LEC 03/14

   

 EDUCATION AND TEACHING: CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS

A. EDUCATION

a. Definitions of Education

The Concept of Education is a very complex concept and thus cannot be defined in simple terms due to its diverse shades of meaning. It also applies to diverse activities and processes. Most definitions of education are descriptive in nature. As such, they do not capture a single idea but a family of ideas. The meaning of the word education can be accessed from the following perspectives:

    i) Etymological Definition

Etymology is the study of the origin of terms/words. The etymology of the term Education is traced back to latin verbs Educare and Educere

Educare (Pronounced as Eh-duh-kareh) :. In the ancient Rome, the verb Educare referred to the general process of growing up, of rearing, of bringing up. Originally, it designated both the rearing of plants, animals and the bringing up of children. Based on this definition, education has come to be viewed as the art of molding, of giving form to an incomplete or delicate person i.e. child. It later on presupposed the role of an adult molding the character, mind and psychomotor aspects of the learner.

Educere (Pronounced as Eh- duh-chereh): ‘Educere’ means to lead out or to bring out. In other words, the adult assists the child to come of age and realize his potential without any shade of coercion. The assumption is that the child is in possession of abilities/potential awaiting to be elicited by proper guidance..

(ii)    Descriptive Definition

Dictionary: This is the meaning as offered in a dictionary. The meaning  is descriptive in nature and inadequate because it tends to be general and vague e.g. the Fontana dictionary defines educating as:

Ø  Passing on a cultural heritage

Ø  Initiation of the young into worthwhile ways of thinking and doing.

Ø  Fostering of an individual’s growth.

This definition is limited because it does not explain the cardinal factors requisite in the process of educating namely that   which has to do with transmission i.e. how does one do it? Which component of cultural heritage is worth of education?

(ii)   Prescriptive Definition(Definitions according to great thinkers)

This perspective tends to be biased depending on the thinkers/theorists involved for instance:

Ø  Plato defined education in the laws as training

Ø  Comenius defined it is as the art of teaching all men all things

Ø  Milton defines it as the art of knowing everything

Ø  Lodge defines it as equivalent to experience i.e. the experience of man interacting with his/her normal environment.

These definitions tend towards the end that Education should achieve

The more we pursue the definition of the concept of education along the foregoing paths, the more complex it becomes. Realizing this, analytic philosophers have suggested necessary conditions or criteria of education

b. Criteria/Conditions/ Dimensions of Education

i.) R. S Peters' Criteria of Education

According to R S Peters (1966) in Ethics and Education:

1) Desirability condition: Education must involve the transmission of what is worthwhile, valuable or desirable (Normative Criteria)

2). Knowledge Condition: Education must involve knowledge and understanding, and some kind of cognitive perspective (Cognitive Criteria)

3). Procedural Condition: Education rules out certain procedures of transmission that lacks willingness and voluntaries on the part of the learner (Procedural Criteria)

Note: The Desirability criteria correspond to Ethics as a branch of Philosophy, the Cognitive criteria corresponds to Epistemology while the Procedural criteria have underpinnings in Logic. Metaphysical aspect has not been directly referred to in R. S. Peter's definition.

ii). Njoroge and Benaar's Dimensions of Education

Njoroge and Bennars in Theory and Practice of Education (1994) have reflected on these criteria and proposed four criteria or dimensions of education.

1. Cognitive Dimension: Education must involve the development of knowledge and understanding. Education presupposes the acquisition of knowledge – facts, skills, ideas, principles. It also involves intellectual activities like thinking, judging, reasoning, perceiving, deciding, abstraction, discrimination, intuition and imagination.

2. Creative Dimension: Education should involve the development of individuality. It should encourages the development of individual unique capacities and so it should make the individual creative rather than a docile recipient of knowledge. It should make one a tool – user rather that make one a tool. This happens through encouraging self- esteem, self–reliance, self–determination, self–expression and individual growth. Education that places emphasis on knowledge only may produce a person who is too academic but lacking social training. Besides being academically endowed, an educated person should actively participate as a creative agent.

3). Normative Dimension: Education should involve Socialization. Education takes place in a social setting and serves social functions. Education as Socialization is the acquisition of Knowledge, values, attitudes, skills to make learners acceptable members of society. These values and skills are passed from one generation to the next.  The aims (objectives), content and methods of education are socially determined. The norms and values transmitted ought to address the mind/the understanding level as opposed to mere habit formation.

4). Dialogical Dimension: Education should involve dialogue which is essentially a process of communication between the learner and the environment as well as between the learner and teacher. Education as dialogue encourages mutual respect, understanding, free debate and co-operation between learner and teacher. Methods that hinder free and active participation of both teacher and learners negate proper education. The methods should neither be too permissive nor too authoritarian.

Note: We can fully locate the philosophical map of Njoroge and Benaar's definition of Education as follows:

     Cognitive-Epistemology

     Creative- Metaphysics (and by extension Logic)

     Normative-Ethics and the wider Axiology

     Dialogical- Logic

  c. The Banking concept of Education of Paulo Freire

  i. General Description

Over-emphasis -on the cognitive dimension of education has reduced the learning process to an almost mechanical exercise in mental skills, normally known as training.

Banking Concept: Underlying all this is what Paolo Freire has called the banking concept of education revolving around the principle of deposit and withdrawal seen as operative in education.

Learners are regarded as knowledge banks, depositories, receptacles or empty vessels which are to be filled with knowledge which they are expected to keep and guard till it’s demanded back at the time of examination.

Passivity: Throughout, learners tend to be passive and docile in matters of knowledge and learning. They acquire notions without internalizing or understanding them fully. Learners become mere storehouses of facts, of intellectuals. Consequently, says Freire, what they have learnt does not in any way affect them personally in their daily understandings.

Externality: Knowledge remains external and the products of the system become full in their heads but empty in their hearts.

ii. Characteristics of the Banking Concept

Ø  Narration: The teacher narrates all they know to the learners who consume every word without alterations or questioning.

Ø  Memorization: The learner mechanically memorizes the narrated content. Learning becomes a process of conditioning and brain washing. An activity that is characterized by cramming and rot learning.

Ø  Tabula Rasa: Learners are perceived as empty vessels to be filled with knowledge from the teacher or textbooks.

Ø  Depositionism: Education becomes an act of depositing in which the teacher the depositor and the learner is the depository.

Ø  Superiorism: Education and knowledge in particular, is seen as a gift by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those they consider to know nothing.

Ø  Justificationism: The teacher considers the learners’ ignorance absolute and justifies his knowledgeability.

iii. Limitations of the Banking Concept of Education

Ø  Stifling: The banking activity in education stifles the learner’s creativity.

Ø  Competition: It creates unnecessary and unhealthy competition in the classroom.

Ø   False Premise: It is founded on the false premise that the learner is a tabula rasa and like an empty vessel. The learner always has something of their own that they bring with them into the educative process.

Ø  Passivity: It makes learners passive observers rather than active participants, creatures rather than creators in the process of acquiring knowledge. Thus knowledge obtained is to a large extent only skin deep and without internalization, it is short lived

Ø  Narrow-mindedness: The banking concept narrows the student’s outlook and vision. It perpetuates narrow mindedness and meanness of ideas in learners.

Ø  Undermining: It undermines the rational powers or abilities of the learner.

Ø  Counter productivity: It also promotes rot learning i.e. it emphasizes memory and recall which are often counterproductive in education.

NB: Personal involvement in the discovery of knowledge and internalization of knowledge by the learner are to be emphasized. Noting that knowledge cannot be acquired passively, the learners must be actively and directly involved.

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B. A SYNOPSIS OF THE CONCEPT OF TEACHING

 Teaching may refer to three aspects:

a)      An occupation or a profession.

b)      Normal activity of a teacher in a classroom or school situation (enterprise)

c)      Describing an actual teaching exercise.

   

(a)   Teaching as a profession

This entails the following:

Ø  An occupation by which a living is earned.

Ø  Deeper commitment.

Ø  Long duration of preparation/training.

Ø  Formal induction and acceptance.

Ø  Standard of performance or competence.

Ø  Code of regulations, ethics or practice to preserve the honor and prestige of the profession.

Ø  Willingness to advance the growth and effectiveness.

Ø  Regular scheme of payment and remuneration.

Ø  A great regard for the interest or advantage of the client.

(b)   Teaching as an enterprise

It refers to the cluster of activities that the teacher engages in within the school setting:

Ø  Marking registers.

Ø  Maintaining discipline.

Ø  Filling mark books.

Ø  Coordinating co-curricular activities.

Ø  Being on duty (TOD).

(c)    Actual teaching

Simply defined as a system of actions intended to induce learning. Must meet the following criteria:

i. Have a person who is consciously and deliberately doing the teaching.

ii. Another person or oneself who is being taught – learner is logically necessary.

iii. Something (content) being taught (facts, information, knowledge, skills).

iv. At least an intention on the part of the person doing the act that the recipient should learn.

v. Involve methods or procedures that are orally and pedagogically sound or acceptable.

d. William Frankena (1973)

According to William Frankena, Teaching is said to take place when 

 “X is fostering or seeking to foster in Y some disposition. D by method M.” Where

    X is the society, the teacher or whoever is educating (even oneself)

  Y is the leaner (child youth or adult)

  D is disposition beliefs, habit, knowledge, skills, attitudes considered desirable both for the leaner and society.

  M is morally acceptable methods that pay attention to the interest of the learner, personal integrity and active participation in the learning process. (Methods should not dehumanize or degrade the learner.)