CHAPTER 6: Philosophical Roots of Education
> Photo 6.1 Realist philosophy emphasizes sensory learning and organizing objects into categories such as chemistry, as these students are doing in a science class.
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Knowing (epistemology) involves two necessary and related stages: sensation and abstraction. First, the person perceives an object as his or her senses convey data about it to the person’s mind, such as color, size, weight, smell, or sound. The mind sorts these data into qualities that are always found in the object from those that are sometimes present. By identifying the necessary qualities (those always present), the learner abstracts a concept of the object and recognizes it as belonging to a certain class. This classification affirms that the object shares certain qualities with other members of the same class but not with objects of a different class (Photo 6.1). Like idealists, realists believe that a curriculum of organized, separate subjects provides the most accurate and efficient way for students to learn about reality. Organizing subject matter into categories, as scientists and scholars do, is an orderly method of classifying objects. For example, past human experiences can be organized into history. Botany studies plants systematically according to their classifications. Political organizations such as nations, governments, legislatures, and judicial systems can be grouped under political science. The realist acquires knowledge about reality through systematic inquiry into subjects like these.
Axiology For realists, certain rules should govern intelligent rational behavior. Aristotle defined humans as rational animals. Therefore, people are most human when they act in a rational way, which means to make reasonable decisions based on knowledge. From their observations of natural and social realities, people can develop theories about how nature and society function. When their decisions are made on these theories, they are behaving rationally.
Logic Realist teachers may use logic both deductively and inductively. For example, students in a botany class might examine roses that differ in color, scent, and size but conclude, through induction, that all are members of the same genus. However, when the class plants a rose garden on the school grounds as a project, the students can find information about roses in the library and on the Web and deduce the correct locations and amounts of fertilizer and water for each rose they plant.
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