FED Philosophical Foundations of Education 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which educational philosophy, associated with Jean-Jacques Rousseau, emphasizes that children are naturally good and should be educated in harmony with nature?
- Perennialism
- Naturalism (Correct answer)
- Essentialism
- Reconstructionism
Correct answer: Naturalism
Rousseau's naturalism held that children are inherently good and that education should follow the child's natural development rather than imposing artificial social constraints.
Question 2: The pragmatist view of knowledge in education holds that knowledge is best understood as:
- Absolute and discovered through reason alone
- Relative and constructed through experience and problem-solving (Correct answer)
- Transmitted unchanged from teacher to student
- Fixed in religious or classical texts
Correct answer: Relative and constructed through experience and problem-solving
Pragmatism, developed by Peirce, James, and Dewey, holds that knowledge is not fixed but is constructed through active inquiry and experience.
Question 3: Which philosophical concept describes education as the process of 'drawing out' what is already within the learner?
- Indoctrination
- Socialization
- Dialectics
- Paideia (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Paideia
Paideia is the ancient Greek concept of holistic education aimed at cultivating the ideal citizen by drawing out and developing all human capacities.
Question 4: In Socratic method, learning occurs primarily through:
- Lecture and repetition
- Textbook reading and memorization
- Guided questioning and dialogue (Correct answer)
- Standardized testing
Correct answer: Guided questioning and dialogue
The Socratic method uses probing questions to encourage learners to think critically and arrive at understanding through dialogue rather than passive reception.
Question 5: Which educational philosopher argued that schools are 'great equalizers' that can overcome inequalities in society?
- Horace Mann (Correct answer)
- John Locke
- Herbert Spencer
- Ivan Illich
Correct answer: Horace Mann
Horace Mann, 19th-century education reformer, championed public common schools as 'great equalizers' that would give all children equal opportunity regardless of social class.
Question 6: Behaviorism in education, associated with B.F. Skinner, holds that learning is best achieved through:
- Introspection and self-discovery
- Reinforcement and conditioning (Correct answer)
- Socratic dialogue
- Exposure to great literature
Correct answer: Reinforcement and conditioning
Skinnerian behaviorism asserts that learning is a change in observable behavior brought about by stimulus-response conditioning and systematic reinforcement.
FED Philosophical Foundations of Education 2
Which educational philosophy, associated with Jean-Jacques Rousseau, emphasizes that children are naturally good and should be educated in harmony with nature?