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.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
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.)
