Minds
A TES Essential Guide to education’s most influential philosophers
guide
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WHERE
THEORY
MEETS
PRACTICE
A TES Essential Guide
Educational philosophies are complex and wide-ranging. In this TES Essential
Guide, James
Williams, a lecturer in education at the
University of Sussex, makes sense of it all.
Theory and practice 4
What it’s all about.
Bloom’s taxonomy of learning 8
Bloom’s theory links the knowledge we have to how to we think, explains how attitude affects motivation and how our ability to do practical things changes the way we learn.
Behaviourist approaches 12
Behaviourist theories say that our learning is linked to our responses to our surroundings and the stimulus we receive from them.
Humanistic approaches 16
Humanistic theories are based on the idea that everyone wants to learn and teachers should facilitate that learning rather than prescribe what should take place.
Cognitive theories 20
How we think and learn are summed up by cognitive theories such as constructivism and multiple intelligences.
Motivational approaches 26
Motivational theories say that learning should be relevant to learners who need to feel safe in their surroundings and that their achievements are recognised.
Thinkers who have shaped modern education 30
Four thinkers who have challenged the government’s top-down approach to education. Quote, unquote 34
ESSENTIAL GUIDE Great Minds
3
GREAT
MINDS
If you’re interested in philosophy and want to know how it can help you in the classroom, read on...
4
ESSENTIAL GUIDE Great Minds
There’s an old saying: “If it looks like a