Editing Philosophy of education (section)

=== Medieval ===
====Ibn Sina====
In the [[Islamic Golden Age|medieval Islamic world]], an elementary [[school]] was known as a ''[[kuttab|maktab]]'', which dates back to at least the 10th century. Like [[madrasah]]s (which referred to higher education), a maktab was often attached to a [[mosque]]. In the 11th century, [[Ibn Sina]] (known as ''Avicenna'' in the West), wrote a chapter dealing with the ''maktab'' entitled "The Role of the Teacher in the Training and Upbringing of Children", as a guide to teachers working at ''maktab'' schools. He wrote that children can learn better if taught in [[class (education)|class]]es instead of individual tuition from private [[tutor]]s, and he gave a number of reasons for why this is the case, citing the value of [[competition]] and [[emulation (observational learning)|emulation]] among pupils as well as the usefulness of group [[discussion]]s and [[debate]]s. Ibn Sina described the [[curriculum]] of a ''maktab'' school in some detail, describing the curricula for two stages of education in a ''maktab'' school.<ref name=Asimov>{{Cite book |title=The Age of Achievement: Vol 4 |last=M. S. Asimov |first=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |year=1999 |isbn=81-208-1596-3 |pages=33–4}}</ref>

Ibn Sina wrote that children should be sent to a ''maktab'' school from the age of 6 and be taught [[primary education]] until they reach the age of 14. During which time, he wrote that they should be taught the [[Qur'an]], [[Islamic metaphysics]], [[Arabic language|language]], [[Islamic literature|literature]], [[Islamic ethics]], and manual skills (which could refer to a variety of practical skills).<ref name=Asimov/>

Ibn Sina refers to the [[secondary education]] stage of ''maktab'' schooling as the period of specialization, when pupils should begin to acquire manual skills, regardless of their social status. He writes that children after the age of 14 should be given a choice to choose and specialize in subjects they have an interest in, whether it was reading, manual skills, literature, preaching, [[Islamic medicine|medicine]], [[Islamic mathematics|geometry]], [[Islamic economics in the world|trade and commerce]], [[Inventions in medieval Islam|craftsmanship]], or any other subject or profession they would be interested in pursuing for a future [[career]]. He wrote that this was a transitional stage and that there needs to be flexibility regarding the age in which pupils graduate, as the student's emotional development and chosen subjects need to be taken into account.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Age of Achievement: Vol 4 |last=M. S. Asimov |first=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |year=1999 |isbn=81-208-1596-3 |pages=34–5}}</ref>

The [[Empiricism|empiricist]] theory of '[[tabula rasa]]' was also developed by Ibn Sina. He argued that the "human [[Intelligence|intellect]] at birth is rather like a ''tabula rasa'', a pure potentiality that is actualized through education and comes to know" and that knowledge is attained through "[[empirical]] familiarity with objects in this world from which one abstracts universal concepts" which is developed through a "[[Syllogism|syllogistic]] method of [[reasoning]]; observations lead to prepositional statements, which when compounded lead to further abstract concepts." He further argued that the intellect itself "possesses levels of development from the material intellect (''al-‘aql al-hayulani''), that potentiality that can acquire knowledge to the active intellect (''al-‘aql al-fa‘il''), the state of the human intellect in conjunction with the perfect source of knowledge."<ref>Sajjad H. Rizvi (2006), [http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/avicenna.htm Avicenna/Ibn Sina (CA. 980-1037)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090703234444/http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/avicenna.htm |date=2009-07-03 }}, ''[[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''</ref>

====Ibn Tufail====
In the 12th century, the [[Al-Andalus|Andalusian]]-[[Early Islamic philosophy|Arabian philosopher]] and novelist [[Ibn Tufail]] (known as "Abubacer" or "Ebn Tophail" in the West) demonstrated the [[Empiricism|empiricist]] theory of '[[tabula rasa]]' as a [[thought experiment]] through his [[Arabic literature|Arabic philosophical novel]], ''[[Hayy ibn Yaqzan]]'', in which he depicted the development of the mind of a [[feral child]] "from a tabula rasa to that of an adult, in complete isolation from society" on a [[desert island]], through [[experience]] alone. Some scholars have argued that the [[Latin]] translation of his [[philosophical novel]], ''Philosophus Autodidactus'', published by [[Edward Pococke]] the Younger in 1671, had an influence on [[John Locke]]'s formulation of tabula rasa in "[[An Essay Concerning Human Understanding]]".<ref name=Russell>G. A. Russell (1994), ''The 'Arabick' Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England'', pp. 224-262, [[Brill Publishers]], {{ISBN|90-04-09459-8}}.</ref>