Understanding Teaching and Learning: Classic Texts on Education by Augustine, Aquinas, Newman and Mill PDF
Preview Understanding Teaching and Learning: Classic Texts on Education by Augustine, Aquinas, Newman and Mill
Contents Acknowledgements Prologue 1 Understanding Teaching and Learning 2.1 Augustine: Commentary 2.2 Augustine: Text De Magistro (On the Teacher) 3.1 Aquinas: Commentary 3.2 Aquinas: Text De Magistro (On the Teacher) 4.1 Newman: Commentary 4.2 Newman: Text The Idea of a University 5.1 Mill: Commentary 5.2 Mill: Text Inaugural Address Delivered To The University Of St Andrews Epilogue Bibliography Understanding Teaching & Learning ClassicTextsonEducationby Augustine,Aquinas,NewmanandMill Editedby T.BrianMooney &MarkNowacki IMPRINTACADEMIC Copyright © Imprint Academic, 2011 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted. No part of any contribution may be reproduced in any form without permission, except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism and discussion. Originally published in the UK by Imprint Academic, PO Box 200, Exeter EX5 5YX, UK Originally published in the USA by Imprint Academic, Philosophy Documentation Center PO Box 7147, Charlottesville, VA 22906-7147, USA Digital edition converted and distributed in 2011 by Andrews UK Limited www.andrewsuk.com Cover Photograph: St Salvator’s Quadrangle, St Andrews by Peter Adamson from the University of St Andrews collection Acknowledgments Writing a book, even an edited one, takes its toll. As a result we wouldliketoacknowledgethelovingsupportofourfamilies:Pat, Fionnuala, Thomas, Chuen, Dodge, Tippy, Callie, and Plato, who overthelastyearhaveputupwithabsenteefathersandhusbands. One of the great benefits of working at Singapore Management Universityisthatwearesupportedinourresearchwithfundingfor ResearchAssistants.WearegratefultoBrianSngwhohelpedinthe editing of the selections from John Henry Newman’s The Idea of a UniversityandJohnStuartMill’sInauguralAddress.Weareparticu- larly grateful to Jared Poon for insightful and excellent editorial assistancewiththetextofAquinas’DeMagistro.Wealsowouldlike to thank LogicMills for supporting Jared in his efforts. We thank StevenBurikwhoprovidedinvaluablesupportinreadingandedit- ingtheentiretext. WealsothankJohnHaldane,AnthonyFreeman,JohnWilliams, KirpalSingh,andtheWeeKimWeeCentreattheSingaporeMan- agementUniversity.Withouttheirencouragementandsupportthis bookmaynothaveseenthelightofday. T.BrianMooney MarkNowacki Prologue Thisbookbringstogetherfourclassicvisionsofthenatureofliberal education and its perennial value. Augustine, the first of our authors, is temporally separated from Aquinas by 800 years, and Aquinasin turnis separated fromthe Victorianwriters, Newman andMill,byafurther600years.Eachauthorrespondstoissuesin educationparticulartothehistoricalandmaterialconditionsofhis owntime.Nonetheless,anddespitemajordifferencesintheirviews, they are all united in the conviction that a good liberal education requiresamutuallyenrichingrelationshipbetweenteacherandstu- dentinwhichtheteacherdrawsoutthelatentpowersofthelearner so that the learner is transformed as a person. Each of our four authorsisunitedintheideathatthephilosophyandpracticeofedu- cationiscentrallyrelatedtopersons,andthustheyreflectdeeplyon the ways in which education can play a formative role in the self-transcendenceofbothteacherandpupil.Theaimofthisbook is to re-present the four authors—Augustine, Aquinas, Newman and Mill—for contemporary readers in an accessible comparative format. Thetitleofourbookisdeliberatelyambiguous,forwewishtotake upissuesdealingwithhowteaching,learning,andunderstanding mutuallyilluminateandconstrainoneanother.InChapter1wegive anoverviewofsomepivotalquestionsinthephilosophyandprac- ticeofeducation.Weconcentrateonafairlyuncontroversial,com- mon-sense encapsulation of what typically occurs in the teaching andlearningcontext.Weunpackaseriesofissuesbydissectingthe proposition‘XteachesYtoZ’,usingtheconceptualtoolsoftheana- lytic philosophy of education. The chapter is intended to act as a bridgebetweenthesortsofissues,andmannersofspeakingabout them, familiar to contemporary educationalists, and the ideas expressedbyourfourauthors.AlthoughthecontentofChapter1 2 Understanding Teaching and Learning representstheviewsandexperiencesoftheeditorsofthisbook,it provides a useful framework for comparing and contrasting the worksofAugustine,Aquinas,NewmanandMill,aswellasinsights intohowtheissuesunderdiscussionareapplicableincontemporary educational contexts. We hope to move beyond those domains withintheeducationallandscapethatseemtobeboggeddownin interminabledebates,therebybringingoutinaclearwaywherewe allagree,andwherewemaychoosetodisagree,concerningwhat makesforgoodteaching,goodlearning,andsuccessfulunderstand- ing.Itisourpracticetodosowithoutemployingtheconceptually loadedjargonthathascometocharacterisemuchrecentwritingon educational theory and practice. We focus on what is concretely done and what is concretely accomplished by teacher and pupil before drawing out the theoretical dimensions latent within prac- tice.Thusourworkoccupiesanintermediatepositionbetweenpure theoryandpurepractice.Itisourhope—and,wethink,adistinctive contributionofthiswork—thatwehelpreadersmovefromtheoryto appropriatepracticesandalsotofindwithinpracticesthetracesof puretheory. Whenweexplorethevariousdimensionsof‘XteachesYtoZ’,we find it useful to introduce a distinction concerning three different but mutually interpenetrating forms of knowing: know-that, know-how,andknow-why.Thesethreecanbeshowntobethehid- deninspirationsbehindmanyapparentlydiverseeducationalmod- els.So,boththeoreticallyandinpractice,understandingthesortsof knowingtobeachievedinagivencontextwillimpacttherangeof potentiallysuccessfulpedagogicalpracticesandlearningstrategies. Moreover,wethinkthatdistinguishingandidentifyingtheseforms ofknowingwillhelpourreaderstounderstandtheunifyingthemes withinourfourauthors. Chapters2through5arearrangedaccordingtothesamepattern. Eachofourauthors’textsisprecededbyanintroductionthatpro- videsbriefbiographicalsketchesaswellassomecontexttotheedu- cationalbackground,notjustoftheauthorsthemselves,buttothe timestheylivedinandthesortsofdebatesthatinformedtheirviews. Eachintroductionalsocontainsadiscussionofthecentralpositions adoptedbytheauthor.WithAugustineandAquinastheseintroduc- tionsarequiteabitlongerandmoredetailedthanforNewmanand Mill.Wejustifythisonthegroundsthatmanyreadersofthisvolume may be unfamiliar with the language and thought categories of AugustineandAquinasandbecauseoftheintrinsicdifficultyofthe Prologue 3 textsthemselves.Asaresultweanticipatemanywillfindtheselon- gerexpositoryessayshelpfulinachievingaricherunderstandingof thosetexts. The text for Augustine is a new translation of his De Magistro basedonthestandardtextreproducedinPatrologiaLatina,vol.32, editedbyJ.P.Migne,Paris,1845.Wehavetranslatedthisworkanew becausewehavenotbeensatisfiedwithprevioustranslations.The originalLatinisextremelydifficulttocaptureintranslationandwe hopethatournewtranslationhelpsbringoutthecentralideasmore clearly. ThetextforAquinas’DeMagistroisbaseduponthetranslationby M.H.MayeroriginallyappearinginherThePhilosophyofTeachingof Saint Thomas Aquinas, New York, Bruce Publishing Co., 1929. We have substantially modified this translation in two respects. First, wehavecorrectedanumberofinfelicitiesinthelightofmorerecent scholarshipandwithreferencetothedefinitiveLeonineLatinedi- tionofQuaestionesdisputataedeveritate,Volume22.Second,wehave rearrangedtheentiretextintoflowingparagraphs,therebyfacilitat- ingreading.Whilethisdecisionwasadifficultonetomakeforschol- ars,nonethelesswethinkitjustifiedbythegainincomprehensibility foramodernaudiencethatmightnotbeascomfortablewiththefor- malScholasticpresentationstyleoftheoriginal. TheselectedtextfromNewmanisexcerptedfromTheIdeaofaUni- versityinthe1899impressionpublishedbyLongmans,Green,and Company,fromthecommonly-regardeddefinitiveeditionof1873. WehavechosenDiscourses5and6fromthisworkbecausetheycon- tain the essence of his vision for education and, in particular, his elaborationofthevalueofliberaleducation. ThetextfromMill,whichishisInauguralAddressDeliveredtothe UniversityofStAndrews1867,isderivedfromTheCollectedWorksof JohnStuartMill,volume21,editedbyJ.M.Robsonandintroduced byS.Collini,Toronto,UniversityofTorontoPress,1984. Finally, in Chapter 6, we elaborate a series of questions arising fromthetextsofourauthorsandownexperienceaseducators.We hope to show by these reflections how the insights of our four authorscanberelevanttocontemporaryissuesineducationalthe- oryandpractice. CHAPTER 1 Understanding Teaching and Learning Reflections on the Philosophy and Practice of Education Introduction Human beings are naturally curious. From our earliest days we encountersituationsthatevokeourwonderandinterest.Weseekto understand,ofteninthecontextofbeingtaughtandcomingtolearn, that which others have previously wondered about. We are all in somewayteachersandlearners,yetourunderstandingofwhatgoes onincomingtounderstandorinteachingorinbeingtaughtorin learningarethemselvesobjectsofwonder. Whoamongushasnotbeentouchedindeepandseriouswaysby a particularly excellent teacher? Or, from the perspective of a teacher,whohasnotexperiencedthejoyofwatchingastudentcome toknowandunderstand?Formanyprofessionalteachersthisisone ofthemostvaluableelementsinteaching,sustainingandenthusing teacherswheneitherpersonalfailuresorpoliticalandbureaucratic obstaclescontrivetomakethemloseheart. Itisfairtosaythatinthosecountrieswhereteachingandlearning have become the objects of institutionalisation, the systematised experiencesofstudentsplayamassiveroleinthefinalshapingof boththeindividualandthepolitytowhichheorshebelongs.After all,mostofusfromaveryyoungagespendmoretimeintheinstitu- tionalframeworkssupportingteachingandlearningthanwedoin anyframeworkotherthantheimmediatefamilysetting.Giventhe dramaticimpactofformalisededucation,andthemanycenturiesof practiceandtheoreticalunderstandingsinvolved,itisnonetheless 6 Understanding Teaching and Learning surprisingthattheentirefieldofphilosophyofeducationremains highlycontested.1 XteachesYtoZ Although how we are able to successfully understand, teach, and learnbecomesincreasinglypuzzlingthecloserwelook,nonetheless the very fact that we are able to understand, teach, and learn is a commonexperience.AsSocratesrecommends,itisgoodpracticeto startfromcommon,well-understoodcasesandtopaycarefulatten- tion to what we say about those cases. Let us begin by reflecting on how we ordinarily speak about understanding, teaching, and learning. Ordinaryexperiencefurnishesuswithclearandstraightforward examples of understanding, teaching, and learning. We come to understand,forexample,mathematicaltheorems,howtoplaythe piano,andwhystealingfoodfrombabiesisbad.Allofthesethings which we understand are typically taught to us and learnt by us. More schematically, the various dimensions of understanding teachingandlearningcanbebroughtoutbyconsideringthefollow- ingfairlyuncontroversiallocution: (1) XteachesYtoZ Thisformulationhasthedisadvantageofprivilegingtheactivityof theteacher,andperhapsintimatingthepassivityorsimplereceptiv- ityofthelearner.Analternativeformulationthatreversesthiscould be: (2) ZlearnsYfromX Takenconjointly,theseformulationscapturetheactivedimensions ofbothteacherandlearner.Teachingissomethingthattheteacher does, just as learning is something that the learner does. When it comestounderstanding,thereseemstobeanoverlapbetweenthe activitiesofteacherandlearner.Asweshallseepresently,allfourof our authors reject the view that pure passivity is a proper part of understanding, teaching, and learning. Even the most extreme of ourauthors,Augustine,holdsapositionthataccordsakeyroleto theactiveparticipationofthestudent,andheillustratestherelation betweenteacherandlearnerintheformofadialogicalpartnership. Our other authors accord an even more pronounced role to the activeparticipationofthestudent,thoughthereremainsanimpor- [1] Forasurvey seeD.C.Phillips,‘PhilosophyofEducation’,StanfordEncyclopediaof Philosophy2008,http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/education-philosophy/.
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