Pragmatism and Existentialism Pre-assessment

In his class, Teacher M always presents principles and values so as to encourage his students to examine them and decide for themselves whether to accept them or not. What kind of philosophy does he practice?

• Pragmatism

• Existentialism

Existentialists believe that truth is a (x)

• Choice

• Way of life

• Universal Law

• Unchanging fact

Teacher M views his students as unique, free-choosing and responsible individuals. All classroom activities revolve around the said premise. What theory underlies this?

• Pragmatism

• Existentialism

Pragmatists want the teacher to be more of an instructor than a companion to their students.

• True

• False

Pragmatism believes in metaphysics.

• True

• False

This philosophy upholds education as the process of developing awareness about the freedom of choice and the responsibility for one's choice.

• Pragmatism

• Existentialism

This philosophy is concerned with learning through self-activity or learning by doing.

• Pragmatism

• Existentialism

For (x), the most important thing for schools to teach is “how to question what we know and how to reconstruct what we know to match the changing world”.

• Pragmatism

• Existentialism

For (x), the most important thing for schools to teach is “how to question what we know and how to reconstruct what we know to match the changing world”.

• Pragmatism

• Existentialism

All of these are pragmatist steps to reflective thinking EXCEPT:

• The person comes up with possible solutions to the problem. 

• The person faces a problem that stops their progress. The person starts to think about how to solve the problem. 

• The person asks the opinion of a peer about how to solve the problem

• The individual puts emotional responses aside and breaks down the nature of the problem.