Understanding of education according to

experts
Definition of education according to Prof. Herman H. Horn
education is a perennial process of adjustment is higher for the creatures that have
evolved physically, mentally free and conscious of God as manifested in the
environment, intellectual, emotional and willingness of humans.

Definition of education according to M.J. Langeveld

education is every interaction that happens is every association that occurs
between adults with children is a field or a state where the educational work in
progress.

Definition of education according to Prof. Dr.. John Dewey

education is a process of experience. Because life is growth, education means
helping inner growth without being restricted by age. The growth process is the
process of adjusting to each phase as well as adding in the development of one's
skills.

Definition of education according to Prof. H. Mahmud Yunus

education efforts that are deliberately chosen to influence and assist children with
the aim of improving knowledge, physical and morals that can gradually deliver the
child to the highest goal. In order for the child to live a happy, and all what
dilakukanya be beneficial to himself and society.

Definition of education according to wikipedia

Education is a conscious and deliberate effort to create an atmosphere of learning
and the learning process so that learners are actively developing the potential for
him to have the spiritual strength of religious, self-control, personality, intelligence,
noble character, and the skills needed themselves and society.

Definition of education according to Big Indonesian Dictionary (1991)

Education is defined as a learning process for the individual to attain knowledge and
understanding of the higher specific objects and specific. The knowledge gained
formally resulting individual has a pattern of thought and behavior in accordance
with the education they have gained.

education,
any process, either formal or informal, that shapes the potential of a maturing organism. Informa
leducation results from the constant effect of environment, and its strength in shaping values and
habits can not beoverestimated. Formal education is a conscious effort by human society to impa
rt the skills and modes of thoughtconsidered essential for social functioning. Techniques of instru
ction often reflect the attitudes of society, i.e., authoritariangroups typically sponsor dogmatic me
thods, while democratic systems may emphasize freedom of thought.
Development of Education
In ancient Greece education for freemen was a matter of studying Homer, mathematics, music, a
nd gymnastics

. Highereducation was carried on by the Sophists and philosophers before the rise of the Academ
y

and the philosophical schools.

In medieval Western Europe, education was typically a charge of the church: the monastic school
s and universities werethe chief centers, and virtually all students took orders. Lay education con
sisted of apprentice training for a small group ofthe common people, or education in the usages o
f chivalry for the more privileged. With the Renaissance, education of boys(and some girls) in cl
assics and mathematics became widespread. After the Reformation both Protestant and RomanC
atholic groups began to offer formal education to more people, and there was a great increase in t
he number of private andpublic schools, although the norm remained the classical-mathematical
curriculum.
The development of scientific inquiry in the 19th cent. brought new methods and materials. As el
ementary and secondaryschools were established and as larger proportions of the population atte
nded, curriculums became differentiated (seeprogressive education

; guidance and counseling

) and included aspects of vocational education

. Opportunities forhigher education were expanded, especially in the land-grant colleges

of the western United States. A large increase incollege and vocational training resulted from the
various veterans' assistance acts that have been passed since World WarII. These measures have
provided financial assistance to veterans seeking higher education or job training.
Most modern political systems recognize the importance of universal education. One of the first
efforts of the former SovietUnion was to establish a comprehensive national school system. In th
e United States education has traditionally been understate and local control, although the federal
government has played a larger role in the latter half of the 20th cent. Variousreligious groups, no
tably the Roman Catholic Church, administer parochial schools

that parallel public schools. Privateschools and colleges have frequently been leaders in educatio
nal experiment.
See adult education

; audiovisual education
; bilingual education

; kindergarten

; nursery schools

; school

; vocational education

Theories of Education
Education theorists today struggle over whether a single model of learning is appropriate for both
sexes (see coeducation

),or for students of all ethnic backgrounds; although equality of educational opportunity in the U
nited States is an acceptedprinciple, it is not always easy to practice. Throughout history theories
of education have reflected the dominantpsychologies of learning and systems of ethics.
An ancient idea, held by Socrates, is that the rightly trained mind would turn toward virtue. This
idea has actually never beenabandoned, although varying criteria of truth and authority have infl
uenced both the content and the techniques of education.It was reflected in the classical curriculu
m of the Renaissance, the theorists of which included Erasmus

, Sir Thomas More

,and George Buchanan

.
Since the 17th cent. the idea has grown that education should be directed at individual developm
ent for social living. JohnComenius

, Jean Jacques Rousseau

, Johann Pestalozzi
, Friedrich Froebel

, Maria Montessori

, and Horace Mann

wereoutstanding figures in this development. In the 20th cent. John Dewey

declared that young people should be taught to usethe experimental method in meeting problems
of the changing environment. Later in the century the psychologist B. F.Skinner

developed a theory of learning, based on animal experimentation, that came to have a strong effe
ct on moderntheories of education, especially through the method of programmed instruction

. More recent educational models basedon the theories of Jean Piaget

, Jerome Bonner, and Howard Gardner have gained wide support. In the United States, recentdev
elopments have included an emphasis on standardized testing, the emergence of the charter scho
ol, and such nationalreform programs as No Child Left Behind (2001) and Race to the Top (2009
).

Bibliography
See J. Dewey, Democracy and Education (1916, repr. 1966); R. Welter, Popular Education and
Democratic Thought inAmerica (1963); R. Ulich, The Education of Nations (rev. ed. 1967); L. A.
Cremin, American Education (197088); J. A.Bowen, A History of Western Education (3 vol., 19
7281); M. Blang, Economics of Education (1978); W. F. Connell, AHistory of Education in the
Twentieth Century World (1980); K. Egan, The Educated Mind (1997); D. Bok, Higher Educatio
nin America (2013); D. Goldstein, The Teacher Wars: A History of America's Most Embattled Pr
ofession (2014).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright 2013, Columbia University Press.
Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/

education
see SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION.
Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. HarperCollins Publishers 2000
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideo
logically biased.

Education
the process and result of the acquisition of systematized knowledge and skills. Associated with e
ducation are the transferfrom one generation to the next of knowledge of all of mankinds cultura
l riches; the mastery of sociohistorical knowledge,as reflected in the natural sciences, social scien
ces, technology, and art; and the acquisition of work habits and skills.Education is essential to pr
eparing for life and work. It is the basic means by which people come to know and acquirecultur
e, and it is the foundation of cultures development.
Education is acquired primarily through study in various educational institutions. Self-education,
cultural-enlightenment work,and participation in social labor also play an essential role in the acq
uisition of knowledge and in intellectual development.
The content and level of education are determined by the requirements of social production, soci
al relations, the level ofdevelopment of schooling and pedagogical science, and the state of scien
ce, technology, and culture. In a class societyeducation reflects class history, as may be seen in th
e structure of public education systems, the content of education, andthe methods of teaching. Th
e class character of the bourgeois school system, which is marked by restrictions on the levelof e
ducation provided for workers children, by racial discrimination (in some countries), and by a la
rge proportion of privateand parochial schools, is in contrast to the Soviet system of public educa
tion, which rests on a number of principles,including the equal availability of education to all citi
zens of the USSR, compulsory education for all children andadolescents, and the state and public
character of educational institutions. The Soviet educational system is alsodistinguished from the
bourgeois system by freedom of choice of the language of study, the absence of tuition for all typ
esof education, full state support for some students and a system of stipends for others, the unific
ation of the system ofpublic education, and continuity among all types of educational institutions
. In addition, the Soviet educational system restson the principles of the unity of education and co
mmunist upbringing; cooperation among the school, the family, and thesociety in bringing up chi
ldren and young people; and the linking of education and training to life and the practical experie
nceof building communism. The underlying principles of the Soviet system of public education a
lso include a scientificapproach to and continual improvement of education on the basis of the lat
est achievements in science, technology, andculture; a humanistic and highly moral orientation in
education and upbringing; and coeducation. Furthermore, Sovieteducation is secularthat is, it e
xcludes the influence of religion.
A distinction is made between general and specialized education. General education provides the
knowledge and skillsneeded by everyone, regardless of their future field and occupation. Speciali
zed education provides the knowledge and skillsneeded by the worker in a specific field with spe
cific qualifications. In socialist countries the goals of general education areto equip students with
a totality of knowledge about the fundamental principles of various disciplines, as well as with th
ecorresponding skills and habits needed for comprehensive personal development; to train active,
conscious builders ofsocialism and communism; and to develop in them the communist world vi
ew and communist morality. In the USSR andother socialist countries, general education is inextr
icably linked with polytechnic education. The transition to universalsecondary education in the U
SSR, under the conditions of a highly developed socialist society, has had great social andnationa
l economic significance. Universal secondary education is the foundation for the comprehensive
personaldevelopment of every member of society, the guarantee of complete equality to all citize
ns in obtaining an education, andthe prerequisite for the mastery of any profession at the level of
contemporary achievements in science, technology, andculture.
General education provides the foundation essential to specialized education, which includes a n
umber of fields (forexample, mining, radio engineering, construction, mathematics, power engin
eering, agriculture, medicine, history, andpedagogy). In the training of specialists, the study of sp
ecialized information is combined with the acquisition of anunderstanding of the general scientifi
c principles of modern production. There are several levels of specialized education:higher, seco
ndary specialized, and vocational technical education. The last category includes a brief period o
f direct, on-the-job training for workers.
The organizational principles, basic goals, and plans for improvement in all the links in the Sovie
t system of publiceducation are defined in the Basic Principles of Legislation on Public Educatio
n of the USSR and the Union Republics(1973). The Soviet educational system is responsible for
providing the national economy with trained personnel capable oforganically combining the achi
evements of the scientific and technological revolution with the achievements of socialism, inord
er to meet the tasks of communist construction. The secondary general-education schools, the vo
cational technicaleducational institutions, and the secondary specialized educational institutions
have a number of tasks. They areresponsible for providing the younger generation with a general
secondary education that meets the modern requirements ofsocial and scientific and technologica
l progress. Furthermore, they are assigned the task of equipping students with aprofound, solid k
nowledge of the fundamental principles of various disciplines, as well as inculcating in them a dr
ive tocontinually improve their knowledge and an ability to supplement their knowledge indepen
dently and to apply it in practice.
The scientific and technological revolution has caused an increase in the rate of replacement of t
he means of productionand its technology, as well as a decrease in the time required for putting n
ew scientific discoveries into practice.Consequently, workers must be equipped with a broad ran
ge of general scientific and specialized information. Vocational-technical, secondary specialized,
and higher educational institutions train personnel who can adjust quickly to the changingconditi
ons of production and who combine broad polytechnic and cultural knowledge with an excellent
mastery of a specificfield and a creative attitude toward work.
In the USSR and other socialist countries the right to education is one of the most important man
ifestations of socialistdemocracy. Legislatively reinforced by the constitutions of these countries,
the right to education is guaranteed in fact bythe broad development of a network of various type
s of schools, including higher and secondary specialized educationalinstitutions. The developmen
t of education in the USSR has created the prerequisites for eliminating the difference betweenm
ental and physical labor.
In an antagonistic class society, the ruling classes use the educational system to reinforce their do
mination, and thecontent of education is subordinated to this goal. The contradiction between cap
italist productions need for qualified, trainedpersonnel and the drive of the ruling classes to restr
ict the educational level of the workers for political reasons becomesparticularly acute in periods
of crisis and reaction and emerges with particular force in the epoch of imperialism. In modernca
pitalist countries there is a substantial difference in the level of education offered in schools for t
he masses and inprivileged secondary schools.
Before formalized research, state constitutions, or legislative requirements,
philosophers had already given a great deal of thought to the different purposes of
education and schooling.

Philosophers as diverse as Aristotle, Plato, John Locke, Rousseau, Mo Tzu,

and Confucius wrote extensively on the purpose and role of education and schooling in
their respective societies (Noddings, 1995; Reed & Johnson, 1996). These early
thinkers shared many common ideas about what it is that schools should exist to do, but
each of them also had their own unique perspectives on the role of schooling within a
given culture and civilization.
In more modern times, American educational philosophers such as John
Dewey, George Counts, and Mortimer Adler have each proposed systematic and
detailed arguments regarding the purpose of schooling in American society. In 1938,
Dewey argued that the primary purpose of education and schooling is not so much
to prepare students to live a useful life, but to teach them how to live pragmatically
and immediately in their current environment. By contrast, Counts, a leading
progressive educator in the 1930s, critiqued Deweys philosophy stating, the weakness
of progressive education thus lies in the fact that it has elaborated no theory of social
welfare, unless it be that of anarchy or extreme individualism (1978, p. 5). To Counts,
the purpose of school was less about preparing individuals to live independently and
more about preparing individuals to live as members of a society. In other words,
Counts felt the role of schooling was to equip individuals with the skills necessary to
participate in the social life of their community and to change the nature of the social
order as needed or desired.
In the 1980s, the noted educator and philosopher Mortimore Adler put forth the Paideia
Proposal (Adler, 1982) which integrated the ideas of Dewey and Counts, as well as his
own. Specifically, Adler suggested that there are three objectives of childrens schooling:
the development of citizenship,

personal growth or self-improvement, and

occupational preparation.
Historian of education David Tyack has argued that from an historical perspective, the
purpose of schooling has been tied to social and economic needs (Tyack, 1988). More
recently, some sociologists have argued that schools exist primarily to serve a practical
credentialing function in society (Labaree, 1997). Expanding on the pragmatic purpose
of school, deMarrais and LeCompte (1995) outlined four major purposes of schooling
that include:
intellectual purposes such as the development of mathematical and reading
skills;

political purposes such as the assimilation of immigrants;

economic purposes such as job preparation; and

social purposes such as the development of social and moral responsibility.