Important notes:
Your task is to discuss whether
education should primarily focus on the needs of society, with the development
of the individual taking a secondary role (traditional education).
Your discussion needs to include a scholarly informed
conclusion on what you think the aims of education should be. Such
conclusion needs to be based on deep engagement with the theories of education
discussed during the course. It is not enough to point at the support and
criticism that has been levelled to these theories, but you need to explain on
what grounds you subscribe or reject the theory, or the criticism levelled at
it.
It is essential to recognize that
this assignment is NOT about child-centred or
teacher-centred practices, nor is it about inclusion (so please do not write
about differentiated teaching or addressing different intelligences – that
would make your writing completely out of point and will indicate that you have
not understood the task). Instead, it centres on what type of individual
schooling education should aspire to produce. Avoid equating child-centred pedagogies
with progressive education or teacher-centredpedagogies with traditional
education. This is because it is wrong to assume that these practices
necessarily align with the theories that are often associated with them. For
instance, child-centred pedagogical practices are not the same thing as
progressive education. The latter educational theory is much broader and while
it is true that child-centred practices are more conducive to progressive aims,
child-centred practices can be used to mould children’s thinking in specific
ways, which cannot be further away from progressive aims. This example should
help you understand what the lecturer means why he says that this assignment is
about aims, and not about practices. It is about what we should be hoping for
through schooling.
Schooling education aims at
producing autonomous rational individuals that can function in a collective
setting. Discuss whether this goal is attainable, and the theoretical and
practical limitations underlying such an end.
In short, the focus should be on
the aims of education, not the practices employed in the classroom. Your goal
is to develop a scholarly-informed essay about what aims education should be.
