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TOPIC 1: THE PROMISES AND LIMITS OF EDUCATION:TOWARDS REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONERS (MID-SEM TEST)

1.1 The Promises of Education

• Education can be defined as “the growth process of theindividuals and society ”. “The promises of education” meanswhat education can do to individuals of all ages, from childrento adults to senior citizens, in a particular country. The growthof individuals can be divided into four basic domains:

• cognitive domain (knowledge),

• psychomotor domain (skills),

• affective domain (attitudes), and

• social domain (social interactions).

• Other domains of growth include:

• productive domain (knowledge and skills for job, home,citizen and member of society),

• physical domain (development & maintenance of strong &healthy body),

• aesthetic domain (values and appreciation of the arts),

• moral domain (values & behaviours), and

• spiritual domain (recognition & belief in the divine & theview of transcendence).

• Education helps young citizens so that they can function moreeffectively in their current and future times. These functions aredetermined by the aims of education. The aims of education arethe general statements of the functions to be transferred to thelearners through education, or simply the general purpose of education.

• Ralph Tyler summarized the aims of American education as:

• developing self-realization,

• making individuals literate,

• encouraging social mobility,

• providing the skills and understanding necessary for

productive employment• furnishing tools requisite for making effective choices

regarding material and nonmaterial things and services,and

• furnishing the tools necessary for continued/life-longlearning.

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1.2 The Limits of Education

• “The limits of education” means the factors that becomehindrance/obstacle to education. As we are all aware, educationneeds infrastructures such as buildings, classrooms,laboratories, libraries; others than the human capital such asadministrators, teachers and supporting staff. The provisions of these facilities require financial support, which may becomethe limitation to education.

• School location can be another limitation to education, withsome schools are nicely located in towns and cities, while

others are located in the villages or far in the mountains. Theaccess to schools could be a problem to some children, otherthan lack of teaching and learning materials available at suchschools. Hence, school location can be a limit of education.

• Mental and physical abilities of students differ in manyways. Some of them are mentally retarded, or physicallyhandicapped, blind, or deaf and dumb. These students cannotlearn as much as the normal students. They need speciallearning aids, for example, the Braille materials for blindstudents, and sign language for deaf and dumb students. Allthese become limits of education.

• There is a large amount of knowledge and skills thatstudents need to learn. With the limited time and resourcesavailable to students and teachers; teachers face the problemof selecting what subjects the students should take to equipthem for their future life. There are at least nine domains of growth that are important to students. Can they learn all of them? Hence, time can be another limit of education.

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1.3 Towards Reflective Practitioners

• Reflective practitioners mean those who look back at what they are doing, making evaluation as to the quality of the processesand think of how to improve those processes. With the abovepromises and limits of education, teachers as practitioners ineducation, should be more reflective in their profession. That is,for example, they should look back at how they teach, evaluatethe effectiveness of the teaching process, and think of how toimprove this process.

• As an example of teaching process, assume that you are ateacher in a secondary school, and you are given a class withmixed abilities students to teach, i.e. some of them are verybright, some are moderate, and the rest are weak students.What would you do to make sure each one of your students inyour class understand what is taught to them, though theyhave different academic abilities, background, interest, andmotivation?

• Would you have all of them in the same class, and give more

attention to the weak students? Or, would you divide them intothree groups according to their abilities and teach themdifferently? Or, would you use the cooperative-learning strategysuch that the good students will teach the moderate students ingroups of five, while you teach the weak students? Can weseparate teaching objectives for these different group of students?

• Or, would you separate your students into three classes, i.e.Class A for good students, Class B for moderate students, andClass C for weak students, and teach them different syllabus

using different approach? Can you reflect back, as a student, byrecalling what your teacher did to you when you were a studentin school? Let us share these experiences and do somereflection on them, and suggest the better teaching approachfor these students.

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TOPIC 2: UNDERSTANDING EDUCATION: THE FOUNDATIONS PERSPECTIVE;

A MULTIDISCIPLINARY AND INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH (MID-SEMTEST)

2.1 Introduction

This topic will discuss the understanding of education through foundations of education perspective. The topics covered in the foundations of educations course(see Study Guide) are the purpose of schooling, philosophy of education, sociology of education, history of education, politics of education, curriculum and pedagogy,transmission of knowledge, schools as organization, teacher professionalism, equalityof opportunity, educational outcomes, educational inequalities, educational reforms,

school improvements, current issues and trends in education, and the future of education. Which of these topics do you think are multidisciplinary, and which of themare interdisciplinary?

2.2 The Multidisciplinary Approach

“Multidisciplinary approach in understanding of education” means “understanding of education through many separate disciplines of knowledge”. For example, thesociological foundations of education, and teacher professionalism. These twodisciplines of knowledge are different, with little or no overlapping contents. Thetheories and/or principles that made up the two disciplines come from two differentdisciplines of knowledge (sociological foundations of education & teacher

professionalism).(a) The Social Foundations of Education

• “Sociology” is defined as “the branch of knowledge that deals with the origin,development, organization and functioning of human society”. Education developswithin, not a part from, social contexts. Schools influence the cultures of the peoplethat the schools serve. Likewise, the surrounding cultures shape the schools andtheir curricula.

• Other than the dynamic nature of our local cultures, we have the technology (suchas internet and other electronic technologies) that exposes global cultures to ourcommunity. Can we provide relevant education to cater for these dynamic cultures?This is actually part of the social foundations of education. We have to study the

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present and perhaps future cultures to determine the direction of our presenteducation.

• In trying to understand education, we need to understand the sociology of aparticular country. We than try to relate the life and cultures of this country to itseducation system, particularly to the philosophy, aims, goals and objectives of education. Since we can study sociology of a country as a separate discipline, wecan study social foundations of education through a multidisciplinary approach.

(b) Teacher Professionalism

• “Professionalism” is defined as “professional character, spirit, or methods of professionals, as distinguished from an amateur”. Hence, “teacher professionalism”means “professional character, spirit, or methods of a teacher, as distinguished fromnon-teachers”. Good teachers  are not just born with the professional character,spirit, or methods; but they acquire them through trainings and experiences. Theygain their knowledge from successful and unsuccessful experiences.

• Teachers differ from others at least in five aspects of teaching and learning: (1) theyhave the content knowledge of the subject-matter they teach; (2) they have theknowledge and skills of how best to deliver/teach a particular content; (3) they canunderstand learners’ needs in teaching and learning; (4) they know how to handlestudents with discipline problems; and (5) they know various methods/techniques toevaluate students’ academic achievement, skill performance, attitudes and socialinteraction.

• In trying to understand education of a particular country, we need to understand, partly, theteaching and learning process and teacher professionalism that are being practiced in thecountry. We can also look at the character, spirit, or methods of other professionals; and

compare them with those for the teachers. Since we can study teacher professionalism as aseparate discipline, therefore it can be studied through a multidisciplinary approach.

2.3 The Interdisciplinary Approach

“Interdisciplinary approach in understanding of education through foundations perspective”means “understanding of education through related disciplines of knowledge”. For example,the philosophical foundations of education and the historical foundations of education areinterdisciplinary knowledge. We use the theories and principles from other disciplines(philosophy & history) and create theories and principles for the “Philosophical Foundations of Education” and the “Historical Foundations of Education”.

(a) The Philosophical Foundations of Education

• “Philosophy” is a combination of two Greek words, the “phil’s” which means “love”, and“sophia” which means “wisdom”. Hence, the word “philosophy” means “love of wisdom”,i.e. we need to “search for wisdom”. It involves searching for defensible values, clarifyingour perceptions, beliefs and attitudes; formulating principles for making decisions; andfinally implementing these decisions.

• Philosophy of education focuses on the values, beliefs and attitudes related to education,i.e. the process of growth of individuals and society. These values, beliefs and attitudesdetermine the direction of our education, particularly the aims, goals, objectives, contents,delivery and assessment of education. We look at our life and problems in full perspective indeciding on our philosophy of education.

•

For example, the philosophy of “perennialism”, the oldest and most conservativephilosophy, is based on “realism”. Realist views the world in terms of objects and matter.People come to know about the world through senses and reason. Everything is derived

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from nature and is subjected to its laws. American education, up to the late nineteenthcentury, was dominated by perennialist thinking.

• Hence, in order for us to understand the philosophy of education, we need to know thegeneral philosophies first, and then relate them to the aims of education of a country. Thatis, we have to combine the knowledge about “philosophy” and the knowledge about the

“education” to form the knowledge about the “Philosophical Foundations of Education” of aparticular country, which can be regarded as an interdisciplinary approach.

(b) The Historical Foundations of Education

• “History” is defined as “the branch of knowledge that deals with past events”. Historyinvolves searching for what had occurred within a particular time frame and context. Allhuman activities, including those in the field of education, occur within time and context.The events that took place during a particular period of time in a country had influenced theeducation of that country. In Malaysia, can you recall an event that had changed oureducation?

• In the USA, the historical foundations of education started with the colonial Massachusetts,

which settled by Puritans (members of a sect of Protestant from England) who hold strictlyto religious discipline. The earlier schools were closely related to Puritan church. The majorpurpose of school was to teach children to read the Scriptures (passages from Bible) andnotices of civil affairs. The purpose of schooling at that time was to make sure children canread and understand the principles of religion and the laws of the Commonwealth.

• Hence, in order for us to understand the history of education of a country, we need to knowthe events that had taken place at a particular time, and relate them to what had happenedin education of a country. That is, we have to combine the knowledge about “history” andthe knowledge about the “education” to form the knowledge about the “HistoricalFoundations of Education” of a particular country, which can be regarded as aninterdisciplinary approach.

2.4 Tutorial Activity

Read the subtopic of: “How Can Schools Reduce Risks That Threaten Children’sHealth and Safety?” on pages 43-53 of the textbook. Relate the social phenomena inthe USA (the social foundations of education) to the roles of schools (what schoolscan do to educate young children to reduce the risks that threaten their health andsafety).

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PFB1004: FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATIONCourse Leader: Prof. Dr. Abdul Razak Habib

Lecture Notes

TOPIC 3: THE PURPOSE OF SCHOOLING (MIDSEM TEST)

3.1 Introduction

Why did we go to school? Why do children go to school? The answer to thesequestions will probably help us to understand the purpose of schooling. What wouldhave happen to us if we did not go to school? What was the purpose of schooling

300 years ago? What is the purpose of schooling now? This lecture will relate thephilosophy, aims, goals and objectives of education to the purpose of schooling.

3.2 The Philosophy, Aims, Goals and Objectives of Education

• To understand the process of education, we need to understand curriculumdevelopment, content development, content delivery, and assessment of contentlearning. The curriculum (syllabus) development includes determining thephilosophy, the aims, the goals and the objectives of education, as shown thefigure below. The content development, delivery, and assessment will not bediscussed here.

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• Philosophy of education, as we know,  focuses on the values, beliefs andattitudes in relation to the growth process of individuals and society. These values,beliefs and attitudes determine the direction of our education, particularly theaims, goals, objectives, contents, delivery and assessment of education. Some of the educational philosophies will be discussed in Topic 4. As an example, we willdiscuss pragmatism as a philosophy of education.

• Pragmatism defines the truth and meaning of ideas (knowledge) according to theirphysical consequences and practical values (p. 154). It views the world as not fixed, butconstantly changing; and views knowledge as process. It suggests education should focuson experiencing the process, for example, learning occurs as pupil engages in problemsolving. Knowing is considered an interaction between the learner and environment, of which both are undergoing constant changes.

• Aim of education (What education expects students will achieve) can be definedas “general statement of the functions to be transferred to learners througheducation, or simply the purpose of education”. The earlier aims of Americaneducation were to “ascertain the continuation and enforcement of democraticideals, and to save the souls” (p. 94). These aims had been associated with thephilosophy of pragmatism, which many people claimed to be the unofficialAmerican philosophy (p. 154).

• Goal of education (What students can do after completing education) can bedefined as “statement of specific purpose with some outcomes in mind”. The aimgives the purpose of education, such as “Making individual literate”; while the

goal gives more specific outcomes of education, such as “All Year-1 pupilsshould be able to read and write simple sentences in English”. Hence, thegoal of education is the statement about what pupils should be able to do toachieve the aim/purpose of education.

• Objective of education can be defined as “statement of specific learningoutcomes at various levels of learning”; e.g. at program level, course level, topiclevel, or lesson level. An example of course level educational objective is: “At theend of this course, students should be able to write short stories inEnglish”. The objectives are usually written in behavioural terms, such as “write,read, explain, compare, compute, or draw” and so on. The curriculum is then

developed based on the various objectives of a particular school subject.

3.2 The Purpose of Schooling

There are many classifications of the purposes/aims of schooling, for example thosegiven by The Educational Policies Commission (USA) and those given by the CardinalPrinciples of Secondary School Education. The Educational Policies Commissionlisted four purposes of American schooling: (1) self-realization, (2) humanrelationships, (3) economic efficiency, and (4) civic responsibility.

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Philosophy Aims Goals Objectives

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• The purpose of self-realization is to encourage inquiry, mental capabilities, speech,reading, writing, numbers, sight and hearing, health knowledge, health habits,public health, recreation, intellectual interests, and character formation.

• The purpose of  human relationships includes humanity, friendship, cooperation

with others, courtesy, appreciation of the home, conservation of the home,homemaking, and democracy in the home.

• The purpose of  economic efficiency  includes work, occupational appreciation,personal economic, consumer judgment, efficiency in buying, and consumerprotection.

• The purpose of  civic responsibility  includes social justice, social activity, socialunderstanding, critical judgement, tolerance, observance, conserving of resources,social application of science, world citizenship, economic literacy, politicalcitizenship, and devotion to democracy.

• The Cardinal Principles of Secondary School Education listed seven major areas of 

purposes of secondary schooling: (1) health, (2) command of fundamentalprocesses (living skills), (3) worthy home membership, (4) vocational education,(5) civic education, (6) worthy used of leisure, and (7) ethical character.

3.3 Tutorial Activity

• Read Chapter 10 of the textbook about the Backward Design of Curriculum (p.284). Explain “backward curriculum design”. Give one example of the designbased on an educational objective. Ralph Tyler (1949) described the design asfollows:

 “Educational objectives become the criteria by which materials are selected, content is

outlined, instructional procedures are developed, and test and examination are prepared…The purpose of a statement of objectives is to indicate the kinds of changes in the studentto be brought about so that the instructional activities can be planned and developed in away likely to attain these objectives”.

Sample Answer

• Backward curriculum design starts with the learning objectives (backward) toderive/develop a curriculum (i.e. prepare lesson content, select materials, developteaching procedures, prepare exercises, and prepare test/examination). A simpleexample is given below:

• Learning objective: At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to find the area

of a right-angle triangle.• Lesson content: Find the area of a rectangle and the area of the right-angle

triangle by dividing the rectangle into two right-angle triangles. Derive the formula forthe area of a right-angle triangle.

• Materials: Use a manila card to make rectangles and use a ruler to measurethe sides.

• Teaching procedures: (a) Review on how to find the area of a rectangle.(b) Ask students to cut the manila card to make rectangles of various sizes.(c) Ask students to measure the sides of the rectangles and compute the areas.(d) Ask students to cut the rectangles into right-angle triangles and then compute the

areas of each rectangle(e) Deduce the formula for the area of rectangle and triangle.

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• Exercises: Students are asked to draw right-angle triangles of various sizes and areasked to compute the areas.

• Assessment: Students are given a few figures of right-angle triangles and are asked to

compute the areas.

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