The Challenge Of Philosophy Embedded Classroom Teaching – A Qualitative Study

Philosophy is under current of all human activities. Teachers in general are noted for their professionalism. However the students are capable of differentiating the teachers on the basis of behavioural manifestations. It may be attributed to their inclination towards a particular philosophy or philosophies. On the basis of this assumption the investigators took up a qualitative study to identify the philosophies underlying their cognitive and affective characteristics. For this purpose they prepared a research design to decode the tenets and principles involved in their covert and overt behavioural aspects. In the process they identified 13 Behaviour Markers capable of revealing almost all behavioural aspects of the teachers. With the help of the Data Sheet they observed the behaviour of 18 teachers chosen for the purpose and noted the information for 13 Behaviour Markers against each of the 5 philosophies - Idealism, naturalism, Realism, Humanism and Pragmatism. Then by matching the collected informations with the tenets and principles of any one of the five philosophies the sample was regrouped and a consolidated Data Sheet was prepared. From this the following results were drawn out. The philosophy ingrained in teachers is the cause for the differences among teachers. The prominence of Idealism, Naturalism, Realism, Humanism and Pragmatism embedded in teachers is found to be the reason for the adoption of unique teaching process. 33.3%, 16.7%, 11.1%, 27.8%, and 11.1% of teacher's teaching is embedded with the tenets and principles of Idealism, Naturalism, Realism, Humanism and Pragmatism respectively and they may be categorized as Model, Guide, Modern, Mom and Progressive Teachers respectively. Therefore it is just explicit that what is needed for today is not mere Model or Guide or Modern or Mom or Progressive Teachers. The challenge of present day Teacher preparation is to bring out teachers with wholesome personality capable of acting as Model, Guide, Modern, Mom and Progressive Teachers at the same time, for enabling students to cherish Skills, Knowledge and Understanding to cope with the changing life situations in the ever changing world. Therefore suitable steps may be taken up to enable the Teacher Trainees to imbibe the essentials of these philosophies.