Education: Credo Reference

any process, either formal or informal, that shapes the potential of a maturing organism. Informal education results from the constant effect of environment, and its strength in shaping values and habits can not be overestimated. Formal education is a conscious effort by human society to impart the skills and modes of thought considered essential for social functioning. Techniques of instruction often reflect the attitudes of society, i.e., authoritarian groups typically sponsor dogmatic methods, while democratic systems may emphasize freedom of thought.

The body of knowledge that comprises what is known about how adults learn. In the 1970s, those involved in the education of adults sought to separate their field of work from that of learning in general, which had previously been researched mainly by psychologists and educational psychologists. Adult learning theory differentiates between itself and other areas of education as well as between how children learn and how adults learn.

Knowles's (1980) concept of andragogy (the art and science of helping adults learn) is among the better-known models in adult learning. The essence of Knowles's model lies in the following assumptions about adults: (a) they are more self-directed than dependent; (b) their accumulation of experiences is a rich resource for learning; (c) their readiness to learn is directly related to the tasks required in their social roles; (d) they are more subject centered than problem centered in learning; (e) they find internal motivations more powerful than external ones; and (f) they need to know why it is important to learn something. Knowles viewed these assumptions as critical to the design of educational programs for adults.

The rates and patterns of access to and participation in higher education are significant policy issues in most countries. Social equity in the patterns of access to higher education is often depicted to be one of three criteria for the quality of a national higher education system, alongside effectiveness and efficiency. The literature on access and equity in higher education is thus vast, including national analyses and related policy documents, research reports, and comparative international reports by bodies such as the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the World Bank. Contemporary research into access and equity is tightly interwoven with wider policy issues and research questions, including the purposes of higher education, the funding of higher education, the assessment of academic achievement, and the changing character of higher education delivery and patterns of teaching and learning.

training designed to advance individuals' general proficiency, especially in relation to their present or future occupations. The term does not normally include training for the professions.
Development

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the apprenticeship system and the home were the principal sources of vocational education. Since then society has been forced by the decline of handwork and the specialization of occupational functions to develop institutions of vocational education. Manual training, involving general instruction in the use of hand tools, developed initially in Scandinavia (c.1866) in response to the doctrines of Friedrich Froebel and Johann Pestalozzi. It became popular in the elementary schools of the United States after 1880. While the immediate object of this training was not vocational, it developed gradually into extended courses in industrial training. Courses in bookkeeping, stenography, and allied commercial work in both public and private institutions were other early forms of vocational education.

system of learning a craft or trade from one who is engaged in it and of paying for the instruction by a given number of years of work. The practice was known in ancient Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as well as in modern Europe and to some extent in the United States. Typically, in medieval Europe, a master craftsman agreed to instruct a young man, to give him shelter, food, and clothing, and to care for him during illness. The apprentice would bind himself to work for the master for a given time. After that time he would become a journeyman, working for a master for wages, or he set up as a master himself. The medieval guilds supervised the relation of master and apprentice and decided the number of apprentices in a given guild. The Industrial Revolution, with its introduction of machinery, put an end to most of these guilds, but apprenticeship continues in highly skilled trades, at times competing with vocational training schools (see vocational education).

(yō'hän hìn'rĭkh pĕs´´tälôt'sē), 1746–1827, Swiss educational reformer, b. Zürich. His theories laid the foundation of modern elementary education. He studied theology at the Univ. of Zürich but was forced to abandon his career because of his political activity on behalf of the Helvetic Society, a reformist Swiss political organization. From 1769 to 1798 he lived at his farm "Neuhof" near Zürich, where he conducted a school for poor children. He then directed a school at Burgdorf (1799–1804), and from 1805 until his retirement (1825) to "Neuhof" he was director of the experimental institute at Yverdon-les-Bains, which was established on Pestalozzian principles. Pestalozzi's theory of education is based on the importance of a pedagogical method that corresponds to the natural order of individual development and of concrete experiences. To Pestalozzi the individuality of each child is paramount; it is something that has to be cultivated actively through education. He opposed the prevailing system of memorization learning and strict discipline and sought to replace it with a system based on love and an understanding of the child's world. His belief that education should be based on concrete experience led him to pioneer in the use of tactile objects, such as plants and mineral specimens, in the teaching of natural science to youngsters. Running through much of Pestalozzi's writing is the idea that education should be moral as well as intellectual. Never losing his commitment to social reform, Pestalozzi often reiterated the belief that society could be changed by education. His theories also influenced the development of teacher-training methods. Although he respected the individuality of the teacher, Pestalozzi nevertheless felt that there was a unified science of education that could be learned and practiced. His belief that teacher training should consist of a broad liberal education followed by a period of research and professional training has been widely adopted throughout Europe and the United States.

(frā'bəl, frō'–, Ger. frē'drĭkh vĭl'hĕlm ou'gʊst frö'bəl), 1782–1852, German educator and founder of the kindergarten system. He had an unhappy childhood and very little formal schooling, learning what he could from wide reading and close observation of nature; he studied for a short time at the Univ. of Jena. He was studying architecture at Frankfurt (1805) when he was persuaded by the master of the model school at Frankfurt to become a teacher. He visited Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi at Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, and then returned to Germany to study at the universities of Göttingen and Berlin. In 1813 he joined Lützow's free corps and saw active service in the Napoleonic Wars. While serving in the army he met Heinrich Langethal and Wilhelm Middendorff, with whom he was associated throughout the rest of his career. He returned to the Univ. of Berlin in 1814 and was given a position in the school's mineralogical museum. In 1816 he founded at Griesheim a school (later moved to Keilhau) called the Universal German Educational Institute where other teachers came to study his methods. Early in 1837 he went to Bad Blankenburg (near Keilhau), where he opened the first kindergarten. In 1849 he founded a kindergarten training school at Liebenstein. However, Froebel was unable to control constant disputes among his subordinates, and after a group of former associates accused him of propagating treason, the government issued an edict (1851) forbidding the establishment of kindergartens. The measure was repealed in 1860. Froebel was influenced greatly by the philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling. His theories of education are based on a belief in the divine unity of nature, so that spiritual training is a fundamental principle. Froebel stressed the importance of pleasant surroundings, self-activity, and physical training in the development of the child. His most important work is Menschenerziehung (1826; tr. The Education of Man, 1877). The translation by Susan Blow of his Mutter-und Kose-Lieder (1844) is called Mother Play (1895).

Swiss psychologist whose studies of the development of thought processes in children have been influential in early-childhood research and on school curricula and teaching methods.

The subjects of Piaget's studies of intellectual development were his own children. He postulated four main stages in the development of mental processes: sensorimeter (birth to the age of two), preoperational (two to seven), concrete operational (seven to twelve), and formal operational, characterized by the development of logical thought.

John Dewey was a highly influential twentieth-century American philosopher and perhaps the nation’s foremost educational theorist. Along with Charles S. Peirce (1839–1914) and William James (1842–1910), he forged an American philosophy known variously as pragmatism, experimentalism, or, as he preferred, instrumentalism. He also helped create an educational theory known as progressivism. In addition to being a prolific author and a philosophy professor, he was socially and politically active in seeking to improve children’s schooling, secure professors’ academic freedom, outlaw international war, protect workers’ rights, extend women’s civil liberties, and enact immigrant and minority political freedoms.