Philosophy as a branch of knowledge is mostly considered being speculative and abstract by nature having no relation with the material and empirical word. It’s subject matter is generally thought to exhibit an aloofness from applied and social sciences. The epistemological and ontological stance mentioned above is itself speculative, arbitrary and shallow in terms of the understanding about the subject and its application. All branches of knowledge have roots in philosophy because underpinnings of each and every discipline have originated from philosophy, and hence, it is called mother of all disciplines. If we closely observe and reflect on the daily routines, activities and events we will find philosophical discourses in action and practice. In addition, in our daily discourses and discussion in our homes, neighborhoods, market and work places, we will be however following one or the other school of thoughts or philosophy unconsciously. Moreover, in our educational institutions all the activities designed for learning are based on one or another epistemological ground. If seen from a pedagogical perspective, each activity students are engaged in involve philosophical discourses and discussion in one form or another.
.
The classroom is the melting point of intellectual discourses which provides learners a wide range of opportunities to think, reflect, deconstruct and reconstruct. Usually those practitioners are considered successful teachers who provide maximum opportunities for intellectual engagements and stimulation to their students. Intellectual engagements encourage the learners to broaden their horizons and stimulate reflective thinking. This intellectual engagement is termed as “rationalism” in philosophy. In a classroom different opportunities of rationalism are provided to engage learners for example questioning as a dominant form of students’ engagement is used from pre-primary to doctorate level. The purpose of the activity is to engage learners to think, deliberate and ponder about the idea or topic in hand. This reflective and deliberative process triggers conscious mind to go beyond mere facts and information. However, here teacher’s role plays an important role as a question poser. A low order question for the sake of information demands a low order thinking or to share what is heard, read and listen without any rational interpretation. On the other hand, asking high order questions provoke thinking without blindly accepting the information or knowledge. Hence, for deep reasoning and intellectual discourses high order questions should be asked from the learners. In a nutshell, it could be argued that questioning is a common yet powerful daily based manifestation of rationalism in the classroom and beyond, however, it could be made productive by asking high order questions, an emancipation from being following to independent thinking.
.
Group discussion and group discourses are another form of rationalism in the classroom. In this pedagogical approach a problem or question is given to a group of learners to discuss and reach a shared conclusion. Learners are encouraged to talk, think, reflect, critique and share ideas with each other and with the whole class. In addition, learners are encouraged to think independently which stimulates reflective thinking. Moreover, group members are free to express their views and ideas to reach a situation or an issue of concern. Furthermore, engagement in rationalism through discussion provide a deeper understanding of the subject. However, it depends upon the quality of task or assignment given to the learners for desired outcomes. The nature of the task should be beyond the textbook to trigger students’ critical thinking and an emancipation from mere subservient to conscious and cognizant thinker. Engagement in rationalism is considered a liberation of mind from being follower to liberty of thoughts and metacognition.
.
Rationalism is humanism in the sense that human beings create their own meanings and their own purposes, rather than being at the receiving end. Being follower and following others ideas of any source or sort limits the imagination and intellectual faculty of human being, a feature that sets apart human beings from all other kinds of species. Being a follower triggers emotions, a faculty shared by beast, animals and human being and resulting actions or behavior unacceptable in the society. Therefore, it is the prime responsibility of the educational institutions and the human resources concerned to develop intellectual faculty of the students through rationalism to make them productive and useful citizen of the state.
.
Aptly put philosophy is everywhere with different manifestation in daily life practices. The classroom is an ideal place and a hub that could nurture this further. Intellectual engagement or rationalism is a commonplace practice in the classroom. Therefore, engagement of the students in critical discourses through rationalism is the need of the day, and, I believe that this will set the wheels in the motion to promote the role of reason and evidence in understanding the world around us. This will certainly develop a generation of learners who will approach and find solutions to the wide range of issues and problems that confront us in public life.
.
.
Assadullah Khan
Instructor
The Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED
Professional Development Centre (PDC) Chitral
