What Effect Did the Rise of Science Have On Theories of Educational Practice - Essay Example

What effect did the "Rise of Science" have on theories of Educational Practice? Introduction Simply put education is a process whereby something of value is passed from the teacher to the student. Education instils in the individual the power of discernment, of making rational choices, in day to day living. Over the ages, education has metamorphosed from esoteric function to a public cause. Herein, we study the development of theories of education, as they evolved down the ages, and how they were impinged upon, by Enlightenment and growth of science. Definition Education serves as a means of developing social cohesion in the formative years. (Moore, 1982: 8). Education empowers individuals to lead their lives autonomously, participate in the community activities, and pursue their goals. Through education children acquire culture, which ultimately helps them orient their social conduct in the right direction. School is just another and a superficial means, of education. A large proportion of education is ingrained from other agencies (Dewey, 1926:4-5). Education and learning are closely related and are, at times, used synonymously. History of education can be dichotomized as the development of curricula and development of learning and teaching The Primitive Society In the primordial world, education concerned only with cultural transmission. Since there was little that changed in everyday life, education too changed and deviated little, from set standards. The aim of education was merely to make the children fit enough to take up their roles in tribes. In those societies education was achieved through oral instruction or imitation. As the human life became more complex, there arose the need to impart education in vocational skills like hunting, farming, and animal husbandry. Education in Ancient Civilizations During the rise of ancient civilizations and development of languages, education became more formal and complex. The birth of formal education system is variously attributed to the Egyptian, Chinese, and Mesopotamian Civilizations between 3000 and 1500 B.C. In the Egyptian society, education was only carried out by priestly class that held sway in the society and enjoyed political clout as well. The priests dispensed, to a group of elite students, esoteric knowledge of subjects like science, medicine, and mathematics. Mesopotamian civilization had a tradition of teaching children belonging to the upper crust of the society. Education consisted of learning subjects like law, mathematics, and astrology. In the ancient Chinese civilization, education was about development of secular values, moral uprightness, use of rituals, and music. Later, toward the 1st million B.C. the state opened and managed schools at the village level, and district level. This period is also marked by the advent of ‘bamboo books’, writing paper, ink and writing brush. Education in Greece developed around 4th century B.C. Plato established his school ‘the Academy’ in 387 B.C. Plato’s philosophy of education is described in his magnum opus, the Republic. Plato emphasized the use of dialectics or the art of reasoning in identification of truth. Education, according to Plato, was aimed at creating philosopher-kings who could justly manage the affairs of the state. According to Plato, the ‘visible’ provided sensory experience, and the non-visible was only intelligible to mind. The mind was the repertory of eternal forms and ideas. Plato emphasized 15 years of intense schooling for genuine understanding of knowledge. Education became more formally institutionalized in the times of Aristotle. He called for physical education till the age of seven. His systematised study material included chapters in grammar, music, mathematics, geography, sciences, ethics, and philosophy. The student completed the education by age of the 17 in Aristotle’s school called the Lyceum. However, establishing and management of the school system came to be recognised as the duty of the state only in the 18th century. Gradually, it came to be accepted that more ordered the state of schools; the better it was for a nation. Further institutionalisation of the schools took place with exponential increase of knowledge that was spurred by scientific advancement. Education in Enlightenment Era Medieval education was restricted largely to create clergy and to some extent lawyers and doctors (Russell, n.d.:3). Importance of education grew toward the end of the medieval times. Education was sought as a means to improve the world. Exact sciences were included in the school curriculum in the 17th century. Francis Bacon became chief votary of the inclusion of science as a subject in the curriculum. He argued that only science held the power for initiation of reorganization of society. Rene Descartes, the 17th century philosopher, criticized empirical methods in education and proposed that only certainty lay in the human ability to think and reflect. Thus, according to Descartes, education could only be concerned with development of critical rationality. Descartes and Pascal joined hands in 1699 to set-up the Academy of Sciences in Paris. On the other hand, a few distinguished personalities, founded the Royal Society of Sciences in 1662. Many countries, all over the world, imitated these Academies to set-up their own schools. In the later period, till the French Revolution, most of the philosophers combined the scientific beliefs with philosophical ideas. With the advent of Newton’s law in mechanics, the enlightened minds set about finding laws under which society, government, and education functioned. Science and Education The technical and scientific discoveries during the eighteenth and nineteenth century profoundly impacted the education movement in Europe. Pestalozzi, student of the French philosopher, Rousseau emphasized that the nature of the child was supreme and, thus, formed the starting point and backbone of his education. He relegated the relevance of arts and science to the secondary place. Pestalozzi contended that a child was endowed with all the faculties but none them were developed (Preston, 1826:24). In the 19th century, Herbert Spencer, who delved into the evolutionary history of mankind, was the first philosopher, who declared that education should be guided by the findings of science. Spencer declared that knowledge that was yielded by scientific query was of most value. He said that industrialized society only needed students of scientific temper. According to Spencer, science best taught man to adapt to the environment. His theories, most inspired, the American thinker, Edward Livingston, who argued that only scientific education held the potential for providing a basis of culture for the mankind. Livingston was preceded by Benjamin Franklin, the statesman-scientist in emphasizing utilitarian and scientific education in the American schools. Aided by the scientific and philosophical movements of the nineteenth century UK, Germany, France, Italy and other European countries organized their national systems. Industrialization and Education With the rise of the absolutist school, the doors of schools, perhaps for the first time in human history, were flung open to students belonging to all sections of the society. Industrialization and rise of the working class furthered the cause of education. Industry needed to fill its technical positions and working class didn’t have the ability to fill them. Increasingly need was felt to provide technical and industrial education and training to fill the technical positions. This made primary education a necessity (Gray, n.d).By 1851, 75.4% children of the working class were getting school education in UK in Sunday schools (Gray, n.d). In 1878, the UK passed laws banning the use of child labour in factories, which made it possible for more students to attend school. Europe developed a secondary and primary levels of education and students who were intelligent enough graduated from the primary to the secondary levels. Modern Theories of Education The developments in field of education and science led to the development of four theories of education. John Dewey’s progressivism considers education as life itself and not merely a preparation for living. Hutchins and Adler put forward the theory of Perennialism, which propounds that it is the primary task of education to know the eternal truth. Besides, literature and philosophy, the students must be taught to study science. The theory says that rationality is the highest attribute to direct the instinctual nature of man. Essentialism of Home and Bagley believes that assimilation of the subject matter is at the heart of the education. Brameld and Count put forward the theory of Reconstructionism according to which the child and school were conditioned by the cultural and the social forces. The means and ends of education must accord with the findings of the behavioural sciences. Education and Learning Learning is bringing together of cognitive and emotional influences for acquiring, enhancing or making changes in one’s knowledge, skills, and world views. Broadly learning increases the capacity of the learners to acquire and productively employ new skills and knowledge. Learning empowers the individual to make sound decisions, wise choices, solve problems and explore new vistas. Learning is a life long and a renewable process. Learning involves adopting and adapting to evolving values and new scientific discoveries. The psycho-analytical approaches of the twentieth century have lead to the development different theories of learning. Cognitive science or the science of mind is the latest to scientific disciplines that has profoundly affected the educational practice. The cognitive science explores the mechanisms through which people acquire, process, and use knowledge (McGilly, 1996:3). Theories of Learning Learning encompasses intellectual, emotional and social development of children. Learning broadly falls under five theories of behaviourism, cognitivism, and constructivistism, social learning, and multiple intelligence theory. According to behaviourism learning gets manifest in acquisition of new behaviours by the learner. According to behaviourists, the locus of control of learning lies in the environment. Learning gets manifest in the outward expression of new behaviours. Learning is context-independent and focussed only on observable behaviours. In the class room context, the onus of carrying out learning rests solely with the teacher. The teacher operates with highly structured lecture based system that uses a system of rewards and punishment for performance enhancement. Students become passive learners in teacher-centric settings. Behaviorism tends to ignore non-observable processes of the mind. Knowledge is considered absolute and unchallengeable. Cognitivism emphasizes that mind actively processes information, and prior knowledge plays an important role in learning. The memory actively participates in the learning process and stores up knowledge in form of symbols. Learning thus becomes, connecting to symbols in a meaningful and memorable way. In the mechanistic model, it can be depicted as input----process---output. Cognitivism advocates inquiry oriented projects where opportunities are provided for testing of hypotheses. The social learning theory too grew from cognitivism. According to this theory, learning takes place through observation and sensory experience. It advocates group work and collaborative learning. Social learning provides settings, where experts can be watched in action. Students are considered passive learners, who receive sensory stimuli. Emotions and motivation are not connected to learning. Constructivism framed around meta-cognition is least rigorous than traditional methods. According to constructivism, the learner actively builds new concepts and ideas from past knowledge and skills. Learning entails constructing one’s own knowledge from one’s own experiences. Learning is the dialogic and responsibility of the learner. It is highly contextualized and is an inherently social activity. Social constructivism encourages collaborative, cooperative learning, and experiential activities in the classroom. Multiple intelligence theory, suggestive of departure from core curricula and standards, recognizes eight basic intelligences in the human mind: those of verbal-linguistic, visual-spatial, logical-mathematical, kinaesthetic, musical, naturalist, interpersonal and intrapersonal. Multiple intelligence theory enables the students to work on their strengths while effectively targeting their weaknesses. However, there still exists a lack of quantifiable data to prove the existence of multiple intelligences. Education in the twentieth century Science, scientism and scientific method, whose roots can be traced to the seventeenth and eighteenth century, impinges upon, and shapes, all aspects of education in the contemporary world (Evans, 1998:15-16). Curriculum development efforts, carried out in 1960s, were directly influenced by the scientific viewpoint of the twentieth century (Fensham 1992 cited in Magnusson and Palinscar, 2006). In sciences, knowledge accumulation takes place through methods that are exact and primary (Heslep, 1997:75). It is contended that scientific methods, highly mechanistic in character and anchored in laboratory, have a limited application over social sciences including education. Yet, most of the methods of economics, sociology, anthropology, political science, psychology, and education are derived from the laboratory methods. ‘The shift from modernity to post modernity impacts on education’ (Evans, 1998:20), since post modernism rejects the modernist method of the use of data to aid the construction of worldview (Griffin quoted at Evans, 1998: 20). On one hand, it is wrong to infer that problems of academia can be resolved by the application of theoretical concepts of existing scientific disciplines, on the other, it is equally wrong to infer that educational research cannot achieve the status of a scientific enterprise (Carr and Kemmis, 1986:118). This, however, does not entail borrowing of concepts from exact sciences (Carr and Kemmis, 1986: 118). We can confront educational problems through the rules that govern scientific enquiry and thereby draw conclusions that can be given the status of scientific knowledge. Today, the use of machines, requiring students to accommodate the command structures, is empowering students and their teachers (Evans 1998: 20). The true impact of computers on relationships of persons and things are yet to be fathomed (Evans 1998: 20). Locke and Mead Locke in his seminal work, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1823) developed the concept of tabula rasa or the ‘blank state’. Locke argued that mind was a blank tablet before it develops ideas from two-fold experience i.e. sensation and reflection. Through sensory experience, perceptions are conveyed to the mind. The mind reflects on perceptions to form ideas. He contended that reason was not innate to the human mind, and it learned to reason only through collection of empirical evidence. Education, according to Locke, has a moralising effect besides that of honing of the intellect. Education delivers its true function only when children are taught to inculcate the right thought and conduct right behaviour. Virtuous conduct is also ingrained through proper upbringing. Children first learn through observation and then validate their knowledge through empirically testing veracity of the knowledge gained. Thus the students build upon the reservoir of knowledge through cultivation and practice. Best education takes place when tutor and student share right thoughts and right conduct (Locke: 1823:1-177) Contemporary educationist, Geoff Mead, propounds the theory of living inquiry—a holistic approach in which all aspects of life are potentially available as sources. The living inquiry, which is separate though interrelated to the inquires I undertake from time to time (Mead, 2002:34). Mead states that the only way, he finds meaning to life, is in terms of finding meaning through inquiry. To conduct an inquiry, one has to push to the boundaries, asking questions as to what is next and what is beyond. Education according to Mead is to be filled with a deep rooted thirst for knowing the meaning of life (Mead: 35). The living inquiry is an existential philosophy of optimism that strives best to make things better or to make the best of any given situation for the self and for others (Mead: 36). Mead lists six principles of living inquiry while remaining open to the world of ideas and what others offer. The six underlying principles of Mead’s living inquiry are i) trusting the primacy of my own lived experience as the bedrock of inquiry, whilst remaining open to the world of ideas and to what others have to offer. ii)valuing the originality of mind and critical judgement inherent in my own forms of sense-making and knowledge creation and the wide variety of forms of representation that they generate iii)exercising my will to meaning to move me towards what brings a sense of significance and purpose to my life and to clarify my vocation as a healer and educator iv)making an existential choice of optimism, of doing my best, of striving to make things better or to make the best of any given situation for myself and with others v)refusing to subsume my life of inquiry within any prescribed form, “following my bliss to find my own path as a unique and eccentric human being” vi)communicating and accounting to others for my life of inquiry as an individual claiming originality and exercising my judgement responsibly with universal intent. (Mead, 2002: Abstract). Conclusion Education has flourished in each epoch of the civilization according to the changing needs of the society. However, the pace of development of education hastened during the Enlightenment era coupled with scientific discoveries and education. In recent times, spurred by developments in behavioural and psychological studies, education has broken fresh grounds and it is increasingly studied in terms of the cognitive faculties of the mind. Yet the post-modernist discourse on education is incomplete with s methods employed in education breaking new frontiers everyday. A lot more remains to be discovered, in the field of education, as science explores hitherto hidden vistas of the mind. References Carr, W., and Kemmis, S., (1986) Becoming Critical, Routledge Publishers. Taylor and Francis Group Dewey, J., (1926) Democracy and education: an introduction to the philosophy of education, Cosimo Inc. Evans, M, D., (1998) Whitehead and philosophy of education, Rodopi Publishers. Gray, K., (n.d) A meager beginning: nineteenth-century education for the working class in England, [Online], Available http://www.umd.umich.edu/casl/hum/eng/classes/434/geweb/VICTORIA.htm [May 8, 2009] Heslep, R, D., (1997) Philosophical thinking in educational practice, Greenwood Publishing Group. Locke, J., (1823) An essay concerning human understanding, [Online], Available http://books.google.co.in/books?id=CgoRAAAAYAAJ&dq=An+Essay+Concerning+Human+Understanding+1823&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=bzg6ztUXPN&sig=WjPAfRPiLB2GbMSYkib0NW5jpwE&hl=en&ei=lxIDSreIL4uHkAWdg7D0BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3 [May 7, 2009] Magnusson, S, J., and Palinscar, A., The application of theory to the design of innovative texts supporting science instruction, Eds. Constas, M., and Sternberg, R., (Translating theory and research into educational practice ), Routledge Publishers. Taylor and Francis Group. McGilly, K., (1996) Classroom Lessons: Integrating Cognitive Theory And Classroom Practice, MIT Press. Mead, G., (2002) Unlatching the gate: realising my scholarship of living inquiry, [Online], Available http://www.actionresearch.net/mead.shtml [May 7, 2009] Moore, T, W., (1982) Philosophy of education, Routledge Publishers. Taylor and Francis Group Preston, S, H., (1846) School education for the nineteenth century, [Online], Available http://books.google.co.in/books?id=aXcEAAAAQAAJ&dq=education+in+the+ninteenth+century&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=JtOJ_96BDw&sig=cxPCj1lVtuNjQ-AQ1LKEfWSUlkE&hl=en&ei=mnoCSrHqApne7AO_tJiLAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6#PPA5,M1 [May 7, 2009] Russell, R, A., (n.d) History of educational theory and practice, turning points Part 3, [Online], Available http://www.freewebs.com/richardarussell/HoE_Reformation.pdf [May 7,2009] Read More