Sir Karl Popper and education

Abstract

ir Karl Popper' is one of our most distinguished contemporary philosophers and it is surprising that his thought has not permeated and informed educational discussion. This is particularly so in the light of both his personal biography and the wide appeal and general applicability of his ideas. Popper remembers with gratitude his first teacher, 'who taught me the three R's. They are, I think, the only essentials a child has to be taught'. But he became disgruntled with his secondary schooling and in 1918, at the age of sixteen, he left school to study on his own at the University of Vienna. While a student there he did voluntary work in Alfred Adler's child guidance clinics. He qualified to teach in primary schools but as there were no teaching posts available he became a social worker with neglected children. Subsequently he studied at the Pedagogic Institute where his reactions would strike a chord with present-day students, 'we were enthusiastic for school reform, and enthusiastic for studying--even though our experiences with neglected children made some of us sceptical of the educational theories we had to swallow in huge doses'. At this time he became particularly interested in psychology and he wrote a doctoral thesis on the problem of method in the psychology of thinking. His first published work was in the field of psychology. In 1929, after completing his doctorate, he qualified to teach in lower secondary schools. He remained a teacher for some years and during this period he undertook some of his most seminal work in the philosophy of scientific method. The political climate of pre-war Vienna influenced his decision to resign his teaching post and in I937 he took up a lectureship in New Zealand. After the war he came to the London School of Economics and taught there till his retirement. These brief, biographical points2 are mentioned because they may indicate that while Popper has not written directly on educational matters he is a man who has worked with children, who has been a teacher, whose philosophical method was influenced by his explorations into the psychology of children's thinking, and who has some pungent comments to make about schools.