Teaching Profession: Assignment 1

1. Socrates ( 469-399 BC)
Socrates’ outstanding contributions to education is more on Education by Self-Examination, Teacher as Role-Model and Dialogue , particularly he believes in the following:
1.1. Liberal education - Socrates stimulates the mind of the learner and let them discover ideas and the truth that is within the person’s consciousness. He believed that knowledge could not be transferred from teacher to students, instead, he believed that true knowledge were present within a person but buried within the person’s mind.
1.2. Moral Excellence – Socrates believes that a person should live by the ethical principles and that each individual should be moral, live wisely and act with a good reason.
1.3. Socratic Method - Socrates let his students engage in discussion and dialogue and let them use their critical thinking to explore basic concepts. He asked leading questions to students to stimulate the students mind and reflect on the meaning of life, truth, religion, politics, morality and justice.

2. Plato (427 – 346 BC)
Plato’s’ outstanding contributions to education is more on Eternal Truths and Values, Sorting of students based on intellectual abilities, particularly he believes in the following:
2.1. “Reminiscence” as the theory of knowledge – Plato described knowledge as the process of recall on the ideas present in their mind. He believed that even before a person is born, the soul of a person already has ideas, source of truth and knowledge and the person rediscovers or recollect these ideas as one lives.
2.2. “Plato’s Republic” as the ideal society – The republic as he described is a society with three classifications of member: a) philosopher kings; b) auxiliaries/ military / civil servants; c) workers. The ability of the person to think or ones intellectual ability will determine the class he belongs to. Once classified, the person will further receive trainings on this field such as leadership for philosopher kings, courage for the military, and farming and artisan for workers. These persons are expected to perform their functions for a harmonious society.
2.3. Women’s Education – Plato believed that women has the same intellectual ability which men possess and therefore they must be given the same education and training, and become active members of the society.
2.4. Plato’s Curriculum and the Academy – Students are separated from their parents and live in state nurseries to learn moral values and so that ignorance of parents will not be passed on to the children.
a. 6-18 years old – reading, writing, literature, arithmetic, choral singing, dancing, military training,
b. 18-20 years old – higher education is provided; students pursue intensive physical and military
training
c. 30 years old – further training is based on their classification:
o philosopher kings – abstract, mathematics, geometry, astronomy, music and science
o civil servants – metaphysics, principles