Education and Idealism philosophy

Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of The School of Athens, a fresco by Raphael. Aristotle gestures to the earth, representing his belief in knowledge through empirical observation and experience, while holding a copy of his Nicomachean Ethics in his hand. Plato holds his Timaeus and gestures to the heavens, representing his belief in The Forms

Idealism is the first systematic philosophy in Western thought led by Socrates and Plato. "Ideal" means a "conception of objects as something that are perfect, having noble character, visionary and existing only in imagination".   So idealism represents the group of philosophies which assert reality or reality as we can know it that is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Any system or theory that maintains that the real is of the nature of thought or that the object of external perception consists of ideas or the tendency to represent things in an ideal form, or as they might or should be rather than as they are, with emphasis on values. Plato believed that education helped move individuals collectively toward achieving the good. Also evil comes through ignorance, and education will lead to the obliteration of evil because education is transformation and by ideas live can change.

"I know that I know nothing" –Socrates-

The method of teaching used in this philosophy is the Socratics' method; also known as method of elenchus, elenctic method, Socratic irony, or Socratic debate. It is named after the classical Greek philosopher Socrates. Socratics' method is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas. Also, it is known as the dialectical method, often involving an oppositional discussion in which the defense of one point of view is pitted against the defense of another; one participant may lead another to contradict himself in some way, thus strengthening the inquirer's own point. Other method invented and mentioned in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, intuition is thought of as basic sensory information provided by the cognitive faculty of sensibility (equivalent to what might loosely be called perception). Kant held that our mind casts all of our external intuitions in the form of space, and all of our internal intuitions (memory, thought) in the form of time.

Idealism views that education should focus on moral, spiritual and mental aspects of human being and the truth values are absolute, timeless, and universal. Thus education must be concerned with ideas and concepts and their relationship with the final outcomes of education that are most general and abstract subjects. All materials should promote critical thinking. Mathematics is important to develop abstract thinking while history and literature are important to develop moral and culture. Focus on reading and writing where reading material will foster discussion through the "big ideas" and the student writing will emphasize both personal expression and clear reasoning. Focus on the concepts over specific facts and confront problems that arise from the "human condition".

The teacher teaches in the lecture form in order to stimulate thought and not to convey information. Therefore the teacher acts as a facilitator who uses a high percentage of open questions to allow the participants to reflect critically on their own way of thinking, feeling, or behaving in a given context - usually involving a problem or desired outcome - and guiding participants to form the conclusion or an axiom/principle/belief through their own efforts, potentially highlighting dissonance, conflicts of thought and actions with questions for further discussion. The teacher planning methodology must contain the following steps. Plan and build the main course of thought through the lessons. Build in potential fallacies (errors) for discovery and discussion. Know the common fallacies.  It may help to start or check with the conclusion and work backwards. The methodology to be followed in operation:

• The teacher and student agree on the topic of instruction.
• The student agrees to attempt to answer questions from the teacher.
• The teacher and student are willing to accept any correctly-reasoned answer. That is, the reasoning process must be considered more important than pre-conceived facts or beliefs.
• The teacher's questions should expose errors in the students' reasoning or beliefs, and then formulate questions that the students cannot answer except by a correct reasoning process. The teacher has prior knowledge about the classical fallacies (errors) in reasoning.
• Where the teacher makes an error of logic or fact, it is acceptable for a student to draw attention to the error.

Additionally, the teacher must be knowledgeable and proficient enough to spontaneously ask questions in order to draw conclusions and principles from the students.