Abstract:
Purposes of the study The purpose of this research was to study and to compare the educational philosophy beliefs among administrators, instructors, and students in Teachers Colleges in Bangkok Metropolis classified by sex, age and working experience, and to compare their self-identified philosophy of education to their actual beliefs in philosophy of education. Procedures This research was a survey. The subjects consisted of 370 administrators, instructors and students in Teachers Colleges in Bangkok Metropolis, selected by stratified and simple random sampling. The instruments used in this research was the Educational philosophy Inventory constructed by the researcher which covered five philosophies namely, Essentialism, Perennialism, Progressivism, Reconstructionism and Existentialism. Each philosophy was classified into eight categories; meaning of education, aim of education, curriculum, teachers roles, students roles, the role of the school, learning-teaching process, and measurement and evaluation. The inventory was divided into three parts. The first part included questions on personal data; the second measured educational philosophy beliefs and the third asked respondents to identify their educational philosophy preference. The obtained data were analyzed statistically by means of frequencies, percentages and Chi-square tests. Findings 1. Progressivism was rated highest by administrators, instructors and students. When analyzed by categories, Progressivism was also rated highest. 2. A comparison of the educational philosophy beliefs of the three groups showed the following; a) significant differences between the three groups were found on Essentialism, Perennialism, Reconstructionism and Existentialism; b) administrators did not show any significant differences between each philosophy for each category; the instructors showed a significant difference on the meaning of education and on the curriculum; c) the educational philosophy beliefs of administrators, instructors and students, when analyzed by sex, age groups and working experience, showed significant differences. 3. The self-identified philosophies of education of the administrators, instructors and students showed a significant difference with their actual beliefs in philosophy of education as measured by the inventory. However, when each philosophy was considered separately, there was no significant difference on every philosophy for administrators. For instructors, there was a significant difference on Essentialism. For students, there was a significant difference on Essentialism and Perennialism.