Western vs Eastern Educational Philosophies

Educational philosophy is important in identifying and shaping a school’s goals, aims, and emphasis. It should also encourage and guide the planning, programs and processes of education in any given environment. Discussing this discipline, there are various aspects that aren’t parallel to each other, when comparing theses aspects in the perception of education itself, through the countries that are globally apart. So here we can identify the approaches and the values in two gigantic educational philosophies, which are the Western and Eastern philosophies.


As we know, different places must have their own different culture and background of the societies.By looking on Eastern and Western countries, both countries have clear differences in their ways of prospering and shaping an individual, in terms of expertise and attitudes. Thus, different cultures will have different philosophies, which results in distinct ways of doing things, especially in educating the next generation.
The ways of Teaching process:This is where teachers come in to direct and guide the students by giving them guidance in handling their learning procedure. In the classroom, children show more responsibility in their leaning process; and assessment is conducted to evaluate their ability and how they will apply into it (Teel et al., 2001). Teachers of the Western education do play a role in directing students to discover and establish their capabilities and potentials. Compared to the Western schooling, Eastern education philosophy clings to the idea of teaching. Students obtain the full knowledge from the teachers inside the class in an inflexible way where they only learn and study directly from the teacher without extra effort from them. (Hassan & Jamaludin, 2010).
Capability of Students for Both Philosophies
Western education advocates individualism and creativity towards learner. Since students are free to show their fantasy, they are not afraid to make mistakes, as the Western education views the students’ mistakes as a positive way to learn. On the contrary, Eastern education philosophy stresses on consistency and originality. Students have bunch of school rules to track and such rules main goal is to generate ideal students. Eastern education still favors the absorbing of good behaviors and ethical help to the children in order to make them get used to any rules especially in schools, and it is a teachers’ duty to show their example on this (Dahlin & Regmi, 2000).