Education

Education refers to the process by which people learn skills, knowledge, values, or other lessons deemed important within their culture. Education is an ancient practice that allows a person to access information, whether through a human teacher or other educational resource. After centuries of development, modern education has taken on a tiered structure of levels known as primary, secondary, and tertiary, which usually consist of grades from kindergarten through twelfth grade as well as possible vocational training and other programs. Education is compulsory in most countries in the twenty-first century, since it is widely accepted to be a major asset for individuals, groups, cultures, and nations. Modern education has faced numerous changes and challenges, including an increasing shift to technology-based distance learning and ongoing evaluations of student accessibility and inclusiveness.

Brief History

Education in various forms has likely occurred since the earliest days of human history. Prehistoric people found ways to teach younger generations about the skills needed to survive as well as to protect, grow, and perpetuate their family or cultural group. Before the invention of writing, most teachers did this through demonstration and verbal explanation, during which students may have watched or imitated. Another important early form of education was through storytelling and other forms of oral tradition. Families could pass on stories to their children. In many cultures, dedicated storytellers often regaled large groups with tales of myth and history that served to both entertain and enlighten. Storytellers passed on cultural knowledge and values to subsequent generations. In this way, information could be transferred—often with little alteration—for hundreds of years.

Although oral education was widespread for millennia, it had serious limitations. Information was not recorded in any easily accessed way except in the memories of individuals. Knowledge could be forgotten or altered, and the passing of time and deaths of learned people unavoidably meant that some information would forever be lost. As writing systems developed and cultures became more advanced and sedentary, the idea of more formalized education began to slowly replace the oral tradition. This process occurred over many centuries in many parts of the world.

In the Greek city-state of Athens, philosopher Plato founded an educational institution called the Academy. Other philosophers, such as Confucius in ancient China, gathered disciples and spread teachings, many of which were transcribed. Recorded knowledge came to be stored in libraries, most famously the Library of Alexandria in Egypt. Meanwhile, advanced theories of education also developed in Mesoamerica, where Aztec rulers envisioned learning as an ongoing and cumulative process. Education would begin within the family, expand through formal lessons, and then continue to develop through life during various social interactions.

Great social forces such as the rise and fall of empires, the development and spread of organized religions, and the creation of new technologies and intercultural links led to a vast array of changes to world educational models. Trends that developed during the Middle Ages and afterward, including the establishment of some of the first universities, helped to shape the modern university system, concentrate focus on science, and record and proliferate knowledge using mass-produced books.

Social upheavals such as the Renaissance that began around the fourteenth century and the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century further refined the nature of modern educational philosophy and practice. Education became more focused on the individual and sought increasingly to inspire and improve people in many ways, rather than just making them more efficient laborers. The spread of democratic governments starting in the late eighteenth century gave people nearly unprecedented powers in society and government. With regular citizens now empowered to sway major national policies, educational systems were tasked with ensuring that people had the opportunity to become wise, prudent, and well-informed enough to handle their important new rights and duties.

Overview

Goals of Education

The possible goals of education are many and varied. In its most fundamental form, education strives to prepare individuals for survival. Prehistoric and ancient people relied on forms of education to pass along needed life skills, such as navigation, hunting, and resource procurement, along with physical skills necessary for rigorous lifestyles. Later, education relating to farming and village maintenance became staples for survival. As the human focus moved from survival to increasingly lofty levels of achievement, education constantly evolved to meet personal and societal needs.

In more modern times, the exact goals of education may vary considerably based on the time, place, and culture in which the education occurs. Following the formation of nations, education frequently became a means of empowering a nation by imparting more knowledge and skills upon its citizens. Sometimes, this meant military training for stronger national defense or vocational training for national economic improvement. Other times, it meant the teaching of a broad range of skills for overall enlightenment and cultural preservation, and the creation of “good citizens”—well-rounded, well-informed, high-functioning participants in society and politics. For these reasons, some level of formal education remained compulsory in most countries.

Even in modern times, regions and countries often view education as a shared asset, and feel that by improving students they are improving their own communal status. However, many other modern leaders, educators, and theorists emphasize the personal value of education on the individual or subgroup. For many, education is a tool for personal empowerment, particularly among people who face traditional restrictions in a society. By gaining an education, these people can rise from their former roles and seek personal fulfillment in the society on more equal ground.

Psychological Basis

Despite its wide variety of forms and functions, education—as the basic ability to learn and the valuing of knowledge and skill—seems ingrained in the human makeup. As discovered by educational theorists, humans have a potentially wide array of inborn and acquired learning behaviors, or modalities. These behaviors serve as methods by which people may gain new experiences and information about the world around them and absorb and use the knowledge gained through this learning process.

People may use these learning modalities in the course of everyday tasks, experimentation, observation, and play. In these ways, people may learn countless valuable lessons without necessarily even being aware of the education taking place. This innate tendency to gain knowledge demonstrates the fundamental importance to humans. It is also present among other living creatures capable of learning skills and gathering information for decision-making. For example, birds may have an inborn ability to sing but learn specific singing techniques and distinctive “tunes” by listening to other birds singing.

Among humans, the three main learning modalities, or “learning styles,” are auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Auditory learners base their knowledge acquisition on what they hear, generally by listening to audible information and instruction provided by teachers. This is one of the main processes by which humans give and gain information. It is most commonly seen in the traditional classroom dynamic in which a teacher gives a lecture and students listen carefully. People may also experience auditory learning through everyday conversation.

Visual learning is another primary modality for humans and many other living things. This form of education is based on observation, or seeing and visually studying the subject of the lesson. For example, a demonstration of the steps in a cooking recipe, in which an instructor performs each step while learners watch, employs visual learning. Visual learning is often supported by auditory learning, with demonstrators generally verbally explaining the actions they are taking. However, some visual learning may take place on its own, such as the study of a map of a city or a diagram of a new invention.

Another main learning modality is kinesthetic, or learning based on touch or movement. This may apply to many forms of education. People often learn about sports and other physical activities by working their way through different motions required in the activity. Another example is “hands-on” learning, which may employ physical toys, blocks, puzzles, or any other tactile elements to engage the learner’s senses.

Formal and Alternative Settings

The actual logistics of education may vary considerably based on the type of lessons, areas, cultures, and many other variables. However, the most basic form of education involves interplay between an instructor and a student. The instructor, often called a teacher or professor, is usually a qualified professional with knowledge or skills to be imparted upon the student. Students are traditionally young people, but people of any age may be students. Instructors may use a variety of techniques to convey information. This may mean a formally prescribed means or more informal means customized to the circumstances, needs, or interests of the participants.

Often, one instructor will present lessons to several or many students at the same time, while striving to find opportunities to offer more personalized attention. Traditionally, this process has taken place at a classroom in a physical school building. However, formal education is not restricted to that setting. In-person tutoring, for example, may take place in students’ homes or any other domestic environment. In the twenty-first century, technological developments made distance learning an increasingly common alternative to in-person learning. Students may use computers and software to virtually connect to their lessons and instructors and conduct classes and assignments partly or wholly online.

Digital learning platforms developed at a rapid pace throughout the 2000s and 2010s. By the 2020s, a movement toward so-called “open learning” offered students unprecedented abilities to customize their own learning schedules and environments. In open learning, students may use mainly online platforms to select means of access, class times, locations, methods of instruction, and many additional features of their educational experience. Many educators believe this selection process makes education more effective because it conforms more closely to individual styles, abilities, and interests, rather than applying a traditional “one size fits all” approach. It may also allow students to more easily explore many topics and fields rather than committing to just one. On a broader scale, open learning and similar techniques may serve to democratize education by removing restrictions based on location, lack of time, or prohibitive tuition fees. At the same time, while almost any person with online access has the opportunity to craft a personalized educational program, a digital divide continued to exist both within countries and across the world as such access remained unequal.

Structure of Educational Systems

Another main fundamental element of education is the lesson or lessons being taught. A body of lessons, usually carefully designed by experts, is known as a curriculum. Most formal schools and universities have set curricula. These are generally designed in a tiered manner so that students may follow related yet increasingly complex lessons, incrementally gaining greater mastery of the given topic. Some curricula are intended to cover the basic lessons that most students undergo as the foundation of their education, such as mathematics, reading, writing, and science. Other curricula, often those assigned to or designed by older and more advanced students, generally follow more specific topics. These are generally meant to guide the learner toward a particular field of expertise or desired profession. A few examples include engineering, chemistry, internet technology, and business management.

In general, modern curricula are organized within a series of carefully structured levels, based primarily on students’ age, often called the K–12 system. Students within a particular age bracket and expected level of educational development are usually combined into one such level, or grade. Some students begin schooling even before the official grades begin through various forms of early education programs. Enrollment rates in preprimary early childhood education programs vary in different countries around the world. In many European countries, including Denmark, France, Ireland, and Spain, nearly 100 percent of four-year-olds are enrolled in such programs, while in countries such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia that number can drop to less than 50 percent. In the United States, students officially begin their formal educational experiences around the age of five upon enrolling in kindergarten. Kindergarten teaches basic life skills and helps students acclimate to the experience of formal education. The ages at which children enroll in formal education (sometimes called kindergarten or other names depending on the country) also differ in other countries. In Finland, for example, children do not typically start kindergarten until the age of seven.

Following kindergarten, students proceed into numbered grades. In the United States, the numbered grades of public schools range from one through twelve. In each successive grade, students face increasingly rigorous lessons and expectations meant to continually challenge them and develop their knowledge and skills. The grades are generally broken into categories for greater efficiency in organizing and accommodating students. The main categories are elementary school, middle school, and high school. Communities may choose which grades are assigned to which categories. For example, an elementary school may consist of kindergarten through fifth grade. A middle school may consist of sixth through eighth grade. A high school would then consist of ninth through twelfth grades.

Tiers of formal education are further categorized into areas such as primary, secondary, and tertiary. The primary level of education usually includes kindergarten and the first six to eight numbered levels. The secondary level consists of the subsequent level through twelfth grade, in most countries. Many cultures end public education at twelfth grade, or at the end of the secondary level. However, many students will proceed to the tertiary level, also known as higher education, which may include undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In addition, many students undertake vocational training in which they specialize in a particular skill that is usually meant to prepare for a career.

Future Outlook

Educational trends have continued to change just as they had over previous centuries. Social changes, cultural perceptions, and technological advancements may all have a strong effect on how educators teach and students learn. For example, changing perceptions of human ability levels have led many educators to promote more . Whereas traditional systems often separated students of different ability levels, supporters of inclusivity push for more diverse groups of students to be taught in the same tracts and classrooms. Supporters believe this will create greater equality and promote understanding and cooperation. Critics have pointed out that it may create undue pressure on teachers and create imbalances in learning pace, complexity of material, and workload that may harm students.

Modern movements such as digital learning and open learning have strongly suggested that education will continue be more technological in nature and more open to customization. Students may avoid traditional restrictions like location—such as rural residents with limited access to institutions of higher learning, or single parents who have difficulty leaving the house to attend class—and the ever-increasing tuition costs that have made education prohibitively expensive for many. Digital learning offers many potential improvements, although several possible downsides, such as the reduction of in-person social interaction, continued to be explored.

One of the most impactful, if unexpected, twenty-first-century events in education was the COVID-19 pandemic. Beginning in 2020, this outbreak of a highly contagious respiratory illness necessitated the closing of many in-person schools and the rapid shift to digital learning for millions of students. The process was driven by necessity and, in many cases, outpaced existing programs for at-home work. School districts took many approaches to the pandemic, including full closure of school buildings, staggered in-person days for students, and hybrid options that combined both approaches. As health conditions began to normalize and the effects of this shockwave on world education became clearer by the mid-2020s, experts were tasked with re-evaluating world educational systems and ensuring that they were consistent with the needs and realities of modern life, including the potential for such an event to occur again in the future. Many studies indicated that some level of learning loss had occurred across ages, capabilities, and class status throughout the world during the chaos of the early pandemic. At the same time, experts continued to express concern over persistent teacher shortages existing in both developed and developing countries.

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