Pragmatism and Education

Meaning of pragmatism 

 The term "Pragmatism" has been derived from the Greek word "Pragma" which means 'to do' or 'to make'. This means pragmatism is the philosophy that is based on practical activities. the truth is discovered only by the practical experiment. Real-life experiences are more important in human life. It believes that beliefs and ideas are true if they are functional. 

Pragmatists believe that no truth is absolute and permanent as it is ever-changing from time to time and place to place and from circumstance to circumstance. Thus, their fundamental start is “change”. Whatever was true yesterday need not be true today. The philosophy of pragmatists is predetermined to those ideas and values which result in utility to mankind in a certain time, place, or circumstances rather than any predetermined of life.

Pragmatic philosophy is a practical philosophy having no fixed or absolute standards. Man always creates new values and education should help him in doing so. Being a practical and utilitarian school of philosophy, Pragmatism has influenced education to the maximum extent. It has tried overcoming the limitations of other schools like idealism and naturalism and has influenced the world to a great extent. 

Exponents of Pragmatism

The chief exponents of Pragmatism are: 

C.B. Pierce, Archie J. Balm, John Dewey, William James, Will Durrant and Shiller. 

For Pragmatism, “Experience’ is at the centre of the universe.

Hence, it lays emphasis upon man made ideas and values resulted by the experimental activities.

Aims of Pragmatism in Education

Pragmatists believe that life is dynamic and is subjected to constant change; hence the aims of education are bound to be dynamic. According to them, Education deals with human life, so it must help children to fulfill their biological and social needs. Education should enable a child to create values in his life. In the words of Ross, education must create new values: “the main task of the educator is to put the educand into a position to develop values for him”.

1. To create new values: The Pragmatists do not believe in the theory of any fixed aim of education. In their opinion, the aim of education is to create new values and the act of a teacher is to help himself develop new values.
2. To enable pupils to gather experience through activity: For the creation of new values, activity, and experience are essential. Education should therefore provide physical, intellectual, moral, and aesthetic activities as the media for the creation of new values.
3. To help the pupil to adjust with him and society: The other important aim of education according to pragmatism is to help the pupil to make adjustments with himself and society.
4. To help the pupil to reconstruct his experience: Every individual has to solve different types of complex problems in his life. So another important aim of education, according to Pragmatism is to enable the pupil to form such an outlook on life as can help to tackle successfully the different problems of his life in the future, 
5. To make all-round development of the pupil: All-round development of the individual is also an important aim of education. The individual develops physically, mentally, socially, and aesthetically

Pragmatism and Curriculum

1. Principle of Utility: According to this principle only those subjects, activities and experiences should be included in the curriculum which are useful to the present needs of the child and also meet the future expectations of adult life as well. The subjects are such as Language, Physical well-being, Physical training, Geography, History, Science, Agriculture and Home Science for girls. 
2. Principle of Interest: According to this principle, only those activities and experiences where the child takes interest are of four varieties namely (i) Interest in conversation (ii) Interest in investigation (iii) Interest in construction and (iv) Interest in creative expression. Keeping these varieties of interest in view at the primary stage, the curriculum should include writing, counting, art, craft-work, natural science and other practical work of simple nature. 
3. Principle of Experience: The third principle of the pragmatics curriculum is the child’s activity, vocation and experience. All these three should be closely integrated. The curriculum should consist of such varieties of learning experiences which promote original thinking and freedom to develop social and purposeful attitudes. 
4. Principle of Integration: Pragmatic curriculum deals with the integration of subjects and activities. Pragmatists want to construct a flexible, dynamic, and integrated curriculum that aids the developing child and the changing society more and more as he/she needs, demands, and situation requires.

The Role Of The Pragmatic Teacher

• Pragmatic teachers are focused on helping children take action. They should create resource-rich classrooms with project-based lessons.
• The pragmatic teacher does not directly teach content but facilitates active learning. While a traditional educator might teach via behaviorist teaching methods like rote learning and be seen as the ‘sage on the stage’, the pragmatic educator is the ‘guide on the side’.
• You would expect to see a pragmatic teacher setting out tasks and sending students off to find ways to complete the tasks in practical and pragmatic ways.
• This child-centered approach is similar to the Forest Schools approach, humanism in education, and the Sociocultural theory of education.

 PRAGMATISM AND DISCIPLINE 

• Pragmatists have opposed against the imposition of rules and regulations to pupils. 
• They believes in social and personal discipline, In their opinion if we give them opportunities to participate in different types of collective activities spontaneous discipline will grow in them.
• Pragmatists believe that play and work should be combined and this combination will perform a mental attitude and discipline. 
• By taking part in such activities the qualities like tolerance, sympathy, mutual respect, attitude of service will be developed in them. 
• Discipline cannot be maintained through force and domination. 
• Children should be left free in order to develop freely and harmoniously.

CONCLUSION 

The practical outlook and utilitarian philosophy of Pragmatism has tremendously influenced the education system in the present world. The study has found that the activity-based teaching and learning method has turned the educational process to become purposeful It has certainly infused a sense of reality in education. This experimental character of education enunciates the values in a child through his ideas. Pragmatism makes him optimistic, energetic, creative, and active. According to Pragmatism, education is not the dynamic side of philosophy as advocated by the idealists. It is the philosophy that emerges from educational practice. Every individual has a social self and he can be best developed in and through society. Thus, we can conclude by saying that Pragmatism has brought democracy in education. The students learn the technique of managing their own responsibilities which would prepare them to face the different challenges of real life. It makes a man socially efficient i.e. he can determine his goals according to his needs and interests