Teories of Education
To begin to develop such a complex topic it is necessary to start since the base. Nowadays, reasoned enough or reasonless, governments have opened and endless debate which leads to continuous changes in Education systems along the world. When I think about this, it comes to my mind that there is actually something not properly configured in our education system or it might just be something that every government does to prove their caring in the education aspect.
It is true that only education lacks can prove some things that are happening in society, the differences between people and areas. No doubt, everyone receive and education, it is legally mandatory to receive an education, so why are we all not educated or we know the same?
It is at this point where the different theories of education play important roles, I am not going to say that some of them are not appropriate or obsoletes, I am just going to say that we cannot use all of them for a same purpose, like everything in this life; there are things that are better than another. As well a complete studio of the characteristic of the class is to be done before to adjudicate one method or another.
But, what is a good definition of education? We are wrong if we think education is only when children go to school when they are 5. Education Is a long life process where we develop our skills, potentials or we learn new things that we did not know before by the help of a teacher, book or experimenting. Education does not have to be necessarily in a school, we can learn at home, in contact with the nature or in other contexts.
Several authors have been remarkable in the history of education; probably it has been in this century when the biggest research in this fields has been done, that is why I will talk about the most important authors from this century.
Maria Montessori is the mother of the new education theories around the world, after her impact in new education recourses, there are a big number of school that use her methods for their school, as well she is the inspiration for many teacher that believe in a new education. Her main affirmation says that the learning environment is crucial in classes. To make the class a space that children enjoy and using specific activities are Montessori’s ideas. To work over this author idea is necessary to know the sensitive stages of the child, give the children independence to learn by himself but always within a prefixed context. She affirmed that children learn better in a stimulating environment. Montessori includes in the class elements typical from house affaires like setting the table, get dressed properly. This method was especially successful in early 30s.
Dewey in the other hand focused his work in the teaching of concepts that children will need in the future and he disagreed with methods that we making school looking like a vacation place for students. For Dewey school were a place for instruction, and children can have fun in other place but school is mainly for developing skills. He denied the teacher is the only source of knowledge and it has to be a figure that control the pace of the class, the teacher cannot be a boss and the children can be slavered by his methods, as well, it is more important the action of the children that teacher lesson or the way he express his ideas, this means the teacher has to give a lot importance to the activities he prepares for the pupils. Dewey’s method affirm that reflexive thinking is the key for solving any problem and also repeating the same steps over and over. For this author organization, repetition and discipline are very important. Having a necessity, a reason or just curiosity is needed in order to show intention for learning, this match with the idea of passive or active learning, active learning is important and an appropriate attitude is required to face any learning situation in life.
Piaget was one of the most influencing figures in the Education fields of Europe but soon his theories jumped oversees. The main achievement by Piaget was the idea of the stage learning, according to his theories, the children learn by experimenting with the environment so they create knowledge. The more the interact with the environment the reinforce their knowledge or they modify concept they got incorrectly at first. The stage learning is a very solid theory since it is able to explain that most children achieve the same things with the same age all over the world. Language learning was the learning field that took more advantage from Piaget ideas.
After describing the work of the main figures it is time to talk about the future of the education, what the plans are, how the education is going to change, how our children will be educated in the future schools. This school of the future is going to be based and formed by four important points.
The first one is “Learn to know”, each person is supposed to know and understand what is around him. It is necessary to reflex between concrete and abstract. Learning is considered as a long life active process.
The second one is “learn to do”, developing a task is very important nowadays, that is why schools need to teach new students not only concepts but learn how to work them out in a professional world. But teaching is not only passing the concepts from generation to generation, it is more than that, it is setting a base and using them with organization and discipline.
The Third one is “learn to live together” , this is one of the main objectives of the new school, but knowing the other requires the knowing of ourselves. Teaching in the diversity and the exchange of arguments are truly important in our society so new schools give children the opportunity to built cooperative thinking groups.
The fourth is “learn to be”, every person has to develop their own ideas, the richness of this world is our personal differences, every person has something to give to the others, that personal skills have to be reshaped in the schools.
Even after having explained all this it looks to me difficult to say which the best education theory is. But I personally think like the same way the best coach is the one the use the qualities of the squad, the best teacher is the one that uses the best planning after thinking and observing the characteristics of his students.
Along the world, probably the most used method use method is repetition, this means that the students will repeat in class or as homework what the teacher explain in class. This theory is changing lately, teacher start to give more importance to interact in class with students. Most teacher use the same pattern for their lessons around the world, this point is essential for student in order to not get lost in the class, this way teacher present the concept always the same way and timing them exactly the same, this helps student to follow the lecture without any problem.
Bibliography:
Education at treatment of children (1977) – Austin Text ED
Foreign Language Annals – Volume 37, 40 – Published by the American Council on the Teaching of foreign languages.
