Assignment No.

2
Course: Foundations of Education (6500)
Semester: Spring, 2015

Level: MA/M.Ed.

Q.No.1
Differentiate between "Essentialism" and "Reconstructionism". Also discuss
their application in educational process.
Ans
Many philosophers have identified at least three broad philosophies of education:
Essentialism, Perennials, and Experimentalism. Essentialism has sometimes been further
divided into Idealism and Realism, and Experimentalism has been divided into
Progressivism and Reconstructionism. Additionally, some philosophers of education
recognize an Existentialist approach to education as well.
Now, just because philosophers of education have formulated a few categories of
educational philosophies does not mean that one or more of these philosophies can be
said to "the" philosophy of education which prevails in American schools.
Essentialism (rooted in idealism and realism)
Aim: To educate the useful and competent person
Curriculum: Basic education: reading, writing, arithmetic, history, English, science,
foreign languages
Educational Implications: Emphasis on skills and subjects that transmit the cultural
heritage and contribute to socioeconomic efficiency
Proponents: Bagley, Bestor, Conant, Morrison
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"back-to-basics" movement
The "back-to-basics" movement derives from essentialist principles. Back-to-basics
proponents contend that social experimentation and untested innovations have lowered
academic standards. They charge that many children in elementary schools have not
mastered basic literary and computational skills and those academic weaknesses in high
schools result from the absence of a prescribed curriculum. The back-to-basics position
is that schools should concentrate on the essential skills and subjects that contribute to
literacy and to social and intellectual efficiency. Back-to-basics proponents want teachers
restored as educational authorities. Teachers must be well prepared and accountable for
children's learning. Regular assignments, homework, recitations, and frequent testing
and evaluation should be standard practices.
In the 1980s and 1990s, a series of national reports on the condition of American
education generated a period of ne-oessentialist educational reforms. The term
neoessentialist indicates that this movement reiterated themes from earlier essentialists.
These essentialist themes were prescribed as remedies for certain economic and social
problems facing the US, such as lowered productivity and increasing violence.
Neoessentialism was clearly evident in the 1983 report A NATION AT RISK, which
recommended a high school curriculum of "five new basics": English, mathematics,
science, social studies, and computer science.
Reconstructionism as an Educational Philosophy
Theodore Brameld (1904-1987) was the founder of social Reconstructionism, in reaction
against the realities of World War II. He recognized the potential for either human
annihilation through technology and human cruelty or the capacity to create a beneficent
society using technolog and human compassion. George Counts (1889-1974) recognized
that education was the means of preparing people for creating this new social order.
Social-Reconstructionist education is based on the theory that society can be
reconstructed through the complete control of education. The objective is to change
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society to conform to the basic ideals of the political party or government in power or to
create a utopian society through education.
Communist education is probably the most pervasive version of operational socialreconstructionism in the world today. Originally based on the philosophy of Karl Marx
and institutionalized in the Soviet Union, it now reaches a large proportion of the world's
youth. From the 1950s onward, much attention has been paid to the ideal of
"polytechnization." Man, so the argument runs, is not simply Homo sapiens but rather
Homo faber, the constructor and builder. He attains full mental, moral, and spiritual
development

through

entering

into

social

relations

with

others,

particularly

in

cooperative efforts to produce material, artistic, and spiritual goods and achievements.
The school should prepare pupils for such productive activities--for instance, by studying
and, if possible, sharing in the work done in field, farm, or factory. A different socialreconstructionist movement is that of the kibbutzim (collective farms) of Israel. The
most striking feature of kibbutz education is that the parents forgo rearing and
educating their offspring themselves and instead hand the children over to professional
educators, sometimes immediately after birth. The kibbutzim type of education
developed

for

both

practical

and

economic

reasons,

but

gradually

educational

considerations gained prominence.

These were:
(1) that the kibbutz way of life makes for complete equality of the sexes,
(2) that the education of children in special children's houses is the best way of
perpetuating the kibbutz way of life,
(3) that collective education is more "scientific" than education within the family,
inasmuch as children are reared and trained by experts (i.e., qualified nurses,
kindergarten teachers, and other educators), in an atmosphere free of the
tensions engendered by family relationships, and

Social Reconstructionism is also called Critical Theory. It is a philosophy that emphasizes

the addressing of social questions and a quest to create a better society and worldwide
democracy. Reconstructionist educators focus on a curriculum that highlights social
reform as the aim of education.
Critical theorists, like social Reconstructionists, believe that systems must be changed to
overcome oppression and improve human conditions. Paulo Freire (1921-1997) was a
Brazilian whose experiences living in poverty led him to champion education and literacy
as the vehicle for social change. In his view, humans must learn to resist oppression and
not become its victims, nor oppress others.
Application in educational process
For social Reconstructionists and critical theorists, curriculum focuses on student
experience and taking social action on real problems, such as violence, hunger,
international terrorism, inflation, and inequality. Strategies for dealing with controversial
issues (particularly in social studies and literature), inquiry, dialogue, and multiple
perspectives are the focus. Community-based learning and bringing the world into the
classroom are also strategies.
Reconstructionism is the radical branch of progressivism.

Reconstructionists see society

as in serious disrepair. Much of the basis of their thought is found in the Great
Depression of the 1930's, although some modern exponents also find a basis for it in
what they consider to the "exploitation of the Third World" by the powerful industrial
nations. At any rate, the Reconstructionists see education as the means by which a new
social order is to be devised, with the schools serving as the means by which the coming
generation is to be "educated" to function in this order. Despite its seeming
authoritarianism, Reconstructionists insist that the development of this new order must
come about democratically.
The idea of social-reconstructionist education rests on a 19th-century belief in the power
of education to change society. In the last quarter of the 20th century there has been
considerable pessimism, but the idea that schooling can influence either society or the
individual is widely held, affecting the growth of tertiary-level alternatives, management
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strategies, and education of disadvantaged people, both in industrialized and in

developing countries.
The inclusion of all children and youth is part of a general integrative trend that has
accelerated since World War II. It relates to some newer developments as well. Concern
for the earth's endangered environment has become central, emphasizing in both
intellectual and social life the need for cooperation rather than competition, the
importance of understanding interrelationships of the ecosystem, and the idea that
ecology can be used as an organizing concept. In a different vein, the rapid development
of microelectronics, particularly the use of computers for multiple functions in education,
goes far beyond possibilities of earlier technological advances. Although technology is
thought of by some as antagonistic to humanistic concerns, others argue that it makes
communication and comprehension available to a wider population and encourages
"system thinking," both ultimately integrative effects.
Q.No.2
What is socialization and social stratification? Discuss the role of family and
peer groups in this process.
Ans
Socialization, is a term used by sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists,
political scientists and educationalists to refer to the lifelong process of inheriting and
disseminating norms, customs and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and
habits necessary for participating within their own society. Socialization is thus "the
means by which social and cultural continuity are attained"Socialization describes a
process which may lead to desirable outcomes sometimes labeled "moral" as regards
the society where it occurs. Individual views on certain issues, for instance race or
economics, are influenced by the society's consensus and usually tend toward what that
society finds acceptable or "normal". Many socio-political theories postulate that
socialization provides only a partial explanation for human beliefs and behaviors,
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maintaining that agents are not blank slates predetermined by their environment;
scientific research provides evidence that people are shaped by both social influences
and genes. Genetic studies have shown that a person's environment interacts with his or
her genotype to influence behavioral outcome.
Primary socialization for a child is very important because it sets the ground work for
all future socialization. Primary Socialization occurs when a child learns the attitudes,
values, and actions appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture. It is
mainly influenced by the immediate family and friends. For example if a child saw
his/her mother expressing a discriminatory opinion about a minority group, then that
child may think this behavior is acceptable and could continue to have this opinion about
minority groups.
Secondary socialization Secondary socialization refers to the process of learning what
is the appropriate behavior as a member of a smaller group within the larger society.
Basically, it is the behavioral patterns reinforced by socializing agents of society.
Secondary socialization takes place outside the home. It is where children and adults
learn how to act in a way that is appropriate for the situations they are in. Schools
require very different behavior from the home, and Children must act according to new
rules. New teachers have to act in a way that is different from pupils and learn the new
rules from people around them. Secondary Socialization is usually associated with
teenagers and adults, and involves smaller changes than those occurring in primary
socialization. Such examples of Secondary Socialization are entering a new profession or
relocating to a new environment or society.
Anticipatory socialization Anticipatory socialization refers to the processes of
socialization in which a person "rehearses" for future positions, occupations, and social
relationships. For example, a couple might move in together before getting married in
order to try out, or anticipate, what living together will be like. Research by Kenneth J.

Levine and Cynthia A. Hoffner suggests that parents are the main source of anticipatory
socialization in regards to jobs and careers.
Re-socialization Re-socialization refers to the process of discarding former behavior
patterns and reflexes, accepting new ones as part of a transition in one's life. This occurs
throughout the human life cycle. Re-socialization can be an intense experience, with the
individual experiencing a sharp break with his or her past, as well as a need to learn and
be exposed to radically different norms and values. One common example involves resocialization through a total institution, or "a setting in which people are isolated from
the rest of society and manipulated by an administrative staff". Re-socialization via total
institutions involves a two step process: 1) the staff work to root out a new inmate's
individual identity & 2) the staff attempt to create for the inmate a new identity. Other
examples of this are the experience of a young man or woman leaving home to join the
military, or a religious convert internalizing the beliefs and rituals of a new faith. An
extreme example would be the process by which a transsexual learns to function socially
in a dramatically altered gender role.
Stratification
Social stratification is a society's categorization of people into socioeconomic strata,
based upon their occupation and income, wealth and social status, or derived power
(social and political). As such, stratification is the relative social position of persons
within a social group, category, geographic region, or social unit. In modern Western
societies, social stratification typically is distinguished as three social classes:
(i) The upper class,
(ii) The middle class,

(iii) The lower class; in turn, each class can be subdivided into strata, e.g. the upperstratum, the middle-stratum, and the lower stratum. Moreover, a social stratum can be
formed upon the bases of kinship or caste, or both.
The categorization of people by social strata occurs in all societies, ranging from the
complex, state-based societies to tribal and feudal societies, which are based upon
socio-economic relations among classes of nobility and classes of peasants. Historically,
whether or not hunter-gatherer societies can be defined as socially stratified or if social
stratification began with agriculture and common acts of social exchange, remains a
debated matter in the social sciences. Determining the structures of social stratification
arises from inequalities of status among persons, therefore, the degree of social
inequality determines a person's social stratum. Generally, the greater the social
complexity of a society, the more social strata exist, by way of social differentiation.
Social stratification is a term used in the social sciences to describe the relative social
position of persons in a given social group, category, geographical region or other social
unit. It derives from the Latin strtum (plural strata; parallel, horizontal layers) referring
to a given societys categorization of its people into rankings of socioeconomic tiers
based on factors like wealth, income, social status, occupation and power. In modern
Western societies, stratification is often broadly classified into three major divisions of
social class: upper class, middle class, and lower class. Each of these classes can be
further subdivided into smaller classes (e.g. "upper middle").Social strata may also be
delineated on the basis of kinship ties or caste relations.
The concept of social stratification is often used and interpreted differently within specific
theories. In sociology, for example, proponents of action theory have suggested that
since social stratification is commonly found in developed societies, wherein a
dominance hierarchy may be necessary in order to maintain social order and provide a
stable social structure. So-called conflict theories, such as Marxism, point to the
inaccessibility of resources and lack of social mobility found in stratified societies. Many
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sociological theorists have criticized the extent to which the working classes are unlikely
to advance socioeconomically while the wealthy tend to hold political power which they
use to exploit the proletariat (laboring class). Talcott Parsons, an American sociologist,
asserted that stability and social order are regulated, in part, by universal values. Such
values are not identical with "consensus" but can as well be an impetus for ardent social
conflict as it has been multiple times through history. Parsons never claimed that
universal values, in and by themselves, "satisfied" the functional prerequisites of a
society. Indeed, the constitution of society is a much more complicated codification of
emerging historical factors. Theorists such as Ralf Dahrendorf alternately note the
tendency toward an enlarged middle-class in modern Western societies due to the
necessity of an educated workforce in technological economies. Various social and
political perspectives concerning globalization, such as dependency theory, suggest that
these effects are due to change in the status of workers to the third world.
Q.No.3
Discuss the concept of curriculum. Elaborte the principles of curriculum
development in a Muslim society.
Ans
Concept of curriculum
The concept of the curriculum as subjects and subject matter has been reflected in a
plethora of theories relating to principles for selection, sequence, and grade placement
of subject matter. Comprehensive state merits of the theory underlying curriculum
planning for a subject curriculum are of relatively recent origin, perhaps because the
process was so long unchallenged and in a general sense is well known. Curriculum
planning for a subject curriculum follows a fairly common formula:
1.

Use export judgment (bases on various social and educational factory to

determine what subjects to teach.

2.

Use some criterion (difficulty, interest sequence, for example) to select the subject
matter for particular populations (grouped, for example, by state district age, or
grade.

3.

Plan end implement appropriate methods of instruction to ensure mastery of the

subject matter selected.

The Curriculum as Experiences

The concept of the curriculum as the experiences of the learner, including those utilizing
organized subject matter, was introduced in early curriculum publications. Caswell and
Campbell embraced the experiences concept of the curriculum as they observed the
sterility of instruction based on textbooks and courses of study outlining subject matter.
In their popular Curriculum Development (1935), they gave this concept wide exposure,
holding the school curriculum to be composed of all the experiences children have
under the guidance of teachers. Many subsequent publications utilized similar
definitions.
Historically and currently, the dominant concept of the curriculum is that of subjects and
subject matter therein to be taught by teachers and learned by students. In high schools
and colleges, the term curriculum has been and still is widely used to refer tot eh set of
subjects or courses offered, and also to those required or recommended or grouped for
other purposes; thus, such terms as the college preparatory curriculum, science
curriculum, and premedical curriculum are commonly used. In curriculum terminology,
program of studies is more properly used in these connections.
Despite efforts for over a half century to achieve broader and different curriculum foci,
the concept of curriculum as subject matter persists as the basis of the dominant
curriculum design. It was central to and emphasize by the wave of curriculum
development in the subject fields that began in the 1950s and was stimulated by the
Russian advance into outer space and subsequent pressure to Improve American
education.
10

The Curriculum as Objectives

Early efforts at curriculum improvement made much use of aims and objectives as bases
for curriculum planning. The scientific-management approach used in business and
industry at the turn of this century encouraged Bobbitt to apply scientific principles to
the curriculum field. By applying such procedures, Bobbitt determined curriculum
objectives based on skills and knowledge needed by adults. Bobbitt defined curriculum
as that series of things which children and youth must do and experiences by way of
developing ability to do the things well that make up the affairs of adult life.
Tyler contributed a model that systematized this approach through the Eight-Year Study
of school college relations and his later publications. Instruction tended to be subsumed
under curriculum, although the phrase curriculum end instruction was commonly
employed to include both curriculum designs and instructional strategies. However,
methods courses tended to remain apart from curriculum courses in teacher education
and certification. A series of research studies in instruction paralleled the search for new
curriculum content beginning in the 1950s, and many writers began to separate more
definitely the study of curriculum and the study of instruction. One result was a
definition of curriculum as consisting solely of objectives or ends and instruction as the
means of their attainment. This view of the curriculum was clearly stated by Johnson:
Curriculum is concerned not with what students will do in the learning situation, but with
what they wilt learn (or be able to do) as a consequence of what they do. Curriculum is
concerned with whet results, not with what happens. And it stands in en anticipatory
11

relationship to the learning process not in a reportorial relationship, after the tact. It
deals with expectations or intentions, and more specifically, with the learning outcomes
intended to be achieved through instruction, that is through the experiences provided
through what happens end what learners do.
In order to develop a design for a curriculum it is necessary to identify its basic
elements. Tyler, for example, points out that it is important as a part of a
comprehensive theory of organization to indicate just what kinds of elements will serve
satisfactorily as organizing elements. And in a given curriculum it is important to identify
the particular elements that shall be used.
But even among the meager statements about these elements, there is no consensus as
to how to categorize them. Tyler identifies three, which seem to be pertinent mostly to
establishing a sequence of learning experiences and are rather similar to the threads of
integration discussed. These are the concepts which recur in the sequence of learning
experiences, skills which take a long time to master, and values and ideas.
Perhaps one way of identifying these elements is to consider the major points about
which decisions need to be made in the process of curriculum development, including
such considerations as the principles of learning and ideas about the nature of learners
and of knowledge. The points of these decisions the aims and objectives, the content
and learning experiences, and evaluation then become macroscopic elements of the
curriculum.
Most curriculum designs contain these elements, but many have them in defective
balanced, mostly because these elements are poorly identified or have an inadequate
theoretical rationale. For example, the subject design usually pays relatively little
attention to objectives, or defines them in too narrow a scope. The core curricula stress
learning experiences but are often defective in describing their content, or else the scope
of the content is defective. Many curriculum designs eventuate in a program which is
inappropriate to the students for whom it is intended, either because it is based on an
inadequate concept of the learning process or because a greater uniformity of learning is
assumed than is warranted. Few curriculum designs postulate and provide for the upper
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and lower limits in achieving objectives according to student backgrounds or for different
qualities of depth according to differences in ability. Such defects in design usually pose
difficulties in implementation.
Principles of curriculum development in a Muslim society
Islamic education is not to cram the pupils head with facts but to prepare them for a life
of purity and sincerity. This total commitment to character building based on the ideals
of Islamic ethics is the highest goal of Islamic education. Here he stressed on character
building that needs to be molded together in an educational curriculum which he
considers as the highest objective of Islamic education. A more comprehensive definition
of Islamic education was composed at the First World Conference on Muslim Education in
Makkah in 1977, the following words:
Education should aim at the balanced growth of the total personality of man through the
training of mans spirit, intellect, his rational self, feelings and bodily senses. Education
should cater therefore for the growth of man in all its aspects: spiritual, intellectual,
imaginative, physical, scientific, linguistic, both individually and collectively and motivate
all aspects towards goodness and the attainment of perfection. The ultimate aim of
Muslim education lies in the realization of complete submission to Allah on the level of
the individual, the community and humanity at large.
Therefore, as agreed by Muslim scholars in the Mecca Declaration above, it is clear that
in order to develop the Islamic system and society, an educational system and its
curriculum must be planned according to Islamic

worldview as stresses that

Islamization of curriculum is to place the curriculum and its four components i.e. aims
and objectives,

content, methods of teaching and method of evaluation within the

Islamic worldview.
The first period is the period of development which started with the resurgence of the
Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) in Makkah until the end of Umayyad period. The main
characteristics of religious curriculum of this period are:
Purely Arabic in nature
strengthening the basis of Islamic religion and spreading its teaching
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based on religious sciences and Arabic grammar

concentrate more on study of Hadith and jurisprudence
concentrate more on Arabic grammar and literature
the initial study of foreign languages

Q.No.4
Critically discuss the functions of school and role of teachers in social
development of students.
Ans
The effective educator must be ever mindful of the simple fact that children go to school
for a living. School is their job, their livelihood, their identity. Therefore, the critical role
that school plays in the child's social development and self-concept must be recognized.
Even if a child is enjoying academic success in the classroom, his attitude about school
will be determined by the degree of social success that he experiences.
There is much that the teacher can do to foster and promote social development in the
student. Children tend to fall into four basic social categories in the school setting:

REJECTED: Students who ate consistently subjected to ridicule, bullying and

harassment by classmates.

ISOLATED: Students who, although not openly rejected, are ignored by

classmates and are uninvolved in the social aspects of school.

CONTROVERSIAL: Students who have established a circle of friends based upon

common interests or proximity but seldom move beyond that circle.

POPULAR: Students who have successfully established positive relationships

within a variety of groups.

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Many students with learning disabilities find themselves in the rejected or

isolated subgroups.
Their reputations as "low status" individuals plague then throughout their school careers.
It is important for the teacher to assist the students' classmates in changing their view
of this child.
Punishment
Punishment is an extremely ineffective method of modifying bullying or rejecting
behavior. If you punish Billy for rejecting Joey, you only increase Billy's resentment of his
classmate. However, you can increase a child's level of acceptance in several ways.
First, the teacher must become a "talent scout." Attempt to determine specific
interests, hobbies or strengths of the rejected child. This can be accomplished via
discussions, interviews or surveys. Once you have identified the child's strengths,
celebrate it in a very public manner. For example, if the student has a particular interest
in citizen band radios, seek out a read-aloud adventure story in which a short-wave radio
plays an important role in the plot. Encourage the child to bring his CB into class and
conduct a demonstration of its use. By playing the expert role, a rejected or isolated
child can greatly increase his status.
Assign the isolated child to a leadership position in the classroom wherein his classmates
become dependent upon him. This can serve to increase his status and acceptance
among his peers. Be mindful of the fact that this may be an unfamiliar role for him and
he may require some guidance from you in order to ensure his success.
Most important, the teacher must clearly demonstrate acceptance of and
affection for the isolated or rejected child. This conveys the constant message that
the child is worthy of attention. The teacher should use her status as a leader to
increase the status of the child.
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The teacher can assist the child by making him aware of the traits that are widelyaccepted and admired by his peers. Among these traits are:

smiles/laughs

greets others

extends invitations

converses

shares

gives compliments

It is important that the teacher recognize the crucial role that the child's
parents and siblings can play in the development of social competence. Ask his
parents to visit school for a conference to discuss the child's social status and needs.
School and home must work in concert to ensure that target skills are reinforced and
monitored. Social goals should be listed and prioritized. It is important to focus upon a
small group of skills such as sharing and taking turns, rather than attempting to deal
simultaneously with the entire inventory of social ski
Assign the troubled child to work in pairs with a high-status child who will be
accepting and supportive. Cooperative education activities can be particularly effective in
this effort to include the rejected child in the classroom. These activities enable the child
to use his academic strengths while simultaneously developing his social skills.
The teacher must constantly search for opportunities to promote and encourage
appropriate social interactions for the socially inept child (e.g., "Andrew, would you
please go over to Sally's desk and tell her that I would like her to bring me her math
folder?"). Have students work in pairs to complete experiments, bulletin boards and peer
tutoring.
The student with social skill deficits invariably experiences rejection in any activity that
requires students to select classmates for teams or groups. This selection process
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generally finds the rejected child in the painful position of being the "last one picked."
Avoid these humiliating and destructive situations by pre-selecting the teams or drawing
names from a hat.

Q.No.5
Write notes on the following:
(i)

Sources of Finance in Education

(ii) Process of Logical Reasoning in Education

Ans part I
There are a number of studies that support the linkage between education and
development. Education per se is not development but can prepare individuals to
enhance

their

chances

of

exploring

ways

and

means

for

development.

The relationship between education and development is a two-way process, that is,
quality education leads to development and development can pave the way for quality
education.
In recent times, the term 'knowledge economy' has become a currency concept. In most
developing countries, the state of education in quantitative and qualitative terms is
questionable. Recognizing the significant role education can play, rulers in developing
countries should invest more in education as this investment may ensure a bright future
for them.
Pakistan was at the lowest rung of the ladder as its allocation for education was only 2.2
per cent of GDP. This amount was less than the amount allocated by the Maldives (8.1),
Iran (5.4), Malaysia (5.1), South Korea (4.2), Thailand (4.0), India (3.7), Sri Lanka
(3.1), Nepal (2.9), Afghanistan (2.3) and Bangladesh (2.3). These figures suggest the
lack of priority given to education by Pakistan's decision-makers. Is it because we do not
have enough financial resources that we cannot allocate more funds for education?
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Before we hasten to answer this question let us see what the military expenditure was
as a percentage of GDP in 2006. Here Pakistan is on the top rung with 3.2 per cent
followed by Sri Lanka (2.6), India (2.5), Nepal (1.6), Bangladesh (1.5) and Bhutan (one
per cent). This suggests that it is more an issue of priority than that of financial
resources.
According to the CIA Fact Book, "Pakistan's proposed defense budget for financial year
2006-07 accounts for about one-fifth of the total budget and is 20 times more than what
the country plans to spend on education and health. The country's percentage rise in the
defense budget was more than 15 per cent in 2005-06. Pakistan's defense budget as a
percentage of GDP is 4.5 per cent (2006) and Rs4.26bn in total (ranked 39th)."
The size of the defense budget is normally not fully visible. Some interesting strategies
have been evolved to downplay the impact. For instance, in 2001 the amount spent on
the pensions of armed personnel was not shown as a part of the defense budget; it was
mentioned under civil expenditure.
The second dimension is quite disturbing. This is the actual expenditure. In defense,
more money is spent than the estimated amount. But in education, a large amount of
money remains unspent because of various reasons. Either the promised money is not
released on time, or money is re-appropriated, or the process of the release of money is
so complex that the heads of educational institutions give up.
There could be any reason but the fact is that in almost all plans a large amount remains
unspent. A couple of examples should suffice to give an idea of the problem. For
instance, in the Second Five-Year Plan (1960-65) Rs78m was allocated for primary
education whereas only Rs18m was actually spent. Similarly, in the Seventh Five-Year
Plan

(1988-93)

Rs10128m

was

allocated

for

primary

education

whereas

only

Rs6399.17m was actually spent. These are just two examples which show the overall
trend in spending on education. Contrary to this, spending on defense is more than the
estimated figures given in the budget.

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The third dimension which is equally important is the appropriateness of the spent
money. The post-9/11 scenario saw the inflow of massive foreign aid for 'better
education' in Pakistan. This was a great opportunity to utilize financial resources in an
appropriate manner. For instance, in the Parha Likha Punjab (literate Punjab)
programmed for which a large sum of money was available, nothing concrete could be
achieved because much was spent on political appointments and image-building
advertisements in the print and electronic media. Crash teacher education courses were
organised without any meaningful change in the education system.
The perennial problem in the domain of education in Pakistan is that each government
comes up with attractive slogans without the required political will. The result is that we
are still grappling with the issues of quality at a very basic level.
The fourth dimension in financing education is lack of monitoring and accountability that
has encouraged people to experiment, mess up and get away with their errors. What
happened to some good educational initiatives, for instance, the Nai Roshni schools?
Where did the funds collected in the name of Iqra go? Why did projects with huge
foreign funds fail? We may never know the answers to these questions as there is no
strong tradition of accountability in Pakistan.
Thus low allocation, under-spending, inappropriate spending and lack of accountability
have done untold damage to the education sector in the country. What is happening is
linked to socio-political practices in the wider sphere of society. For instance, for a long
period of Pakistan's history the army has overtly and covertly dominated politics. That is
why the tendency has been to spend more on defence. Educational initiatives were not
given due importance.
We see glaring inconsistencies in the policies of different governments resulting in halfbaked ideas and practices. What is required is a new perspective. By understanding the
significance of education, allocating more funding for it and spending the money in a
more appropriate manner, we can hope to bring about a positive change.
Change in the educational sphere is linked to the bigger societal sphere whose sociopolitical practices impact on education. Does that mean that we must wait until societal
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practices change and then start working for improvement in education? An alternative
route is to improve our education in terms of its quality for societal development - a
concept of development which is not confined to economic well-being alone but that
ensures emancipation and individual freedom as well.
The World financial crisis of 2008 2010, exposed the weaknesses in the several of the
first world economies, which were earlier considered to be the paradigm of economic
success. Failure of the banking system, collapse of sub-prime mortgage business,
ascending debt-to-GDP ratio, unpredictable unemployment and bankruptcies declared by
several established businesses, raised serious doubts regarding the foundations of those
economies.
Pakistan and most of the Middle Eastern economies have remained safe from the domino
effect of the world financial crises, both for entirely separate reasons. The problems
confronting Pakistans economy are due to economic mismanagement, living in quandary
regarding

policies,

misplacement

of

priorities

and

corruption

not

worldwide

recession.While the first world countries continue to have the resources and finances to
deficit finance their economies out of recession, to push start the cycle and to increase
the aggregate demand third world and smaller economies like Pakistan have few viable
options to exercise, these options being more functional and realistic.
Over the years, the first world or developed countries have converted their economies
into well-documented ones, bringing an end to leakages and corruption. This
documentation along-with the checks & balances of financial institutions, helps them to
measure and record, the consequences of various modes of quantitative ease or deficit
financing. Although the outcome may not be as perfect, however, it allows the economy
some breathing space and the government to implement long term structural reforms.
Ans part ii
Process of Logical Reasoning in Education

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Formal or logical approaches to reasoning specify the syntactic form of valid inferences
(i.e., those that do not lead to logical contradictions). In contrast, psychological
approaches to reasoning explain cognitive performance or how people actually reason.
Inferences that are syntactically valid from a logical perspective may be practically
uninformative.
From a psychological perspective, reasoning may be defined as the set of mental
processes used to derive inferences or conclusions from premises. Reasoning helps to
generate new knowledge and to organize existing knowledge, rendering it more usable
for future mental work. Reasoning is therefore central to many forms of thought such as
scientific, critical, and creative thinking, argumentation, problem solving, and decision
making. Each of these more complex forms of thought can employ inductive, deductive,
and abductive reasoning which are described below.
Induction. Inductive reasoning is ampliative; it generates new knowledge. Inductive
reasoning supports inferences but does not guarantee that the inferences are true.
Vickers (2006) characterizes inductive reasoning as contingent (i.e., dependent on
past experiences and observations). There are many forms of inductive reasoning such
as enumerative induction and analogical reasoning. The best known form is enumerative
induction in which the general properties of a class are inferred from a specific set of
empirical observations. For example, upon observing that all the birds in the
neighborhood have wings and fly, a person infers that all birds have wings and fly.
Generalizations of this kind, though commonplace in human reasoning, are clearly
fallible (ostriches and penguins are birds and have wings, but do not fly). The preceding
example illustrates a general epistemic problem with inductive inferences, which
philosophers refer to as the problem of underdetermination.
Analogical reasoning is another form of inductive reasoning that is important in
generating new knowledge. Analogical reasoning involves the transfer of knowledge
elements and relationships among knowledge elements (e.g., object properties and
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property relations such as correlated features) from a well-known domain, a base, to

an unknown or partially known domain, a target (see Gentner, Holyoak, & Koikinov,
2001). For example, the analogy of a biological cell as a factory allows people to transfer
knowledge about how a factory works (it has parts that are specialized to perform
certain tasks and that operate together to maintain the functioning of the whole) to
understand how a cell works. Analogical reasoning is often employed in instruction to
help student understand new concepts by analogical transfer from more familiar
concepts (Clement, 1993; Baker & Lawson, 2001, Thagard, 2006). Inductive reasoning
presumes principles of regularity or continuity in the world that allow the drawing of
inferences about new instances from past experience. Induction plays a role in concept
formation and concept learning in every domain of knowledge from natural language to
science.
Deduction. Deduction refers to processes of inference which guarantee logically valid
conclusions from a set of premises. In other words, assuming that the premises are
correct, the conclusions deduced from these premises must also be correct. Transitive
inferences of the kind described earlier (Jane is taller than Mary; Mary is taller than Jill;
therefore Jane is taller than Jill) are one form of deductive inference. Deduction is a
constituent of many varieties of cognitive performance such as text comprehension,
scientific and mathematical reasoning, and argumentation. Deduction also plays an
important role in categorical reasoning. If, for example, scientists were to discover the
remains of a hitherto unknown animal in permafrost, conduct DNA analysis on the
remains and conclude that the animal was a mammal. they could then deduce that this
previously unknown species had defining mammalian characteristics (e.g., it gave birth
to its young and had body hair). One of the main cognitive functions of deductive
reasoning is to organize knowledge in ways that allow one to derive parsimonious
conclusions from sets of premises.
Abduction. The term abduction was coined by Charles Peirce (18391914) to refer to a
third mode of inference that was distinct from induction and deduction and played a
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crucial role in scientific reasoning and discovery. Adductive reasoning is a form of

reasoning in which individuals start by attending to a particular phenomenon and try to
construct a hypothesis that best explains their observation. The process is often called
inference to the best explanation (Lipton, 1961; Thagard & Shelley, 1997). Many causal
inferences are abductive in nature.
An example of abductive reasoning would be an inquiry into a car crash in which
investigators try to reconstruct what happened from forensic evidence (e.g., patterns of
damage to a car and its surroundings, data from physiological and toxicological exams
conducted on the driver and passengers). From the forensic data, they reconstruct the
most plausible or likely explanation for the crash.

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