S ?

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

.

EDUCATION 230-3

INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

?

(D1.00)

Spring Semester, 1992

?

Instructor: Dr. Cornel Hamm

(January 6—April 3)

Tuesday & Thursday

11:30 a.m.-12:20 p.m. & Tutorials

Location: AQ 3159

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course open to all undergraduates, is intended to provide prospective teachers as well as

others interested in education an opportunity to examine a variety of educational issues from a

philosophical perspective. The central concern of the course is to elucidate the nature of education

as a phenomenon distinguishable from such activities as training, schooling, and socialization.

It should enable one to think more clearly and critically about a host of problems, issues, and

concepts in education. There are no pre-requisites for the course. A brief course outline follows:

A. The Nature of Philosophical Issues in Education

1.

What are philosophical problems in education?

2.

What role does philosophy have in solving educational problems?

B. The Language of Education

1. Meaning and definitions in education

2.

Slogans and metaphors in education

3.

Problems of vagueness, ambiguity, and emotive uses of language

C. The Nature of Education

1.

The concept 'education'

2.

The concepts 'teaching' and 'learning'.

3.

Cognitive education and education of the emotions

4. The aims of education

5. Education, curriculum, and the nature of knowledge

6.

The means-ends

D. Moral Dimensions of Education

1. Freedom and authority in education

2.

Discipline and punishment in education

3.

Conditioning and indoctrination

4. The justification of content in education

5. Values and moral education

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1.

Tutorial participation

2.

Examination on required readings

3. One or more short papers

TEXT AND READINGS

C.M. Hamm. Philosophical Issues in Education: An Introduction. Falmer Press (1989).

Selected essays and papers.