SOCIO ANTHROPOLOGICAL

FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION

Reported By:DONA S. LEAÑO

• The sociology of education is the study of how social institutions and individual experiences affects education and its outcome. Education is It is concerned with all forms of education i.e. formal and informal education systems of modern industrial societies.

• It is relatively a new branch and two great sociologist Émile Durkheim and Max Weber were the father of sociology of education.

• Émile Durkheim's work on moral education as a basis for social solidarity is considered the beginning of sociology of education.

• The sociology of education is the study of how social institutions and forces affect educational processes and outcomes, and vice versa.

• Education is perceived as a place where children can develop according to their unique needs and potentialities. The purpose of education is to develop every individual to their full potential.

SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION

SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES ON EDUCATION

ANTHROPOLOGY OF EDUCATIONThe study of anthropology offers alternative perspectives of who we are and why we do the things we do through the study of individuals, groups, and institutions different from ourselves. Anthropology of education engages these perspectives through the study of schooling in our own culture, from the perspective of minority groups in our culture, and from multiple trans-cultural perspectives. The anthropology of education engages issues such as the socialization process of schooling; the production, transmission, and acquisition of “culture” within the educational process; the role of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism in schools; the school’s role in the creation of identity; and how minority groups interact with the majority culture of schooling. These issues are at the heart of immense debate and analysis within educational policy and practice, ranging from questions of multicultural education to what it means to be educated; from curriculum design to multiple intelligence; from why minority students disproportionately fail in school to what it means for a test to be “culturally biased.”

SOCIALIZATION

LEARNING THROUGH SOCIALIZATION

Human minds are malleable and adaptive, capable of taking in and incorporating everything around them. It is this capacity which has lifted humanity beyond the mere impulses of nature. The act of learning itself, however, is also something that can be molded by our society, affecting the way in which we see the world.

Socialization is the act by which people acquire and develop cultural norms, personality traits and behaviors from those whom they are surrounded by such as family, peers, religion and the state. This can be accomplished either consciously or unconsciously. Genetics also play a large role in guiding behavior, but socialization helps mold those inveterate traits.

A LEARNING SOCIETYA learning society regards the actual process of learning as an ‘activity, not a place’ – that is, it takes place outside of regular educational institutions, and is thus also decentralized and deregulated, a tenet of globalization theory.

Learning societies are broader in context, drawing on elements of systems to facilitate the ability for lifelong learning in the individual. If lifelong learning is about the ability of the individual, then this is enabled through a Learning Society.

It is the ‘socialization’ of individual lifelong learning, and is currently aided through technologies and the increasing focus on social networking, by using the shared learning experiences of individuals as a basis for a larger network of education that exists formally and informally (schools, universities, job-training, support, collaboration, feedback etc.).

A LEARNING SOCIETY

GROUP LEARNINGStudents learn best when they are actively involved in the process. Researchers report that, regardless of the subject matter, students working in small groups tend to learn more of what is taught and retain it longer than when the same content is presented in other instructional formats. Students who work in collaborative groups also appear more satisfied with their classes.

Various names have been given to this form of teaching, and there are some distinctions among these: cooperative learning, collaborative learning, collective learning, learning communities, peer teaching, peer learning, reciprocal learning, team learning, study circles, study groups, and work groups. But all in all, there are three general types of group work:

• Informal learning groups are ad hoc temporary clustering of students within a single class session. Informal learning groups can be initiated, for example, by asking students to turn to a neighbor and spend two minutes discussing a question you have posed.

• Formal learning groups are teams established to complete a specific task, such as perform a lab experiment, write a report, carry out a project, or prepare a position paper. These groups may complete their work in a single class session or over several weeks.

• Study teams are long-term groups with stable membership whose primary responsibility is to provide members with support, encouragement, and assistance in completing course requirements and assignments. Study teams also inform their members about lectures and assignments when someone has missed a session.

GROUP LEARNING

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