Transcript Locke/Rousseau

John
Locke
UFC:
vs.
A RESEARCH STUDY
CONDUCTED BY:
SHELBY PARKER
&
SARAH WILLINGHAM
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau
Question
IS THERE A DOMINANT
PHILOSOPHY OF LEARNING
AND EDUCATION
EMBEDDED IN TODAY’S
SCHOOLS?
Hypothesis
A MONTESSORI SCHOOL WILL REFLECT
ROUSSEAU’S PHILOSOPHY OF LEARNING
AND EDUCATION.
AND
A TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL WILL
REFLECT A COMBINATION OF LOCKE AND
ROUSSEAU’S PHILOSOPHIES.
Objectives
Investigate the ideas of John Locke and Jean Jacques
Rousseau
 Identify common themes found between their
philosophies
 Compare and contrast common themes
 Observe children, educators and the environment in a
classroom
 Analyze the collected information
 Determine which theorist’s principles are dominant in
contemporary education environments.

John
Locke
August 29, 1632 –
The Empiricist
(Physician and Philosopher)
 At 14, he entered Westminster School.
October 28, 1704
 In 1652, he attended Christ Church, in
A.K.A
The Father of
Learning Theory
Oxford where he received his B.A and
M.A
 He never married and had no children.
Primary Text:
Some Thoughts
Concerning Education
&
An Essay Concerning
Human Understanding
 Thoughts on knowledge: derives from
external world
The Rationalist
(Philosopher)
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau
June 28, 1712 –
July 2, 1778
A.K.A
 He received no formal education past the
age of 13.
 In 1732, he began to self-educate.
The Father of
Developmental Psychology
 He had one son, and possibly 4 other
Primary Text:
 Thoughts on knowledge: derives from
Emile
children, but he gave them all away.
innate ideas and nature’s inner
promptings.
Common Themes

Purpose of Education

Role of Child

Role of Educator

Educational Environment

Rewards and Punishments

Curiosity

Innate Ideas
Common Themes
John Locke
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Purpose of Education
Self Control, Socializing Process,
Formation of Character
Personal Developmental Process, in
accordance with biological timetable
Role of Child
A blank slate for the educator to
write on. His mind is
impressionable.
Learns in accordance with biological
timetable, result of internal
influences
Role of Educator
Develop their pupils’ natural
capacities to their limit.
Truthful, hands off, does not make
any attempt to affect child’s
decisions.
Educational
Environment
Social settings where children learn
by associations, repetition, and
imitation. Here they gain
experiences.
Removal of child from society, child
follows innate curiosity and desire to
learn
Rewards and
Punishments
Praise and flattery as rewards and
disapproval as punishments.
Children experience the natural
consequences of his own acts or
behavior
Curiosity
A child’s curiosity should be
directed by education.
A child’s natural curiosity should
guide its educational process.
Innate Ideas
No innate ideas, tabula rasa, ideas
derive from experiences
Knowledge derives from innate
reason and ideas
Purpose of Education
Montessori School
 The focus is on the child’s
making the conscious decision
to decide what subject they
want to focus on. It is the focus
of the child’s decision making
and will power to pursue the
activities he or she desires.
ROUSSEAU
Public School
 During their math lesson, the
students were learning in order
to solve problems in everyday
life.
 The lesson plan placed
emphasis on connecting the
activities to something in
reality.
 Main goal: to be able to solve
real life problems.
LOCKE
Role of Child
Montessori School
 When a child finished a project, he





cleaned it up and chose a new
project.
The children are allowed to talk
freely.
The majority of the children work
diligently.
All extremely eager to answer
questions.
Use each other as a scaffold to learn.
As time went on, interactions
between the children became more
social.
The children were directing each
other on how to sit around the
carpet, to get into a circle.
LOCKE & ROUSSEAU
Public School
 Children were often told to be
quiet.
 One student was helper of the
day. He/she would pass out
papers and pencils.
 The children need some
prompting from the teacher to
start and complete their work.
 The children would assist the
teacher in answering the warmup questions.
LOCKE
Role of Educator
Public School
Montessori School
 Teacher promoted children to
work.
 Teacher called up two children at
a time. She appeared to be giving
them some sort of skill
assessment.
 When the learning was directed
by the teacher the group was
much louder, as if they were
trying to compete with each other
to get to the right answer.
 Teacher leaves open ended
questions yet directs them to the
answer through visual tools and
carefully stated questions.
LOCKE & ROUSSEAU
 For the first 15-20 minutes the




teacher didn’t say much to the
students, it seemed like they were
rather independent.
Teacher asked guiding questions.
Teacher made sure the students
stayed on track.
Teacher was the center of focus
as she went over the warm-up
worksheet with the students.
Teacher kept controlled pace of
activities. “C’mon lets get started”
LOCKE
Educational Environment: Montessori
Educational Environment: Public School
Educational Environment
Public School
Montessori School
 Child centered room there is no
front of the room the tables
aren’t directed in any certain
direction.
 Child treat environment well.
Close doors to bathrooms, turn
off lights and wash hands all
without any prompting.
 Five stations some children are
at the tables. Some children
working on the floor.
 Everything is child size.
ROUSSEAU
 The white board was the center,






focus of the room.
Chairs and desks were child sized.
Desks were set up in groups of four.
Every wall was covered with visual
learning aids.
There were lockers in the back of the
classroom for students to keep their
personal belongings.
There was a reading loft and library.
Different materials were placed
throughout the classroom for the
students to use at appropriate times.
LOCKE
Rewards and Punishments
Montessori School
 One boy said to another, “I like
your work area!” He answered
enthusiastically: “Thank you!”
 Teacher: “I’m impressed!” verbal
affirmations
 Students were talking – teacher
threated that if they continued to
talk, they’d have to get back to
work.
 Teacher made an announcement
that everyone must get back to
their seats, but the students
didn’t listen, so she turned off the
light to “warn” them.
LOCKE
Public School
 During a math game, who ever
won received a piece of candy.
 If the children did something
they weren’t suppose to, the
teacher would put their name
on the board.
 They competed for prizes.
 If they didn’t complete
something, they would have to
continue to work on it while
others got to move on to more
exciting activities.
LOCKE
Curiosity
Montessori School
 The children were initially intrigued
by our presences. They occasionally
glanced at us but then immediately
return to their activities. The teacher
did not say anything to the students
when they were obviously curious
about us.
 One child asked if “Christopher
learned capital letters?” to another
child, because he has to learn “those
things first” in order to learn his
capital letters.
 One girl made rounds of the room, in
order to see what others are doing.
ROUSSEAU
Public School
 The children were curious
about us, but the teachers told
them to stop paying attention
to us.
 They asked a lot of random
questions that the teacher
wouldn’t answer if they strayed
from the topic.
 The teacher gave the children
math manipulatives and
allowed them to do what they
wanted with them.
LOCKE & ROUSSEAU
Winners
Montessori School
Public School
ROUSSEAU
LOCKE
5 Rousseau
3 Locke
6 Locke
1 Rousseau
Hypothesis
A MONTESSORI SCHOOL WILL REFLECT
ROUSSEAU’S PHILOSOPHY OF LEARNING
AND EDUCATION.
AND
A TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL WILL
REFLECT A COMBINATION OF LOCKE AND
ROUSSEAU’S PHILOSOPHIES.
Conclusion
Our hypothesis was false.
The Montessori school exhibited nearly an even number of
Locke and Rousseau principles. Whereas the traditional
public school was Locke dominant.
Public
School
Montessori
School
Locke
Rousseau
(Nurture)
(Nature)
Further Questions
to be Explored
HOW DO CHILDREN CONDITIONED TO A
CERTAIN ENVIRONMENT ACT IF THEY ARE
PLACED IN A DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT?
IS ONE ENVIRONMENT BETTER THAN THE
OTHER?
DO PARENTS CHOOSE CERTAIN
ENVIRONMENTS FOR THEIR CHILDREN
ACCORDING TO THE NEEDS OF THE CHILD
OR ACCORDING TO THEIR OWN
PREFERENCE OF EDUCATIONAL METHOD?