The Author is a well-known psychologist of the twentieth century and has also authored
other two books called towards the theory of instruction and the
relevance of education. This book
(The Process of Education) is a product of ten days Woods Hole Conference on
September 1959 where thirty-five scientists, scholars, and educators come
together and discuss how education (with focus on sciences) can be improved in
primary and secondary schools of America in particular. This book to utter
surprise of the author has trigger wide educational debate ranging from America
to japan, Russia, Denmark and Mexico. The
book was published in the eve of new approaches where finest scholar in the
preparation of curriculum for elementary and secondary school was called for.
The author has opinion that curriculum for children are just a
by-product of curriculum for teacher. If the curriculum cannot change, move, perturb, and
inform teachers then there is little scope of affecting the children they
teach. The curriculum should facilitate Social and emotional development of the
child at par with the intellectual side of his /her education.
Importance of structure: Education as author say is the
process which begins by learning basic principles and generic ideas and later indulges in its
applicability to other phenomenon and mastery of the subject. These processes
of education made the subject more comprehensible. Structuring of subject help
us to overcome our weakness as we cannot remember whatever we learn so
structured formula, simplified or regenerative characters can be used to
reproduce the required understanding. It serves as an important means to adequate
transfer of training. I.e. Replication and application to other similar
phenomena from the one learned. It will help us to narrowed gap between advance
knowledge and elementary knowledge. It will make possible for continuous and
gradual progress as a child goes from elementary school to secondary
school.
He further pointed out that teaching
specific topics or skills without making clear their context in the border
fundamental structure of the field of knowledge is uneconomical in deeper sense
and exposed to the following risks:
1. It
makes student difficult to generalize from what he has learned to what he will
encounter later.
2. There
will be lack of intellectual excitement
3. Knowledge
without sufficient structure is a knowledge likely to be forgotten
Readiness for learning
Any subject
can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at
any stage of development. Three general ideas are considered to understand the Process
of learning I.e. process of intellectual development in child, the act of
learning, the notion of spiral curriculum. During the stages of pre schooling
(5/6 years) a child start to construct relationships between experience and
action, manipulating the world through action. This is a stage where everything is generalized,
internal motives and feelings are not differentiated from external reality. She
tends to rely on hit and trial method and intuition. In second stage of
intellectual development also known as concrete stage of operations a child manipulate objects, internalized, transform and organize
information selectively and used to solved
problems. The idea of reversibility develops during this stage and tries
to replicate action in head instead of practically performing hit and trial
method. During this stage a child is able to understand the logic of things she
has encountered but not for things which is not directly related to things
experiences. It does not mean a child cannot anticipate but it could not
systematically go beyond the information acquired. The Formal operation
(10-14years) is a stage where a child will be able to build hypothesis and
deduce relationship between variables which are verifiable by experiment. At
this stage they will be able to give a formal expression of ideas but will not
be able to describe or formally understood. After sufficient practice on the
concrete operation formalism can be introduced.
The Act of
learning also goes through various aspect i.e. Acquisition of new
information where she replaces her old knowledge, or refining of the previous
ideas. The Transformation phase is a level where children manipulate previous
knowledge to fit for new task. Evaluation is a phase where a child
examine if the manipulated information is adequate for handling the task. Under
the notion of spiral curriculum a curriculum should be developed in such a way that it
facilitates to revisit the basic ideas
repeatedly, building upon them until the she has grasped the full formal
understanding that goes with them.
Intuitive and Analytical thinking
Intuition as an aspect
of building hypothesis is so essential to learners like analytical thinking
where step by step justification is used. Intuition in space of sciences or
mathematics or any subject cannot be disregarded as intuitive thoughts is often
a worthy hypothesis or invention, or breakthrough where analyst later present
it in proper formalism. Intuition with
its two faces (good and bad) should flourish in learning environment in a
guided manner. The author opinion that,
we tend to examine the analytical matter during examination as we are more
certain in judging it then the unconquered intuition. He also opinion that
intuition can be improved effectively by understanding the solid knowledge of
the subject, and familiarity that gives ways for intuition to work with.
Motives of Learning
There is in fact
a culture of achieving excellence it this competitive world. So, it is
important to pounder on not only what are being taught, but how are they being
taught and how we arouse the interest of the pupil in what there is be learned,
and they must be kept broad and diverse in expression . Learning is possible if
the motives for learning are kept from going passive. The author made a special
called for balancing emphasis on sciences, technology and humanistic learning,
theater, arts, and music to maintain and nurture a vigorous pluralism. Under
the title "teaching aids" such as television and films, micro
photographic film, sound recording, and book he approves of them as they
facilitates participative learning, provided they teach something and are not
mere gimmicks presenting the knowledge in
impressive way.
Thus the overall argument he builds can also be presented as the teacher is
someone who is a model, showing the child why the subject should be learned,
how is should be learn and how things learned are utilized.
Few thoughts to ponder upon:
In quest of high intensity to
achieve the aims and objectives of education (futuristic in nature) which are
often considered as making a child self-reliable and responsible person, Are we overlooking the
“present” of the children when they are in the closet of their parents?
Engaging best scholars and
best mind to frame curriculum is its simplest form for ordinary teachers and
ordinary student was propagated in the book. Has our primary education system recognized
it’s significant? Or has the framer of our curriculum frame it keeping in mind
the ground reality.
The author claim that precious
time was lost not feeding children curtails knowledge on the assumption that
they are too young to grasp it. He also state that things should be taught systematically
and priorities which is more important, also generic knowledge and specific
knowledge should be differentiate. Do these two statements not contradict its
other when it has to be put in to practice?
There is a complexity of Meritocracy,
Excellency and Reservation policy in our education system, both in teachers’ recruitment
and even student admission. In trying to meet social justice through reservation
in education are we not balancing the aims of education it should serve as a
whole to a society?
