What do you think should be the purposes of primary education?





This blog post shall be highlighting the purposes of primary education but also my pedagogical views within education. A definition of pedagogy would be the following: “The method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept”

Education is the engine of our economy it also prepares them for adult life and teaches the values of society to our future children (Stevenson A, 2010 P:1309). Another view of what pedagogy is by Donaldson. “Pedagogy is about more than ‘teaching’ in the narrow sense of methods used in the classroom. It represents the considered choice of those methods in light of the purposes of the curriculum and the needs and developmental stage of the children and young people” (Donaldson G, 2015, P:63).

Firstly, education is so important for individuals to develop and engage fully with society. Within an educational establishment, their focus is to develop certain skills for children to develop and achieve their full potential.

These are the five main stages they will learn in a time predicted fashion. Cognitive development, social and emotional development, speech and language development, fine motor skills development and gross motor skill development (CASRC, 2008).  

Autonomy for learners is for them to take their own responsibility for their own learning, working independently without instruction or work with one another (British Council, 2006). This is a crucial element to their learning if they don’t take ownership and responsibility for their learning how are they going to progress within education. Leaners at primary age level struggle with this as they needed to be prompt but if encouraged from an earlier age and is part of the school’s ethos that children do take ownership of their learning it has more chance of succeeding. According to a report by Haiyan, Wang autonomy links well with Constructivism Learning Theory! Learners are active constructors of knowledge meaning learning their different subject, but it also emphasises that “learning is the centre of learner autonomy and should be given full play (Wang H, 2014). Again, education has changed a lot where students are taking more and more responsibility for their own learning and the teacher's role has changed from being the controller of education to the facilitator where they are assisting, guiding and helping the learners become more independent, creative, innovative beings (British Council, 2006).

Similarly, Freire declared that:

“We must never provide the people with programs which have little or nothing to do with their own preoccupations, doubts, hopes, and fears” (Freire P, 1996, P:79). Freire believed that education would be most beneficial if it allowed learners to solve problems and take part in projects that were related to their own real-life situations. Freire P (1996) also stressed the important role education has in producing creative thinkers. He stated that: “problem-posing education bases itself on creativity and stimulates true reflection and action upon reality, thereby responding to the vocation of persons as beings who are authentic only when engaged in enquiry and creative transformation. Donaldson also has this view in Wales to make the curriculum more creative and innovative to inspire more children but also for them to drive the future economy forwards in future industries. To prepare our young people to thrive in the future economy of Wales, Professor Smith’s report called for creativity to be given a central role within the curriculum, which in turn will require our teachers to be supported to develop a more creative approach to teaching and learning. “My report of 2013 presented Government with a key challenge – embed arts and creativity in our schools across Wales and there will be a sea-change in attendance, aspiration and importantly achievement (Welsh Government, 2015).  The Welsh Government has responded with vigor and commitment and I look forward to seeing Creative Learning Through the Arts delivering the benefits that our schools deserve and need.” (Welsh Government, 2015) We will use creative teaching and learning and art activity to tackle lack of aspiration and low levels of engagement and achievement amongst disadvantaged learners. In this way, the plan will help to achieve a number of the objectives of Rewriting the Future: raising ambition and attainment in Welsh schools (2014). There plan is to introduce this to disadvantaged children but also other children who will receive help from this new method of teaching and changes to the curriculum. “A primary purpose of schooling in a democratic society is to produce thoughtful citizens who can deliberate and make wise choices” (Noddings, 2013, P:25). This is a crucial point mentioned by Noddings as without thoughtful citizens and everyone hated one another we could end up following the same mistakes we made with world wars occurring and destroying our society the way we know it. However, saying that “The conception of education as a social process and function as no definite meaning until we define the kind of society we have in mind” (Dewey J, 1916, P:97). There isn’t one definition to this and everyone has a different view of what society is and that is why the purpose of education is important, so we can have an impact on the generation to think alike.

To finish Nelson Mandela states “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” (Goodreads, 2017).

Without purpose or education, how can society progress and evolve? We have briefly evaluated what pedagogy is within education but also evaluated creative thinkers and autonomy learners which play a crucial part in any child’s education.

References:

British Council (2006) Autonomy [Online] Available from: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/autonomy [Accessed 10/12/2017]

CASRC (2008) What is child development and what skills do children develop at different ages [Online] Available from: http://www.howkidsdevelop.com/developSkills.html [Accessed 11/12/2017]

Dewey, J. (1916). Education and democracy. New York: Macmillan.

Donaldson, G. (2015). Successful futures: Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales. Welsh Government.

Freire, P (1996) Reading the world and reading the word: An interview with Paulo Freire. Language Arts, 62(1), P:15-21.

Goodreads (2017) Quotes About Education [Online] Available from: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/education [Accessed 10/12/2017]

Kafai, Y & Resnik, M Constructivism in practice: Designing, thinking and learning in a digital world. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum

Noddings, N (2013) Education and Democracy in the 21st Century. New York: Teachers College Press

Stevenson, A. (Ed.). (2010). Oxford dictionary of English. Oxford University Press, USA.

Wang, H (2014) Learner Autonomy Based on Constructivism Learning Theory: World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology Internal Journal of Cognitive and Language Sciences 8 (5)

Welsh Government (2015) Creative learning through the arts [Online] Available from: www.arts.wales/85416.file.dld [Accessed 11/12/2017]







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