Education
Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education happens in a complex institutional framework, like public schools. Non-formal education is also structured but takes place outside the formal schooling system, while informal education is unstructured learning through daily experiences. Formal and non-formal education are divided into levels that include early childhood education, primary education, secondary education, and tertiary education. Other classifications focus on the teaching method, like teacher-centered and student-centered education, and on the subject, like science education, language education, and physical education. The term "education" can also refer to the mental states and qualities of educated people and the academic field studying educational phenomena.
The precise definition of education is disputed, and there are disagreements about what the aims of education are and to what extent education is different from indoctrination by fostering critical thinking. These disagreements affect how to identify, measure, and improve forms of education. Fundamentally, education socializes children into society by teaching cultural values and norms. It equips them with the skills needed to become productive members of society. This way, it stimulates economic growth and raises awareness of local and global problems. Organized institutions affect many aspects of education. For example, governments set education policies to determine when school classes happen, what is taught, and who can or must attend. International organizations, like UNESCO, have been influential in promoting primary education for all children.
Many factors influence whether education is successful. Psychological factors include motivation, intelligence, and personality. Social factors, like socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and gender, are often linked to discrimination. Further factors include access to educational technology, teacher quality, and parent involvement.
The main academic field investigating education is called education studies. It examines what education is, what aims and effects it has, and how to improve it. Education studies has many subfields, like philosophy, psychology, sociology, and economics of education. It also discusses comparative education, pedagogy, and the history of education.
In prehistory, education happened informally through oral communication and imitation. With the rise of ancient civilizations, writing was invented, and the amount of knowledge grew. This caused a shift from informal to formal education. Initially, formal education was mainly available to elites and religious groups. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century made books more widely available. This increased general literacy. Beginning in the 18th and 19th centuries, public education became more important. This development led to the worldwide process of making primary education available to all, free of charge, and compulsory up to a certain age. Today, over 90% of all primary-school-age children worldwide attend primary school.
Definitions
The term "education" is derived from the Latin words educare, meaning "to bring up" and educere, meaning "to bring forth". The definition of education has been explored by theorists from various fields. Many agree that education is a purposeful activity aimed at achieving goals like the transmission of knowledge, skills, and character traits. Extensive debate surrounds its exact nature beyond these general features. One approach views education as a process that occurs during events such as schooling, teaching, and learning. Another outlook understands education not as a process but as the mental states and dispositions of educated persons that result from this process. Additionally, the term may also refer to the academic field that studies the methods, processes, and social institutions involved in teaching and learning. Having a clear idea of what the term means matters when trying to identify educational phenomena, measure educational success, and improve educational practices.Some theorists provide precise definitions by identifying the specific features that are exclusive to all forms of education. Education theorist R. S. Peters, for instance, outlines three essential features of education, which include that knowledge and understanding are imparted to the student and that this process is beneficial and done in a morally appropriate manner. Such precise definitions often succeed at characterizing the most typical forms of education. However, they often face criticism because less common types of education occasionally fall outside their parameters. The difficulty of dealing with counterexamples not covered by precise definitions can be avoided by offering less exact definitions based on family resemblance instead. This means that all the forms of education are similar to each other, but they need not share a set of essential features that all of them have in common. Some education theorists, such as Keira Sewell and Stephen Newman, hold that the term "education" is context-dependent.
Evaluative or thick conceptions of education state that it is part of the nature of education to lead to some kind of improvement. They contrast with thin conceptions, which provide a value-neutral explanation. Some theorists provide a descriptive conception of education by observing how the term is commonly used in ordinary language. Prescriptive conceptions, by contrast, define what good education is or how education should be practiced. Many thick and prescriptive conceptions see education as an activity that tries to achieve certain aims, which may range from acquiring knowledge and learning to think rationally to nurturing character traits like kindness and honesty.
Various scholars stress the role of critical thinking to distinguish education from indoctrination. They state that mere indoctrination is only interested in instilling beliefs in the student, independent of whether the beliefs are rational; whereas education also fosters the rational ability to critically reflect on and question those beliefs. It is not universally accepted that these two phenomena can be clearly distinguished since some forms of indoctrination may be necessary in the early stages of education while the child's mind is not yet sufficiently developed. This applies to cases in which young children need to learn something without being able to understand the underlying reasons, like certain safety rules and hygiene practices.
Education can be characterized from the teacher's or the student's perspective. Teacher-centered definitions focus on the perspective and role of the teacher in the transmission of knowledge and skills in a morally appropriate way. Student-centered definitions analyze education from the student's involvement in the learning process and hold that this process transforms and enriches their subsequent experiences. Definitions taking both perspectives into account are also possible. This can take the form of describing education as a process of a shared experience of discovering a common world and solving problems.
Types
There are many classifications of education. One of them depends on the institutional framework and distinguishes between formal, non-formal, and informal education. Another classification includes distinct levels of education based on factors like the student's age and the complexity of the content. Further categories focus on the topic, the teaching method, the medium used, and the funding.Formal, non-formal, and informal
The most common division is between formal, non-formal, and informal education. Formal education happens in a complex institutional framework. Such frameworks have a chronological and hierarchical order: the modern schooling system has classes based on the student's age and progress, extending from primary school to university. Formal education is usually controlled and guided by the government. It tends to be compulsory up to a certain age.Non-formal and informal education take place outside the formal schooling system. Non-formal education is a middle ground. Like formal education, it is organized, systematic, and carried out with a clear purpose, as in the case of tutoring, fitness classes, and the scouting movement. Informal education happens in an unsystematic way through daily experiences and exposure to the environment. Unlike formal and non-formal education, there is usually no designated authority figure responsible for teaching. Informal education takes place in many different settings and situations throughout one's life, usually in a spontaneous way. This is how children learn their first language from their parents and how people learn to prepare a dish by cooking together.
Some theorists distinguish the three types based on the location of learning: formal education takes place in school, non-formal education happens in places that are not regularly visited, like museums, and informal education occurs in places of everyday routines. There are also differences in the source of motivation. Formal education tends to be driven by extrinsic motivation for external rewards. In non-formal and informal education, enjoyment of the learning process usually provides intrinsic motivation. The distinction between the three types is normally clear, but some forms of education do not easily fall into one category.
In primitive cultures, most education happened on the informal level and there was mostly no distinction between activities focused on education and other activities. Instead, the whole environment acted as a form of school, and most adults acted as teachers. Informal education is often not efficient enough to teach large quantities of knowledge. To do so, a formal setting and well-trained teachers are usually required. This was one of the reasons why in the course of history, formal education became more and more important. In this process, the experience of education and the discussed topics became more abstract and removed from daily life while more emphasis was put on grasping general patterns and concepts instead of observing and imitating particular forms of behavior.