  • Educational philosophy can be defined as a form of applied philosophy which handles education in a philosophical manner or methods (Cevizci, 2011: 11).

Educational philosophy studies the theoretical bases on which the available educational practices are based, and criticize them. Educators can only reveal and solve the strength of theoretical foundations which they strictly hold and consider the best via a philosophical approach (Fidan, 1987).

Educational philosophies can be categorized differently in terms of criteria undertaken in literature. As for a common classification, they are undertaken under four titles named “perennialism, progressivism, essentialism and reconstructivism” (Demirel, 2005; Fidan, 1987; Saylan, 2009). In “Philosophical Preferences Assessment” form which was developed by Wiles and Bondi (2007) and adapted to Turkish by DoÄŸanay and Sari (2003), there are five educational philosophies; perennialism, idealism, realism, experimentalism and existentialism.

In order to be consonant to the questionnaire, this study also examines the philosophical approaches under these five categories. Perennialism Perennialists emphasize on forming education according to certain universal realities. They think that the human nature, moral values, reality and the truth are universal phenomena (Demirel, 2005; Ercan, 2009; Fidan, 1987).

  • They claim that human nature is perennial.
  • Human beings have the ability of questioning and understanding the universal realities of nature.
  • The purpose of education is to educate reasonable people by carefully training the mind, to uncover the universal truth and to provide the accordance with eternal truth not the reality of today (Ercan, 2009; Gutek, 2006; Ornstein, 1988; Sönmez, 2007; Wiles and Bondi, 2007).

As the truth is the same everywhere, the education should be the same everywhere as well. Education is the preparation to life not a copy of the life. It is defended that the ideal one should be presented in educational settings, not the real life itself (Arslan, 2012; Demirel, 2005; Ercan, 2009; Sönmez, 2007).

  • Perennialism indicates human sciences are important as it clarifies the concepts of good, truth and beauty (Özdemir et al., 2008, 223).
  • The perennialist curriculum is subject-centered.
  • The knowledge and the expertise of teachers cannot be questioned and they are accepted as the authorities.
  • Moreover, the teacher should be the master of his/her subject and the instruction, and direct the discussion.

Instruction is mainly based on Socratic Method. The teacher should be a role model by means of oral speech, explanation and interpretation. The student will learn by imitating the teacher (Ornstein, 1988; Sönmez, 2007; Scoot, 1994). Idealism It claims that reality is closely related to idea, thought and mind rather than the earthly power.

  • According to the idealists, reality is idea, thought and soul.
  • It does not accept the scientific method as the only way for reality; but assumes intuitional thought as important as the scientific method.
  • In idealist educational philosophy, which expresses a teacher centered approach, the teacher is required to reveal the embedded knowledge in students’ subconscious and be a good role model both as morally and culturally.

The subjects are in a hierarchical order and Socratic Method is adopted. The teacher is qualified and well-donated; order, discipline and authority is a matter of fact (Cevizci, 2011; Gutek, 2006; Ornstein, 1988; Terzi et al., 2003). Realism The realists perceive the world in terms of subjects/ objects and substances.

People can understand the world via senses and logic. The source of everything is nature and formed by the rules of nature. According to realism, the purpose of education is to make people happy by furnishing them the best and the most perfect abilities. While it enlightens the students in fields of knowledge, it also aims to develop the mind which is the most important ability and power of human, and to encourage what they want in their choices, expressing themselves with a perfect potential and identify their own identities (Gutek, 2006).

In realism, which a teacher centered approach is adopted, a teacher is an instructor or educator rather than a scientist or researcher who is an expert in his/her field, and knows the maximum required truth about the field. The teacher is a professional instructor in terms of both expertise knowledge and instructional ability (Cevizci, 2011).

  1. He/she provides students to gain certain knowledge and proficiency.
  2. Students are supposed to be ready to learn the required things and be eager to make an effort (Özdemir et al., 2008: 216).
  3. Experimentalism One of the pioneers of experimentalism is John Locke.
  4. According to Locke, mind is like a white paper or blank slate that nothing is in and on before the experiment and all sources of knowledge come from observation and the data in mind as a result of the usage of senses.

In short, there is no innate knowledge in human mind and the source and tool of all kind of knowledge is the experiment (Arslan, 2012: 72). Another pioneer who comes to mind first for experimentalism is John Dewey. For Dewey, thinking and action cannot be separated and thought is incomplete without realization.

  1. Basic thinking involves the problems which a person encounters and solves by scientific method.
  2. Problem solving is as well a social process as an individual phenomenon.
  3. As sharing is more, the opportunities of development are greater as well (Gutek, 2006).
  4. Experimentalism which is based on pragmatism helps human to improve his/her environment and adaptation to environment.

It accepts change as the base of reality and assumes that education is continuously improving. The child should be active in educational settings which are organized according to his/her interests. Knowledge, which is an important tool for gaining, improving and regulation of the experiences, should be obtained with interaction and is dependent on the interests of the child.

  • The responsibility of the teacher is to guide students.
  • School should encourage students to collaborate rather than race in democratic school environments; what is more school is the most appropriate environment for learning (Demirel, 2005; Ergün, 2003; Gutek, 2006).
  • Existentialism The existentialist sees the world in terms of personal subjectivity.

Goodness, truth and reality are individually defined. Reality is a world of existing, truth is subjectively chosen and goodness is a matter of freedom (Wiles and Bondi, 2007: s.45). The basic foundation of existentialist philosophy is that a person has a freedom of choice by defining him/herself (Gutek, 2006: 133).

Existentialists give importance to human. In existentialism, education is an activity which provides an individual to experience success, failure, ugliness, beauty, struggle and pain without exaggerating but honestly (Sönmez, 2007, 81). Education should enable a person to identify his/herself with his/her real characteristics.

In teacher-students interaction, the responsibility of the teacher is to help students to learn and know themselves (Fidan, 1987; Wiles and Bondi, 2007). According to Alkan (1983), a good existentialist teacher does not aim to train copy personalities.

He/she tries to balance the content and student, and be sensible to students. An existentialist teacher makes an effort for three purposes: processing the content, mind’s functioning independently and creating a belief about reality for students ( ArslanoÄŸlu, 2012). Change in school environments would be embraced as both a natural and necessary phenomenon.

Nonschooling and an individually determined curriculum would be a possibility (Wiles and Bondi, 2007: s.45). The subject matter of education and philosophy is human. The viewpoint for human can affect all the components of education. In other words, human is handled and education is organized according to this viewpoint (Sönmez, 2009).

  • Teacher employs an educational philosophy when he/she starts to think on concepts and knowledge of human nature and society (Gutek, 2006).
  • Educational philosophy is a discipline of philosophy which discusses education, and questions and solves the concepts and practices of education ( Cevizci, 2011: 11).

Educational philosophy helps the educator and the teachers to comprehend education with its all aspects. The meaning and the importance of educational practices can only be possible by a clear thinking system that the philosophy provides (Fidan, 1987).

Additionally, philosophy provides a structure and a base for organizing school and classroom settings for educators. It helps to understand what the schools are for, which subjects are valuable, how the students learn and which methods and strategies are used (Demirel, 2005). Teaching styles have a key role to organize the learning and teaching process as a reflection of educational philosophy adopted by the teacher (Gencel, 2013: 644).

Grasha (1994, 2002)I who explains learning and teaching process as an interaction between students and teachers, which defines teaching styles as the continuity and consistency of teachers’ behaviors and approaches in this process; and moreover a personal model that the requirements, beliefs and behaviors of the teachers construct.

  1. According to Dunn (1979), teaching styles are attitudes and behaviors of teachers towards instructional programs, methods, settings and equipment.
  2. Fisher and Fisher (1979) define teaching styles as instructional behaviors which a teacher consistently displays in teaching process.
  3. How the teacher presents knowledge in learning and teaching process, how they interact with students and their behaviors about students’ socialization are all the reflections of their teaching styles (Üredi, 2007).

In addition, a teaching style refers to how the teacher behaves with students while teaching, not who the teacher is. For instance, how a teacher asks questions, how he/she uses his/her voice, how he/she addresses the students, how he/she makes exams, how he/she moves inside the classroom and presents his/her ideas.

These are all observable behaviors of teachers, not the personal qualifications such as IQ (Hyman and Rosoff, 1984). In literature, teaching styles are classified differently such as; instructor, problem solver, consultant (Broudy, 1972); the behaviorist, the structualist, the functionalist, the humanist (Bromstrom, 1975); field-dependent, field-independent (Witkin, 1979); task-oriented, cooperative planner, child centered, subject centered, learning centered, emotionally exiting (Fischer 1979); educational philosophy, student preferences, instructional planning, student groupings, room design, teaching environment, teaching characteristics, teaching methods, evaluation techniques (Dunn 1979); concrete-sequential, abstract-sequential, abstract-random, concrete-random (Butler, 1984); the command style, the practice style, the reciprocal style, the self-check style, the inclusion style, the guided discovery style, the convergent discovery style, the divergent discovery style, the learner-designed individual program style, the learner-initiated style, the self-teaching style (Mosston and Ashworth, 1986); the information processing models, the personal models, the social-interaction models, the behavior modification models (Joyce and Weil, 1986); expert, provider, facilitator, enabler (Heimlich and VanTilburg, 1990); directive, authoritative, tolerant and authoritative, tolerant, uncertain and tolerant, uncertain and aggressive, repressive, drudging (Brekelmans, Levy and Rodirguez, 1993); disseminator-transmitter, lecturer-dramatist, inducer/persuader, inquirer/catalyst, facilitator/ guide (Reinsmith, 1994); assertive, suggestive, collaborative, facilitative (Quirk, 1994); expert, formal authority, personal, facilitator, delegator (Grasha, 1996); teacher-oriented, student-oriented (Levine, 1998); planner, formal, ongoing, attractive (Evans, 2004) (Altay, 2009: 47).

As the “teaching style” instrument which was developed by Grasha (1996) was used in this research, the teaching styles are examined in five categories: Expert: He/she has the required experience and knowledge for the students. He/she pays attention to preserve his/her status as an experienced person who develops his/her students’ abilities and present his/her extended knowledge.

He/she is interested in knowledge transfer and training better students. Formal authority: In terms of his/her knowledge and role, he/she is like a college teacher for his/her students. He/she has a characteristic that has his/her own rules, expectations and purposes, reinforces students depending on the situation and does not hesitate to give negative feedback under any unwilling circumstances.

Personal: He/she believes in instruction of personal examples, constructing a basic model about how they should be thought and behave. He/she encourages students to follow their way, supervise them on what they should do, guides and manages them. Facilitator: He/she emphasizes teacher-student relationship as a very natural personal characteristic.

  1. His/her guidance and course management is to ask questions, to develop choices, to present alternatives, to encourage students about developing the scientific criteria that they have constructed.
  2. His/her main purpose is to develop students’ performance which is for initiative and responsibility in their personal activities.
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Delegator: He/she is interested in improving the students’ capacity by independently doing his/her responsibility. In the courses of teachers who have this style, students study independently in projects or as a part of independent teams. The teacher interferes when the students ask them as a source person.

  • Teaching style refers to distinctive properties which is consistent in time and transferred from situation to situation (Fischer 1979).
  • According to Heimlich and Norland (1994) teaching style includes philosophical practices in which there are attitudes, values, beliefs, teaching and all elements in students’ change (Fries, 2012).

Fritz (2008) quoted from Kauchak and Eggen (2011) and Elias and Merrium (1995) that educational philosophy provides a framework for teachers to think on a variety of ideas, beliefs, actions and educational matters which guide them. Heimlich and Norland (1994) expressed that teachers’ beliefs about how learning and teaching should contribute to their skills.

  • Teachers who knows their beliefs, regulate their behaviors and balance the two skills gain the experience of freedom; furthermore, explore experiences that they have never lived before, reflect these experiences, practice and improve them (Fritz, 2008).
  • The philosophy which is constructed by these views and beliefs guides the teacher in determining purposes, regulating learning-teaching settings and choosing an evaluation method (Ediger, 2000).

Educational philosophy would affect the roles of teachers and students in the classroom, how curriculum is developed and evaluated, which methods and techniques will be used and the factor of educational beliefs of teachers in society (Fritz, 2008). The philosophy undertaken determines the view for human and educational system is organized according to this view (Sönmez, 2007).

  • Livingston (2001) narrated from Kagan (1995), Gutek (1995) and Burbles (1989) that every classroom teacher has different views on the framework of educational facilities provided for school and students.
  • Therefore, every teacher has an educational philosophy because “aims, behaviors, content, learning and evaluation process should be arranged according to the criteria of the adopted philosophy” (Sönmez, 2009).

In this research, it is aimed to reveal which educational philosophy the classroom teachers adopt, which teaching style they have and is there any relationship between them. In this context, the following research questions were asked: 1. What are the educational philosophies adopted by classroom teachers? 2.

  1. Which teaching style do the classroom teachers have? 3.
  2. Is there any relationship between the educational philosophies and teaching styles of classroom teachers? As quantitatively designed, this research is a model of survey in terms of determining the educational philosophies and teaching styles of classroom teachers, in other words, searching and explaining the existing situation.

It is a general survey model because it foretells and generalize about the universe in the light of data gathered, and a relational survey model because it examine the relationship between the educational philosophies and teaching styles of teachers.

Participants The study group has volunteered 301 classroom teachers who teach the 1 st, 2 nd, 3 rd and 4 th classes in primary schools. Of the participants, 112 are male and 189 are female.45 teachers have the seniority of 1-10 years, 77 of them 11-20 years, 130 of them 21-30 years and 49 of them 30 years and above.

Instruments As a data collection tool, for philosophical views of classroom teachers “Philosophical Preferences Assessment” form which was developed by and adopted to Turkish by DoÄŸanay and Sari (2003) was used. As a 5 likert type and 40 items questionnaire, it has an inter reliability coefficient of 0.81.

The items 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 31, 34 and 37 indicate perennializm; 9, 11, 19, 21, 24, 27, 29 and 33 indicate idealism; 4, 7, 12, 20, 22, 23, 26 and 28 indicate realism; 2, 3, 14, 17, 25, 35, 39 and 40 indicate experimentalism, and 1, 5, 16, 18, 30, 32, 36 and 38 indicate existentialism. For every philosophical view, the lowest score is 8, the highest score is 40.

In research, the philosophical view which has the highest scores is accepted to determine the classroom teachers’ philosophies. The other instrument is Teaching Style Questionnaire which was developed by Gracha and Reichmann (1994) and adopted to Turkish by SaritaÅŸ and Süral (2010).

  1. As a five likert type and 40 item questionnaire, it has five dimensions every one of which has eight items.
  2. In the adaptation study, Pearson correlation coefficient of the questionnaire was found to be,80, and Cronbach alpha was,87.
  3. The items 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, 31 and 36 indicate expert; 2, 7, 13, 17, 22, 27, 32 and 37 indicate formal authority; 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, 28, 33 and 38 indicate personal; 4, 9, 14, 19, 24, 29, 29, 34 and 39 indicate facilitator; and 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 indicate delegator teaching styles.

Gracha defines teaching styles as “low”, “medium” and “high”. In the process of data analysis and determination of teaching styles, a program on the web site was used (http://www.iats.com/publications/GLSI.html). The data was entered to the program and all scores belonging to five teaching styles were calculated in the levels of “low”, “medium” and “high”.

In this research, high levels were considered to determine the teaching styles of teachers. Data analysis In order to determine the educational philosophies and teaching styles of classroom teachers, frequency and percentage were used, and correlation analysis was used for the relationship between educational philosophies and teaching styles This research is aimed at revealing the educational philosophies adopted by classroom teachers, teaching styles that they have and the relationship between the two variables.

The following findings were reached in terms of these purposes. Educational philosophies adopted by classroom teachers Educational philosophies that the classroom teachers adopt were displayed in Table 1. Of the teachers, 51.1% adopt experimentalism, 16.2% adopt idealism, 12.9% adopt existentialism, 12.6% adopt realism and 6.9% adopt perennialism. Teaching styles adopted by classroom teachers Table 2 displays the teaching styles that the classroom teachers have. Majority of teachers (54.8%) have facilitator teaching style. Of the teachers, 19.6% have delegator, 17.6% have expert, 4.7% have personal and 3.3% have formal authority teaching style respectively. Relationship between educational philosophies and teaching styles of classroom teachers The third research question is “Is there any relationship between the educational philosophies adopted by classroom teachers and their teaching styles?” To answer this question, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was conducted in order to determine whether the variables were normally distributed.

  • According to the findings, all variables have higher than,05 p values, and this indicates that they have a normal distribution.
  • Correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between the variables.
  • Correlation coefficient’s being 1.00 stands for an excellent positive relation; -1.00 stands for an excellent negative relation; 0.00 shows that there is no relation.

In interpretation of correlation coefficient in terms of magnitude, there are not exactly common intervals; however, it should be noted that the following limits can frequently be used in interpretation of correlation. The correlation coefficient’s being between 0.70-1.00 as an absolute value can be described as high level relation; its being between 0.70-0.30 can be described as medium level relation, its being lower than 0.30 and can be described as a low-level relation (Büyüköztürk, 2004). Examining Table 4, there is a significant relationship between the educational philosophies and teaching styles of teachers. Considering the teaching styles of teachers who adopt perennialist philosophy, the highest level of relationship is with authoritarian teaching style (r=0.479).

  1. Accordingly, there is a medium level of positive relationship between perennialism and authoritarian teaching style.
  2. The significant relationship between perennialism and authoritative teaching style (p= 0.000) supports this relation, as well.
  3. The highest level of association with teaching styles of teachers who adopt idealism is the style of formal authority (r= 0.512).

In this respect, there is a medium and positive relationship between the educational philosophy of idealism and authoritarian teaching style. The significant relationship between idealism and authoritative teaching style (p= 0.000) supports this relation, as well.

  1. As for the teachers who adopt realism, the highest level of relation is also with authoritative teaching style (r= 0.578).
  2. So the educational philosophy of realism is moderately and positively connected to the teaching style of formal authority.
  3. The significant relationship between realism and authoritative teaching style (p= 0.000) supports this relation, as well.

Considering the teaching styles of teachers who adopt experimentalist philosophy, the highest level of relationship is with personal teaching style (r=0.571). There is a medium and positive relationship between experimentalism and personal teaching style. The significant relationship between experimentalism and personal teaching style (p= 0.000) supports this relation, as well. The teachers adopting existentialism have the highest level of relation with facilitator teaching style (r= 0.579).

Thereby, there is a medium and positive relationship between existentialism and facilitator teaching style. The significant relationship between existentialism and facilitator teaching style (p= 0.000) supports this relation, as well. As for the educational philosophies of classroom teachers, they adopt experimentalism, idealism, exis-tentialism, realism and perennialism respectively.

This finding is consistent with the findings of other studies that are DoÄŸanay and Sari (2010), Kanatli and Schreglman (2014), Duman (2008), Çoban (2002), Aslan (2014), Livingston et al. (2001). Student-centered approach is at the focus of experimentalism and existentialism.

  • Findings indicate that teachers adopt a student-centered approach, have the perspective which gives students the opportunity of constructing their own knowledge, encourages them to search and investigate.
  • The ongoing primary school curriculum also refers to the teacher properties as guiding the learning and teaching process and training students as individuals that search, question, wonder and be interested in their environments (Yetkin and DaÅŸcan, 2010).

As for the teaching styles of classroom teachers, they have facilitator, delegator, expert, personal and formal authority teaching styles respectively. Grasha (1996) classified the teaching styles as teacher-centered, student-centered and both teacher and student centered.

  1. Authoritarian and expert teachers are teacher-centered; facilitator and delegator teachers are student-centered; and personal teachers are both teacher and student centered.
  2. Findings point out majority of teachers has student-centered teaching styles.
  3. This is supported by the findings of many other research such as Maden (2012), Üredi (2011), Bilgin and Bahar (2008), Efilti and Çoklar (2013), Åžentürk and Ä°kikardeÅŸ (2011), SaracalioÄŸlu et al.

(2010), Süral (2013), Lucas (2005), Labillois (2015), Lester Short (2001), Larenas et al. (2011). Findings suggested that most of the teachers have convenient teaching styles indicated in the primary school curriculum. On the other hand findings also reveal that they have expert and formal authority teaching styles meaning that 21% of the teachers have teacher-centered teaching styles.

  1. Mendoza (2004), Faruji (2012) and SaracaloÄŸlu et al.
  2. 2010) also found that teachers prefer teacher-centered styles more.
  3. Constructivist approach was adopted in curricula during the reform process in 2004-2005 academic years, and the reflection of this approach is observed in the research results.
  4. According to the constructivist approach, teacher guides the learning and teaching process, organizes the learning environment and plans the evaluation activities (Postlethwaite, 1993).

The constructivist teacher is not the authority but an observer in the classroom (ÅžaÅŸan, 2002). Majority of teachers adopts students-centered approach. Being in the transition and improvement process, the 21% of the teachers still adopt a teacher-centered perspective.

Their teaching styles are thought to change in time. For the third research question, the relationship between the educational philosophies and teaching styles of classroom teachers was analyzed. Findings indicate a significant relationship between the educational philosophies that the teachers adopt and teaching styles of them.

Teachers who adopt “perennialism, idealism and realism” have a medium and positive relationship with the authoritarian teaching style. Moreover, these three educational philosophies are associated to “expert and personal” teaching styles. In perennialist, idealist and realist philosophies, a teacher is well-trained, expert in his/her field, an authority and a professional instructor.

Therefore, he/she is at the centre of learning and teaching environments. Teachers are also masters of the subject in authoritarian and expert teaching styles, and they prefer a teacher-centered perspective in learning and teaching environments. Findings also suggest that teachers adopting “experimentalism” are related to the teaching styles of “personal” and “facilitator and delegator” in a moderate level.

In experimentalism, the responsibility of the teacher is to guide the students. Students are supposed to be active participants and interact in learning and teaching environments. In this respect, the teacher is required to conduct strategies, methods and techniques which focus on student.

  • Similarly, teachers having personal, facilitator and delegator teaching styles guide students according to their interests, encourage them to take responsibilities and take part in projects individually or in group, and consult teacher when they need.
  • Under these circumstances, students should be encouraged to be active and at the centre of the learning and teaching process.

Teachers who adopt the educational philosophy of “existentialism” have a medium level of relationship with “delegator, facilitator and personal” teaching styles. In experimentalism, human is valued and teacher cares about not training monotype students.

  • Instructional activities should give the opportunity of finding the truth and choosing the realities by presenting various choices to the students (Fidan, 1987).
  • Students are at the centre.
  • Likewise, teachers having facilitator, delegator and personal teaching styles arrange learning and teaching environments and guide the students from a student-centered perspective.

There is a medium and low level of relationship between the educational philosophies and teaching styles according to the findings. Grasha (1996, 2002a) observed the classroom experiences of teachers and found that teachers may have more than one teaching styles.

According to the research of Grasha (1994, 1996, 2002, and 2003), he categorized the teaching style groups of teachers into four: expert/formal authority; personal/expert/formal authority; facilitator/ personal/expert; delegator/facilitator/expert. According to these categories, the expert teaching style appears in all groups.

Although, the teachers locate the students at the centre and encourage them to be active, there may be some cases that they should transfer something. At least, they present their own knowledge and then guide the students. Findings of the existing research are also supported by the research of Fritz (2008) and Fries (2012).

Fritz (2008) found that teachers prefer behaviorist approach in their teaching styles. In the study conducted by Fries (2012), participants adopt progressivism most and have the collaborative and student-centered teaching styles. Snyder (2006) studied with two teachers and found that while one of the teachers adopt student-centered philo-sophy and teaching style, the other one adopt student-centered philosophy but teacher-centered teaching style.

Classroom teachers adopt experimentalist philosophy in general and have the facilitator teaching style. That means they have a student-centered perspective in learning and teaching environments. The positive reflections of constructivist approach which has been implemented in primary schools can be observed in this respect.

Nevertheless, there are still teachers who have teacher-centered teaching styles and are authoritarian since the implementation of this program for 11 years. In-service trainings can focus on the awareness of this issue. After primary schools, constructivist approach has been reflected to elementary and high school curricula as well.

Future research might be conducted in these levels of education. The author has not declared any conflict of interests.
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What is a real life example of idealism?

idealistically When you’re idealistic, you dream of perfection, whether in yourself or other people. For example, you might have the idealistic goal of bringing an end to childhood poverty in the world. The adjective idealistic describes someone whose plans or goals of helping others are lofty, grand, and possibly unrealistic.

Do you think world peace is within reach? You’re idealistic. If your vision of the world is idealistic, you believe all problems can be solved and that all people can reach their full potential. Idealistic comes from the Greek idea, or “ideal prototype.” DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘idealistic’,

Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors. Send us feedback EDITOR’S CHOICE
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What is the problem with idealism?

The Problem with Idealism A unique feature that differentiates humans from animals is our capability to look forward, plan and dream of the future. Our imagination has enabled humanity to idealise (and realise) the building of the Great Pyramids, mechanical flight past our atmosphere and the World Wide Web.

We learn of visionaries when we’re young and depending on our capabilities (or not) we seek to emulate them. However, there is a deep seated problem with Idealism. The aspirational society that (post-)modernity has nurtured has heightened our own beliefs — and for many these goals are unrealistic. The present-day narrative we teach our children is that the “world’s our oyster,” and that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it irrespective of physical and mental limitations.

This sense of optimism compared to the pessimism of the mid-20th century that our parents experienced has beget a population skewing towards type As hell-bent on success. Our parents were children of stricter career stereotypes i.e. bakers beget bakers, doctors beget doctors, etc.

  1. They were somewhat satisfied with not keeping up with the Jones’ or aspiring to be someone their parents’ were not.
  2. But our generation are reminded constantly of the social mobility that breaks down these preconceptions.
  3. Our modern generations are told to pursue things until we achieve them.
  4. That achievement of a goal is not about whether you have the skill or not, but actually how much harder you try than the person in second place.

Unfortunately, it has contributed to our problem psyche today. By dreaming and aspiring, we often proceed on an onerous elevation of said goal beyond its real value. That is, we put goals on a pedestal. We make inferences about the happiness that its attainment will bring and we anticipate it even before we come near to realising it.

  • However, such an anticipatory mental state can be self-defeating.
  • Due to our fascination with goal-driven success we have a converse fear of failure.
  • As we elevate our Idealism to greater heights the damage from the fall is even greater.
  • And yet as a remediation to this uncomfortable failure we are told to keep busy, move on, try harder, etc.

What I’ve come to realise, especially as a medic, is that we haven’t been taught to be comfortable in that feeling of failure. Life includes realisation of successes to bolster our own self-esteem, but what many don’t realise is that attainment of high self-esteem is actually a recent invention borne out of modern consumerism.

Present-day society must require us to embrace failure too. What we must learn is to process this failure as a part of normal life and that it is not a bad thing. The problem with Idealism is that at some point it has to be juxtaposed with true nature of reality. And not many are able to deal with the here and now, but would rather continue dreaming to escape.

: The Problem with Idealism
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What is the weakness of idealism in education?

Obviously, some of the types of idealism in the above classifications conflict with one another. For example, spiritual monism and spiritual pluralism are opposite types; personalism rejects absolute idealism; and atheistic spiritual pluralism is in sharp conflict with theistic spiritual pluralism.

Those and other debatable issues kept idealists in dialogue with each other, but each type tended to preserve itself. Over against those internal disputes stand the criticisms of the anti-idealists. The wide-ranging American realist Ralph Barton Perry, for example, admitted that the primary approach of all philosophers to the problem of ultimate reality must be through their own thought, using their own ideas; but that is a human predicament that was unjustifiably exploited by the idealists, according to Perry, and turned into the “fallacious” esse est percipi argument.

The famous “Refutation of Idealism” prepared by the meticulous Cambridge philosopher G.E. Moore and a similar refutation by Russell rest upon the distinction between a subject’s act of perceiving and the perceptual object of this act, which they both called a ” sense datum,” They claimed that Berkeley’s esse est percipi argument is vitiated by his failure to make this distinction.

Logical positivism claimed that a basic weakness in idealism is its incompatibility with the verifiability principle, according to which a proposition is meaningful only if it can in principle be verified (or falsified) through sense experience. So-called ordinary-language philosophy attacked idealism by making a detailed analysis of its more technical terms in an effort to prove that they are full of ambiguities and double meanings.

Critics also severely attacked the ontological and the mystical arguments for idealism. In the 19th century, Karl Marx and his followers borrowed and adapted the dialectical argument of Hegel and used it effectively to develop dialectical materialism, an archenemy of all idealisms.

Marxism posed a formidable opposition to idealism in the 20th century. Idealists considered all of the foregoing criticisms to be external. Instead of answering them in detail, some idealists preferred to challenge the critics to make genuinely constructive efforts to build an adequate substitute for idealism—a system to be reached by seriously working at the problems from within philosophy.

To produce such a substitute would require careful reconsideration of the arguments of at least some of the above idealistic systems. Although it is now on the wane, at least in Western culture, the great idealist tradition has survived many other historical periods of turmoil and has often been reborn in prolonged periods of settled and peaceful social conditions.

Will it rise again? Only the future holds the answer. But idealism shows evidence of being, perhaps, a reflection of some permanent aspect of the human spirit, and it may then be a perennial philosophy. In any case, it seems highly unlikely that such a rich heritage of philosophical thought will vanish entirely.

Daniel Sommer Robinson The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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How do you implement idealism in the classroom?

In the idealist classroom, he or she introduce people also known as guest speakers to share their own experiences and story of success. Having a role model for the students is one of the main content of idealist set up classroom. For the learners to be inspired. To strive to be as perfect as their role models.
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What type of curriculum is preferred in idealism?

Idealism & Curriculum Idealism is a philosophy developed by Plato. One of the many tenets of idealism is that truth can be found through reasoning, intuition, and divine revelation. There is such as thing as absolute truth and the world is composed of ideas primarily.

For curriculum, idealist concepts come through when people believe that learning is mostly an intellectual process. connects ideas together when teaching the students. The education is highly structured and one of the best examples of this is the liberal arts education. The humanities are viewed as the most important subjects because these fields deal with ideas.

The sciences are lower on the scale because they deal with observation. Many famous educators supported idealism. Among them includes William Harris, Fredrich Froebel, and William Bennett. A more detailed analysis of is available : Idealism & Curriculum
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What is idealism summary?

idealism, In metaphysics, the view that stresses the central role of the ideal or the spiritual in the constitution of the world and in mankind’s interpretation of experience. Idealism may hold that the world or reality exists essentially as spirit or consciousness, that abstractions and laws are more fundamental in reality than sensory things, or, at least, that whatever exists is known to mankind in dimensions that are chiefly mental—that is, through and as ideas.

  1. Metaphysical idealism asserts the ideality of reality; epistemological idealism holds that in the knowledge process the mind can grasp only its own contents.
  2. Metaphysical idealism is thus directly opposed to materialism, and epistemological idealism is opposed to realism,
  3. Absolute idealism ( see G.W.F.

Hegel ) includes the following principles: (1) the everyday world of things and persons is not the world as it really is but merely as it appears in terms of uncriticized categories; (2) the best reflection of the world is in terms of a self-conscious mind; (3) thought is the relation of each particular experience with the infinite whole of which it is an expression; and (4) truth consists in relationships of coherence between thoughts, rather than in a correspondence between thoughts and external realities ( see coherentism).
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What is realism in simple terms?

1. a tendency to face facts and be practical rather than imaginative or visionary.2. the picturing in art and literature of people and things as they really appear to be, without idealizing. see also naturalism.
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