Meaning of Education

• The social and philosophical foundations of education require students to understand the concept of education.
• Understanding education enhances appreciation of social and philosophical issues.

Meaning of Education

• Education involves the process of learning
• Education involves acquiring knowledge.
• Education entails imparting or attaining general knowledge
• Education involves developing reasoning, judgment, and intellectual preparation for mature life.
• "Education" originates from the Latin "educare" (bring up), related to "educere" (bring out potential, to lead).
• Peters' philosophical view defines education as intentional transmission of worthwhile content through morally acceptable means.
• Whitehead defines education as "the art of the utilization of knowledge", guiding towards understanding the art of living.
• Dewey views education as reconstructing experience to add meaning and increase the ability to direct subsequent experiences, fostering continued growth.
• Sociologically, education transmits culture, also known as socialization.
• Durkheim defines education as systematic socialization of the younger generation, imparting religious, moral beliefs, and national feelings.
• Technically, education is how society deliberately transmits accumulated knowledge, skills, and values from one generation to the next.
• Defining education is difficult, R.S. Peters suggests using criteria to measure the process.

R.S. Peters' Criteria of Education

• Education involves transmitting something worthwhile, committing individuals to it.
• Education must integrate knowledge, understanding, and cognitive perspective that is not inert.
• Education excludes procedures lacking willingness and voluntariness from the learner.
• Education includes any formative act or experience on an individual's mind, character, or physical ability.
• Education relates to gaining knowledge, skills, and values enabling a good and useful life for both the individual and society.

Processes of Education

• Education occurs through processes considered formal, non-formal, and informal, existing along a continuum.

Formal Education

• Involves systematic structure, curriculum guidance, teacher-centered approach in designated places like schools.
• Formal education is age-specific, chronologically graded, and hierarchically structured from primary to university.
• It is intentional, systematic, structuring experiences and establishing explicit aims, roles, and operation patterns.
• Formal education is institutionalized, operating within schools, colleges, polytechnics, and universities.
• The formal education system is comprised of organization, human elements, and curriculum.

Organization (Formal Education Subsystem)

• A mission is a legally established framework for evolving and pursuing goals and objectives.
• A sponsor consists of political, religious, or industrial bodies that initiate, support, and govern the enterprise, establishing schools within.

Human (Formal Education Subsystem)

• Mentors consist of of trained and certified personnel who teach, counsel, administer, or staff the establishment.
• Students are the participants who are to be educated.

Curriculum (Formal Education Subsystem)

• Content includes body of knowledge, subjects, or skills for students to learn.
• Media consists of materials, equipment, plants, and processes through which learning experiences are provided.
• The system's integration between organizational, human, and curricular components determines how formal it is.

Non-Formal Education

• It is any intentional, systematic education outside traditional schooling targeting specific groups, like youth or school drop-outs.
• GCE remedial classes, vocational training, extension for farmers, adult literacy, and health education are examples.
• Non-formal education is somewhat organized, curriculum-guided and teacher-related but doesn't involve highly organized staff, content, and structure like traditional schools.
• Non-formal education selects content, media, time units, admission criteria, and facilities to maximize learning goals.
• It differentiates from incidental and informal education by being intentional and systematic.

Unique Variations of Non-Formal Education

• It is not always identified as education.
• It is focused on immediate and practical missions.
• It typically occurs outside of schools at any learning site.
• Proof of education relies more on performance than certificates.
• It does not involve highly organized content, staff, or structure.
• It usually fosters voluntary participation.
• It is commonly part-time for participants.
• Instruction is rarely graded nor sequential.
• It costs less than formal education.
• It lacks customary admission criteria.
• Instructor selection is based on experience and expertise.

Pedagogical Style

• Distinctions exist between formal, rigid, teacher-centered approaches and those that build upon client needs.
• Learning needs encompass general education-literacy, numeracy, liberal, and cultural studies.
• It also includes family improvement education to raise standards of health and family planning.
• Community improvement education can be achieved through civic education.
• Occupational education is required for effective contribution to the community and national economy.

Function

• Schooling provides basic cognitive learning.
• Functions of non-formal education exists outside main schooling.

Clients

• Beneficiaries include people engaged in agriculture, commercial activities, general services, and specific target groups.

Informal Education

• Traditional, incidental learning acquired consciously or unconsciously anywhere like home or work.
• Learning is unorganized and unstructured and agencies include the home, peer groups, the community, and religious groups.
• Aims, content, and methods are interwoven with the ultimate result of making well integrated members of the wider State.

Goals of Traditional Education

• Aims to produce the ideal man and woman who are also builders of society
• Development of the child can be physical
• Character development can take place
• Respect for elders can be promoted
• Intellectual skills can be developed
• Vocational training can be provided
• Active participation and belonging within families and communities can be fostered
• Cultural heritage can be understood, appreciated, and promoted

Specific Goals (Informal Education)

• Goals aim to ensure education in matrimonial, social, and religious domains
• Training in thinking, practical wisdom, and aesthetics.
• Education of will-power can be ensured through self-denial, physical endurance, and self-control.

Content (Informal Education)

• Aims, content and methods are intricately interwoven
• Geography and history are understood from observation and from elders
• Botany and Zoology are the subjects of both practical lessons
• Game of wits can be interwoven with math
• Norms can also be learned through cultural activities like weddings
• Reunions and learnings are key parts of festivals
• Libations and Durbars are held at the time of ancestors
• Etiquette is taught
• Close family and relative bonds are strengthened

Vocational Education (Informal)

• Includes agricultural education, trades/crafts (weaving, sculpting), and professions (priesthood, medicine).
• Apprenticeships and special schools provide vocational training.

Education Methods (Informal)

• Observation, imitation, identification, and participation facilitates education.