Jacob, Lana

Plato and Locke: Knowledge and Learning

What makes learning possible? Plato –Knowledge is innate, it is in place in the mind/soul at birth. –Recalling what the soul has already seen and absorbed –Differentiating appearance and reality –Cannot be put there by experience because oue senses are untruthful. i.e. they cannot teach us the truth Locke –Infants come into the world completely devoid of content. i.e.“empty cabinet,” blank tablet,” “tabula rasa” –Infants have dormant biologically abilities that allow learning to take place. –The external world is perceived through senses. Perceptions build simple ideas that are used to build complex ideas. –Missing simple ideas results in missing or faulty complex ideas –Experience, experience, experience! Lana

What is the role of the teacher? Plato –Assisting in the remembering process of the student through dialogue. –Release people from ignorance. –Train students to think logically and mathematically. Senses are misleading. Locke -Recognize previous learning experiences and help provide new and meaningful ones. -Provide sense experiences (esp. with young ages) Jacob

What is the role of the student? Plato –Being a spectator of perceived reality –Wary of our senses and perceptions Locke -Experience and reflect -”When has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from EXPERIENCE. In that all our knowledge is founded; and from that it ultimately derives itself.” – Locke Lana

What characterizes the learning activities that would be seen in the classroom? Plato –Dialogue –Abstract activities. i.e. mathematics, complex scenarios –Knowledge independent of individual perception –Based on a single intelligence (uniform for everyone) Locke - Hands on experience - Constant assessment to determine needed experiences Jacob

What might be dangerous about this theory? Plato –Learner far too passive –Struggling student might be deemed incapable. –Being taught senses are misleading, how do we discover truth? Locke - Illusory experiences can give false simple ideas leading to false complex ideas. - Not all theories can be trusted so who knows which ones can and which ones cannot. - Struggling student might be seen as lacking a certain experience without the consideration of other factors. - Everybody experiences things differently. Lana

What might be useful about this theory? Locke –More fun! Active and full of experiences –Explains the reasoning behind the importance of pre-assessment in a classroom Plato –Encourages personal introspection and external dialogue Jacob

Welcome our guest speaker! Jacob, Lana

Bibliography Boardman, William S. "Forms in Plato's Republic." 18 March August Friddle, Megan. The Tree of Knowledge. Sarah Lawrence College. Plato's Theory of Knowledge: a Workshop. Bronxville, NY, Kreis, Steven. "Plato, "The Allegory of the Cave"." 13 May August Phillips, D.C, Jonas F. Soltis. Perspectives on Learning. New York: Teachers College Press, Plato and the Forms. 7 August August "Plato Cave." ZLW/IMA. 7 August Plato on Knowledge. 9 November August Plato's Teory of Knowledge: a Workshop. 13 June August C., Phillips, D. Perspectives on learning. 4th ed. New York: Teachers College, Print. Jacob, Lana

Not a valid analogy with Platonic theory in that it does not allow for any internal motivation. Lana

Requires action. Jacob

Human beings living in a underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets. Men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent. They see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave? And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows? And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them? And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow? To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images. And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive someone saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, -what will be his reply? And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them, -will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him? Even the act of recalling what is in your soul is a action. Learning can not be totally passive, and to learn the most effectively requires dialog and investigation. Unnecessary personal comments Lana

Jacob

Can we accept the premise that Plato proposes to his question “how is learning possible?” their souls Lana

Jacob

Lana

Jacob

With Plato, the learner was perhaps a spectator of realty, but the learner was responsible for pursuing the truth of reality. In a Lockean sense, while the cabinet may have been empty the learner was constantly filling it with content for the mind to develop into complex ideas. While Dewey stressed “activity methods” for learning, it has been shown through research that multiple methods of learning aid in retention; as well that some people learn better using Platonic or Lockean methods rather than Dewey’s. The human being can not help but experience from the moment it is born and learning does not necessarily need Dewey’s version of activity, but learning does need the brain. Lana

The human mind brings in different aspects of our experiences and we are able to put the smaller, more understandable, aspects together to create the larger complex ideas. We, as people, have learned to absorb the simple ideas that are new to us, those ideas that are not new are taken in stride and we are familiar with them. We have used them to create our complex ideas, as the case with the candlestick shows. In this example staring at the candlestick makes an optical illusion only to those people who have enveloped the simple ideas of both the vase and the faces. It one of these ideas is missing, the illusion will not work. Jacob

Lana

In a Platonic structure, this teacher has finally begun to dialog with students in a meaningful way rather than a superficial manner. She is able to stimulate their individual sense of knowledge and they are keen to investigate the problems she has given them. While the students have learned to participate in the active investigations the teacher has developed for them, they have not necessarily learned how to be quiet. Rather they have started to learn how to learn. For a Lockean structure this teacher has realized that she need to introduce these students to new information on an individual basis. Since each student is only able to process and capitalize on experiences on an individual basis, the teacher has stumbled on how to develop such experiences and make them appeal to young learners. As well, this teacher has begun using a variety of simple ideas to weave together as punctuation points in her short activities so they will combine into more complex ideas. Some would say she has begun scaffolding. Jacob