Understanding educational philosophies

¶ … Education Philosophies

Understanding Educational Philosophies

The notion of education refers to the learning process that continues from the time a person is born till the time of his death. Individuals engage themselves in the learning process in order to gain knowledge that can shape and contour their learning styles. Teachers and trainers in this regard play a significant role for the students that aid them in their learning process during their formal education in elementary, middle, high school and beyond (Vang, 2010).

In this regard, educational philosophy is an academic field of applied philosophy that bolsters and supports a specific vision and idea of education. The definition, objectives and significance of teaching and learning process is evaluated in the process of applied philosophy. This philosophical study of education is more like guiding principles that help the students learn about education and its related issues (Vang, 2010).

However, different educational philosophies have been developed over the course of years. Metaphysics, epistemology, axiology, and logic are the areas of philosophy that is extensively connected to the field of education (Vang, 2010).

Metaphysics is one of the branches of philosophy that focuses on the study of existence and deep nature of reality. Physically living and non-living things are learned though metaphysics that incorporates the earth, humans, space, time, cause & effect and change. Nonetheless, it has been observed that a number of diverse fields of interest are being elucidated by the concept of metaphysics that include religion, spirituality, parapsychology, astrology, meditation, reincarnation and so forth (Ornstein, Levine, Gutek & Vocke, 2010).

This means that it has immense connectivity to the field of education as it facilitates in the process of understanding of various concepts regarding the society, civilization, nation and the world on a broad spectrum. In addition, it also enhances the ability to realize the developments in religions and communities that would lead to critical and abstract thinking, thus resulting in coherent and lucid expression of perceptions in both verbal and written communication (Ornstein, Levine, Gutek & Vocke, 2010).

Epistemology is also a field of philosophy that concentrates on the theoretical study of knowledge that particularly highlights the nature, scope and downsides of knowledge. Additionally, this branch of philosophy is hypothetically related to the study of intellect science. The examination of nature of knowledge has been the aspect of arguments. Indeed, this field has remained a debatable and controversial arena with respect to its association to the ideas of truth, belief and justification (Ornstein, Levine, Gutek & Vocke, 2010).

This field of philosophy is also connected to education extensively because it enlightens the information that all the things learned during the years of schooling are not ineffective, worthless or a waste of time. In other words, epistemology addresses and concentrates on questions such as what is knowledge, how it is attained, how do people distinguish that they know and many more, which makes it essential to the field of education (Ornstein, Levine, Gutek & Vocke, 2010).

Axiology on the other hand is also a branch of philosophy that accentuates on the values of truth, accuracy, goodness, and beauty. Furthermore, the nature and types of value, such as morals, aesthetics, religion, and metaphysics are the core focal areas for this study. In other words, this field of study is related to ethics and aesthetics. Since all the human beings are different in terms of their backgrounds, thus they even think differently from one another and axiology is the science that examines and analyzes the thinking patterns of the diverse people (Ornstein, Levine, Gutek & Vocke, 2010).

This hypothetical study of values is also vital in education because it promotes the learning of moral rules, principles, ethics and values; hence it leads the individual to gain knowledge related to the good deeds and actions. With the study of axiology, the individual would become cognizant of what is right and wrong, good or bad, ethical and unethical (Ornstein, Levine, Gutek & Vocke, 2010).

Logic is considered the fourth subdivision of philosophy that is concerned with the study of arguments, reasoning and description. It is the science that evaluates and calculates the reasoning that is surrounded by valid arguments. The law and theory is the guiding principle with reference to correctness of a concept that must not breach or counteract with reality that concludes a reasoning or logic. Philosophy of language and science are the most common and widespread aspect that practice logic and arguments (Ornstein, Levine, Gutek & Vocke, 2010).

Logic is crucial and fundamental in the field of education because it is applicable to almost all the aspects of life and only the logical thinking can make the individual skillful, as it is the key to wisdom and intelligence. Moreover, understanding logic is also imperative because the reasons that follows the aspect of reality leads the individual to deal with their times of difficulties (Ornstein, Levine, Gutek & Vocke, 2010).