Realism As a Philosophy of Education

Realism as a philosophy of education

In opposition to idealism, realism believes that the reality exists independent of the human mind and the ultimate reality is the word of physical object. Their main focus is not the idea instead they focus on the body and the object. So they depend greatly on their senses and on the scientific method.

Aristotle the student of Plato “ father of idealism” later became the father of idealism and scientific methods, he believed that the object can be understood by understanding its ultimate form which doesn’t change, so idealist considered the reality exists and can never change.

Whether or not the person is aware. A person can only comprehend it depending on the senses. Aristotle was the first to teach logic as a formal discipline and he insisted that it must be used to reason about physical aspects and events.

Realists believe that a man mind should be combined with science and common sense, to become a man of affairs, practical and always seeker of deeper and deeper truth and reality. So, to the realist education is the process by which he lifts himself up to the external.

They consider the development of mind is the part of the process of development of the word since he look to the mind as they look to any other object in this world.

“Mind is what it studies”

Aim of education:

Plato used contemplation of ideas as a way to acquire knowledge and refused the matter as an object of study while Aristotle depended on studying the matter in order to get knowledge and reach something further.

For religious realists the ultimate goal of education is to study the matter of the world, which is created by ALLAH. So the more we discover we get to know him better. Therefore the curriculum should contain practical and speculative knowledge. Thomist believes that the education is always in process and never complete. Then it’s a continuing development of the soul.

They also thought that the nature could be transcended by thoughts and that individuals could venture into higher realms of though and this kind of transcending should be the principle aim of education.

Secular realists stressed not only an understanding of the material world, but control of it as well through the development of method of rigorous inquiry.

Bacon and Locke inquire that ideas be subjected to public verification. So other ideas that are not verified must be considered only hypothesis.

Secular scientists believe that people need to know the world to use it in maintaining their survival. So, students need to know things that maintain their existence in the world and this is what is known as self preservation which is the primary fundamental aim of education. This means they place a great stress on the study of basic facts for purpose and survival and for the advancement of technology and science.

Methods of education:

Secular realists believe that facts should be taught in the schools but learning should be enjoyable and useful, in addition to teaching methods to get the fact. They believe that different components of knowledge drawn by human must be established, and they give a great concern on the effectiveness of the teacher to impact useful knowledge about the world regardless of the personality or the method of the teacher. However, the formal ways of teaching are supported by realism and they give a great value for self-realization objective and the find that it occurs best when the students are knowledgeable about the external world and this requires the direct techniques (facts and didactic), and the method should be characterized by integrity that comes from organized knowledge.

Other than the organized knowledge some realists depend widely on the “rhythmic” flow of education that is described in 3 stages:

1)      The stage of romance.

2)      The stage of precision

3)      The stage of generalization.

Although the methods of the realists care about the nature of the child and flow of experience their thinkers, these methods are hard when it comes to practice for example, Herbat’s five formal steps of learning:

1)      Preparation

2)      Presentation

3)      Association

4)      Systematization-generalization

5)      Application

Due to the belief of religious realists that knowledge should lead to thinks beyond itself such as God, the main obligation of the teacher to give the knowledge to students and help them to use it in order to reach ultimate truth.

Finally, realists also emphasize the importance of research and development.