Education and its Importance in Society
Education is one of the important aspects for every individual in every society as education helps to improve the life course of the individuals as well as promotes the sustainable development of the society to bring equity among the individual of the society. Education can help to bring a change in society almost from every perspective as it helps human beings to think rationally and to gain knowledge. But, to produce equality and a better society with educated people, historically traditional education curriculum and to maintain the uniformity should be changed in order to arise the intelligence of every human being (Noddings, 2015). This paper will describe the purpose and the nature of the education, which aims to reach a target to achieve success.
Education has its own aim with underlying different perspectives and philosophies. There is a different notion between education and schooling. Education is a wider process that helps to give shape to the individual consciously and also form the culture and politics of a particular society. On the other hand, schooling is a process where an institution gives education by following a proper curriculum and maintaining uniformity through some teachers or educators (Kemmis et al., 2017). The perspective of these two concepts is debatable as both have important aspects of society. According to me, nowadays schooling turned out as a part of education only. As the whole concept of education is dynamic with time and thus, the change in this notion is constant. Different centuries and from the traditional time, the purpose and the aim of education remain open to change. But, according to the time, the change in the educational system can be observed, as the traditional and historical system of education aims to educate the people and to make a society with educated adults. But, from the time of the twentieth century, new branches of secondary education and new departments changed their aim as they not only wanted to provide education about various subjects but also they need educated adults for this industrialized society where professionalism matters to maintain the economy of the market system (Kemmis et al., 2017). In my perspective, these changes are needed according to the time and the situation of the society so that the individuals can have the opportunity to achieve their own targets through education. And also, an educational approach can not only make the society better but also, due to the different opportunities which one can achieve through education, can promote the economic development of the society. Historically the notion of education keeps changing. Two thousand years ago, education was meant to promote interest in establishing democracy, prepare soldiers for the security of the nation, for sustain the agricultural and mercantile economy. Two hundred years ago, the mass compulsory of education aimed for securing the national identity and culture of a particular society. And also, this has the goal to achieve and to secure national economy, stabling political, cultural part of the society (Kemmis et al., 2017). After this, the historical notion of education keeps changing.
Education vs. Schooling: Understanding the Differences
The curriculum and the learning methods started to change with time and with the choice of the individual. Education does not only aims for a specific purpose. Rather it has a broader and wider perspective now. Secondary education and its progression changed from agriculture to industry because of the economic interest (Noddings, 2015). What to study and how to learn these additional elements of education are also included in the process of education. Thus, the interest of an individual and the interest of a nation keeps changing, especially in recent times. In the twentieth century, the educational process aims to connect the different factors of personal interest and political choice. In this negotiation, promoting different strategies and curricula was adopted in order to maintain a constructive structure (Kemmis et al., 2017). Schools started to develop their pedagogical approach in order to build greater knowledge and wider interests for everyone so that they can develop themselves and can able to connect with society. By the end of the twentieth century, most countries adopted new pedagogical approaches to education to develop the education system and promote students’ interest. According to me, the change of educational approach and the traditional educational strategy of education should be changed in order to promote interest within the students so that they can able to develop the society. Changing the curriculum and pedagogical approaches and welcoming different new strategies of the modern educational system is indeed a major step towards developing the education step, where one can able to learn not only about the provided curriculum but also can able to grow and learn new things according to their choice. Nowadays, the educational system is not only about providing knowledge about different subjects and concepts, but also it helps to know about different choices one can make to improve their future. Through education, every individual can get a better lifestyle as it helps to develop the inner sense and aims to develop the society. Thus, in nowadays, education is the basic right for every individual to promote equality in society (Thompson, 2017).
Sociologist John Dewey often spoke about education as the concept of growth, which will help to lead to more growth of sense and development of the well-being of an individual. For becoming more skillful and creative in mind, education is necessary. According to my opinion, this statement of the theorist Dewey has importance, because education has the potential to develop someone’s skill and creativity. Through his concept of education and growth, he states that the main purpose of education is more education (Noddings, 2015). Thus, education is a functional element. Though there are particular aims for education, there is an ultimate aim for education and which is the development of education and more education. According to the theorist George Herbert Mead, education means a process of shaping the creative mind and transformation. The main purpose of education is to make the individual to think and to develop their cognitive mind (Mead et al., 2015). The purpose of the study is to build and to improve the cognitive mind of the students so that they can have the ability for decisions making. In Australia, the new pedagogical approach to education, developed two frameworks through which they are establishing and developing the educational system. Early childhood education, which can be defined as pre-schooling, is important for them as this age is vital for the brain development. They follow the strategy of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development (Price et al., 2017). In this aspect, the theory of Piaget and the theory of Mead are related because both the theorists emphasized cognitive development through education. Different pedagogical approaches and strategies should be adopted in order to develop the mental and cognitive aspects of the individual.
The Changing Aims of Education Over Time
Education can also be considered as a value or idea which is encompassed with knowledge and express different perspective and make the students able to give justification and rational overview on any subject, which means education is a matter of intellectuality and development (Connor, 2016). The advanced educational system for the secondary education needs to be more comprehended and developed according to the time, which should aim for a better world of education, where one can participate and co-operate in different extra-curricular activities and can able to develop their intellectuality (Noddings, 2015). The development of intellectuality is the main purpose of education through which one can be able to think practically and rationally. The sense of knowledge and rational approaches is centered on the broader view of education. The use of the best traditional programs and the development of some elements to enrich the courses and different areas of knowledge to improve one’s self almost in every perspective is what education aims for.
In Australia, student diversity and the development of a curriculum for all students promote excellence, development and equity in the educational system. This diverse curriculum and pedagogical approaches encompassed cognitive, physical, mental and social curriculum experiences (ACARA, 2016). According to my opinion, for every society, depending on the nature and scenario, the particular society should make its goals for the educational system. As every society is different from one another, thus the goal for every society might be different, but, the curriculum and pedagogical approaches and strategies should be the same for all societies so that, every individual can include themselves in this broad educational spectrum. Australian curriculum and framework not only aim for equality in education but also it aims for the development of knowledge as well as the improvement of skills and creativity through extra-curricular activities (Australian Curriculum, 2022). Education is a basic human right, thus Australian Human Right Commission seeks to build a universal culture by promoting training for the teachers, educators, different pedagogies and frameworks for the students (Human rights, 2022). Australian Aboriginal sand islanders are the people who are not developed as the other parts of the country, for which this initiative of education by the government is a benchmark for development and for establishing equality in the society for education. OECD, 2018, have committed for the development of the society and individual by promoting and improving the educational system with an aim of equality and development of economic, social, environmental, individual and collective wellbeing. Thus, OECD Education aims to ensure education for achieving sustainability and development within the year, 2030.
However, this can be concluded that, education is an inclusive policy which promotes for establishing equality in our society (Maher & Fitzgerals, 2020). Australian curriculum and strategy of education has started to aim for developing the educational system of the nation. Education aims for developing the society and the individuals of the society which is beneficial for the society, cultural aspect and also for the economic aspect of the society. Though the main purpose of the education keeps changing with time, but education is an important factor which help to develop the intellectuality. The main purpose of education is dynamic and keeps changing according to the situation and with time. Thus, education can be considered as an aspect which is evolving and developing factor.
References:
ACARA. (2016). ACARA – Student Diversity. Retrieved 17 April 2022, from https://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/student-diversity
Australian curriculum. (2022). The Australian Curriculum. Retrieved 17 April 2022, from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
Human Rights. (2022). Education | Australian Human Rights Commission. Retrieved 17 Thompson, N. (2017). Promoting equality: Working with diversity and difference. Macmillan International Higher Education.April 2022, from https://humanrights.gov.au/education
Maher, A., & Fitzgerald, H. (2019). The culture of special schools: perceptions of the nature, purpose and value of physical education. Retrieved 17 April 2022, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131911.2020.1721437
Kemmis, S., & Edwards-Groves, C. (2017). Understanding education : History, politics and practice : history, politics and practice.
Mead, G. H., Biesta, G. J., & Trohler, D. (2015). Philosophy of education. Routledge.
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Noddings, Nel. Philosophy of Education, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.
O’Connor, D. J. (2016). An introduction to the philosophy of education. Routledge.
Oecd. (2018). The future of education and skills Education 2030. Retrieved 17 April 2022, from https://www.oecd.org/education/2030/E2030%20Position%20Paper%20(05.04.2018).pdf
Price, S., Duffy, S., & Gori, M. (2017, November). Developing a pedagogical framework for designing a multisensory serious gaming environment. In Proceedings of the 1st ACM SIGCHI International Workshop on Multimodal Interaction for Education (pp. 1-9).