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7. Theory of Education. 7. Theory of Education.

7. Theory of Education.. Types of upbringing Each person has an individual profile of characteristics, abilities and challenges that result from predisposition,

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  • 7. Theory of Education.

  • Types of upbringing Each person has an individual profile of characteristics, abilities and challenges that result from predisposition, learning and development. This manifest as individual differences in intelligence, creativity, cognitive style, motivation and the capacity to process information, communicate, and relate to others. The most prevalent disabilities found among school age children are attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning disability, dyslexia, and speech disorder. Less common disabilities include mental retardation, hearing impairment, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and blindness.

  • The aims of upbringing individual person

  • "Education", says Aristotle, is the creation of a sound mind in a sound body". It encompasses in itself the all-round development of an individual. The success of spreading education to the widest possible area lies in the way it is imparted. With the ever changing technology scenario, the methods of imparting education too have been undergoing changes. But education itself is an age old process, rather as old as the human race itself. It was man's education through Nature, our greatest teacher, that he learned how to make fire by rubbing stones or invented the wheal to make tasks easier. Education in real earnest helps us in restraining the objectionable predisposition in ourselves. The aims of education have been categorized variously by different scholars. While Herbert Spencer believed in the 'complete-living aim', Herbart advocated the moral aim. The complete living aim signifies that education should prepare us for life. This view had also been supported by Rousseau and Mahatma Gandhi. They believed in the complete development or perfection of nature.

  • All round development has been considered as the first and foremost aim of education. At the same time education ensures that there is a progressive development of innate abilities. Pestalozzi is of the view Education is natural, harmonious and progressive development of mans innate powers. Education enables us to control, give the right direction and the final sublimation of instincts. It creates good citizens. It helps to prepare the kids for their future life. Education inculcates certain values and principles and also prepares a human being for social life. It civilizes the man.The moral aim of Herbart states that education should ingrain moral values in children. He is of the view that education should assist us in curbing our inferior whims and supplant them with superior ideas. This moral aim has also been stressed upon by Gandhiji in the sense of formation of character. The preachers of this aim do not undermine the significance of knowledge, vocational training or muscular strength. But simultaneously they have also laid stress on their view that the undisclosed aim of education is to assist development of moral habits. Then there is the social aim which means that education should produce effective individuals in the sense that they realize their responsibilities towards the society. And we all know that man is a social being. The interactive ability is a must as it is through interaction that we come to know of our responsibilities. Edmund Burke asks and he himself answers: "What is education? A parcel of books? Not at all, but an intercourse with the world, with men and with affairs."

  • Only bookish knowledge takes a child nowhere. It should be further perfected by practical usage with experience. "Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man" is a pithy and precise statement in which the essayist Francis Bacon sums up the advantages of studies. Even Wordsworth in his poem The Tables Turned advocated against bookish knowledge.Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:Come, hear the woodland linnet,How sweet his music! on my life,There's more of wisdom in it.Wordsworth was a die-hard naturalist. He wanted man to consider Nature his teacher. Naturalists believe that instincts of the child should be taken as the basis of education. The child should have freedom. Rabindra Nath Tagore was of the opinion that child should be left free in order to gather experience and to understand his own mistakes and shortcomings.

  • The twentieth century saw the emergence of the concept of Pragmatism. Charles Pierce was the first man to introduce the concept of pragmatism in his philosophy. Later on it was popularized by John Dewey, William James, Kilpatrick and Schiller. They believed that the external world is real and the reality is being constantly created and is always changing. Knowledge and truth is one and the same thing according to them.Whatever the approach towards education, one thing we all agree: Education is for the betterment of the individual and in the long run for the society. Education helps us prepare ourselves for the life ahead. Darwin gave the theory of the survival of the fittest; we can say in a way that education prepares the individual for the struggle of life for his own survival.

  • Knowledge combined with proper guidance can spell success. A dose of proper guidance should be commenced right from the base itself, that is, in school days. Here comes the role of the teacher in molding a child's mind. Educating a child, especially in the beginning years of schooling, is a very tricky job. That is probably because the childs mind is like the unmolded clay at that time. Therefore to get the best results and prepare well-informed and erudite adults, proper guidance is a must. For a proper system of education the teacher should encourage a student both in terms of mental encouragement and in lending a helping hand as and when needed. A student needs help for training his mind in such a way that it develops a tendency to gather knowledge from all possible sources. While on the other hand too much help if lent to him will make him dependent and used to spoon feeding. Self-study is the most sought after quality in a student. It helps them at the later stages. But because the child is the father of man (Wordsworth) all the qualities have to be inculcated right in childhood. And teacher along with parents plays a very significant role. The aims of education should be kept in mind, although a thorough study of these aims may not be imperative. A teacher should make a child ready to face the society, inculcate moral habits in him and thus, assist him in his all-round development.

  • Education should not be considered synonymous with all that we learn. It does not signify the things we mug up before appearing for an examination. Education is what remains behind, when we fail to remember the mugged up portion. After we have left school, we realize that although we have forgotten quite a few things we learnt but still retain a very large part of it. The latter part is education. Education formally begins in school but actually it begins the day we are born and the process goes on for the whole of our life. This is where the aims of education come in. Education is not only the formal part we gain in schools, colleges or universities. It also includes the lessons life teaches us in various forms. For instance, when a child gets his finger pricked by a needle accidentally he learns that a needle is sharp and can hurt a person, so he will learn to avoid hurting himself in the future. This is only one example from thousands of other instances. We can even learn a lesson of a lifetime from a beggar. The birds inspire us to rise high. An ant motivates us for hard work. We learn some things just by doing them on our own, they are never taught in a school. A childs first teacher is his mother, then his home and then come the formal agencies of education. Nature too is a great teacher. English poetry too gives us quite a few guidelines for leading a better life. It was not for nothing that Wordsworth went on to remark:"One impulse from the vernal woodMay teach you more of a manOf moral evil and of goodThan all the sages can."

  • As long as there is life, we require education; we need ways to modify our views about life, to face it, to live it in a better way. And education teaches us all this. Even when you read a comic strip, it educates you in some way. They improve our language and make us realize that life isnt so bad after all that it cant get worse, as states Bill Watterson in Calvin and Hobbes. The witty humour of Dennis the Menace enriches us no end. The aim of education, says Walter Grophices, "is not the specialist but the man of vision who can humanize our life by integrating emotional demands with our new knowledge."In another way too, the insects and animals also teach you a lot. The easiest example is that of an ant. It inspires you to work hard. Therefore we can say there are innumerable modes of education, all that one needs is to have a discerning eye.Education enriches a person in terms of accepting a defeat. A student should first of all be taught so that he is encouraged to study. Side by side he should be readied to face a failure. As Charles F. Kettering rightly says, The chief job of the education is to teach people how to fail intelligently." This will help the child coping with the other adversities of life. Education, thus, makes a person an improved version of himself and the world a much better place to live in.

  • characterizes the difference between man and other peopleoriginality, originality, special features, the uniqueness of the physical, psychological and sociological characteristics and properties Everyone is different, but not all that pronounced.Everyone has a birthday (there are animals).

  • 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. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing on subgroups such as gifted children and those subject to specific disabilities. Although the terms "educational psychology" and "school psychology" are often used interchangeably, researchers and theorists are likely to be identified in the US and Canada as educational psychologists, whereas practitioners in schools or school-related settings are identified as school psychologists. This distinction is however not made in the UK, where the generic term for practitioners is "educational psychologist."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.

  • To understand the characteristics of learners in childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age, educational psychology develops and applies theories of human development. Often represented as stages through which people pass as they mature, developmental theories describe changes in mental abilities (cognition), social roles, moral reasoning, and beliefs about the nature of knowledge.For example, educational psychologists have researched the instructional applicability of Jean Piaget's theory of development, according to which children mature through four stages of cognitive capability. Piaget hypothesized that children are not capable of abstract logical thought until they are older than about 11 years, and therefore younger children need to be taught using concrete objects and examples. Researchers have found that transitions, such as from concrete to abstract logical thought, do not occur at the same time in all domains. A child may be able to think abstractly about mathematics, but remain limited to concrete thought when reasoning about human relationships. Perhaps Piaget's most enduring contribution is his insight that people actively construct their understanding through a self-regulatory process.

  • Piaget proposed a developmental theory of moral reasoning in which children progress from a nave understanding of morality based on behavior and outcomes to a more advanced understanding based on intentions. Piaget's views of moral development were elaborated by Kohlberg into a stage theory of moral development. There is evidence that the moral reasoning described in stage theories is not sufficient to account for moral behavior. For example, other factors such as modeling (as described by the social cognitive theory of morality) are required to explain bullying.Rudolf Steiner's model of child development interrelates physical, emotional, cognitive, and moral development in developmental stages similar to those later described by Piaget.

  • ThenotionofeducationEducation as a science cannot be separated from the educational traditions that existed before. Education was the natural response of early civilizations to the struggle of surviving and thriving as a culture. Adults trained the young of their society in the knowledge and skills they would need to master and eventually pass on. The evolution of culture, and human beings as a species depended on this practice of transmitting knowledge. In pre-literate societies this was achieved orally and through imitation. Story-telling continued from one generation to the next. Oral language developed into written symbols and letters.The depth and breadth of knowledge that could be preserved and passed soon increased exponentially.When cultures began to extend their knowledge beyond the basic skills of communicating, trading, gathering food, religious practices, etc, formal education, and schooling, eventually followed. Schooling in this sense was already in place in Egypt between 3000 and 500BC.

  • EDUCATION is THE PREROGATIVE OF MAN.To man must be reserved the noble term education. Training suffices for animals, and cultivation for plants. Man alone is susceptible of education, because he alone is capable of governing himself, and of becoming a moral being. An animal, through its instincts, is all that it can be, or at least all that it has need of being. But man, in order to perfect himself, has need of reason and reflection; and as at birth he does not himself possess these qualities, he must be brought up by other men.Is THERE A SCIENCE OP EDUCATION?No one doubts, today, the possibility of a science of education. Education is itself an art, skill embodied in practice; and this art certainly supposes something besides the knowledge of a few rules learned from books. It requires experience, moral qualities,a certain warmth of heart, and a real inspiration of intelligence. There can be no education without an educator, any more than poetry without a poet, that is, withoutsome onewhoby his personal qualities vivifies and applies the abstract and lifeless laws of treatises on education. But, just as eloquence has its rules derived from rhetoric, and poetry its rules derived from poetics; just as, in another order of ideas, medicine, which is an art, is based upon the theories of medical science; so education, before being ' an art in the hands of the masters whopracticeit, who enrich it by their versatility and their devotion, who put upon it the impress of their mind and heart, education is a science which philosophy deduces from the general laws of human nature, and which the teacher perfects by inductions from his own experience. There is, therefore, a science of education, a practical and applied science, which now has its principles and laws, whichgivesproof of its vitality by a great number of publications.According toGabrielCompayer, Pedagogy, so to speak, is the theory of education, and education the practice of pedagogy. Just as one may be a rhetorician without being an orator, so one may be a pedagogue that is, may have a thorough knowledge of the rules of education without being an educator, without having practical skill in the training of children.

  • DEFINITION OF EDUCATIONIt will not be without interest to mention in this place the principal definitions that are of note, either on account of the names of their authors or of the relative exactness of their connotations.One of the most ancient, and also one of the best, is that ofPlato:"The purpose of education is to give to the body and to the soul all the beauty and all the perfection of which they are capable."The perfection of human nature, such indeed is the ideal purpose of education. It is in the same sense thatKant, Madame Necker de Saussure, and Stuart Millhave given the followingdefinitions :"Education is the development in man of all the perfection which his nature permits.""To educate a child is to put him in a condition tofulfilas perfectly as possible the purpose of his life.""Education includes whatever we do for ourselves and whatever is done for us by others, for the express purpose of bringing us nearer to the perfection of our nature."Here it is the general purpose of education which is principally in view. But the term perfection is somewhat vague and requires some explanation.Herbert Spencer's definition responds in part to thisneed :"Education is the preparation for complete living."

  • But in what does complete living itself consist? The definitions of German educators give us the reply:"Education is at once the art and the science of guiding the young and of putting them in a condition, by the aid of instruction, through the power of emulation and good example, to attain the triple end assigned to man by his religious, social, and national destination."(Niemeyer.)"Education is the harmonious and equable evolution of the human faculties by a method founded upon the nature of the mind for developing all the faculties of the soul, for stirring up and nourishing all the principles of life, while shunning all one-sided culture and taking account of the sentiments on which the strength and worth of men depend."(Stein.)"Education is the harmonious development of the physical, intellectual, and moral faculties." (Denzel.)These definitions have the common fault of not throwing into sharper relief the essential character of education properly so called, which is the premeditated, intentional action which the will of a man exercises over the child to instruct and train him. They might be applied equally well to the natural, instinctive, and predetermined development of the human faculties. In this respect we prefer the following formulas:"Education is the process by which one mind forms another mind, and oneheartanother heart." (Jules Simon.)"Education is the sum of the intentional actions by means of which man attempts to raise his fellows to perfection." (Marion.)

  • "Education is the sum of the efforts whose purpose is to give to man the complete possession and correct use of his different faculties."(HenryJoly.)Kant rightly demanded that the purpose of education should be to train children, not with reference to their success in the present state of human society, but with reference to a better state possible in the future, in accordance with an ideal conception of humanity. We must surely assent to these high and noble aspirations, without forgetting, however, thepractisedaims of educational effort. It is in this sense thatJames Millwrote :"The end of education is to render the individual as much as possible an instrument of happiness, first to himself, and next to other beings."Doubtless this definition is incomplete, but it has the merit of leading us back to the practical realities and the real conditions of existence. The word happiness is the utilitarian translation of the word perfection. A lofty idealism should not make us forget that the human being aspires to be happy, and that happiness is also a part of his destination. Moreover, without losing sight of the fact that education is above all else the disinterested development of the individual, of one's personality, it is well that the definition of education should remind us that we do not live solely for ourselves, for our own single and selfish perfection, but that we also live for others, and that our existence is subordinate to that of others.

  • What are we to conclude from this review of so many different definitions? First, that their authors have often complicated them by the introduction of various elements foreign to the exact notion of the word education, and that it would perhaps be better to be satisfied to say, with Rousseau, for the sake of uniting simply on the sense of the word," Education is the art of bringing up children and of forming men."But if we are determined to include in the definition of education the determination of the subject upon which it acts and the object which it pursues, we shall find the elements of such a conception here and there in the different formulas which we have quoted. It would suffice to bring them together and to say:"Education is the sum of the reflective efforts by which we aid nature in the development of the physical, 1intellectual,and moral faculties of man, in view of his perfection, his happiness, and his social destination." GabrielCompayer

  • Educationencompasses teaching and learning specific skills, and also something less tangible but more profound: the imparting of knowledge, positive judgment and well-developed wisdom.Educationencompasses both the teaching and learning of knowledge, proper conduct, and technical competency. It thus focuses on the cultivation of skills, trades or professions, as well as mental, moral & aesthetic development.Formal education consists of systematic instruction, teaching and training by professional teachers. This consists of the application of pedagogy and the development ofcurricula.In a liberal education tradition, teachers draw on many different disciplines for their lessons, including psychology, philosophy, linguistics, biology, and sociology. Teachers in specialized professions such as astrophysics, law, or zoology may teach only in a narrow area, usually asprofessorsat institutions of higher learning.The right to education is a fundamentalhuman right. Since 1952, Article 2 of the first Protocol to theEuropean Convention on Human Rightsobliges all signatory parties to guarantee the right to education. At world level, theUnited Nations'International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rightsof 1966 guarantees this right under its Article 13.

  • SystemsofformaleducationEducational systems are established to provide education and training, often for children and the youth. A curriculum defines what students should know, understand and be able to do as the result of education. A teaching profession delivers teaching which enableslearning,and a system of policies, 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.Educationis a broad concept, referring to all the experiences in which students can learn something.Instructionrefers to the intentional facilitating of learning toward identified goals, delivered either by an instructor or other forms.Teachingrefers to the actions of a real live instructor designed to impart learning to the student.Trainingrefers to learning with a view toward preparing learners with specific knowledge, skills, or abilities that can be applied immediately upon completion.

  • Stages of educationPrimary education

    Primary (or elementary) education consists of the first years of formal, structured education. In general, primary education consists of six or seven years of schooling starting at the age of 5 or 6, although this varies between, and sometimes within, countries. Globally, around 70% of primary-age children are enrolled in primary education, and this proportion is rising. Under the Education for All programs driven by UNESCO, most countries have committed to achieving universal enrollment in primary education by 2015, and in many countries, it is compulsory for children to receive primary education. The division between primary andsecondary educationis somewhat arbitrary, but it generally occurs at about eleven or twelve years of age. Some education systems have separatemiddle schools, with the transition to the final stage of secondary education taking place at around the age of fourteen. Schools that provide primaryeducation,are mostly referred to asprimary schools. Primary schools in these countries are often subdivided intoinfant schoolsandjunior schools.Secondary educationIn most contemporary educational systems of the world, secondary education consists of the second years of formal education that occur during adolescence. It ischaracterisedby transition from the typically compulsory, comprehensive primary education for minors, to the optional, selective tertiary, "post-secondary", or "higher" education (e.g., university, vocational school) for adults. Depending on the system, schools for this period, or a part of it, may be called secondary or high schools, gymnasiums, lyceums, middle schools, colleges, or vocational schools. The exact meaning of any of these terms varies from one system to another. The exact boundary between primary and secondary education also varies from country to country and even within them, but is generally around the seventh to the tenth year of schooling. Secondary education occurs mainly during the teenage years. In the United States and Canada primary and secondary education together are sometimes referred to as K-12 education, and in New Zealand Year 1-13 is used. The purpose of secondary education can be to give common knowledge, to prepare for higher education or to train directly in a profession.

  • Higher education, also called tertiary, third stage, or post secondary education, is the non-compulsory educational level that follows the completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school, or gymnasium. Tertiary education is normally taken to includeundergraduateandpostgraduate 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 ofcertificates, diplomas, or academic degrees.Higher education includes teaching, research and social services activities of universities, and within the realm of teaching, it includes both theundergraduatelevel (sometimes referred to as tertiary education) and thegraduate(orpostgraduate) 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 thepopulation (up to 50%) now enterhigher 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.Adult educationAdult education has become common in many countries. It takes on many forms, ranging from formal class-based learning to self-directed learning.

  • Didactics as theory of education in high schoolDIDACTICSThe word is from the Greekdidaktiks,apt at teaching.Didacticsis thetheory of teachingand, in a wider sense, the theory and practical application of teaching and learning. In demarcation frommathematics, as the science of learning, didactics refers only to the science of teaching.Etymology of the English word didactictheEnglish worddidacticderivedfrom the Greek worddidaktikos,(instructive ('didactic'))derivedfrom the Greek worddidaktos,(instructed, or communicated by teaching)DateThe earliest known usage of didactic in English dates from the 17th century.CognatesDutchdidactisch, Frenchdidactique, GermanDidaktik, Germandidaktisch, Lithuaniandidaktika, Norwegiandidaktisk, Russiana, SwedishdidaktiskAdidactic method(Greek:didskein= to teach; lore of teaching) is a teaching method that follows a consistent scientific approach or educational style to engage the students mind. The didactic method of instruction is often contrasted with dialectics and the Socraticmethod; the term can also be used to refer to a specific didactic method, as for instance constructivist didactics.Didactic materials are intended to convey instruction and information. The word is often used to refer to texts that are overburdened with instructive or factual matter to the exclusion of graceful and pleasing detail.The didactic one has many bonds with epistemology, cognitive psychology, and other social sciences. Sometimes by doing this, it could benefit from concepts of these fields, at the price possibly of an adaptation. It also created its own concepts, directed in that by the directions taken by research

  • Learning, basic principles of learningLearning is a process of making sense of experiences rather than memorizing information. It requires integration of thoughts, feelings, and actions(Novak, 1984).Importance of learningLearning has a central role in education. Curriculum defines the content ofwhatis taught, and the teaching of literacy and of numeracy in particular are somewhat prescribed, but most of the process ofhowteaching happens is still largely left up to the individual teacher.What is learning?Psychologists such as Kimble (1961) have defined learning in general asan experience which produces a relatively permanent change in behaviour, or potential behaviour.The definition therefore excludes changes which are simply due to maturation in the form of biological growth or development, or temporary changes due to fatigue or the effects of drugs.As Howe (1980) has pointed out, learning has the important function of enabling us to benefit from experience. It enables us to build up a progressively more sophisticated internal model or representation of our environment, and then to operate on this, rather than on the world itself. Because of this we are able to think about things, to develop strategies, and use abstract concepts such as causation when we ask ourselves what makes things happen. These abilities enable us to predict and therefore to control events which are of importance for us, giving humans an enormous evolutionary advantage over other animals.

  • Learning in Different Age GroupsBecause of the differences in cognitive, physical, and social abilities of different age groups, different pedagogical approaches are used when working with children of various ages. A technique that works well with a five year old might not be successful with a fourth grader. Similarly, teaching adults requires a different approach than the education of high school teenagers, even when the subject matter is the same. Pedagogical approaches and learning theories may be numerous in nature, but the desire of educators to examine and discuss these varied approaches and theories will hopefully help create the best possible learning environment for all students, from preschool through adult.

  • PreschoolOne of the most important debates regarding teaching preschool children is over work versus play. While some educators advocate the beginnings of formal education, including mathematics, reading, and foreign languages, most advocate imaginative play over academic learning at such an early age. Physical development is often stressed, and children are engaged in group activities that aid in socialization. Some preschool programs may be very structured, while others allow the children more choice in their activities.

  • Elementary schoolFrom kindergarten through grade five or six, generally known as elementary education, students learn most of their basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills. Education within the public school system is generally more traditional in nature (teacher-directed learning). Many public schools tailor their pedagogical approaches to include different learning styles as well as cultural responsiveness. For parents looking for a more student-directed pedagogical approach, private schools like Montessori and Waldorf, as well as open and free schools, offer a variety of approaches to childhood education.

  • Middle school and high schoolEducators in many middle and high school programs often use a traditional pedagogical approach to learning, with lectures and class discussion providing the core of instruction. Standardized testing, while used occasionally in the lower grades, is much more prevalent in high school. Technology is often an integral part of instruction; in addition to multimedia and educational presentations, computer programs have replaced activities like animal dissection in science classes. For those seeking a less teacher-directed approach, alternative high schools generally provide a smaller class size and more student-directed learning. Other types of private schools, such as military schools, offer a rigidly structured approach to education that is almost exclusively teacher-directed.

  • CollegeWhile there are some "free" oralternative colleges that offersself-directed learning and non-graded, narrative evaluations, most colleges and universities primarily employ lectures, laboratories, and discussions as their primary teaching method.

  • Similarly to pedagogical approaches in high school, technology provides additional presentation materials, as well as impacting the way faculty and students communicate. Online discussion groups are common; students may have access to an online message board where they can discuss a covered topic with other students and the professor, and email contact between students and professors can supplement office hours. Professors are often challenged to find new ways to address students' different learning styles, as well as creating a learning environment that is accessible to those with learning disabilities.Adult learnersRemedial programs for adult learners (such as literacy programs) focus not only on the acquisition of knowledge, but also must deal with the biases and sensitive emotional issues that may face adults in these situations. Adult educators often use students' life experiences to help connect them with the academic material. Adult learners interested in continuing higher education often find that online or distance learning is easier to fit into a busy schedule than physically attending classes.

  • Modern Teaching MethodsDuring the twentieth century, work within the educational community impacted the way learning was perceived, andpedagogicalapproaches became widely discussed. In many countries, the traditional method of education had been the "banking method of education," a concept perhaps most famously criticized inFreire'sPedagogy of the Oppressed.With the "banking" method, teachers lecture and bestow knowledge upon the student, who then passively receives, or "banks" it. In the United States, John Dewey significantly influenced pedagogical approaches with his concept of progressive education. Dewey believed that students needed to integrate skills and knowledge into their lives through experience, rather than just be taught dead facts. He also coined the phrase "learning by doing," a phrase that has become the hallmark of experiential learning. For instance, Dewey's students learned biology, chemistry, and physics though activities such as cooking breakfast.The concepts behind cognitivism and social constructivism have led to the development of schools like Montessori and Waldorf schools; private schools that allow children to direct their own education, and encourage hands-on and active learning, while minimizing the amount of technology and teacher-directed learning. Constructivism has also led to the development of educational styles like service learning, where students participate in and reflect upon participation in community service, using their experience to make meaningful connections between what they are studying and its applications. Other types of schooling, such as free schools, open schools, and democratic schools function almost completely without the traditional student/teacher hierarchy.

    * , . , 1973 * ?