The changing emphasis in the educational process

Abstract

The process of education is normally regarded as involving the transmission of the cultural heritage, the development of individual identity, and socialization. Jerome S. Bruner has suggested that the transmission of basic skills is prominent in the process, but there appears to be little difficulty in assuming that this is a further elaboration upon the concept of cultural heritage, inasmuch as a definition of culture included ideas, instruments, and skills.1 Schooling has traditionally been differentiated from education, although closely related. Education represents the broader of the two, comprising what occurs in the school, home, community, etc., all that takes place in experience; schooling is generally portrayed as society's formal attempt to educate. In contemporary common parlance there is a tendency to equate the two as a consequence of their proximity, but one should keep in mind that differences between them exist. Obviously, one's convictions about schooling will indicate certain notions relative to education and vice-versa.2