Realism

Realism is one of the oldest philosophies in Western culture. It is derived from the Greek world “RES” which means real which further is related to object. Aristotle was the leading proponent of realism who develop a systematic theory of logic. Aristotle worked on the principle or theory of “independence”, where ideas and matters are independent. Aristotle believed that the purpose of human being is to think, same as Plato, and that we need to avoid extremities and have balance in our life. The logical method developed by Aristotle was “syllogism” which is known nowadays as “deduction” that consists of three parts starting with major premise, then minor premise, and finally conclusion, all parts must be correct for syllogism to work.
Secular and Religious realists agreed that the aim of education is to gain knowledge and reach the truth, but it differs in the way that religious only use matter to reach the truth as a transition, while secular realists study the matter to understand the truth as objective by itself, they said that they control the matter. Another aim of education is to teach morals and encourage activities for the students to understand the information and apply them, also teaching people to survive in the world and to fit it the culture they are living in which is known as self-preservation, and helping people to understand that matter doesn’t control us, we control it. An important aim should be mentioned is that realist emphasize the practical side of education, where each topic must have an application, and always we need to link it with real life, every topic and idea should be linked to real life with examples. Realists believe that reality of knowledge of external materials world is gained by senses.

Some realists believe in the “Scientific method” which is based on experimentation and observations, other believed in “Syllogism” which is known as deduction depending on logical thinking, and others focus on “Induction method” by Francis Bacon, which is the opposite of deduction where it goes from specific to general to gain the knowledge. Realists focus on teaching people that the method of getting the fact or the process of thinking is more important than the fact itself, and that especially for small kids learning them through classification and organization, teach by play and involving students (John Locke). Curriculum for realists should be practical and useful.
For realists, teacher’s role to make sure that the students know the basics, either through teaching it in new way or curriculum or by touting. Teach students to understand information, explain why learning it, how to use it, and apply it in real life.

According to realists, the child will have to be enabled to proceed from ignorance to knowledge, especially the knowledge or the real. Realists have considered the child as a focal point of education.