PHILOSOPHY OF NATURALISM & EDUCATION

1. NATURALISM AND
EDUCATION
DR. MAHESWARI JAIKUMAR
maheswarijaikumar2103@gmail.com

2. • Naturalism is a philosophy
with the belief that nature
alone represents the entire
reality.
• There is nothing behind,
beyond or other than nature.

3. NATURALISM stems from the
following divisions of philosophy
METAPHYSICS
EPISTEMOLOGY
AXIOLOGY
NATURALISM

4. • Naturalism focuses on & is
controversial against
traditional system of
education.
• Naturalism aims at providing
maximum freedom.

5. • The watch words are “to follow
nature, back to nature, &
maximum happiness & utmost
freedom to the learner”.
• This school of thought believes
that education should be
according to the nature of the
child.

6. • The aim of education according
to naturalism is “SELF
EXPOSITION” & “SELF
PRESERVATION”.
• Spencer & Mc Dougall &
Darwin, Lamarck,
Rousseau,Percy Nunn are the
proponents of naturalism.

7. • Spencer belongs to the
biological school of
naturalism, which aims at
achieving the present and
future happiness of the
learner by the cultivation of
self restrain and sense of
values.

8. • McDougall does not agree
with Spencer.
• He regards that instincts of
man are real guiding forces
which forms the basis of all
his conduct.

9. • McDougall feels that
education should aim at the
direction and sublimation of
instincts for achieving socially
desirable ends.

10. • According to Darwin the aim
of education is to equip the
individual to struggle for
existence and thus ensure
survival.

11. • Lamarck agrees with Darwin,
and adds that education
should help the learner
contrary to the conventions of
the society and in accordance
with the universal spirit.

12. • Sir Percy Nuun regards the
development of individuality
as the supreme goal of
education.
• He opines that the proper goal
of human life is perfection of
the individual.

13. AIMS ACCORDING
TO NATURALISM

14. SELF EXPRESSION
•Naturalism lays its stress
on self-expression and
self-preservation.

15. • Education should acquaint a
person with laws of health,
and enable him to earn living
and should train him to
preserve and maintain life.

16. RE DIRECTION &
SUBLIMATION OF INTEREST
• An individual’s instincts are
the guiding force and the
basis of human conduct.

17. • Therefore the aim of
education should be the re
direction and submission of
these instincts, toward
socially useful work.

18. • The main aim of education
should be to fulfill an
individual and social needs
through nature.

19. STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE
• Education aims at preparing
the individual to struggle for
existence and ensure his
survival.

20. • Education must help the
learner to adjust themselves
to their living environment
and changing circumstances in
their life.

21. EDUCATION ACCORDING
TO NATURE
• Education should not only be
according to the physical
nature but also according to
the nature of the child.

22. • The tendencies, capacities,
instincts, likes and dislikes
should be taken into account
while imparting education.

23. • The educational system
should keep in mind the
whole nature of the learner
and provide opportunity for
the development of natural
endowments of the child.

24. PERFECT DEVELOPMENT
OF INDIVIDUALITY
• Focuses on the perfect
development of proper goal
of human life and perfect
development of the
individual.

25. • Education according to
naturalism aims at the
developing the child into a
joyous, rational, balanced,
useful and mature person.

26. NATURALISM AND
CURRICULUM

27. • The naturalist do not
advocate a fixed curriculum.
• Every child is given the right
to determine his own
curriculum.

28. • The learner is expected to
learn directly from nature
through personal experiences.

29. • The naturalist give
prominence to subjects like
nature study, agriculture,
gardening, art, craft, botany,
zoology, geography and
astronomy.

30. • The subjects are correlated
with play activities and with
life around the learner.
• Mathematics and languages
are includes as they are
essential for understanding
science subjects.

32. NATURALISM AND
METHOD OF
TEACHING

33. LEARNING BY DOING
• Naturalist are not in favour of
direct teaching through
lectures of textbooks.
• They emphasize is on the
value of concrete objects.

34. • Naturalism advocates direct
experience of things and
believe in the principle of
“learning by doing”.
• Heuristic method is
emphasized, in place of
“chalk-and -talk” procedure.

35. PLAY WAY METHOD
• Naturalism advocates play
way method to impart
education.

36. • Its underlying principle is that all
learning should take place in the
spirit and by the method of play-
way.
• It is therefore regarded as the
most outstanding method of
creative education.

37. • It creates the spirit of joyful,
spontaneous and creative
activity.

38. OBSERVATION &
EXPERIMENTATION
• The naturalist disfavour any
type of rigidity in the daily
time schedule.

39. • Therefore they have devised
schedules such as the Dalton
plan, which gives freedom to
the pupils to choose their own
schedule of work.

40. • The learning is through
observation and
experimentation.

41. SELF GOVERNMENT & SELF
EFFORT
• The naturalist emphasize
open-air-schools, self
government in schools and
the establishment of co-
education in educational
settings.

42. • Self government provides
direct experiences of social
life while co-education will
develop right type of family
and community life.

43. • Thus the contribution of
naturalism to the modern
education is most outstanding
and most abiding.

44. NATURALISM AND
DISCIPLINE

45. • Naturalist give utmost
freedom to the learners.
• This school of thought does
not advocate any sort of
punishment, except the child
is allowed to face the natural
consequences of his action.

46. • External discipline is not
desirable as it stands in the
way of the pupil’s natural
development.

47. • In order to regulate the
conduct of the learner the
naturalist have evolved the
concept student self-
government.

48. NATURALISM &
TEACHER

49. • According to naturalism the
teacher’s role is behind the
scene.
• He is a spectator or observer
of the learner’s development
rather than giver of
information.

50. • The teacher is not allowed to
interfere with the activities of
the learner.
• The teacher is not allowed to
dictate to the pupil what they
have to do.

51. • The teacher’s role is to see
that there is a free
development of the pupil’s
interest and natural impulses
as a result of the education
imparted to him.

52. • A teacher in naturalism is only
a setter of the stage, a
supplier of materials,
conditions conducive to the
natural development of
pupils.

53. THANK YOU