This study (16 page PDF) was conducted in the Philippines and asked a number of preservice teachers what 'educational philosophies' they had. Of course we can't draw any sort of generalization from such a tiny and localized study, but I found it interesting that the author used a standardized survey instrument (adapted because three questions were not suitable to the Philippine context, which is interesting in its own right) based on a list of educational philosophies - essentialism, perennialism, progressivism, reconstructionism, and existentialism - which seemed to me idiosyncratic. Where had it come from? This list isn't a set of learning theories, which is where my focus has always been, but rather, a set of philosophies describing what should be taught, and the most authoritative source I found was Ornstein and Hunkins's book Curriculum: Foundations, Principles and Issues, which iterates the first four on the list (p. 68), and related them to schools of philosophy generally (realism, idealism, and pragmatism), with existentialism being added by others later to address the obvious gap in their list.
Today: 3 Total: 133 [Direct link] [Share]
