Presented byAmritha Anand AR

NATURALISM

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Introduction Nature is everything, there is

nothing beyond it Nature is also termed as materialism Man should investigate the truth of

nature by scientific methods with all his capacities and resourcefulness

It doesn't believe in sentimentalism, spiritualism, and supernaturalism

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Protagonist of Naturalism JJ Rousseau – champion of

naturalism Others – Aristotle, Comte, Bacon,

Darwin, Huxley, Spencer, Epicurus, Tagore

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Definition of Naturalism“Naturalism is metaphysics which considers nature as the whole of reality. It excludes what is supernatural or the other world”

— Hocking

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Meaning of Naturalism It emphasis on the nature in every

field of education It is a philosophy which considers

nature as everything and denies the existence of ant spirit

It does not believe in existence of God

It gave importance to the matter and the physical world

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Forms of Naturalism Atomistic Naturalism Scientific Naturalism

Physical Naturalism Biological Naturalism

Mechanical Naturalism Historical Naturalism

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Principles of Naturalism (1/2)

Stress on physical environment Universe is a huge machine. Man is

also a part of this machine Reality can be truly analyzed by

natural science The present is the real life, man

should try to make this life happy and comfortable

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Principles of Naturalism (2/2)

Unchanging loss of nature explains all the events and occurrences of the world

Education in accordance with the nature of the child

Man is the highest creature or animal according to his nature. So the essence of his life is animal instinct and not spiritually

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Characteristics of Naturalism

Back to nature Negative education It is against bookish knowledge and verbalism Naturalism gives central position to the child in

the educational process Education prepares the child for his future adult

life Freedom of the child It gives emphasis on the training of senses as

senses are the gateway of knowledge Material education Scientific education

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Aims of Naturalism Attainment of present and future

happiness Struggle for existence Protection of human machine Adaptation to environment Improvement of racial gains Autonomous development Education according to nature

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Naturalism and Curriculum (1/2)

Naturalist do not advocate a fixed curriculum Curriculum must be child-centered It gives place for skills and other useful

educational activities It considers literacy subjects as useless and

gives no place in the curriculum Curriculum should contain games, sports,

physical culture, biology, physics, nature study, language, history, geography, and other allied subjects

It lay stress on physical education and health training and home science also

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Naturalism and Curriculum (2/2)

Herbert Spencer classifies all human activities into five and assigns a place to each of them in the curriculum. The five activities in the order of priority are Activities of self preservation Activities of a vocation Activities of a worthy citizenship Activities of a worthy home membership Activities of the leisure time

These five activities constitute his ‘Complete Living Aim’ of education

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Naturalism and Method of Teaching (1/2)

Naturalism is a result against the old, traditional, bookish system of education

Direct experience with nature, things, and men is the keynote of instruction according to naturalists

They follow different methods of teaching according to the interests, capacities, and aptitude of the child

Learning by doing Direct method Heuristic method

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Naturalism and Method of Teaching (2/2)

Observation and excursion Play way method Learning through senses Self government, self effort, and co-

education Learning through participations Other methods: Apart from the above

methods, naturalists adopt Dalton plan, kindergarten, excursion method, Montessori method, experimentation and text book method so as to bring about a natural development in the child

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Naturalism and Teacher Teacher should behave

sympathetically and affectionately forwards the children

Nature – supreme teacher Teacher the observer Understand about child Teacher the stage setter Teacher the gardener

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Naturalism and Discipline Naturalist give full freedom to the child to

perform and learn whatever he likes No punishment Full freedom Free society Naturalists assume that the child has no

knowledge of good and bad, but he suffers pain when he makes a mistake, and pleasure when he does something right. Thus he gets reward or punishment for his actions

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Naturalism and School The school environment should be completely

free, flexible and without any rigidity It should be helpful for the free and natural

development of the child It should be situated in the lap of nature, far away

from cities There should not be any fixed time table and

ready dozes of knowledge There should be no provision for punishment School develops the feeling of self learning and

self-discipline It does not want to burden the child with

examination

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Merits of Naturalism1. It gives the child a very important place in the

educational process. It treats a child as child and not as an adult. The child is good and pure at the terms of birth

2. It considers nature as the best teacher in whose company the child learns better. Society is full of evils

3. It considers individual interests, aptitude, inclination, needs and capacities while structuring the curriculum

4. It prepares and encourages the child to engage in experimentation, discoveries and inventions

5. It motivates the child to acquire more knowledge in the natural environment

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Demerits of Naturalism1. Nature centered study makes the child become unsocial

with no feeling of social service2. Naturalism ignores the spiritual world and considers the

material world only3. Naturalism lays stress on solutions for only the present

needs and problems of an individual and neglects his future needs and problems. It has failed to prepare the child for the future life

4. Naturalism advocates unrestricted freedom for the child to develop himself naturally. This is undesirable and harmful to the child

5. It minimizes the role of the teacher in the educative process. A teacher is an observer, a sympathetic guide and helper in structuring experiences for the child

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Conclusion The contribution of naturalism in

significant in the progressive modern educational thought and practice. All the modern method of teaching technique owe their origin to this school of philosophy

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Relevance of naturalism in 21st century (1/2)

Shifting of subject-centred curriculum to an experience centred curriculum.

Modern life need various experiences to be given to the child through co-curricular activities so that he would be educated and trained to face life squarely and solve all its problems successfully

The child used to be punished severely and kept under the control of teacher. This strict discipline was discarded because of the influence of naturalism. As a result, now the child enjoys full freedom to learn and do whatever he likes. Thus freedom for the child is the chief contribution of naturalism to modern education

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Relevance of naturalism in 21st century (2/2)

Naturalists have given birth to new movements. New types of educational institutions have come up

in recent years Institutions like the summer school of AS Neil,

Vishuabharthi, of Rabindra Nath Tagore, Kindergarten schools of Froebel, Montessori schools have come into existence as a result of the influence of naturalism in education

The naturalist wants to protect the educand from evils for this purpose, they favour residential schools so that the environment of the educands who reside in hostels attached to the school can be maintained on a healthy level

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