What is education?
Education is the development of individuals’ capacity to be productive members of society, by teaching and learning specific knowledge, beliefs, and skills. Informally, it is the process of embibing knowledge of numbers and language that are taught by parents and other members of the student’s culture and about the functioning of surrounding objects.
Journals, magazines, books, and digests in the field of education address the teaching/learning practices that include lectures, game playing, testing, scheduling, record keeping, seating arrangements, interests, motivation, and computer access. It is now widely recognized that the most important factors in any teacher’s effectiveness are the interaction with students and the knowledge and personality of the teacher. The best teachers are able to translate knowledge of a subject, good judgment, experience, and wisdom into a significant knowledge of a subject that is understood and retained by the student. Teachers need the ability to understand a subject well enough to convey its essence to a new generation of students. The goal is to establish a foundation of knowledge base that allows the student to build on as they are exposed to different life experiences. The passing of knowledge from generation to generation (see socialisation) allows the student to grow into a useful member of society.
It is widely accepted that the process of education begins at birth and continues throughout life. Some believe that education begins even earlier than this, as evidenced by some parents’ playing music or reading to the baby in the hope it will influence the child’s development.
Education is often used to refer to formal education (see below). However, it covers a range of experiences, from formal learning to the building of understanding and knowledge through day to day experiences. Ultimately, all that we experience serves as a form of education. A teacher should have a firm grasp of a given knowledge area so that they can pass it on to their students using whatever techniques work. Different people learn in different ways and many things will have to be explained many different times in many different ways before most of the students "gets it". Some students, unfortunately, never will "get it"–since they are not interested or have not learned enough of the foundation knowledge of a given subject to advance to a new level. The main role of a teacher is to teach the student the core knowledge accumulated over centuries of human experience well enough that they understood and retain enough of this knowledge so that they can continue to build on it and, at least in part, understand how the world works.
Individuals receive informal education from a variety of sources. Family members, peers, books and mass media have a strong influence on the informal education of the individual.
Terminology
The word education is derived from the Latin educare (with a short u) meaning "to raise", "to bring up", "to train", "to rear", via "educatio/nis", bringing up, raising. In recent times an alternative assertion is that it derives from a different verb: educere (with a long u), meaning "to lead out" or "to lead forth". There is an English word from this verb, "eduction": drawing out. This is considered by some to be a false etymology, used to bolster the theory that a function of education is to develop innate abilities and expand horizons.
Philosophy of education
The philosophy of education is the study of the purpose, nature and ideal content of education. Related topics include knowledge itself, the nature of the knowing mind and the human subject, problems of authority, the relationship between education and society, and so on. At least since Rousseau’s time, the philosophy of education has been linked to theories of developmental psychology and human development.
Fundamental purposes that have been proposed for education include:
- The enterprise of civil society depends on educating young people to become responsible, thoughtful and enterprising citizens. This is an intricate, challenging task requiring deep understanding of ethical principles, moral values, political theory, aesthetics, and economics; not to mention an understanding of who children are, in themselves and in society.
- Progress in every practical field depends upon having capacities that schooling can educate. Education thus is a means to fostering the individual’s, society’s, and even humanity’s future development and prosperity. Emphasis is often put on economic success in this regard.
- One’s individual development and the capacity to fulfill one’s own purposes can depend upon an adequate preparation in childhood. Education thus can attempt to give a firm foundation for the achievement of personal fulfillment. The better the foundation that is built, the more successful the child will be. Simple basics in education can carry a child far.
A central tenet of education typically includes “the imparting of knowledge.” At a very basic level, this purpose ultimately deals with the nature, origin and scope of knowledge. The branch of philosophy that addresses these and related issues is known as epistemology. This area of study often focuses on analyzing the nature and variety of knowledge and how it relates to similar notions such as truth and belief.
While the term, knowledge, often is used to convey this general purpose of education, it also can be viewed as part of a continuum of knowing that ranges from very specific data to the highest levels. Seen in this light, the continuum may be thought of to be comprised of a general hierarchy of overlapping levels of knowing. Students must be able to connect new information to a piece of old information to better be able to learn, understand, and retain information. This continuum may include notions such as data, information, knowledge, wisdom, and realization.
Psychology of education
Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Although the terms "educational psychology" and "school psychology" are often used interchangeably, researchers and theorists are likely to be identified as educational psychologists, whereas practitioners in schools or school-related settings are identified as school psychologists. Educational psychology is concerned with the processes of educational attainment among the general population and sub-populations such as gifted children and those subject to specific disabilities.
Educational psychology can in part be understood through its relationship with other disciplines. It is informed primarily by psychology, bearing a relationship to that discipline analogous to the relationship between medicine and biology. Educational psychology in turn informs a wide range of specialities within educational studies, including instructional design, educational technology, curriculum development, organizational learning, special education and classroom management. Educational psychology both draws from and contributes to cognitive science and the learning sciences. In universities, departments of educational psychology are usually housed within faculties of education, possibly accounting for the lack of representation of educational psychology content in introductory psychology textbooks (Lucas, Blazek, & Raley, 2006).
Academic disciplines
An academic discipline is a branch of knowledge which is formally taught, either at the university, or via some other such method. Functionally, disciplines are usually defined and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned societies to which their practitioners belong.
Each discipline usually has several sub-disciplines or branches and distinguishing lines are often both arbitrary and ambiguous. Examples of broad areas of academic disciplines include the natural sciences, mathematics, computer science, social sciences, humanities and applied sciences.
Schooling
Schooling occurs when society or a group or an individual sets up a curriculum to educate people, usually the young. Schooling can become systematic and thorough. Formal education systems can be used to promote doctrines or ideals as well as knowledge and this can sometimes lead to abuse of the system.
Life-long or adult education has become widespread in many countries. However, education is still seen by many as something aimed at children, and adult education is often branded as adult learning or lifelong learning.
Adult education takes on many forms from formal class-based learning to self-directed learning. Lending libraries provide inexpensive informal access to books and other self-instructional materials. Many adults have also taken advantage of the rise in computer ownership and internet access to further their informal education.
Alternative education
Alternative education, also known as non-traditional education or educational alternative, describes a number of approaches to teaching and learning other than traditional publicly- or privately-run schools. These approaches can be applied to all students of all ages, from infancy to adulthood, and all levels of education.
Educational alternatives often are the result of education reform and are rooted in various philosophies that are fundamentally different from those of mainstream compulsory education. While some have strong political, scholarly, or philosophical orientations, others are more informal associations of teachers and students somehow dissatisfied with certain aspects of mainstream education.
Educational alternatives, which include charter schools, alternative schools, independent schools, and home schooling vary widely, but often emphasize the value of small class size, close relationships between students and teachers, and a sense of community. For some, especially in the United States, the term alternative refers to educational settings for "at-risk" youth, as well as those in need of special education, rather than educational alternatives for all students.
Article source: wikipedia.com
