Perennialists believe that the focus of education should be the ideas that have lasted over centuries. They believe the ideas are as relevant and meaningful today as when they were written. Essentialists believe that when students study these works and ideas, they will appreciate learning. …

Through philosophy, you can ensure that your student not only retains his academic knowledge from all his completed grades but also develop a sense of humane values and ethics. These personal values provide a better upbringing for them to cope in the later years of their life.

These educational philosophical approaches are currently used in classrooms the world over. They are Perennialism, Essentialism, Progressivism, and Reconstructionism. These educational philosophies focus heavily on WHAT we should teach, the curriculum aspect.

A perennialist classroom aims to be a closely organized and well-disciplined environment, which develops in students a lifelong quest for the truth. For example, reading, writing, speaking, and listening are emphasized in the early grades to prepare students in later grades to study literature, history, and philosophy.

The aim of Perennialism in Education is to develop power of thought, internalize truths that are universal and constant and to ensure that students acquire understanding about the great ideas of Western civilization. This is the most conservative, traditional, and flexible philosophy.

One of its main objectives was to educate the “whole child”—that is, to attend to physical and emotional, as well as intellectual, growth. The school was conceived of as a laboratory in which the child was to take an active part—learning through doing.

• Emphasis on learning by doing – hands-on projects, expeditionary learning, experiential learning.
• Integrated curriculum focused on thematic units.
• Integration of entrepreneurship into education.
• Strong emphasis on problem solving and critical thinking.
• Group work and development of social skills.

Dewey (1938) described progressive education as “a product of discontent with traditional education” which imposes adult standards, subject matter, and methodologies (no page number). He believed that traditional education as just described, was beyond the scope of young learners.

Open classrooms, schools without walls, cooperative learning, multiage approaches, whole language, the social curriculum, experiential education, and numerous forms of alternative schools all have important philosophical roots in progressive education.

Students learn mostly through experiences, collaboration, and play. Basically, the main difference between the two lies in where student learning is centered. Traditional schools focus on the teacher and what they teach while progressive schools focus on the students and how they can learn.

Advantages of Traditional Classroom Learning

• Active learning.
• Maintaining interpersonal relationships.
• Not all majors can be taught online.
• Access to libraries and research materials.
• Learning is scheduled.
• Extra-curricular activities.
• Lack of face-to-face interaction.
• Not all majors are available.

The chief business of traditional education is to transmit to a next generation those skills, facts, and standards of moral and social conduct that adults consider to be necessary for the next generation’s material and social success.

Types of instructional materials

Instructional materials provide the core information that students will experience, learn, and apply during a course. They hold the power to either engage or demotivate students.

Some advantages of using instructional material are :

• Organization of the material. Instructional materials gives the teacher and the student a method of analyzing progress.
• Focus. Having a guide allows the student to know and focus on what is being taught.
• Efficiency.

Instructional materials have been observed as a powerful strategy to bring about effective teaching and learning. The importance of quality and adequate instructional materials in teaching and learning can occur through their effective utilization during classroom teaching.