The ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Socrates were the first Western thinkers to _
document whether basic knowledge about the world exists before birth or whether we accumulate it through experience
Ancient thoughts on learning were later (after plato/socrates) revived by thinkers of the European Enlightenment era (17th to 18th century) such as _ who _
John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau who continued to wonder about the influences of experience in shaping the mind
Describe Plato’s role in learning
- founded the first western institution of higher learning, the Academy, ~387 BC
- was a free place of learning that welcomed scholars and their pupils to teach and study topics that ranged from mathematics and science to philosophy and politics
- Plato was a rationalist, having the philosophical viewpoint for the existence of innate or inborn knowledge (ex. nature - suggesting that our genes have great influence on our personalities)
Plato himself studied under _ who _
the famous philosopher Socrates who developed the Socratic method of teaching and learning
describe socratic thinking + provide an alternative name for it
*dialectic approach to learning
- requires the use of questioning as its main focus
- the teacher asks open-ended questions expecting answers outside of a ‘yes or no’ response
- the student is encouraged to generate their own questions all the while co-creating a learning experience that is a shared conversation (i.e., the dialectic approach) between the teacher and student
Does the socratic thinking/dialectic approach follow an organized set of answers?
NO - This interactive form of learning has no set agenda with no expectation that the student must arrive at the same conclusion as the teacher
- Rather, the teacher guides the student to direct thinking on personal underlying beliefs and assumptions instead of accepting a single explanation that requires agreement with the teacher’s point of view
What was the name of one of Plato’s most famous students who went on to develop his own philosophy? What was the philosophy called?
Aristotle
- empiricism
- Aristotle thought that knowledge and expertise occur through direct experience with the external world (aka. nurture - environment greatly influences who we are and how we interact with the world)
Although Aristotle’s empirical approach differed from Plato’s rationalism, both supported
the use of debate, conversation, reflection, and active engagement through the dialectic method to support intellectual growth and development
What was the Roman Catholic Church’s very specific method of teaching and learning? Why?
rote memorization
- The verbatim recollection of scripture was important as divine writings could not change from their original structure and language
However, the practicalities of daily life required for much of education to occur outside of the church. Name the model used when focus increased on advancements in architecture, engineering, and other technical fields to modernize Roman cities,
the apprentice-teacher model was a better learning strategy for those studying the trades
- instead of discussions about high-level intellectual and complex ideas, characteristic of the Greek approach to learning, the focus here was on the acquisition of skills through experience and apprenticeship
The two system approach to education resulted in the Romans’ focus on preserving _ while also supporting _ through what is now called _
religious doctrine, the advancement of civil infrastructure, experiential education
The Renaissance period (insert century) brought about advancements by _. Name some influential people who were involved in this
14th - 17th century
- combining discrete disciplines into combined interdisciplinary fields
- leonardo da vinci
- michelangenlo
- nicolaus copernicus
How did Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo combine discrete fields into interdisciplenary ones?
- infused both art and medicine into painting the human form by illustrating the anatomically accurate location and structure of muscles and tendons
- other artists used optics principles from physics to accurately depict depth and space in two dimension
In the science fields, what did Nicolaus Copernicus combine?
astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) combined mathematics with astronomy to record the movements of planets and stars. His approach laid the foundation for direct observation as a critical component for both scientific discovery and science education.
Similar to Platos’ free Academy, theologian _ advocated for accessible education. What did this help lay the groundwork for?
Martin Luther (1483-1546), the German leader of the Protestant Reformation,
- This helped lay the groundwork for our modern public education system, requiring free learning to be inclusive and equitable.
What did René Descartes do?
- towards the end of the Enlightenment period French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650), revived discussions of the Platonic conceptualization of innate knowledge
- While Descartes acknowledged the role of sensory experience (i.e., direct interaction with the world), he also believed that innate (inborn) thinking strategies were equally important
What did John Locke do?
- supporters of Artistole’s empiricism such as John Locke (1632-1704), the English physician and philosopher, continued to advocate for the role of experience
- Locke famously compared a child’s mind to a tabula rasa (blank slate) to develop through sensory experience
What did Jean-Jacques Rousseau do?
(1712 - 1778) *Enlightenment era
- incorporated Locke’s philosophies into his work
- published in 1762, in the then controversial novel “Emile, or On Education,” Rousseau proposed a radical educational reform: the removal of rigid educational structure
what was the suggestion of Rousseau in “Emile, or On Education” novel?
- align teaching strategies with the stages of children’s physical, emotional, and intellectual development (**developmental stages)
- building an ducational system based on experience and exploration rather than rigid structures and rote memorization
- replaced the authoritarian teacher with an open-minded tutor that created experiences focused on exploration
- the educational strategy, although initially based on sensory experience later goes on to focus on more complex types of thinking such as moral reasoning
what did Immanuel Kant do?
- formally bridged the gap between rationalism and empiricism, similar to how we conceptualize the nature or nurture argument
- nature is the genetic predisposition or biological makeup of an individual and nurture is the physical world that influences our genetic predisposition ( the expression of our genes is influenced by our environment and our experiences)
*In return, our experiences may impact whether a gene is expressed or not (Sravanti, 2017)
From Kant’s perspective, innate knowledge may include_, all of which are essential for _
- the basic understanding of concepts such as space, time, and causality
- making sense of our world
Explain Kant’s stance on something like the typical 24 hour cycle of the sun rising and setting each day
- Kant argued that our minds already have a concept that is time
- we don’t learn about the idea of “time passing” just from observing the sun
- rather, our mind uses the innate concept (i.e., rationalism) of time to make sense of a sunrise and a sunset
Why were the 19th and early 20th centuries a great time of change ?
- due to the creation of academic disciplines and sub-specialties in universities across much of Europe and North America
- researchers in the psychological sciences set out to use a common method of inquiry to study human behaviour so that psychology could be recognized as a rigorous scientific discipline
- majority of the focus was on establishing the widespread use of a rigorous scientific method to advance our understanding of human behaviour and how humans learn
To include scientific rigour to any academic discipline, we must use a universal and standard approach: _
observation, experimentation, and data-driven interpretation
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Textbook - Chapter 113
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Lecture - Chapter 286
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Lecture - Chapter 3 (P1 for TEST 1)46
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Chapter 4 - Textbook67
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Chapter 5 - Textbook43
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Chapter 3 - Lecture PT 2 Test 229
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