Philosophical Foundations of Education

The word Philosophy is derived from two Greek words. They are Philo and Sophos. The former means love and the latter means wisdom. In this way, the meaning of the word philosophy is love of wisdom. 

Every perspective teacher must have his or her take on the subject of education. This opinion emerges from the knowledge of the foundations of education.

Philosophical Foundations of  Education:

·        The word education  in Latin can be derived from two words educere and educare.

·        The former means “to bring up” and the latter means “making potential, actual”.

·        The main activities of education are learning and instruction.

·        Instruction aims at learning which is changing the behavior of an individual through an interaction between the self and the environment.

·        The individual providing instructions is called an educator and the individual seeking the lesson is called an educand.

·        The relation between the educator and the educand be either unipolar, bipolar or tripolar in nature.

·        Initially, the relation is bipolar, where the educator instructs and the educand receives the instructions. This bipolar theory is proposed by Adams.

·        Over a period of time, the educand becomes independent in searching for knowledge and at this stage, the relation  becomes unipolar in nature.

·        The role of the educand reduces to that of a facilitator at this stage.

·        Another theory known as the tripolar theory was proposed by Adamson.

·        It says that the relation between the educand and the environment is of primary importance and the educator is an external factor. 

·        Bipolar theory establishes a clear relationship between the educator and the educand.

·        But, tripolar theory says that the role of the educator is that of a facilitator who creates a learning environment conducive for the educand to interact with the environment and learn successfully.

·        The ultimate aim of education is to provide learned individuals to the modern society of a nation.