Formal

Descipline and
Rationalism
Ms. Mildred P. Merabite
Presenter
 Formal
Discipline Don't

...
f orget

Formal discipline / disciplinism is the theory that the mind has

a number of distinct and general powers or faculties, such as
observation, memory, and will power, which should be
strengthened by exercise.

 John Locke ( 1632-1704), an Englishman, was the

foremost champion of formal discipline.
 He advanced the idea that the mind of a child at birth is a
blank tablet, a tabula rasa, upon which are printed or
inscribed all the experiences of the child acquired through
his senses.
A.
Aims of Formal
Discipline
 1. Formation of Character. In its broadest
sense, this involves the development of the
whole man-physically, morally, and

Aims of mentally.
2. Good habit formation. To habituate pupils

Formal to think and act in effective and desirable

ways, to form specific habits through

Discipline
discipline and to develop mental capacities
through exercise in order to increase the
powers of the pupils, rather than increase
their knowledge.
 B.
Types of
Education
 Types of Education
Locke divided education into three types:

1. Physical education. This was for the vigor of the body. His formula for
good health was: “plenty of open air, exercise, and sleep, plain diet, no
wine or strong drink, and very little or no physical exercise, not too
warm and straight clothing, especially the head and the feet kept cold,
and the feet often used to cold water and exposed to wet.”

2. Moral education. This was for the development of wise conduct, good
breeding, and the control of desires by reason.

3. Intellectual education. This was to develop the mental power to

acquire knowledge, not to increase knowledge by itself.
C.
Content to Be
Studied
 Content to Be Studied
● The disciplinists has a limited curriculum. They believed that the
intellectual powers of memorizing and reasoning develop by offering
the proper kind of subject matter could be used in mastering other
subjects.

● In the elementary, drill subjects such as spelling, arithmetic, and

grammar, and later history, geography, and elementary sciences were
offered.

● In higher schools, classical languages and mathematics, English, and in

addition, drawing, geography, history, anatomy, ethics, dancing, and
practical and fine arts as hobbies were studied.
D.
Agencies of
Education
 Agencies of Education
1. The religiously motivated elementary
school
2. The humanistic secondary school
3. The humanistic college or university
4. The tutor
E.
Organization of
Grade Levels
 Organization of Grade Levels
●Elementary
●Secondary school
●College
F.
Methods of
Instruction
 Methods of Instruction
1. All methods were based on the laws of habit formation: desirable habits of
thinking and acting.

2. Drill and exercise. These were also used for habit formation.

3. Locke’s three steps in learning:

a) Sense learning. Sense learning is the basis of all learning and what are sensed
should be retained.

b) Memorizing. Sense impressions must be retained by memory because they are the
basis of reasoning. No can reason out if he has nothing in his head.

c) Reasoning. This was the fruitful result of the first two stages of learning.

4. Discipline. Discipline was very severe. Corporal punishment was used extensively.
G.
Financing
 Financing
When democratic and popular education was
advocated by the humanist reformers, pupils
were admitted free in the vernacular
elementary schools but paid fees in the
higher schools unless the schools were
endowed. Tutors were paid by the parents of
their pupils.
H.
Outstanding
Contribution to
Education
 Outstanding Contribution to
Education
Formal discipline as an educational process
is the outstanding contribution of this
educational movement to education. Even
certain subjects like mathematics, especially
geometry, were offered because of their
value in formal discipline.
 Rationalism Don't
f orget

Rationalism is the philosophical doctrine, which advocated that

reason can be a source of knowledge and that truth can best be ...
established by a process of deduction from a priori principle
independent of experience.
 The rationalist movement is usually referred to as the Age
of Reason and sometimes known as the Age of
Enlightenment.
 It was opposed to absolute to absolute monarchy (political
absolutism), to rigid social classes, to religious
authoritarianism (dogmatism), to superstition, to
unscientific views of the world, and to the doctrine of
original sin with respect to human nature.
 Rationalism Don't
f orget

The well-known rationalists were the following:

 In England, Herbert of Cherbury (1583-1648) began the ...
movement.
 In Germany, Baron Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz (1646-
1716) led the group of Christian Wolff, Gotthold Lessing,
Mosses Mendelssohn, and Hermann Reimarus.
 In the Netherlands was Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677).
 In France, Rene Descartes, who provided an exact method
of verifying truth and discovering the invariable laws of
nature, Francois Voltaire (1694-1778), and Denis Diderot
(1713-1784) who headed a group called Encyclopedists.
 A.
Aims of Rationalism
 1. Intellectual freedom. To free the individual
intellect from all repression imposed by the
shackles of religious, social, and political
authoritarianism so that the individual can think by
himself freely.

Aims of 2. Living a life guided by reason. To enable the

individual to control all aspects of his life guided

Rationalism by reason, avoiding the display of uncontrolled

passion, vulgar feeling, etc.
3. Aristocracy of intelligence. To create an
aristocracy of intelligence and talent to replace the
aristocracy of family, position, church and blood.
 B.
Types of
Education
 Types of Education
1. Aristocratic. The rationalists envisioned an
education only for upper class. They did not
believe in universal or democratic education for
the masses.
2. Intellectual training. Physical, aesthetic, and
vocational education were neglected.
3. Social education. Manners, language, and taste
were developed to the highest degree.
C.
Content to Be
Studied
 Content to Be Studied
● All things reasonable were included in the curriculum
and all unreasonable things were thrown out.

● Scientific and philosophical arguments were

emphasized.

● Content included philosophy, science, art, literature, and

social refinement, polished manners, formal etiquette,
and codes of self-interest.

● There was no religion.

D.
Agencies of
Education
 Agencies of Education
1. Secondary and higher schools. They utilized the
secondary and higher schools organized under the
humanist movement.

2. Encyclopedia. This was a compilation of all

knowledge about science and philosophy discovered
up to that time.

3. Fashionable salons. The ladies discussed in their

salons what they read in science pamphlets and leaflets
distributed.
E.
Organization of
Grade Levels
 Organization of Grade Levels
●Elementary
●Secondary school
●College
F.
Methods of
Instruction
 Methods of Instruction
1. Sense based. The rationalists believed that mental
processes were the impressions made by objects upon the
mind through the sense. So they taught by the inductive
method.
2. Application of reason. The rationalists always applied
the test of reason to every phase of activity or of life and
rejected those that did not meet the test, so they neglected
the emotional side of life, faith, and institutions. They
considered reason as the sole means of enlightenment.
G.
Financing
 Financing
Since the recipients of this
kind of education
belonged to upper class,
they paid tuition fees
H.
Outstanding
Contribution to
Education
 Outstanding Contribution to
Education
The outstanding contributions of
rationalism to education are the
training of creative thinking and
reasoning (logic) and the use of
the inductive method in making
generalizations.
Naturalism
 Naturalism Don't
f orget

Naturalism was an educational movement in Europe during the

...
eighteenth century in which the child was to be educated in accordance
with the natural laws of human development, free from all that was
artificial.
 The child had to be educated to conform with the dictates of the state,
the religious practices of the church, the ethical and moral standards
of society, good manners and right conduct, social graces, and
assimilation of the accumulated experiences of the race through
books.
 The outstanding champion of naturalism was Jean Jacques Rousseau,
a Frenchman (1712-1778). His educational ideas were set forth in
Emile (1762), one of the greatest and most influential educational
classics.
 A.
Aims of Naturalism
 1. Preservation of natural goodness and virtue. To
Rousseau, man is by nature good and virtuous.
2. Preservation of individual freedom. Rousseau
also wanted to free the individual from the

Aims of impositions of the state, the Church, and the

aristocratic society.

Naturalism 3. Creation of a new society. Another aim was to

create a new society where there should be
“simplicity, liberty, equality, and fraternity” for
all, a society in which the individual could attain
his fullest fulfillment as a natural man.
 B.
Types of
Education
 Types of Education
1. General education. Rousseau was opposed to specialization because,
according to him, this would make some men dependent upon other men.

2. Democratic and universal education. Rousseau said that education is a

natural right of all freemen and since all children are free and equal, they
should receive the same kind or type of education.

3. Moral education. Rousseau wanted to educate the child morally the

natural way, that is, the child should not be punished by other people for
his untoward acts but by the results of his acts.
 Types of Education
4. Intellectual education. Rousseau did not approve the use of books in
intellectual learning. The learner had to learn through the use of his senses.

5. Religious education. Rousseau felt that the learner should be educated

about religion only when he reached fifteen years old when he was able to
discern things about religion. He opposed to the teaching of rituals and
ceremonies.

6. Physical education. This was added by Johann Bernard Basedow who tried
to apply the theories of Rousseau and found that physical training for health
was wanting in the curriculum of Rousseau.

7. Industrialization. This was also added by Basedow for its value in motor
activity.
C.
Content to Be
Studied
 Content to Be Studied
1. Natural phenomena as perceived by the learner through his senses.

2. Counting and weighing things, measuring distances, drawing, and

singing.

3. Agriculture, carpentry, and other manual arts and uses of agricultural

and carpentry tools.

4. Arithmetic and geometry not from books but from child’s experience.

5. Astronomy and geography by observing the heavens and observing the

topography of the land.
 Content to Be Studied
6. At age fifteen, the pupil studied human institutions and relations
by visiting prisons, hospitals, and participating in group work and
other activities.

7. Also when the pupil approached maturity, he was introduced to

religion not through rituals and ceremonies but through the
conception of the logical organization and constitution of the whole
universe.

8. Women were taught only singing, dancing, embroidery and

home chores to please their men.
D.
Agencies of
Education
 Agencies of Education
1. The home (family). The parents had to handle
the education of their children at home.
2. The tutor. Tutorship was best suited to the
educational plan of Rousseau.
3. Public authorities. The schools probably were
supported by the state.
E.
Organization of
Grade Levels
 Organization of Grade Levels
Rousseau divided stages of growth into four:

1. Infancy. This is from birth to five years. The child is still incapable of right
reasoning and hence, his feelings are dominant in determining his actions.

2. Childhood. This lasts from five to twelve years. The child is still like an animal
as far as reasoning is concerned. He cannot discern what is moral and what is
immoral, and his feelings are still dominant.

3. Boyhood. The boy is like a Robinson Crusoe, and his moral reasoning is
emerging with his judgment, but his feelings are decreasing in dominance.

4. Adolescence. This is from age fifteen to twenty years. At this stage the boy
realizes that he cannot live alone, he has to associate with others. The sex urge
becomes stronger. His ability to abstract, imagine, and to reason is developing
faster.
F.
Methods of
Instruction
 Methods of Instruction
1. Child-centered. According to Rousseau, the child must be taught
according to his nature.

 According to Rousseau, the order of nature is (1) need, (2) activity,

(3) experience, (4) knowledge.

 By this method, Rousseau established three modern principles of

teaching: (1) principle of growth, (2) principle of pupil activity, (3)
principle of individualization.

2. Discipline. According to Rousseau, discipline should not be

imposed upon the child but it is the result of his own action that
should discipline him.
G.
Financing
 Financing
Since Rousseau advocated a
tutorial system, the child
must pay his tutor.
H.
Outstanding
Contribution to
Education
 Outstanding Contribution to
Education
The outstanding contribution of Rousseau to
education must be the three modern
principles of teaching: principle of growth,
principle of pupil activity, and principle of
individualization, plus the order of nature by
which the child must be educated: need,
activity, experience, and knowledge.
 Some Comments about the
Educational Ideas of Rousseau
1. The educational ideas of Rousseau are probably
good during the time of childhood.
2. Naturalism cannot be used in big classes as we
have today.
3. Only the tutorial system is adaptable to naturalism
which is very expensive way of educating
children.
Thank you!