Original Nature

-The theory that the learner comes to school with a “vacant” sign is hung on his mind and that it is the duty of the school
to furnish the empty spaces probably held more frequently by a popular than an expert opinion.
-John Locke view- “The learner’s mind at birth is like a clean slate on which the school, little by little, writes the
accumulated heritage of race experience.”
-Normative point of view- To hold that the mind is what it is taught unduly exalts the powers of teaching and demeans
the privileges of learning. There is further danger that teaching will become preoccupied with furnishing the mind with
patterns of the past since these can be more readily cut and measured than those of yet undetermined future.
 Nothing of the difficulty of translating knowledge into conduct
 Practice in filling is certainly not the equivalent of practice in pouring out.
- Child nature is fundamentally dynamic.
- The dynamic , growing, self-activating principle, which animates human nature and causes the human pattern to
develop to maturity has traditionally been known as soul (a single unitary principle, it possesses a number of faculties).
Faculty-is derived from Latin facultas implies an “ability to do”. It has two main kinds, the Bodily/Somatic (the soul is
able to sense, feel and desire) and the Mental/Rational (the soul is able to remember, imagine, reason and the like).
Natural Hierarchy- “the bodily or somatic abilities are subordinate to the mental or rational”
-Accordingly, the main aim of education is to exercise and develop the faculties, especially the mental or cognitive ones.
-Tradition of longest standing:
 Seeks intellectual excellence as an end in itself by steeping the intellect in a curriculum as wide and rich a the
liberal arts can afford.
 It strives for the mental discipline through a formal training of the faculties on a narrow curriculum selected not
so such for its rich breadth as for its being a medium of resistance, a whetstone for mind.
-Faculty psychology often recommends itself through an effective metaphor.
 They compare mind to some instrument with cutting edge.
 Its weakness lies in the fact that it implies that the life of the mind maybe postponed or suspend till it is
sharpened.
 It is not the whetstone to sharpen the mind for later use but as a nourishment to strengthen the learner’s power.
-A shade different in opinion have emphasized man as goal seeking animal.
 They see his predicament
 The environment confronts him with ambiguities
 He must decide what to do
 The man has to face the crises of life on his own alone
-A more modern inventory of human nature lists its original capacities under different set of categories.
 Treating man more as an organism continuous with nature than as a soul destined to heaven.
 It records his instincts and impulses rather than his faculties.
 Some activities under instincts and impulses are urges (such as hunger, sex and fear), pugnacity, gregariousness,
rivalry, imitation, curiosity, play.
-Modifiability-capital of all characteristics.

Modification of Human Nature- There are some assumptions that there are definite limits beyond which human
nature cannot be modified by membership in a social order, thus putting limits on the reconstruction of the social order
itself. Other assumption also regards these limits as much more indefinite, and therefore much optimistic about
modifying human nature and remaking the social order as well. The general opinion of psychologists, with regards to the
capacity of human to increase their intelligence quotient by improving their mental capacity, is that human is unable to
do that. Psychologists admit that human nature is modifiable in that it can learn but unmodifiable in that it cannot
increase its inherent modifiability. There is a strict line separating nature and nurture. “It cannot be doubt that there are
some limits to modifiability of human nature and to institutional change, but then limits have to arrived at by experiment
observation…When such limits are found, it will be important to discover whether they are intrinsic and absolute or
whether they are to some extent due to limitations of the technique for effecting changes. “ (John Dewey, 1925-1953:
1931-1932, pg. 38).
The stratification on our society based on socio-economic classes is also viewed in the modifiability of human
nature. The assumption is that the human who belongs to the higher strata of society are also characterized with higher
IQs due to their superior abilities that brought them to the higher dominant strata. The assumptions of Doctrine of Social
Determinism is that the modifiability or learning is purely a function of exercise which does not add to or subtract from
the power of original nature but simply develops what is inherently and potentially present. It is fixed from the beginning
by one’s genes. Another assumption holds that mind is not so much unaffected by its relations as it is in large part of
product of them. Therefore, intelligence is a quality of learned behavior. The main point is that modifiability, far from
being biological constant, is in fact a social variant. The revolutionary societies and capitalistic societies also have an
assumption with regards to the modifiability of human nature. The main point of the assumption that they see no reason
why human nature cannot be changed by education and empowerment and through with it would bring about the
fundamental changes in the society itself.
Social Determinism is not the only educational doctrine which finds support in a theory of constancy of human
nature. There is also another doctrine that proposes that the aims of education should be the same for all men in all
times and all places. The aims of education should be constant, that is, the same for all men everywhere and always. The
Darwinian Evolution Theory holds an assumption that species are continually evolving; including human. Therefore,
naturally the aims of education must take their point from this fundamental fact.

Related Theories
- The theory of Structural Cognitive Modifiability (SCM) of Dr. Reuven Feuerstein views the human organism as open,
adaptive and amenable for change. The aim of this approach is to modify the individual, emphasizing autonomous and
self-regulated change. This theory is described as “the unique propensity of human beings to change or modify the
structure of their cognitive functioning to adapt to the changing demands of a life situation.” This capacity for change is
related to two types of human-environment interactions that are responsible for the development of differential cognitive
functioning and higher mental processes: direct exposure to learning and mediated learning experience.
Evolution of Human Behavior: Human nature modifies as evolution takes place.
We look at the contribution of biological evolution (by natural selection) in understanding human behavior. The
focus is on genes as the agent of evolution.
 Human nature- Here one looks at the biological basis and evolution of human behavior viewed as a common
attribute of the human species; in other words we look at the biological basis of human nature.
 Human diversity- Here one looks at the biological basis and evolution of differences in behavior among individual
humans. This includes the field of behavior genetics, which looks at the relative roles of genes, of systematic
aspects of the family environment, and specific environmental influences on the individual.
 Socio-cultural evolution- Here we look at the evolution, not of genes, but of items of culture, entire cultures,
languages and social organization. What evolve are not genes but memes or units of culture. The mechanisms
of socio-cultural evolution are similar to, but substantively different from, mechanisms of biological evolution.

Freedom of the Will- The main issue in this age-old problem of “freewill” is whether there is any incompatibility
between causation and freedom.
Two Kinds of Freedom-Social in Character (It is an option with which we were concerned In discussing the democratic
concept of education and with which we shall consider later on as part of the method of instruction), More subtle and
More Fundamental (It ask whether even the parent or teacher himself could freely choose to give more or less freedom
to child).
-According to one doctrine, “Will is a distinct faculty”- it is not only to be distinguished from impulse, desire, and
emotion, but it is to be elevated above all these as the sovereign faculty. “Will is not to be confused with intellect”-it
works closely in conjunction with the intellect but is separate from it.
-Concerning the nature of the will- A will by which the mind chooses anything. An act of the will is the same as an “act of
choosing or choice”.
-Concerning the determination of the will- A will that supposes an effect, which must have a cause.
-Concerning the Meaning of Necessity- A will is then said to be necessary when it must be, & cannot be otherwise.
-Concerning the distinction of natural and moral necessity- A will as a moral obligation, it is when an individual is under
the bonds of duty or consciences.
-Concerning the notion of liberty and moral agency- A will of having a power or taking advantage & opportunity, or doing
as what we pleases.
-Constraints and Restraints are the contrary of what we call “Liberty”.

Integration-Every human beings possessed a diversity of traits, whether of faculties, instincts or habits yet in spite of
this diversity of traits, the individual gives every appearance of being an integer. Integrated individuals are persons who
chooses to do what he or she does in order to get what he or she needs from the world. An Integrated individual is the
one that experience life and all its highs and lows without feeling trapped by them. From where this identity , this idea
of unity or integration came from? Is integration an original datum or is it a subsequent acquisition which is gained in the
social or educational process?
Integration as a subsequent acquisition which is gained in the social or educational process:
• According to this view, the learner achieves integration in school through having subject matter presented to him
in well-organized fashion by the teacher. If his personality is in danger of disintegration, then the therapy is to
organize the community so that it presents a more unified aspect of the youth
Integration as an original datum:
 It is a native tendency of an individual to maintain his identity throughout the flow of his learning experience.
 He is always integrating, but never integrated
 Organisms tend to act as “a whole”
 From them also comes much of the emphasis on the education of “the whole child”
-Jonathan(2000) reflects: The purpose of school should be to educate, to “educe” which means to evoke, extract, or elicit
something that is latent, that is, to draw out what learners know. That means that you cannot tell students what they
should know, instead, your role should be to help them articulate what they know and come to know it better.(p.277)
Is disintegration possible? In what way can a person be disintegrated? Should this be taken into account by educators?
• Disintegration is the process by which an object breaks down or losses cohesion
• Characteristic of an unintegrated individual
An unintegrated individual typically reacts to life instead of taking a proactive approach, he/she becomes
trapped in compulsive behaviors instead of feeling free to choose, and feels driven or stressed but doesn’t
understand why.
• In the original state of justice man’s being, is supposed to have been in order. Because of his initial fall from
grace, however, the perfect equilibrium of his hierarchy of powers has been lost
• Original sin- man’s fallen nature, his disorderly inclinations, his lack of integration thus naturally orients
education to antecedent goals

Factors Affecting Social Change

I. Technology-Technology causes social change in 3 ways: (1) increases alternatives available to society,
creates new opportunities. (2) Alters interaction patterns among people, changes structures of human
groups and (3) create new problems. Technological and economic changes causes global social effects like
(a) Agricultural Advancements, (b)Industrialization-leads to changes in work as work became centered and
organized around machines, (c)Weapons Production, (d)Information Society-information overload.
-Industrialized societies are characterized by (a) smaller percentage of workforce employed in agriculture,  
(b) increased division of labor, specialization of occupations,   (c) Increase in education of workforce, Increase
in economic organizations (businesses), (d) Stronger link between government and economy –
interdependent, (e) Technological change – new goods and services produced and new occupations result;
control of environment and the need to do so, (f) Geographical mobility, (g) Occupational mobility, (h)
Population change, (i) Demographic Transitions-a move from high birth rates and high death rates (with
smaller population sizes), high birth rates and low death rates (with extreme population growth), low birth
rates and low death rates (with populations maintenance), (j) People have fewer children as society
industrialized because role of family changes and technological advancements allow control of reproduction,
 and (k) Families change from extended to nuclear families due to geographic and occupational mobility.
Family is no longer mainly seen as an economic unit.
II. Mass Movement- Mass movement or social movement is an organized effort by a large number of people,
esp. those not forming part of the elite of a given society, to bring about pervasive changes in existing social,
economic, or political institutions, frequently characterized by charismatic leadership. It is also called social
movement. The term "social movements" was introduced in 1850 by the German Sociologist Lorenz von
Stein in his book “History of the French Social Movement from 1789 to the Present".
-There are 3 elements to a social movement- Campaigns (a sustained, organized public effort making
collective claims of target authorities), Repertoire (employment of combinations from among the following
forms of political action like public meetings, solemn processions, vigils etc.) ,and WUNC Displays
(participants' concerted public representation of Worthiness, Unity, Numbers, and Commitments on the part
of themselves and/or their constituencies).
-Key Process behind Social Movements
 Urbanization-by the creation of large cities, urbanization facilitates social interaction between scores
of people. It was in cities, where people of similar goals could find each other, gather and organize,
that those early social movements first appeared.
 Industrialization- by the process of industrialization, the gathering of large masses of workers in the
same region was responsible for the fact that many of those early social movements addressed
matters important to that social class (working class).
 Mass Education-created at the universities were more people gathers together.
 Communication Technologies- creation and activities of social movements became easier - from
printed pamphlets circulating in the 18th century coffeehouses to newspapers and Internet, all those
tools became important factors in the growth of the social movements.
 Spread of Democracy and Political Rights-made the creation and functioning of social movements
much easier like freedom of speech.
-Types of Social Movements
 By Scope-Reform Movements (dedicated to changing some norms) and Radical Movements
(dedicated to changing value systems).
 By Type of Change- Innovation Movements (movements which want to enable particular norms,
values, etc. ) and Conservative Movement (movements which want to preserve existing norms, values,
etc.)
 By Targets- Group-Focused (affecting groups or society in general, for example, advocating the change
of the political system) and Individual-Focused (affecting individuals. Most religious movements
would fall under this category).
 By Method of Work-Peaceful (which are seen to stand in contrast to 'violent' movements) and Violent
(various armed movements like terrorism, armed movement and some violent means)
 Old (Movements before 19th Century like improving the standard of living or, for example, the political
autonomy of the working class) and New (19th Century Onwards feminist movement, pro-choice
movement, civil rights movement, environmental movement. Sometimes called New Social
Movement.
 By Range-Global, Local and Multilevel.
III. New Ideas and Values
-CAUSES OF SOCIAL CHANGE
 Materialistic perspectives (materialistic factors are usually economic production and technology).
1. Marxist perspective:  economic production, economic classes form the basic anatomy of
society, and everything else arises in relationship to them
2. Other materialistic perspectives: Cultural lag theory  (W. Ogburn) technological causes of
change, material culture (technology) changes more quickly than nonmaterial culture (values,
ideas, norms, ideologies), i.e. there is a period of maladjustment (a lag time) during which
nonmaterial culture is still adapting to new material conditions
 Idealistic perspectives (idealistic factors /ideational aspects are values, beliefs and ideologies).
 1. Weber’s perspective:  in essence, values and beliefs, both religious and secular, have decisive
impact on shaping social change, as well as other factors such as those outlined by Marx:
Protestanism- He argued that values of Protestanism, esp. Calvinism and related, produced a
cultural ethic which sanctified work and worldly achievement, encouraged frugality and
discouraged consumption. Unintended consequences of this religious worldview, this-worldly
asceticism, encouraged development of large pools of capital through encouraging work,
savings and non-frivolous consumption, and encouraged rational reinvestment and economic
growth.   Work was a religiously sanctioned calling.  Each man is a moral free agent,
accountable only to God.  Suspicious of material consumption beyond bare necessities
believing it led to moral corruption.
Catholicism- Work is merely mundane activity to keep one alive, encouraging other-worldly
asceticism where highest form of activity was devotion to God, men were accountable to the
Church which sought to regulate the operation of the economy and other secular aspects of
society in terms of religious values.  No reason in values to ban consumption. Discussed China
and India, whose faiths, Confucianism & Taoism and Hinduism respectively, also weren’t
favorable to the development of capitalism.  
2. Other ideational perspectives:  Lewy focused on role of religion in social change citing
examples of Puritan revolt in England, Islamic renaissance in Sudan in 1800s, Taiping &
Boxer Rebellion in China, Islamic fundamentalism in Iran.
-Cultural ideas, values, and ideologies that have broadly shaped directions of social change in modern world:
 freedom and self-determination
 material growth and security
 nationalism, e.g. French & English Canadians, English & Irish, Germans & French, Palestinians,
Kurdish, Basque separatists and Spanish
 capitalism: not only type of economic system but also ideology, connected set of values and ideas
emphasizing positive benefits of pursuing one’s private economic interests, competition and free
markets
 Marxism
-Ideational culture can cause change by:
 Legitimizing a desired direction of change, e.g. promoting further equality and democracy.
 Providing a basis for social solidarity necessary to promote change, i.e. integrative mechanisms,
neutralizing the conflicting strains found in society, e.g. mobilizing force during war.
 Highlighting contradictions and problems, e.g. US cultural value of equality of opportunity have
highlighted racism and sexism.
-Technology causes change in 3 ways: (1)increases alternatives available to society, creates new opportunities, (2)
alters interaction patterns among people, changes structures of human groups, and (3)creates new problems.

Theories of Social Change

I. Evolutionary Theory-characterized primarily by an assumption of smooth, cumulative change, often in linear
fashion, and always in the direction of increasing complexity and adaptability. The evolutionary theory
emphasizes smooth, cumulative changes
II. Equilibrium Theory-characterized by the concept of homeostasis, and focuses on conditions tending toward
stability as a consequence. The equilibrium theory emphasizes adjustments and homeostasis among parts.
III. Conflict Theory-characterized by the assumption that change is endemic to all social organisms, and focuses
on conditions that tend toward instability as a consequence. The conflict theory emphasizes inherent
instability and change.
-Conflict theories are perspective in social science which emphasizes the social, political or material
inequality of a social group. It is a prominent sociological theory that is often contrasted with structural-
functionalism. Furthermore, conflict theory argues that society is not best understood as a complex system
striving for equilibrium but rather as a competition.
Power Differentials
 Example for this theory that draws attention to power differentials is the society which is made up of
individuals competing for limited resources. Resources include money, leisure, sexual partners etc.,
inequality of power between parents and children, husbands and wives, the strains this places on intimate
relationships
Primary assumptions of modern conflict theory:
-Competition over scarce resources is at the heart of all social relationships. Competition rather than
consensus is characteristic of human relationships.
-Structural Inequalities. Inequalities in power and reward are built into social structures. Individuals and
groups that benefits from any particular structure strive to see it maintained.
-Revolution. Change occurs as a result of conflict between competing interests rather than through
adaptation, change is often abrupt and revolutionary rather than evolutionary.
-War. It is a unifier of the societies involved it may set end to societies.
Ways of reducing conflict:
-Cooptation-It occurs when the member of the dissenting groups are absorbed by the dominant group. It also
occurs when the ideas of the opposition filter into the mainstream, so that there is no longer a need for
confrontation. Example is to appoint consumer activist to the federal trade commission. Second was
extending the vote to women.
-Mediation. Refers to the use of a third party to resolve issues, often occurs in labor management conflict
within the small group and in divorce mediation.
-Ritualized release of hostility-Is used by some societies and groups to contain conflict.
IV. Functionalism- Theory that stress the interdependence of the patterns and institutions of a society and their
interaction in maintaining cultural and social unity.
-In Sociology viewed society as a kind of “organism”. Is a consensus theory.
Ways a Society Works.
Structural Theory (Macro Methods) & Social Action Theory (Micro Methods)
4 Subsystem
Cultural, Family, Political, Economic
V. Cyclical Theory-Cyclical theories of social change are based on the view that society resembles a living
organism, going through phases of growth and decline. This theory invokes patterns of social structure and
culture that are believed to recur at regular intervals. In cyclical theory, change brings –sooner or later- a
return to the semblance of an earlier state.
Proponents- Oswald Spengler (Society has a predetermined life cycle and has birth, growth, maturity and
decline), Vacher de Lapouge (Race is the most important determinant of culture & Western civilization is
doomed to extinction because of the constant infiltration of foreign inferior elements and their increasing
control over it.) , Vilfredo Pareto (Propounded the theory that societies pass through the periods of political
vigor and decline which repeat themselves in cyclical fashion and that society consist of 2 kinds of people,
the Rentiers & Speculators), F. Stuart Chapin (The different parts of culture go through a cycle of growth, vigor
and decay. If the cycles of the major parts such as government and family coincide or synchronize, the whole
culture will be in a state of integration. If they do not synchronize, the culture will be in disintegrated
condition. Growth and decay, in cultural forms are as inescapable as they are in all living things) & Pitirim
Sorokin (argued that the cyclical theory of social change undergo three phases or cycles or culture).
THREE PHASES/CULTURE:
1. Idealistic Culture-The society wrestles with the tension between the ideal and the practical. An example
would be the situation captured in Gunnar Myrdal’s classic work, An American Dilemma (1944), in which
our nation declared a belief in equality for all, despite intractable racial, class and gender stratification.
2. Ideational Culture- Emphasizes faith and new forms of spirituality as a phase in social change. The
current New Age spirituality movement stresses nontraditional techniques of meditation and the use of
crystals and body massage oils in a journey toward self fulfillment and spiritual peace (Withnow 1994).
3. Sensate Culture- Stresses practical approaches to reality and involves the hedonistic and the sensual
(sex, drugs and rock and roll). Sorokin may have foreseen the hedonistic elements popular culture in the
1960s and 1970s as indicative of sensate culture.
VI. Discovery- Is finding something that has never been found, before, or finding something new in something
that already exists. A shade of human perception of reality which already exist. Like discovery of Oil & Gas in
Pakistan, it affects the lifestyle of human and society.
VII. Invention- application or use of a new existing knowledge and it is usually done to improve present ways and
means of doing things. It is a creative and explanatory process. Classified into Material or Physical Inventions
(such as bow and arrow, telephone) and Social Invention (creation of a new procedure, law or organization
that changes the way in which people relate)
-Technology is the outcome of such invention and Invention is the process of creating technology.
-Social Inventions
 Procedures- language, writing, charity, democracy, strikes, licensing, training, oath, probation,
testing, psychoanalysis, or training.
 Laws- The Poor Law of 1388, The Indenture of Children Act of 1601, The English Bill of Rights
(1689). And a law against cruelty to children enacted in the United States after 1875.
 Organizations- schools, law courts, House of Commons, labour union, jails, YMCA, Children's Aid
Society, Red Cross, or the Boy Scouts.
-How Invention caused Social Changes?
 MODERNIZATION- a process which indicates the adoption of the modern ways of life and values. It
refers to an attempt on the part of the people particularly those who are custom-bound to adapt
themselves to the present-time, conditions, needs, styles and ways in general. (Transportation,
Communication, Way of Living)
 SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS- a complex, integrated set of social norms organized around the
preservation of a basic societal value.(Family organization, Marriage, Religions)
 SOCIAL BEHAVIORS - a behavior directed towards society, or taking place between, members of
the same species. (Being dependent, lazy and bad)
 POPULATION GROWTH-All the people or the total number of people who live in a particular area is
the population of that area. Population always goes up, which is known as population growth.
Population growth has brought a number of problems in the world. The increasing population is
the main cause of the environmental degradation, pollution, deforestation, fatal diseases, wild-life
declination, unemployment, traffic jam, migration, increasing urbanization, diminishing natural
resources and war.
VIII. Diffusion- Refers to the spread of cultural attributes from one culture to another though contact between
different cultural group. Diffusion theory developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in opposition
to evolutionary theory, both being concerned with the origin of human culture.
-Classified into Intradiffusion (The former involves the adoption of cultural traits one group by another within
a society like from one region to another region in the Philippines) and Interdiffusion (The latter is the
transfer of certain practices from the society to another like from US to Philippines.)
-Diffusion not causing social change. While it is generally accepted in sociology that diffusion is a process
that can bring about social change, there are some authorities who believe that this is not always the case.