Ibnu
Khaldun, a name that belongs to a very important person who had given a lot of
significant philosophical in human history. He is very expert in the field of
anthropology, politics, law, economics, philosophy, sociology, and even
education. Born in Tunis on May 1332 AD, Ibnu Khaldun was actually coming from
a family of scholars and political background. His ideas have reflected their
importance in the history of universal thought as much as within the Islamic perspectives.
His thoughts are all self – created. He created genuine and innovative ideas.
His ideas have not lost their relevance as time has passed. Ibnu Khaldun
concept of ideologies has been accepted and commented upon by historians,
politicians, economists, teachers, educators and even environmentalist. Ibnu
Khaldun’s masterpiece of art, The Muqaddimah has been translated into different
kind of world languages.
So,
we knew that Ibnu Khaldun has a very deep influence towards the history of
humankind. But, do we know his contribution towards education philosophy? How
about his role? In this essay, we will elaborate more on his contribution
towards education philosophy as well as his role towards it. Actually, there
are so many things that he had contributed and created in order to lead us to
the suitable and correct path of educational philosophy.
Firstly,
he showed us the correct method of teaching. It is by imparting information to
students at their level of comprehension. He said that information should be
given to students gradually in stages, lower to higher, which they may
understand. If teaching methods are gradually applied to students, the
education will prove more effective for them. In the beginning, the
main principles of information and sciences should be taught. The student's
ability in learning this subject also should be considered. The subjects to be
taught should be provided with this method until completion. Such a method will
result in the students showing more tendencies to the given information.
However, the students’ tendency will remain weak and insufficient. The students
during this period will have learnt to absorb the given information. Based on
this, the teacher should revise the subjects with a little more elaboration and
continue to provide the information in a wider aspect until completion. Then
the students’ knowledge and adjustments shall be enhanced accordingly. The
teacher shall then revise the subject three times over from the beginning.
During this period, the teacher shall be able to explain more difficult and
deeper aspects of the subject. This will result in the students reaching their
utmost aptitude.
Next,
Ibnu Khaldun mentioned that the students should not be forced to memorize. This
is because teachers usually explain the difficult and deeper aspects of
subjects which students are learning for the first time. This is actually
forcing the students to memorize the subject. They accept this as the correct
form of teaching. However, the students’ brains are not capable of
understanding this. It’s difficult enough for them to learn a lesson. As
results, students become lazy, their mind rejects the information and the
period of learning is prolonged. This is a result of poor teaching methods. The
teacher should not overload the students with lessons beyond their capabilities
and capacities. Otherwise, the issues will be scrambled and subjects will
become complex. When teaching, one must provide thought and revision.
Memorization should be avoided.
In
addition, it is harmful to be very strict towards the student
especially if the student is at a young age. According to Ibnu Khaldun, this
sort of aggressiveness negatively influences the child. It may affect the
psychology of the child and create unhappiness as well as interrupt his desire
to work and study. This will lead the child to misbehaviour and to live in
fear. He will learn to display rebellious action to those really within his
heart. In time, this will become his nature and part of his character. As a
result, it will corrupt the enhancements of social activities, development and
the concept of self-esteem and family values. Therefore, teachers, mothers and
fathers should not be aggressive towards children in order to teach them
obedience and manners.
Furthermore,
two subjects should not be taught together. The student should not pass on to
another subject while the first remains incomplete. According to Ibnu Khaldun, this
will separate the heart from the mind. Concentration on learning both subjects
at the same time unfortunately leads to an incomplete knowledge of both the
subjects which the student could not afford to absorb information correctly. He
also mentioned about the appropriate length of subjects taught. According to
Ibn Khaldun, an over-summarized text on certain information as well as an
over-extended text will create difficulty in learning the actual information.
This is because an over-summarized text will lead to the missing point of view
or details from the actual information. While if the text is over-summarized,
this will lead to other conflicts such as too much information at once and very
hard to recognize which one is more important than the others. This entire
situation will lead to the difficulty in learning the actual information.
Last
but not least, his role in the philosophy of education. Ibnu Khaldun played a
very important role such as doing research regarding this philosophy,
introducing the new and correct method of teaching, recognizing the student behaviour
as well as the teacher itself. He wrote a lot of books that concerned on the educational
philosophy and give everyone a chance to read it no matter who they are. He
practically used the method itself and taught people about it. That is why he
is very remembered by the people of the world because he had contributed a lot
of effort and knowledge towards us. No matter whom the people are, neither East
nor West, they will amaze with the ideology and philosophy of Ibnu Khaldun.
