The first part of the book discusses aims, who should determine them and how they might be determined. The second part discusses some more specific topics of learning and teaching, such as learning how to learn, the integrated day and the use of competition. The author distinguishes three broad levels of thought in looking at schools: the details of choice and decision; the general principles which are, or ought to be, guiding that detailed practice; and the theoretical commentaries on the guiding principles available from the various disciplines which constitute the study of education.

This book discusses the very nature and purpose of education and provides a foundation upon which more specialized studies in the psychology, history and sociology of education can be based. The book therefore surveys the main problems of human life - the relation of the individual and society, freedom and authority, continuity and change (i.e.growth), and underlying them all, the paradox that aspiration and frustration are continually linked in human experience. The educational implications of these various problems are considered in such a way that the methods as well as the aims of...

The Question of what 'aesthetic education' is, or might be, is often a source of incomprehension. This book opens up discussion of a complex, difficult, but highly important topic, and offers an introductory survey of the whole area. In examining the relationship of the concept of the aesthetic to that of art, it challenges the persistent linking by many educationists of 'aesthetic' with 'creative' and the consequent neglect of critical reflection and appreciation.

There are many students who find philosophy of education difficult, because they have never received teaching in the basic essentials of general philosophy. This book begins by asking the basic question 'what is philosophy?' and examines a number of possible answers. Step by step the reader is introduced to the modern techniques of linguistic and concept analysis. Whenever a technical term is used it is explained and illustrated by reference to familiar situations in everyday life.

The book is divided into two parts. The first forms a survey of the inadequacies of the Swiss school system in the early twentieth century (but the issues it discusses were universal ones which were just as prevalent in the English school system of that time). The second part of the book is a collection of testimonies from former pupils on the worst aspects of their schooling. With reference to the ideals of Pestalozzi the author proposes ways in which to find constructive solutions to the problems of harsh teachers, schools and de-motivated pupils.

Questions of discipline and order arise wherever formal education is practised, and are particularly acute for those training to teach or in their first school posts. For many years now writing on these topics has tended to depict teaching as the deployment of 'skills' and 'techniques' and competent teachers as those who successfully 'manage' their classes. This approach is criticised by Richard Smith as manipulative and destructive of the kind of pupil-teacher relationship conducive to any but the most trivial sorts of learning. Thus the philosophical issues which the book explores are shown...

Many people have come to feel that the controversy on education in Britain has got bogged down in political polemics, and that common polarisations between 'conventional' and 'progressive', 'selective' and 'comprehensive', 'elite' and 'democratic' are both unrealistic and damaging. The author believes that a new educational ethic is needed now that former religious sanctions are no longer generally operative. He believes that it is possible to regard the concept of a Rational Good as a basis for educational theory and practice. The book discusses important practical issues in education:...

'Philosophy' in the context of this book means that the author is looking at education as a whole, without restrictions or simplifications; looking at ends and purposes, not merely at methods and means. He discusses early years education, the sociology and psychology of education as well as education in adolescence and adult education. Well-known as a critical pioneer of intelligence research the author discusses educational psychology as much as philosophy in this book.