FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION UNIT 01:- Introduction to Educational Philosophy Unit 1.1:- What is the definition of education?

Some definitions of Education:

The activities of educating or instructing; activities that impart knowledge or skill. Knowledge acquired by learning and instruction. The gradual process of acquiring knowledge. The profession of teaching (especially at a school or college or university). The result of good upbringing (especially knowledge of correct social behavior. Education in the broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. The process or art of imparting knowledge, skill and judgment; Facts, skills and ideas that have been learned, either formally or informally. Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world, Nelson Mandela, the tenth president of South Africa. The permanent change in behaviour.

It is defined as: (, according to the American Heritage dictionary) 1. The act or process of educating or being educated. 2. The knowledge or skill obtained or developed by a learning process. 3. A program of instruction of a specified kind or level. 4. The field of study that is concerned with the pedagogy of teaching and learning.

Its etymology comes from the Latin word "education which means to bring up" developing the capacities and potential of the individual so as to prepare that individual to be successful in a specific society or culture. From this perspective, education is serving primarily an individual development function.

The process by which society transmits to new members the values, beliefs, knowledge, and symbolic expressions to make communication possible within society. In this sense, education is serving a social and cultural function.

"Education (is) ... imparting or acquisition of knowledge; mental or moral training; cultivation of the mind, feelings and manners. "Education ... connotes all those processes cultivated by a given society as means for the realization in the individuals of the ideals of the community as a whole." A similarly broad definition was given in Jones, Justice Murrah writing accepted this definition of education: "... acquiring information and inspirational suggestions which cause the individual to think and act along proper lines." "... a fundamental process of learning which is aimed at preparing either for life in general or for a large purpose such as a particular profession or trade, and is in any event without an immediately utilitarian focus.... "... information or training is provided in a structured manner and for a genuinely educational purpose that is, to advance the knowledge or abilities of the recipients - and not solely to promote a particular point of view or political orientation." The act or process of educating; the result of educating, as determined by the knowledge skill, or discipline of character, acquired; also, the act or process of training by a prescribed or customary course of study or discipline; as, an education for the bar or the pulpit; he has finished his education. the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life. the act or process of imparting or acquiring particular knowledge or skills, as for a profession. a degree, level, or kind of schooling: a university education. the result produced by instruction, training, or study: to show one's education. the science or art of teaching; pedagogics.

The etymology of word education

1530s, from L. educationem , from educare (see educate).Originally of education in social codes and manners; meaning "systematic schooling and training for work" is from 1610s. Educationese "the jargon of school administrators" is from 1966; educrat first attested 1968, usually pejorative, second element from bureaucrat (q.v.). Encyclopedia education discipline that is concerned with methods of teaching and learning in schools or schoollike environments as opposed to various no formal and informal means of socialization (e.g., rural development projects and education through parent-child relationships). Aristotle It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. -Albert Einstein Get over the idea that only children should spend their time in study. Be a student so long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life. ~Henry L. Doherty "The highest result of education is tolerance." Helen Keller Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves. -Ernest Dimnet "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." Albert Einstein Herbert Spencer The great aim of education is not knowledge but action. A proper definition of education will have to cover these four important aspects of how we become educated: The necessity of having and manipulating knowledge, skills and information The helpfulness of teachers, without requiring them

The constant need to see through the inherent illusions that arise from our unconscious thought processes, and Our ability to influence our states of mind

The Education The word "education" has been derived from the Latin words Educate, Educatum or Educere. "Education and educare" mean "to train, to bring up and to nourish", while 'educere means "to lead out". The former implies that education is something external, to be imposed or put in from outside. The latter indicates growth from within. Aristotle defined education as "a process necessary for the creation of a sound mind in a Sound body". Hence the importance of every subject included in the Greek curriculum was assessed in terms of its capacity to train body, mind and soul. Dewey, in the twentieth century, defines education in these words: "Education is a process of living through a continuous reconstruction of experiences. It is the development of all those capacities in the individual which will enable him to control his environment and fulfill his possibilities". The definition implies that a child has some natural potentialities. These ought to be developed in conformity with the demands of the society. Education is not something static, but it is a continuous and life-long process. Soon after the birth and throughout his life, a man undergoes varied experiences and continuously learns one way of behaviour or another. He is subjected to varying and changing conditions of life and has to

make adjustments to these different situations and circumstances. Learning through these experiences of life contributes towards his mental and physical maturity. A child learns because somebody teaches him; sometimes he learns because he has seen or heard new things and sometimes because he tried to do something by himself. A child learns habits and attitudes during his early childhood period in his family environment. While learning habits and attitudes he is not aware of these and these are also not taught to him formally in a formal situation. Different types of skills are also acquired with the help of others, those who are more efficient in those skills than the learner himself. Thus the whole community educates him. In fact we all learn from each other throughout our lives. People leant how to get along with their fellow beings just by living among them. Broadly speaking, education is a life-long process commencing from the birth of the child and ending at the end of his life itself. It continues from "the cradle to the grave". An individual is not always conscious of his learning. A child, especially, learns many things, habits, attitudes, skills, ways of thought and behaviour of which he is unaware. If a person is not aware of learning and if it does not take place formally in a formal situation or institution, such learning is generally called informal education. Informal education is received in the social and physical surrounding. Though it is very important and natural, it is incidental and not deliberately planned. Education, in its limited sense, includes the influences deliberately planned, chosen and employed by the community for the welfare of its coming generations. The purple is to modify the behaviour of the child and to shape his personality in a more desirable form than the one he would have been in without formal education. This type of education is consciously planned. It is imparted through the process of formal instructions. Schools are the specialized institutions for imparting formal and what is generally known as 'academic education to the learners. This process of academic learning involves two parties, i.e. the teacher and the taught. In this learning situation the learner is aware that he is here to learn something. He is ready to learn and usually has a definite purpose or motive behind this activity. He puts conscious efforts in the acquisition of a certain skill or knowledge. The chief characteristics of formal education are two-fold, Firstly, it is planned and organized deliberately. Secondly, the learner is aware of his learning, for example a child knows that he learned a table in arithmetic which he did not know before the teacher helped him to learn this. However, formal and informal education is not contradictory but rather they are supplementary to each other. They take place concurrently at every stage of life. None of the educational agency is strictly limited lo either one of these two types. The family is said to be an informal agency of education, but when a mother deliberately plans a programme for the instructions of her children and teaches them certain skills and knowledge, it comes under formal education. All the training in character-development a sportsmanship, which a child receives at the school play-ground, is included in informal type of education.

The life of the primitive people was simple, hence the content of their education also was simple. They taught their children the necessary skills required for the sustenance of life, while keeping them in the company of adults. Man being equipped with the most superior kind of nervous system, brought changes into his environment to make his life more comfortable by utilizing the hidden natural resources around him. Thus the quantity of the experiences to be transferred to the younger generation increased. Consequently for their convenience and for the purpose of transmitting the cumulative experiences, they started educating their younger generation in the form of 'social groups leading gradually to the formation of the educational institutions called 'schools. Man, since his appearance on this earth uptil now, is moving towards progress. This progress in many fields of life has resulted in a more complex civilization and a vast expansion in the frontiers of knowledge. This situation permitted not only the establishment of schools in increasing numbers, but also development in them. Today all types of educational institutions, such as schools, colleges and universities, exist in all parts of the world. Source:- An article of Mrs. Tanveer Khalid.

Education in Islam
Islam is the religion of peace, and it is one of the most sacred and trustworthy religions, which has given us guidance in every aspect of life. Islam has given us education with knowledge which has no limits. The Holy Quran is the most sacred book of Allah revealed on Prophet Muhammad (SAW), for the upliftment guidance and enriched messages to the humanity. Education is the knowledge of putting one's potentials to maximum use. Without education, no one can find the proper right path in this world. This importance of education is basically for two reasons. Education makes man a right thinker. Without education, no one can think properly in an appropriate context you. It tells man how to think and how to make decision. The second reason for the importance of education is that only through the attainment of education, man is enabled to receive information from the external world. It is well said that "Without education, man is as though in a closed room and with education he finds himself in a room with all its windows open towards outside world." This is why Islam attaches such great importance to knowledge and education. When the Quran began to be revealed, the first word of its first verse was 'Iqra' that is, read.. The reflective book of Holy Quran is so rich in content and meaning that if the history of human thought continues forever, this book is not likely to be read to its end. Every day it conveys a new message to the humanity. Every morning, it gives us new thoughtful ideas and bound us in the boundaries of ethics. Islamic Education is one of the best systems of education, which makes an ethical groomed person with all the qualities, which he/she should have as a human being. The Western world has created the wrong image of Islam in the world. They don't know that our teachings are directly given to us from Allah, who is the creator of this world, through our Prophets.

The Muslims all over the world are thirsty of acquiring quality education. They know their boundaries and never try to cross it. It is the West, which has created a hype that the Muslim are not in a path of getting proper education. They think that our education teaches us fighting, about weapons, etc., which is so false. This is true that there are certain elements, which force an individual to be on the wrong path, because as we will mould a child, they will be like that, but it doesn't mean that our religion teaches improperly to us. Our Holy Prophet (SAW), said, Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave. And: Seek knowledge even [if it is to be found in a place as distant as China. At the battle of Badr, in which our beloved Holy Prophet (SAW) gained victory over his foes, seventy people of the enemy rank were taken to prison. These prisoners were literate people. In order to benefit from their education the Prophet declared that if one prisoner teaches ten Muslim children how to read and write, this will serve as his ransom and he will be set free. This was the first school in the history of Islam established by the Prophet himself with all its teachers being non-Muslims. The Sunnah of the Prophet shows that education is to be received whatever the risk involved. Today, the Muslims are acquiring good ideas, thoughts, knowledge, and skills, from all corners of the world. The world is moving very fast, and in this industrialize world, It is the duty of the teachers to give quality ethical integrated education to the Muslim students worldwide, because children are invaluable assets of future generations. The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) encouraged all Muslims to acquire knowledge and share it. He said: "Acquire knowledge, for he who acquires it in the way of Allah performs an act of piety; he who speaks of it, praises the Lord; he who seeks it, adores Allah; he who dispenses instruction in it, bestows alms; and he who imparts it to others, performs an act of devotion to Allah." (Bukhari, Muslim) All the teachers of either secular or religious education should give more attention to the pupils inside the classroom. It is necessary that in the Islamic system that we should consider these dear children as our own children, and put aside all other considerations, and rise above all such things and realize our duty and our mission. We should raise the standards of education and attend to the needs of these children. We should realize our duties with earnestness and awaken to the sense of responsibility. It has been seen that there are certain teacher who are not fulfilling their duties with keen interest. I would like to request all the teachers that for the sake of God, for the sake of your revolutionary duty, teach the children with devotion and dedication. It is important that we advance our work through discussions, debates, studies, and through proper distribution of work among ourselves. We must never forget that we are living in an Islamic State, and our aim should be simultaneously to create both an independent as well as an Islamic culture in character. Independence and richness of content are indeed among the characteristics of the Islamic culture. Our system is an ideological system. We should make our child enthusiastic, dynamic, and this search should pervade every corner of our society. We should aspire them to be truthful and sincere. Self-sacrifice and generosity, love of freedom, the resolve for resistance and headstrong perseverance, the courage to welcome martyrdom-all these are the new values of the new generation, which should be taught according to the teaching of Islam.

The doors of the school should always be kept open for the sake of Islam, for the sake of the Muslim Ummah.

ADDITIONAL READING
Definition of Education
by Don Berg, Founder Attitutor Services

The definition of education in common usage, that education is merely the delivery of knowledge, skills and information from teachers to students, is inadequate to capture what is really important about being and becoming educated. The proper definition of education is the process of becoming an educated person. Being an educated person means you have access to optimal states of mind regardless of the situation you are in. You are able to perceive accurately, think clearly and act effectively to achieve self-selected goals and aspirations. Education is a process of cognitive cartography, mapping your experiences and finding a variety of reliable routes to optimal states when you find yourself in non-optimal states. The idea that the definition of education is the delivery of knowledge, skills and information from teachers to students is misguided. While this definition of education is partly true it is grossly inadequate and is probably the fundamental source of the vast tragedy of accountability which treats arbitrarily inadequate results on irrelevant tests as proof that some school communities need to be punished. The logic of accountability in this instance is taken to be a literal accounting of units of knowledge and information through highly orchestrated student performances of test taking skills. This is that same kind of literalism that causes absurd behavior in religious communities, too. (At least, in education the fundamentalists are only fiscally killing their enemies and not literally.) Two Problems With the Traditional Definition of Education as Delivery There are two problems with this definition of education. First, the definition of education using the delivery metaphor is too often taken to be literally true. Knowledge, skills, and information, as we mean these terms in the field of education, are not literal units. In computer science and telecommunications they deal with literal units of information in the form of electrical pulses that can be observed in a variety of ways. In education we are dealing with entire realms and fields of both worldly phenomena and uniquely human narratives that have no literal, physical existence. We use the term unit as a convenient way to organize our thoughts about a complex set of phenomena that is utterly incomprehensible without this metaphor. What we know from the findings of cognitive and neuro-sciences is that even science and mathematics use metaphors to develop ideas about complex and otherwise incomprehensible phenomena. If even our deepest scientific and mathematical understandings of the physical, literal world are based on metaphors, then it is neither surprising nor unusual to use metaphors in our defintion of education. (see Philosophy in the Flesh, Lakoff & Johnson, Basic Books 1999, and Lakoff & Nunez, Where Mathematics Comes From, Basic Books 2000) But it is a problem to take a metaphor literally.

What we learn from this insight into how we understand the world is that our understandings of anything complex, especially something as vastly complex as education, are based on metaphors and the challenge is to figure out which of the metaphors are most useful for creating the right outcomes. The second problem with this definition of education is that it is pathetically inadequate for describing what is most important about both the process of becoming, and the results of being, an educated person. Whenever I have pushed people to really delve into what they mean when they talk about a person being educated they quickly abandon the notion that educated people have a greater quantity of information or that they have the traditional evidence of instructional bookkeeping like diplomas, degrees, certificates, etc.

An Educated Person
What truly makes a person educated is that they are able to perceive accurately, think clearly, and act effectively according to self-defined goals and aspirations. An educated person is also respectful of others regardless of their power and status, responsible for the results of their actions, and resourceful at getting what they need, both, personally and for their family, organization, and /or society. It is true that the educated person needs information, but an educated person is not dependent on the information they have stored in their heads, because they have the ability to find information, create knowledge, and develop skills when necessary. The delivery model inherently defines education as an interaction between a teacher and a student, since delivery requires both a person who delivers and a person who accepts delivery. Achieving the status of being educated does not require a teacher. The delivery model does not make any meaningful reference to the qualities of an educated person and the resulting system of schooling based on this definition of education has proven to be a highly unreliable producer of educated people.

A Proper Definition of Education

The common definition of education is simply wrong when you consider how education actually occurs. A proper definition of education will have to cover these four important aspects of how we become educated: 1. The necessity of having and manipulating knowledge, skills and information 2. The helpfulness of teachers, without requiring them 3. The constant need to see through the inherent illusions that arise from our unconscious thought processes, and 4. Our ability to influence our states of mind Based on these four criteria I define education as a process of cognitive cartography. Cognitive Cartography Definition of Education What all learners are doing is developing a map of reliable methods of getting from negative states of mind to positive states of mind. The units of knowledge skills and information are points on the map, but what makes the map useful are accurate portrayals of the relationships between the points and how those points can be used to arrive at the desired states of mind. Lets pretend you want to get to Los Angeles from Seattle.

I make two points on a piece of paper then label them Seattle and Los Angeles, but, having given you two points of information is totally useless, so far. The two points can only become a map after I depict actual relationships between the two points, such as indicating which way is North and then adding a connection between the points, such as highways, trail systems, or public transportation options like buses, trains or airplanes. But even that is of limited use because if you do not know how you relate to the places I have already drawn, then the information is still useless. In order for the map to become useful, you have to know where you are and how your position relates to the points and lines on the map. All of this is true in education. "Units" are useless until they are effectively related to each other and even connected units are useless until the person with the original intention to travel can fit themselves into that particular picture of the world in a way the gets them where they want to be. The key quality of an educated person is the ability to move from negative states of mind to positive states of mind and assist others to do the same. This covers all situations where there are problems such as poverty, conflict, and pollution as well as problems like depression, ignorance, or ambition. Navigating the Human Mind The world that we are concerned with in elementary education is the human mind. Children need to learn to navigate the terrain of their own minds so that they can effectively navigate the real world that confronts that mind with all the challenges of earthly human existence. Therefore, what is elementary in elementary school is gaining control over your own behavior and learning to coordinate your behavior with others. The most fundamental lesson of elementary school is governance of behavior, our own and other peoples. The mastery of our own individual behavior requires us to realize that just because we think something does not make it so. Our minds, especially when we are children, are highly productive illusion machines. Young children live in a magical realm in which thinking makes things happen. The popular success of The Secret, a motion picture length infomercial on the power of positive thinking, shows that magical thinking is not limited to children. The task of becoming an adult is mastering the process of disillusionment. By the time children are of school age they have a lot of ideas based on a combination of the way their brains are built and how their experiences have shaped that building process. We build up a vast repertoire of concepts, mostly unconscious concepts, about the world and our own minds. Unfortunately most of those concepts are basically wrong except for accomplishing the simplest childish intentions. The eternal moral challenge of living as a responsible adult is to persistently inquire into how our concepts of the world and our own minds mislead us into causing our own and other peoples suffering. The way that we rise to meet this moral challenge is by examining how our own mind deceives us, through practicing empathy for the states of mind we cause in other people by our actions, and actively taking responsibility for preventing and alleviating suffering in every way we can. We all know from first hand experience that positive states of mind are both the most enjoyable states and the most productive.

If we can ensure that everyone is capable of optimizing their own state of mind and assisting others to optimize theirs, then everyone will have maximum opportunity for enjoying life and being productive. Consistent attainment of positive states of mind is better known as having a good attitude (you were probably wondering when attitude would come in.) Thus if everyone can achieve a good attitude and help others do the same then the world will be a better place. Thus education, the process of attaining and assisting others to attain a good attitude that enables a person to perceive accurately, think clearly, and act effectively according to self-selected goals, is fundamentally about attitude no matter what age or level of schooling you are concerned with.

A Three Role Circus

There are three roles that must be fulfilled in becoming educated, but only one of them requires a person, the other two can sometimes be fulfilled by inanimate objects. The roles are a learning agent, a learning catalyst, and the learning context. The learning agent is the active map-maker. The learning agent is obviously the student as that role is normally thought of in schools. The learning catalyst is someone or something that the agent engages in a deep relationship with and attempts to understand how the catalyst fits into the agents world. In goal directed activity the agent will engage with people or things that s/he assumes will be instrumental in the process of attaining the goal until the agent concludes otherwise and then may attempt to disengage. A catalyst can be a person fulfilling the school role of teacher, but it can also be a book, a tree or a rock. What causes learning in the learner is the development of a particularly deep relationship in which the learner opens him/herself to internal transformation under the influence of the catalyst. The learning context is everything else around the learner and catalyst that influences their relationship. The learning context is all the biological, psychological, cultural, social, and ecological factors that shape how the agent relates to the catalyst. There are a myriad of variations that will occur based on differences of physical health, the presence of coercion, what particular slang or jargon is used, what language(s) are being used, and what the climactic conditions are in the learning situation. In the school setting the context is the classroom, the school, the community, the society, and if we want a person to fulfill the role then the best icon is the school principal, who is supposed to be responsible for facilitating the educational aspects of the relationship between students and teachers. The Classroom Consider the classroom using the cognitive cartography metaphor. The student is generally assumed to be the learning agent, but as Paulo Friere emphasized, the teacher who is not also learning is not really teaching. The teacher is generally assumed to be the learning catalyst, but once again, there are many more opportunities for other students to be learning catalysts than the teacher given the usual ratio. Finally the classroom itself is assumed to be the learning context, but there is an entire world beyond the classroom that impinges upon what happens there. The No Child Left A Dime Act is a great example of the nefarious influence of a factor far removed from actual learning situations based on creating public policy using an inadequate definition of education. Capturing The Complex Dynamics of Real Learning in a Definition of Education

The beauty of using the cognitive cartography metaphor as a definition of education is that it implies the actual dynamics and complexity of real life learning situations. At any given moment in a solid well-led group of kids there may be a multitude of simultaneous catalysts and agents and the adult leadership will have plenty of opportunities to be both catalyst and agent, too. What really counts is the creation of a high level of trust in and respect for each individuals capacity for both learning and teaching. When we, as teachers, create an intimate group that develops the love and trust to pay attention to each others needs, then we are immersing the children in the ultimate learning experience. The inadequacy of the delivery of knowledge, skills and information as a definition of education is that it gives absolutely no account of the love and respect that are necessary for real education to emerge. For instance, because of the nature of testing today, it cannot account for love and respect. And until they can account for the quality of relationships in the educational setting, then testing is irrelevant to what really matters in education. My definition of education is the cognitive mapping of the world by agents who have intentions to move themselves from where they are to where they want to be. For a more comprehensive definition of education this links to the Wikipedia article on education.

Three Recommendations Based on My Definition of Education

There are three practical recommendations for teachers (meaning everyone who is interested in catalyzing learning in their students or children and not just delivering units) on this site. First, teach kids attitude first. Second, use an adaptive curriculum to make sure that whatever situation you find yourself in will anticipate the needs of your students. Third, utilize every resource you have to immerse your students in being respectful of each other as they learn to govern their own and other peoples behavior. The first and the third are actually unavoidable. You are teaching attitude first and immersing your students in some form of governance, even if you dont think you are. What I am suggesting is that you stop doing it on accident and start doing it on purpose. If you happen to be a classroom teacher in a mainstream school then you may be reluctant to acknowledge out loud the nearly absolute power over students that you are supposed to have. I know that I was immersed as a student in public school classroom cultures of just this kind. I was well schooled for 18 years, with 13 of those years in five different K-12 public schools. The attitude I learned from it is a revulsion of the tyranny combined with a heavy dose of resignation that it is inevitable and therefore a shameful thing to point out. For those in traditional classroom settings it is this necessary shift towards the transparency of power relations that I expect to be most uncomfortable. The second recommendation for the adaptive curriculum may be the key to making that transition easier. The adaptive curriculum can be used as a tool for collectively examining the reality of your situation. If you can be honest enough to acknowledge that your concepts about reality are not reality, then the adaptive curriculum is an ideal method for working with others to truly discover what is really going on. Education is Free With This Definition The wonderful irony of real education is that it is essentially free. My definition of education is the mapping of access to optimal states of mind. The result is an educated person, a person who is able to perceive accurately, think clearly, and act effectively on self-selected goals and aspirations.

The process of becoming educated requires a practice of persistent disillusionment, a consistent method for having an on-going dialog between the world and your mind to constantly revise your concepts of what is really going on. There are three roles that we all play in our own and other peoples education, the learning agent, the learning catalyst, and the learning context. Our moral responsibility as educators is to align the bio-, psycho-, communo-, socio- and eco-spheres as best we can to assist our students (and ourselves) with this on-going mapping project. Everything about this process has been available to human kind as long as we have been human. Only recently have we become aware that this is true. There is not a single technology high or low that is necessary to accomplish this, but just about every technology both high and low can help us educate ourselves and everyone of our students, if we use them with the right attitude. Other Definitions of Education There are other definitions of education that use other metaphors. The core values that are important to me in defining education are providing a safe and empowering environment for children that nurtures them with opportunities for fulfillment. (See my curriculum page for the difference between opportunities for fulfillment versus judgment.) The result of this set of priorities is the development of strong kids who are optimally capable of living a life that contributes to their family and community as well as being very resilient in the face of adversity. This is a contrast with the values of some who believe that while an educational environment obviously needs to be safe the environment should make strengthening children's will and ability to withstand adversity a higher priority than nurturance. The important test of whether a definition of education is one that is acceptable to me is how it is used to express the core values of safety and nurturance. There are a variety of metaphors, such as education as gardening or a factory, and the test of their appropriateness is whether they can express the values I hold dear. The factory metaphor definition of education inherently undermines the nurturance that is so important. Education defined using a gardening metaphor is ambiguous since the majority cultivation of the plants today occurs on factory farms, but if the metaphor is painted as a personal relationship between the gardener and the plant, then it might work. My definition of education reflects my values and my particular way of understanding education from the experiences I have had with both learning and teaching. Recently, a university professor wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper. He commented that people shouldn't put too much weight on the recently released trends in SRA scores of the state's high school students. The professor went on to describe some of the unanswered questions about the nature and value of assessment. He mentioned that one of the problems with assessment was the ongoing disagreement on the very purpose of education. A few days later, a scathing response was printed from a community member who questioned whether the University really wanted someone on their staff who didn't even know the purpose of education. Clearly, this person assumed that his definition of education was shared by all. What is the meaning of education? Webster defines education as the process of educating or teaching (now that's really useful, isn't it?) Educate is further defined as "to develop the knowledge, skill, or character of..." Thus, from these definitions, we might assume that the purpose of education is to develop the knowledge, skill, or character of students. Unfortunately, this definition offers little unless we further define words such as develop, knowledge, and character. What is meant by knowledge? Is it a body of information that exists "out there"apart from the human thought processes that developed it? If we look at the standards and benchmarks that have been developed by many statesor at E. D. Hirsch's list of information needed for Cultural Literacy (1), we might assume

this to be the definition of knowledge. However, there is considerable research leading others to believe that knowledge arises in the mind of an individual when that person interacts with an idea or experience. This is hardly a new argument. In ancient Greece, Socrates argued that education was about drawing out what was already within the student. (As many of you know, the word education comes from the Latin educere meaning "to lead out.") At the same time, the Sophists, a group of itinerant teachers, promised to give students the necessary knowledge and skills to gain positions with the city-state. There is a dangerous tendency to assume that when people use the same words, they perceive a situation in the same way. This is rarely the case. Once one gets beyond a dictionary definitiona meaning that is often of little practical valuethe meaning we assign to a word is a belief, not an absolute fact. Here are a couple of examples. The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together. ~Eric Hoffer No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure. ~Emma Goldman The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life-by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past-and he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his own effort. ~Ayn Rand The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to thinkrather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men. ~Bill Beattie The one real object of education is to leave a man in the condition of continually asking questions. ~Bishop Creighton The central job of schools is to maximize the capacity of each student. ~Carol Ann Tomlinson These quotations demonstrate the diversity of beliefs about the purpose of education. How would you complete the statement, "The purpose of education is..."? If you ask five of your fellow teachers to complete that sentence, it is likely that you'll have five different statements. Some will place the focus on knowledge, some on the teacher, and others on the student. Yet people's beliefs in the purpose of education lie at the heart of their teaching behaviors. Despite what the letter writer might have wished, there is no definition of education that is agreed upon by all, or even most, educators. The meanings they attach to the word are complex beliefs arising from their own values and experiences. To the extent that those beliefs differ, the experience of students in today's classrooms can never be the same. Worse, many educators have never been asked to state their beliefsor even to reflect on what they believe. At the very least, teachers owe it to their students to bring their definitions into consciousness and examine them for validity.

Purposes and Functions

To make matters more complicated, theorists have made a distinction between the purpose of education and the functions of education.(2) A purpose is the fundamental goal of the processan end to be achieved. Functions are other outcomes that may occur as a natural result of the process byproducts or consequences of schooling. For example, some teachers believe that the transmission of knowledge is the primary purpose of education, while the transfer of knowledge from school to the real world is something that happens naturally as a consequence of possessing that knowledgea function of education. Because a purpose is an expressed goal, more effort is put into attaining it. Functions are assumed to occur without directed effort. For this reason it's valuable to figure out which outcomes you consider a fundamental purpose of education. Which of the following do you actually include in your planning?
Acquisition of information about the past and present: includes traditional disciplines such as literature, history, science, mathematics Formation of healthy social and/or formal relationships among and between students, teachers, others

Capacity/ability to evaluate information and to predict future outcomes (decision-making) Development of mental and physical skills: motor, thinking, communication, social, aesthetic Capacity/ability to recognize and evaluate different points of view Indoctrination into the culture Capacity/ability to earn a living: career education Capacity/ability to be a good citizen Cultural appreciation: art, music, humanities Acquisition/clarification of values related to the physical environment Self-realization/self-reflection: awareness of ones abilities and goals

Capacity/ability to seek out alternative solutions and evaluate them (problem solving) Knowledge of moral practices and ethical standards acceptable by society/culture Respect: giving and receiving recognition as human beings Capacity/ability to live a fulfilling life Sense of well-being: mental and physical health Capacity/ability to think creatively Understanding of human relations and motivations Acquisition/clarification of personal values Self-esteem/self-efficacy

As Tom Peters reminds us, "What gets measured, gets done." Regardless of the high sounding rhetoric about the development of the total child, it is the content of assessments that largely drives education. How is the capacity/ability to think creatively assessed in today's schools? To what extent is the typical student recognized and given respect? How often are students given the opportunity to recognize and evaluate different points of view when multiple choice tests require a single 'correct' answer? Teachers who hold a more humanistic view of the purpose of education often experience stress because the meaning they assign to education differs greatly from the meaning assigned by society or their institution. It is clear in listening to the language of education that its primary focus is on knowledge and teaching rather than on the learner. Students are expected to conform to schools rather than schools serving the needs of students. Stopping to identify and agree upon a fundamental purpose or purposes of education is rare. One sees nebulous statements in school mission statements, but they are often of the Mom, baseball, and apple pie variety that offer little substance on which to build a school culture. Creating meaningful and lasting change in education is unlikely without revisiting this basic definition. At the very least, educators must be challenged to identify and reexamine their beliefs in the light of present knowledge. It is time for the focus of education to shift from what's "out therethe curriculum, assessments, classroom arrangement, books, computersto the fundamental assumptions about and definitions of education held by educators and policymakers. NASA did not send men to the moon by building on the chassis of a model T. In the same way, education cannot hope to move beyond its present state on the chassis of 18th century education.
References 1 Hirsch, E. D. Jr. (1987). Cultural Literacy. Houghton Mifflin (Return to article) 2 Callaway, R. (1979) Teachers' Beliefs Concerning Values and the Functions and Purposes of Schooling, Eric Document Reproduction Service No. ED 177 110 (Return to article)

Definitions of education on the Web: the activities of educating or instructing; activities that impart knowledge or skill; "he received no formal education"; "our instruction was carefully programmed"; "good classroom teaching is seldom rewarded" knowledge acquired by learning and instruction; "it was clear that he had a very broad education" the gradual process of acquiring knowledge; "education is a preparation for life"; "a girl's education was less important than a boy's" the profession of teaching (especially at a school or college or university) the result of good upbringing (especially knowledge of correct social behavior); "a woman of breeding and refinement" Department of Education: the United States federal department that administers all federal programs dealing with education (including federal aid to educational institutions and students); created 1979 wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn Education in the broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education

An Education is a 2009 British coming-of-age drama film based on an autobiographical memoir of the same title written by the British journalist Lynn Barber. ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Education Education is a stained-glass window commissioned from Louis Comfort Tiffany's Tiffany Glass Company during the building of Yale University's Chittenden Hall (now Linsly-Chittenden Hall, after being connected to a nearby building), funded by Simeon Baldwin Chittenden. ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_(Chittenden_Memorial_Window) The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 is an Act of the Scottish Parliament that received Royal Assent in 2004. ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_(Additional_Support_for_Learning)_(Scotland)_Act_2004 The 1907 Education (Administrative Provisions) Act (7 Edw. VII) was an Act of Parliament passed by the Liberal government as part of their Liberal reforms package of welfare reforms. The Act set up school medical services run by local government. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_(Administrative_Provisions)_Act_1907 The Education (Provision of Meals) Act 1906 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (6 Edw. VII c. 57). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_(Provision_of_Meals)_Act_1906 The 1992 Education (Schools) Act set up a system of school inspections by the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted). ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_(Schools)_Act_1992 The process or art of imparting knowledge, skill and judgment; Facts, skills and ideas that have been learned, either formally or informally en.wiktionary.org/wiki/education educate - give an education to; "We must educate our youngsters better" wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

What Is Education?
What is Education? Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world, said Nelson Mandela, the tenth president of South Africa. Education can be the key to changing the world, but it is not just a simple object to achieve. Education is the life long process of obtaining knowledge through the home, the classroom, and through real world experiences. The knowledge obtained in each of these categories can be overlapping, but each section provides its own method of presenting different types of information. No matter where in this world we are born, we start empty minded and begin learning the same things. At a very young age, the course of nature begins and the learning of the basics of life such as walking and talking are set in motion. We learn the difference between bravery and fear, right and wrong, pleasure and pain. We learn to communicate verbally by imitating and interacting with the people around us, picking up words and eventually the whole language. We learn to communicate in different ways. At first, using body language and words that aren't really words. We learn social interaction between our peers and adults. Along with language, the surrounding culture and religion is recognized and everything branches off these key elements. The upbringing process is greatly influenced by culture and religion. What is right versus wrong and what is smiled upon and what is frowned upon is defined. We typically accept the proposed ideas because they are dominant in our lives. However, when we get out into the world and gain information for ourselves, the option to accept or reject typical beliefs is available. The education we receive influences our future and gives us an infinite amount of options to choose from. We also learn other essential things in life such as etiquette. We learn how to eat properly using correct utensils and in turn, become independent. Conversely, not all people are taught etiquette. If they are born in a...