1) What is the purpose of education and what are your pedagogical beliefs?

There are many definitions of pedagogy,  (Stevenson, 2010, p.1309) defines pedagogy as “the method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept”. However, (Donaldson, 2015, p.63) disagrees suggesting that pedagogy is about more than just ‘teaching’ through classroom methods, suggesting that "it represents the considered selection of those methods in light of the purposes of the curriculum and the needs and developmental stage of the children". This suggests that pedagogy is not only about teaching and transmitting information itself, but also the external factors and resources that revolves it.



To follow from this definition of pedagogy, in this blog, I will be debating the purpose of education and followed by my pedagogical beliefs.


There are many debates on what people think the purposes of education are or what they should be, at OAS 2006, a remarkable conference, the outstanding educator and visionary scholar Nicholas Negroponte expressed,
“No matter what global problem you are dreading, whether it's the elimination of poverty, whether it's the creation of peace, whether its solving environmental energy problems, the solution- whatever it is- multiple solutions, the solutions always include education, never is it without an education component and sometimes cannot be done without education.” And he went on stating, “ They should be learning by doing. The thing is not to learn excel or such programs, it is to learn to learn.” By this, Negroponte states that the purpose of education is to prepare children to be life long learners and to enter a democratic society. This belief system comes from a liberal perspective.  (Dewey and Ross, 1983, p.181) agree with this and suggest that “the process of growth, improvement and progress, rather than static out-come and result, becomes the significant thing. Not health as an end fixed once and for all, but the needed improvement in health—a continual process—is the end and good. The end is no longer a terminus or limit to be reached. It is the active process of transforming the existent situation. Not perfection as a final goal, but the ever-enduring process of perfecting, maturing, refining is the aim in living.”
A school system that supports this ideology is Summerhill school. This school system believes that as time passes, assessment and qualifications are now what defines education, and that that shouldn't be the case. More schools that take on the democratic approach are adopting this and offer a democratic 'free' schooling experience, which is becoming more popular among educationalists and parents. Summerhill School was founded in 1921 by A.S.Neil , at a time where discipline and child abuse was the way to child-rear. It was introduced to give children the confidence to thrive and make logical decisions of their own. The school provides a range of subjects up to GCSE level, and the timetables are changed every term where the older children sign up for classes they want without compulsion. In addition, there is free access to woodwork, computers, art and an open area where children create their own ways to amuse themselves and socialise. This links to how much they value freedom and right to play. Many people hold the schools principles in high regards, coming from all over the globe, for example Israel and Japan. They state that the children that attend are being empowered to take their learning into their own hands, rather than being spoon fed with information, and that in itself prepares these children for any career in the future. Another advantage of being 'unschooled' is that their learning is not separate from their day to day life, having no divide. This then encourages the child to learn from anything, instead of having set textbooks and strict schedules. 
On the other hand, their are some disadvantages to unschooling according to others. With the elimination of a grading system and assessments, it becomes difficult to measure the child's knowledge and how much they have learned. In addition, unschooling is majorly criticised by it's appearance of lack of structure. As the schools don't have a base structure of what needs to be learned, it can appear to be chaotic for parents who are looking for guidance on how to build on what the child has learned from home. Additionally, with unschooling comes very limited guidelines regarding standardized tests. What a child learns can switch from early years level to year 6 level and back down. There is little to no proof that the child is actually learning and thus making parents feel out of control. Vygotsky's view on assessment and instruction supports this as he states that instruction creates the Zone of Proximal Development, as it stimulates development. He states that organised instruction will result in the child's intellectual development, and 'will bring an entire series of such development processes, which were not possible without instruction (1982, p.121). However John Holt, an educator and author who founded  Growing Without Schooling, America’s first home-schooling magazine, has views that clash with Vygotsky and in favour of the liberal perspective. He suggests that “…the anxiety children feel at constantly being tested, their fear of failure, punishment, and disgrace, severely reduces their ability both to perceive and to remember, and drives them away from the material being studied into strategies for fooling teachers into thinking they know what they really don’t know” (Holt 1923-1985).

As the new curriculum in Wales based on Donaldson's Review creeps in, the purpose of education is altering from a subject specific and skill based point of view into a holistic approach. Donaldson's suggests that there are four purposes of education:

In addition, the four purposes of the curriculum are:

These are achieved by participating in cross-curricular projects instead of having specific subject based lessons. These cross-curricular projects should entail digital competence, literacy and numeracy. This supports the liberal approach to education as it means children can develop multiple skills at once, where knowledge and skills are not divided into sections. In my opinion, I support his approach as I believe the purpose of education is to achieve metacognition, the idea of learning to learn, and to encourage children to become critical individual thinkers. Metacognition involves knowing when to apply the skills they have to support their development in different situations. This helps children to take greater control of their own learning and make formative and logical decisions. Noddings supports this viewpoint, suggesting that “a primary purpose of schooling in a democratic society is to produce thoughtful citizens who can deliberate and make wise choices.” (Noddings, 2012, p.25). This holistic liberal approach to education is easier and great for children in primary education. However, it may cause issues and become disorganised if applied to education in high school. It does not reflect in assessment, for example when students sit their GCSE's exams, where the exams are divided and students are tested on subject based topics. This approach can also result in knowledge given is spread thinly to the point where students can not get deep and more complex knowledge in specific areas they are interested in. This, according to Vygotsky can damage a child's development as it is not stimulating the Zone of Proximal Development.
Neo-liberals believe that the purpose of education is to give children specific skills in order to prepare them for future employability. Neo-liberals suggest that education is driven by performance and illustrates how effective it is by end results, and that the teachers role is to transmit information to the students.

 

 

 

 

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         References:

 

         Anunschoolinglife.com. (2011). John Holt Quotes | An Unschooling Life. [online] Available at: http://anunschoolinglife.com/quotes-by-john-holt/ [Accessed 1 Nov. 2017].

Biggs, J. & Collis, K. (1982) Evaluating the Quality of Learning : the Structure of Learning Outcomes, New York: Academic Press.

        Blog.ixl.com. (2013). The Pros and Cons of Unschooling. [online] Available at: https://blog.ixl.com/2013/05/07/the-pros-and-cons-of-unschooling/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2017].

        Dewey, J., & Ross, R. G. (1983). The Middle Works, 1899-1924: 1921-1922 (Vol. 13). SIU press.

      Donaldson, G. (2015). Successful futures: Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales. Welsh Government.

Hicks, D. (2017). Cite a Website - Cite This For Me. [online] Teaching4abetterworld.co.uk. Available at: http://www.teaching4abetterworld.co.uk/docs/Neoliberal_Education.pdf [Accessed 4 Nov. 2017].

Jones, K. (2012). SAPVoice: What Is The Purpose Of Education?. [online] Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2012/08/15/what-is-the-purpose-of-education/#4c93abf27795 [Accessed 1 Nov. 2017].

        Noddings, N. (2013). Education and democracy in the 21st century. New York: Teachers College Press.

Scaffolding Children's Thinking -
doing Vygotsky in the classroom with National Curriculum assessmentDavid Leat (Newcastle University) and Adam Nichols (Durham University)Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference
(September 11-14 1997: University of York)

Scott, T. (2012). Unschooling Pros and Cons: Decide if Unschooling is Right for You. [online] Bright Hub Education. Available at: http://www.brighthubeducation.com/homeschool-methodologies/120910-pros-and-cons-of-unschooling-is-it-right-for-you/ [Accessed 1 Nov. 2017].

        Stevenson, A. (Ed.). (2010). Oxford dictionary of English. Oxford University Press,  USA.

Summerhillschool.co.uk. (2017). An Overview of Summerhill - The original alternative 'free' school.. [online] Available at: http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/an-overview.php [Accessed 15 Nov. 2017].

suttion Trust, Education Endownment foundation:website at http://educationendownmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/meta-cognitive-and-self-regulation-strategies/