Transcript PRAGMATISM - State University of Zanzibar

PRAGMATISM
BACKGROUND AND MEANING
BASIC ASSUMPTIONS
PRAGMATISM AND EDUCATION
Pragmatism
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It emerged in 19th century in America out of
empiricist view, that knowledge is acquired through
experience.
Philosophers: William James, Charles Pierce and J.
Dewey
A movement against traditional philosophies;
realism and idealism based on too much speculation
which is difficult to verify.
Background
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Pragmatists concentrated more on
epistemological issues.
Their emphasis was on daily practical
experiences that produce testable and
verifiable knowledge
Meaning
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Pragmatism, borrowed from Greek language and
was first used by Charles Pierce to mean ‘to make
things done’.
According to Popkin and Stroll;1981:265 taken from
William James), pragmatism is a method for solving
or evaluating intellectual problems, and a theory
about the kinds of knowledge that we are able to
acquire
Meaning
Pragmatism is concerned with:
 Evaluating and solving practical problems through
the process of thinking.
 Doing, experiencing, practicing, experimenting and
engaging in solving problems.
 In relation to epistemology it assumes that
knowledge is acquired through practice or action.
Basic assumptions
Belief in the process of change
 The universe is always in the process of
change, evolution and development.
 Nothing remains the same, fixed, static or
eternal.
 Ideas and everything else are in the process of
development.
 Truth and values are the result of evolving
human experience and knowledge
Assumptions
J. Dewey (1915):all aspects of universe can be
properly understood in terms of a continuous
state of evolution.
W. James in Kelly (1986):
 Change is the essence of reality.
 Truth is not static and unchangeable.
 It grows and develops with time.
 Human engagement in inquiries that lead to new
discoveries is the only way to cope with the
universe successfully.
 Every one should be prepared for that.
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Assumptions
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Inherent or innate knowledge in human beings is a
fallacy.
New born children are only privileged with the
physical and mental ability to allow them to
participate in the world around them and to obtain
what is relevant and meaningful.
There is no universal truth since everyone
experiences his own world and environment in his
own way at his own time in a variety of situations
Assumptions
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Truth and values are measured through
consequences of actions/practice or
experimentation.
Charles Sanders in Kelly (1986) believes that
meaning is a matter of consequences, what is
meaningful is what is useful productively.
Behavior is good if it yields good result. Our
moral actions and behavior can be judged in
that way.
Assumptions
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Truth and meaning can be judged as tentative or
hypothetical, subject to change until they are tested
through practice, experiment or experience.
J. Dewey in Kneller, G. (1971): knowledge develops
through framing and testing of hypotheses. In this
way we can attain knowledge in any field; science,
moral, political, educational or aesthetical.
Assumptions
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Interdependence of theory and practice. Ideas
are developed through practice and
experience.
Ideas are used for understanding practice, for
testing or verifying theories.
Pragmatism and education
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Goal of education: adjustment to change by
teaching democratic values, scientific ways of
problem solving and encouraging curiosity
and creativity.
Adaptation to the changing circumstances or
conditions of learners’ environment
Pragmatism and education
Curriculum:
 More concerned with the process rather than the
content, the means rather than the end of learning.
 Built around pressing and current issues, needs and
experiences of the learner, to be taught in the form of
problem solving rather than through dry subject
matter
Pragmatism and education
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Activities chosen should focus on the learner; needs,
ability, interest, experience and background
knowledge.
School activities should harmonize with learner’s
experiences outside the school.
School programmes should focus on practice,
working with problems common to the learner’s
experiences for facilitating the development of
problem solving skills.
Pragmatism and education
The teacher:
 Facilitator of learning or colleague acknowledging
learners’ ideas and their unique experiences.
 Since there is no absolute truth, learners and teachers
both need to verify the truth.
 A guide, a leader and advisor as he/she is more
experienced.
 Manager of change and a helper of learners to learn
how to learn.
Pragmatism and education
Approach: Learner-centred
Method:
 Give learners adequate freedom of choice, interact
with their environment, discover, solve problems,
use their intelligence, hypothesize, test and develop
ideas.
 Learners to practice democratic ideals; cooperation,
sharing and respecting ideas and opinions, share
materials in learning.