What is the purpose of education? How does this link to pedagogy?

Welcome back Education Bloggers! I trust that you have had a wonderful Summer, but now…let’s get back to business!

For our first discussion, let’s talk about the purpose of education and what pedagogy is, as well as your beliefs in terms of how the teaching style in an educational environment impacts the interaction of children, as well as their interests.

The Department for Education (2015) have provided liberal statement of ‘education being the engine of our economy, it is the foundation of our culture, and it’s an essential preparation for adult life’, as they feel the purpose is to engage you in current situations of work ethic to prepare children for the future. Additionally, this method will encourage children to engage in our society, so they understand the difference in morals, culture and diversity in the wider world.

However, education is not necessarily about preparing children for the future, it is a skill that children develop throughout their lives to engage within what they are learning at that moment. The University of Pennsylvania (2008) states that ‘traditional education focuses on teaching, not learning’ therefore highlighting that education is not always about the children’s academic ability, but how teachers provide the content and information for their students.

Pedagogy is about how a teacher delivers their information to students, or in much simpler terms, “a man having oversight of a child” Mortimore (1999, pg.1), therefore implying that teacher should always keep their eye on what is going on and when. Although this can be difficult, it is a skill that they will become more aware of as their teaching career progresses. With regards to a student’s academic ability, pedagogy could also be described as “the method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept” Sharroky (2012, no pg.). The two definitions contrast in terms of a teacher’s general role and focussing on a student’s ability, but they both have the same amount of importance in a school, as the focus is on the students, and how teachers can make their experience memorable.

Though, Donaldson (2015) believes that “pedagogy is about more than ‘teaching’ in a classroom…represents the selection of those methods focussing on the purposes of the curriculum, and the needs and developmental stage of the children and young people” Donaldson (2015). This view is based on how a child’s holistic development, and how this progresses through time in an educational environment. In my opinion, I feel that Donaldson gives the right idea on his pedagogical beliefs because he thinks that pedagogy shouldn’t just be about helping children academically, it is about how they fit into a different environment than play group and nursery, and whether they adjust well. Also, his thoughts on holistic development is something I have always thought about when it comes to teaching because teachers would have to cater to their behaviours and attitudes.

Linking this in with pedagogy, let’s move on to another important factor in education, the environment and how this impacts the interaction of children. It has been said that “a child’s early home environment has long-term effects on development” TUCI (2012), which includes their physical, interactive, emotional and social well-being. Teachers may see their home environment being the answer to how children will act upon certain situations “for example, living in an environment affected by chaos and poverty can lead to changes in the brain’s stress system that increases a child’s vulnerability” TUCI (2012), therefore highlighting that the children may find it difficult to interact in big social situations if they already experience a high level of brain stress at home. Ian Sample from the Guardian (2015) has a similar view, and has stated that “brain scans of children reveal that specific brain regions tend to be smaller in those from a poorer background than those born into wealthier families”, as some parents believe that they don’t need to know half of the things being taught at school or home, so why bother? This lazy and negative attitude results into children failing their academic tests, as they have not bothered to interact with their learning.

The environment has its consequences when it comes to a pupil’s education academically, but it does have the positive effects of “FSM – Free School Meals funding and is eligible for disadvantaged students, funding allocations for universal infant free school meals” Government (2017), and creates less pressure on the parents if they have not got the time to prepare lunches for their children due to work.

However, per the Department for Education (2017), “between January 2016 and 2017, the number of pupils have rose by 110,000 across all school types” therefore, highlighting that the results have yet to improve. You may ask, why did the numbers rise so much? Well, we need to think about the events that have happened; the main one being Brexit. The Guardian (2017) have stated that “UK households ‘at breaking point’ as real wages continue to fall – as it happened”, and this would influence families, especially if children are at school. At this stage, it can be difficult to make a change due to the current events, but personally, look at what is going on now, I can imagine the statistics for FSM increasing due to parents’ income decreasing as we speak. What do you think the future will hold?

With that being said, I want to leave you all with that question to think about. So, there we have it; our first blog post of second year! The next blog post is going to be based on creativity, so I want you to have a think about how you would describe creativity. Thank you all for reading!

References:

-       Department for Education (2015) ‘The purpose of education’, England: Nick Gibb, Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-purpose-of-education (Accessed: 01/11/2017)

-       Donaldson (2015) ‘Initial Highlights of the Donaldson Report’

-       Government (2017) ‘Free school meals (FSM) funding’, Available at: https://www.gov.uk/education/free-school-meals-fsm-funding (Accessed: 01/11/2017)

-       Mortimore. P (1999) ‘Understanding Pedagogy and its impact on learning’, London: SAGE publications, p.1

-       Sharroky. H (2017) ‘Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching and Learning’, Huntington Beach, Volume 1, Chapter 1, no pg.

-       The Guardian (2015) ‘Brain development in children could be affected by poverty, study shows’, 30^th March, Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/mar/30/brain-development-in-children-could-be-affected-by-poverty-study-shows (Accessed: 01/11/2017)

-       The Guardian (2017) ‘UK households 'at breaking point' as real wages continue to fall - as it happened’, 13^th September, Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2017/sep/13/pound-one-year-high-uk-jobs-report-pay-squeeze-business-live (Accessed: 01/11/2017)

-       TUCI (2012) ‘a child’s early home environment has long-term effects on development’, pg.44

-       University of Pennsylvania (2008) ‘The Objective of Education is Learning, Not Teaching’, Available at: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/the-objective-of-education-is-learning-not-teaching/ (Accessed: 01/11/2017)