Spring 2014

Defining Curriculum & Education verses Educated Person at a glance

Kieran Egan (2003) in his writing, “What Is Curriculum” articulates confusions when defining curriculum? He builds his premises retro respecting on the history of the word “curriculum”, and changes there have been in its meanings across centuries. The focus on the question “Curriculum is not only what should be taught, but how it could be taught (what methods and procedures were best for educating) that came up during the 18^th century and progressively followed through the nineteenth and early twentieth century is central to defining and developing a curriculum. The emphasis on the how, puts learners interest at the center before specifying what the curriculum should contain. The how takes into account individuality of students learning style and interest. To know what the curriculum should contain requires one to understand whom the curriculum is for and is purpose. Without having a clear sense of the purpose of education, one cannot specify what the curriculum should contain (Egan, 2003). The how, and what, question both needs to be thoroughly measured. Focusing on only one is insufficient to answer, “what is curriculum”?

Schools do not only facilitate academic development in students, but also prepares them for career and successful participation in a global society. Therefore, it is important that curriculum planning be comprehensive, systematic, and authentic to the needs of students and the world they live in. For education to be meaningful as well as one that fulfills students’ needs, it’s essential that teachers have a clear understanding of their students learning styles, why they are learning and what they are learning. A curriculum that is based on only teacher’s belief would not result in deeper learning because deeper learning occurs when students find their own answers by working through the pathway of knowledge and not through indoctrination by experts. Connecting learning outcomes to students needs enables teachers to focus on the needs, abilities, interest and learning styles of individual students as well as justify a curriculum based on the schools goal. According to Barrow (1999) to differentiate between what is relevant and what is not relevant in a school curriculum, teachers need to ask the question of, relevant to whom, to what and in what way.

Education Verses Educated Person at glance

There are countless image and concepts of an educated person. The current view of an educated person has its values attached to knowledge gained through education in a formal setting, the school. It is customary to believe that schools seek to cultivate educated person, therefore the common criteria for differentiating between an educated and non-educated person is the level of schooling one has received. In this sense, an uneducated person is one who has had little or no formal study, although the person may be intelligent and make sound judgment. On the other hand, an educated person is one who has attained high levels of academic study. Although academic education may be a condition for defining a person educated, but it is not sufficient. An educated person is one who is constantly able to use, apply and develop new knowledge from both the academic content as well as the cultural content, well in one’s life. An educated person is one who has reached the stage of intellectual autonomy and can depend on this resource to lead a satisfying life consistent with his or her criteria of growth, both at personal and social level. In addition he is able to use acquired knowledge as raw data to formulate new questions, which in turn enables him to enter new frontiers of knowledge (Mehmohammadi, 2004).

 Classroom activities may be thought of as experiences that allow students to practice being educated people, however, an educated person should not be thought of merely in terms of this only. The notion that higher academic education proceeds to an educated person may not always hold true because education and educated person are two different concepts. Although schools educate students, but this does not necessary mean it will produce educated person. Most present day school system seeks to increase the intellectual capacity of their students through indoctrination and students accept contents without critical examination and understanding. Such learning cannot produce educated person. An educate person is one who accepts and beliefs what is being taught only when he is convinced of its merit. In addition, an educated person is one that posses both cultural and expert knowledge and is able to use this knowledge in one’s life. I believe education is an art; an art of utilization of knowledge, and any information learnt is only useful if it is appropriately put to use. If schools seek to develop educated person it is necessary that they attempt to produce students who are aware of, understand and recall what they have learnt, and are able to use it authentically in various context.

Reference

Barrow, R. (1984). Curriculum content. In Giving teaching back to teachers: A 

             critical introduction to curriculum theory London, ON: The   

             Althouse Press

Egan, K. (2003). What Is Curriculum? Journal of the Canadian association for

           Curriculum Studies, 1(1), 9-16

Mehmohammadi, M. (2004). Towards a new concept of an educated person,

             Research and reflection: A Journal of Educational Praxis.