System of Formal Education

Systems of Formal Education



World map indicating Education Index (2007/2008 Human Development Report)
Education systems are established to provide education and training, in most cases for children and the young. A curriculum defines what students should know, understand and be able to do as the result of education. A teaching profession delivers teaching which enables learning, and a system of polices, regulations, examinations, structures and funding enables teachers to teach to the best of their abilities.

Sometimes education systems can be used to promote doctrines or ideals as well as knowledge, which is known as social engineering. This can lead to political abuse of the system, particularly in totalitarian states and government. Education is a broad concept,it refers to all the experiences in which children can learn something. Instruction refers to the intentional facilitating of learning toward identified goals, delivered either by an instructor or other forms. Teaching refers to learning facilitated by a real live instructor. Training refers to learning toward preparing learners with specific knowledge, skills, or abilities that can be applied immediately.

Higher Learning

The University of Cambridge is an institute of higher learning.

Higher education, also called tertiary, third stage or post secondary education, is the non-compulsory educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school, or gymnasium. Tertiary education is normally taken to include undergraduate and postgraduate education, as well as vocational education and training. Colleges and universities are the main institutions that provide tertiary education. Collectively, these are sometimes known as tertiary institutions.Tertiary education generally results in the receipt of certificates, diplomas, or academic degrees.


Higher education includes teaching, research and social services activities of universities, and within the realm of teaching, it includes both the undergraduate level (sometimes referred to as tertiary education) and the graduate (or postgraduate) level (sometimes referred to as graduate school). Higher education in that country generally involves work towards a degree-level or foundation degree qualification. In most developed countries a high proportion of the population (up to 50%) now enter higher education at some time in their lives. Higher education is therefore very important to national economies, both as a significant industry in its own right, and as a source of trained and educated personnel for the rest of the economy.
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Alternative Education

Alternative education
Alternative education, also known as non-traditional education or educational alternative, is a broad term which may be used to refer to all forms of education outside of traditional education (for all age groups and levels of education). This may include both forms of education designed for students with special needs (ranging from teenage pregnancy to intellectual disability) and forms of education designed for a general audience which employ alternative educational philosophies and/or methods.


Alternatives of the latter type are often the result of education reform and are rooted in various philosophies that are commonly fundamentally different from those of traditional compulsory education. While some have strong political, scholarly, or philosophical orientations, others are more informal associations of teachers and students dissatisfied with certain aspects of traditional education. These alternatives, which include charter schools, alternative schools, independent schools, and home-based learning vary widely, but often emphasize the value of small class size, close relationships between students and teachers, and a sense of community
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Learning Modalities

Learning modalities

There has been a great deal of work on learning styles over the last two decades. Dunn and Dunn focused on identifying relevant stimuli that may influence learning and manipulating the school environment, at about the same time as Joseph Renzulli recommended varying teaching strategies. Howard Gardneridentified individual talents or aptitudes in his Multiple Intelligences theories.

Based on the works of Jung, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Keirsey Temperament Sorter focused on understanding how people's personality affects the way they interact personally, and how this affects the way individuals respond to each other within the learning environment. The work of David Kolb and Anthony Gregorc's Type Delineator follows a similar but more simplified approach.
It is currently fashionable to divide education into different learning "modes". The learning modalities are probably the most common:
• Kinesthetic: learning based on hands-on work and engaging in activities.
• Visual: learning based on observation and seeing what is being learned.
• Auditory: learning based on listening to instructions/information.
It is claimed that, depending on their preferred learning modality, different teaching techniques have different levels of effectiveness. A consequence of this theory is that effective teaching should present a variety of teaching methods which cover all three learning modalities so that different students have equal opportunities to learn in a way that is effective for them.
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Education in Developing Countries

Education in developing countries

In developing countries, the number and seriousness of the problems faced are naturally greater. People are sometimes unaware of the importance of education, and there is economic pressure from those parents who prioritize their children's making money in the short term over any long-term benefits of education. Recent studies on child labor and poverty have suggested that when poor families reach a certain economic threshold where families are able to provide for their basic needs, parents return their children to school. This has been found to be true, once the threshold has been breached, even if the potential economic value of the children's work has increased since their return to school.[citation needed] Teachers are often paid less than other similar professions.

A lack of good universities, and a low acceptance rate for good universities, is evident in countries with a relatively high population density.[citation needed] In some countries, there are uniform, over structured, inflexible centralized programs from a central agency that regulates all aspects of education.

* Due to globalization, increased pressure on students in curricular activities
* Removal of a certain percentage of students for improvisation of academics (usually practised in schools, after 10th grade)


India is now developing technologies that will skip land based phone and internet lines. Instead, India launched EDUSAT, an education satellite that can reach more of the country at a greatly reduced cost. There is also an initiative started by a group out of MIT and supported by several major corporations to develop a $100 laptop. The laptops should be available by late 2006 or 2007. The laptops, sold at cost, will enable developing countries to give their children a digital education, and to close the digital divide across the world.

In Africa, NEPAD has launched an "e-school programme" to provide all 600,000 primary and high schools with computer equipment, learning materials and internet access within 10 years. Private groups, like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are working to give more individuals opportunities to receive education in developing countries through such programs as the Perpetual Education Fund. An International Development Agency project called nabuur.com, started with the support of American President Bill Clinton, uses the Internet to allow co-operation by individuals on issues of social development.

psychology

Psychology

A class size experiment in the United States found that attending small classes for 3 or more years in the early grades increased high school graduation of students from low income families.

Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Although the terms "educational psychology" and "school psychology" are often used interchangeably, researchers and theorists are likely to be identified as educational psychologists, whereas practitioners in schools or school-related settings are identified as school psychologists. Educational psychology is concerned with the processes of educational attainment in the general population and in sub-populations such as gifted children and those with specific disabilities.

Educational psychology can in part be understood through its relationship with other disciplines. It is informed primarily by psychology, bearing a relationship to that discipline analogous to the relationship between medicine and biology. Educational psychology in turn informs a wide range of specialities within educational studies, including instructional design, educational technology, curriculum development, organizational learning, special education and classroom management. Educational psychology both draws from and contributes to cognitive science and the learning sciences.In universities, departments of educational psychology are usually housed within faculties of education, possibly accounting for the lack of representation of educational psychology content in introductory psychology textbooks (Lucas, Blazek, & Raley, 2006).

Philosophy

Philosophy

John Locke's work Some Thoughts Concerning Education was written in 1693 and still reflects traditional education priorities in the Western world

The philosophy of education is the study of the purpose, nature and ideal content of education. Related topics include knowledge itself, the nature of the knowing mind and the human subject, problems of authority, and the relationship between education and society.[citation needed] At least since Locke's time, the philosophy of education has been linked to theories of developmental psychology and human development.[citation needed]

Fundamental purposes that have been proposed for education include:

* The enterprise of civil society depends on educating people to become responsible, thoughtful and enterprising citizens. This is an intricate, challenging task requiring deep understanding of ethical principles, moral values, political theory, aesthetics, and economics, not to mention an understanding of who children are, in themselves and in society.[citation needed]
* Progress in every practical field depends on having capacities that schooling can develop. Education is thus a means to foster the individual's, society's, and even humanity's future development and prosperity. Emphasis is often put on economic success in this regard.[citation needed]
* One's individual development and the capacity to fulfill one's own purposes can depend on an adequate preparation in childhood. Education can thus attempt to give a firm foundation for the achievement of personal fulfillment. The better the foundation that is built, the more successful the child will be. Simple basics in education can carry a child far.[citation needed]



A central tenet of education typically includes “the imparting of knowledge.” At a very basic level, this purpose ultimately deals with the nature, origin and scope of knowledge.[citation needed] The branch of philosophy that addresses these and related issues is known as epistemology. This area of study often focuses on analyzing the nature and variety of knowledge and how it relates to similar notions such as truth and belief.

While the term, knowledge, is often used to convey this general purpose of education, it can also be viewed as part of a continuum of knowing that ranges from very specific data to the highest levels. Seen in this light, the continuum may be thought to consist of a general hierarchy of overlapping levels of knowing.[citation needed] Students must be able to connect new information to a piece of old information to be better able to learn, understand, and retain information.[citation needed] This continuum may include notions such as data, information, knowledge, wisdom, and realization.

The ideal or holistic education [Cf: Conceptual Stress-Understanding and Management: Dr. Shriniwas Kashalikar] is conscious evolutionary transformation that aims at holistic health i.e. simultaneous welfare of one and all. This requires conscious development of fitness of one's body, refinements of instincts, broadening and profoundness of emotions, blossoming of intelligence and liberating perspective of universal oneness. Besides, cognitive, affective and psychomotor the productive domain also must be nurtured for this.

By : wikipedia.org