Why Well-Being as an Educational Aim Constrains Paternalism in Schools

The purpose of school education needs to be emphasized in context to the society and culture. It should certainly go beyond developing reading, writing and numeracy skills. This has initiated a paradigm shift in pedagogy; pedagogy of freedom, through the lens of critical constructivism. A self-assessment model is developed to enable the practitioners (1) identify the Quality Criteria for establishing a critically constructivist classroom, (2) nurture their hidden potential to establish a critical constructivist classroom for excellence in learning teaching, (3) address the global challenges of a democratic society through critical evaluation of the identified quality indicators.The model identifies two Quality Criteria for evaluating a critical constructivist classroom; (1) Ethical Learning Environment in Classrooms and (2) Engaging Learning Behaviour in Classrooms. These are further divided into nine quality indicators. The quality indicators under each of the two Quality Criteria are well defined in terms of quality process, operational definition, relevance, data & information, quality assessment. The action-oriented cycle of assessment takes place via feedback between the process and the result, involving four clearly defined stages, Zero phase, Initial phase, Developing phase and Advanced phase. The developed self- assessment model gives the schools a new vision to see their efforts on the backdrop of a process orientation. Keywords: critical constructivism, critical pedagogy, quality indicators, excellence in learning teaching, quality assessment, school education DOI: 10.7176/JESD/13-17-01 Publication date: September 30 th 2022

Þetta rit er inngangur að heimspeki menntunar. Það inniheldur gagnrýna umfjöllun um hugmyndir sem stundum er gengið að sem gefnum þegar rætt er um skólamál. Þetta eru einkum hugmyndir í þá veru að: Þau sem gera námskrár fyrir skóla þurfi að velja milli þess að leggja áherslu á námsgreinar og þess að hafa barnið í brennidepli eða bæta samfélagið; skólar eigi að þjóna þörfum nemenda sinna eða hagsmunum atvinnulífsins; hægt sé að skipuleggja nám og kennslu sem sókn að námsmarkmiðum eða hæfniviðmiðum; stjórnvöld geti bætt skóla með fyrirmælum að ofan eða með því að skapa hagræna hvata; aukin skólaganga bæti efnahag samfélagsins.Í bókinni eru tólf kaflar og hver þeirra lýsir hugtakalegum ógöngum eða rökum sem vísa í ólíkar áttir. Fyrstu fimm kaflarnir sem og kaflar númer níu og tíu fjalla um efni sem liggja á mörkum heimspeki og námskrárfræða. Kaflar númer sex til átta og kafli ellefu snúast um efni á mörkum menntavísinda og stjórnmálaheimspeki. Tólfti og síðasti kaflinn fjallar um fagmennsku kennara.Hverjum kafla lýkur með spurningum fyrir lesanda. Flestar þessar spurningar snúast um tilgang skóla, skólastefnu og stjórn menntakerfa. Þótt fæstum þeirra sé beinlínis svarað er rökstutt að hugsunarleysi um þær ali af sér afglöp í stjórn og uppbyggingu skólakerfisins

This chapter challenges beliefs that are commonly held by teachers about what it means to be entrepreneurial, to be an innovator, or to be a leader. Challenging such beliefs is essential in the 21st century where the core purpose of education is being transformed by the abundance of free knowledge and free information through technologies connecting us as global citizens. Increasingly, learning can happen in many places at any time and formal knowledge can be taught and learnt through technologies without the assistance of traditional school-based teachers. The place of teachers and the purpose of school education is changing with a shift towards human capabilities and non-cognitive skills that are deliverable through values-driven entrepreneurial education. By becoming an entrepreneurial teacher, you are developing your own capabilities for being innovative and leading change in the context of 21st century teaching in your school ecosystem. This book adopts an emancipatory perspective on entrepreneurial thinking by seeking to empower teachers to lead innovation and make change happen in localised school communities. You will be stepped through entrepreneurial concepts with fine-grained examples and practical activities for building your confidence in being innovative and understanding yourself as a teacher-leader. You are invited to explore your sense of self as you become an entrepreneurial teacher. Keywords: entrepreneurial thinking, capabilities, innovation, leaders, school ecosystems.

Individually controlled noise reducing devices to improve IEQ in classrooms of primary schools

The Heidelberg Catechism originated in 1563 in the Paltz by political authority of the head of state for the purpose of education in schools and for general religious instruction. This document received the status of an official doctrinal creed (confession of faith) in the churches in the Netherlands at the Synod of 's-Gravenhage in 1586. Unity of faith as confessed determined the being of the church and ecclesiastical unity. The same synod therefore prescribed weekly preaching of the main content of the Christian doctrine and referred to the chapters of the Heidelberg Catechism as agenda for this purpose. The Church Order (art. 68) still maintains this prescription for the GKSA today. A lack of understanding of the real meaning and purpose of doctrinal preaching gave rise to a wrong perception that the Catechism as such is ordered by ecclesiastical authority to be preached. In this article it is asserted that in the so called ‘catechism-sermon' more than one pericope from Scripture should be used in context - rather than to focus on text in isolation - to highlight a certain section in the Heidelberg Catechism. In homiletics this kind of sermon should also be treated according to its own genre in homiletics.

Students’ and teachers’ views on the goals and purposes of school education

The purpose of this study is to describe an alternative understanding of Bildung-centred Didaktik through an examination of Wilhelm von Humboldt’s conception and practice of educational reform—Bildungsreform, 1809–1810—in which the concept of science (Wissenschaft) was regarded as the fundamental goal and principle for curricular and didactic structure. Willbergh’s call to revise Bildung with more emphasis on the pedagogical concepts is congruent with Deng’s challenge to overcome the ‘moribund’ state of the contemporary Anglo-American curriculum studies. Re-examination of the classical figure, Wilhelm von Humboldt, who is quoted and referred to in almost every paper about Didaktik and Bildung theory in the context of curriculum research, but never examined in detail, provides a fruitful reframing of Bildung to the didactical principle. This paper utilizes unpublished archived material in which Humboldt argued for the roles and relationship between Wissenschaft and education for Bildung process as relational development with self and world. Humboldt argued that the purpose of school education is to encourage students to deepen their view on the world, resulting in both intellectual and moral development towards self-determination that consists of five categories: language, mathematics, science, arts and gymnastics.

Administration and supervision are supporting tools for achieving educational goal. Likewise also the purpose of school education can also be achieved if there is a systimatic and continous administration and super vision activities. Super vision theory from perspective of the approachused begins with directive supervision. But after seeing the axxistence of supervision ineffctiveness, the directive then emerged the teory of non directive supervision. But, after seeing the existence of supervision ineffectiveness, the directive then emerged the theory of non directive supervision. The ineffectiveness of directive supervision because directive supervision does not give teachers the opportunity to develop their abilities aand creativity, full responsibility is on the supervisor, so the supervisor is dominnt. This is one of the factors behind the birth of the ssupervisor directive.

This article summarizes the conceptual-methodological aspects that are the basis for the formation of intercultural competence for secondary school students. The curricular approach to intercultural education is a relatively new field for Romania. More specifically, from the 2017-2018 school year it is studied in secondary classes, in this case in the sixth grade, one hour a week in the common trunk. In 2016, the new framework curricula for the secondary were adopted, approved by the order of the Minister of National Education and Scientific Research no. 3590 / 05.04.2016. These are applied from the 2017-2018 school year to the 5th and 6th grades, starting with the 2019-2020 school year to the 7th grade, and from the 2020-2021 school year to the 8th grade. The purpose of school education is based on the acquisition of key competencies by students and the formation of the profile of the graduate, able to integrate socially and professionally. One of the eight key competences contained in the 2006 Council of Europe Recommendation is the intercultural competence. In essence, intercultural competence is formed within several disciplines of study, but not only at the level of intercultural education. Thus, we claim that it is "polished" in an organized and systematic way through formal or non-formal activities by teachers. A series of teaching methods are the basis for the formation of intercultural competence in secondary school students are mentioned here. These have been successfully applied by the author in the classroom.

With the great surge in mathematics, both pure and applied, the scientific and industrial world has called for a reform, both in our school mathematics curriculum and in the training of teachers to teach a more modern program. Just how much mathematical and how much professional education training a teacher needs is a matter of conflicting philosophies today, between those who believe in a body of knowledge called professional education and those who constitute the set of pure scientists. Since schools and the purposes of school education in America are quite different from those in most European countries, a critical examination of programs in other countries may give some perspective by which some of our conflicts may be resolved.

The importance of the topic of the article is that nowadays there is a need to update methods and techniques of teaching in the educational process, the use of innovations in student teaching, because it is not important how much knowledge a student receives, but how one can use them in practice. The purpose of the article is the need to study and justify the importance of studying the essence of the concepts of “the competence” and “the competency” in the system of psychological and pedagogical categories. The article gives a theoretical justification for the concepts of “competence” and “competency” of the teacher in the pedagogical context; the similarity and difference of the concepts “the competence” and “the competency” in the system of psychological and pedagogical categories are investigated; the concept of professional competency and its categorical essence as a set of professional knowledge, skills, abilities necessary for both teachers and students in the XXI century is given. Nowadays, the purpose of school education is determined by the entirety of knowledge, skills and abilities that a student shouldacquire. In the XXI century, such a perspective is insufficient for society, because professional educational institutions, industry, families do not need weisenheimers, but graduates who are ready tointegrate in the real life, who have the ability to quickly and easily approach life and professional problems, which appear before them, so that getting into a problem situation, they could find several ways to solve it, to choose a practical way, justifying one’s decision.

This article summarizes the conceptual-methodological aspects that are the basis for the formation of intercultural competence for secondary school students. The curricular approach to intercultural education is a relatively new field for Romania. More specifically, from the 2017-2018 school year it is studied in secondary classes, in this case in the sixth grade, one hour a week in the common trunk. In 2016, the new framework curricula for the secondary were adopted, approved by the order of the Minister of National Education and Scientific Research no. 3590 / 05.04.2016. These are applied from the 2017-2018 school year to the 5th and 6th grades, starting with the 2019-2020 school year to the 7th grade, and from the 2020-2021 school year to the 8th grade. The purpose of school education is based on the acquisition of key competencies by students and the formation of the profile of the graduate, able to integrate socially and professionally. One of the eight key competences contained in the 2006 Council of Europe Recommendation is the intercultural competence. In essence, intercultural competence is formed within several disciplines of study, but not only at the level of intercultural education. Thus, we claim that it is "polished" in an organized and systematic way through formal and non-formal activities by teachers. A series of teaching methods are the basis for the formation of intercultural competence in secondary school students are mentioned here. These have been successfully applied by the author in the classroom.

The purposes of a school counseling have been guidance and psychotherapy, but research added a new function, that is education. The aim of this symposium was to clarify this new function in school education.It is believed that the principles of counseling such as resepect to human potentiality, self observation, self exploration, self realization, self insight, and the changes of attitude and personality together with the change of behaviors will becomer the new purposes of school education. The principles and methods attached to those new aims were studied in this symposium. The ways to apply the principles of counseling to teaching methods and to effective study were also discussed in this symposium.The student learning activities to which the principles of group and behavioral counseling were also discussed in this symposium. The participants expressed their opinions and made questions to the proposers. The number of participants was about fifty.

Health and social relationships of mothers of children in special education schools

Simone Weil on Attention and Education: Can Love Be Taught? Kazuaki Yoda The concern of this study is the loss of the meaning or purpose of education and the instrumental view of education as its corollary. Today, education is largely conceived of as a means to gain social and economic privilege. The overemphasis on school children’s test scores and the accountability of teachers and schools is evidence that education has lost its proper meaning. In such a climate, we observe general unhappiness among teachers, school children, and their parents. Society as a whole seems to have given up on education, not only school education but also the very idea of educated human beings. There is an urgent need to reconsider what education is and what its purpose is. However, these questions—once being the primary concerns of philosophers of education—are barely discussed today. I intend to energize the discourse of the aims of education by examining Simone Weil’s thesis that the sole purpose of education is to nurture attention. It is very hard, however, to agree with Weil’s thesis that the sole purpose of education is attention. Is there a single definite purpose to education? Weil suggests that the purpose is attention, but her notion of attention involves religious language and takes essentialist formulation. How can we take her thesis seriously? By addressing such difficulties and potential problems, I argue that her thesis is still compelling if we adequately emphasize her realistic approach to philosophy. Attention is the disposition of the subject that is open and available to the reality of other people, ourselves, objects (natural and artificial), customs and traditions, ideas, and words such as good, truth, beauty, and God. Attention is also synonymous with love. As the disposition takes various objects, love is also inclusively discussed. The purpose of education, then, is to learn to love. This study discusses two important aspects of love: the love of other people, which for Weil is nothing but justice, and the love of God. Justice for Weil is not about enforcement of rights as typically understood today. It is equivalent to love in that it involves the recognition of others for themselves, not as a means for our satisfaction. We tend to see other people from our self-centered perspective, but we must stop doing so to partake in justice and love. This detachment from the self-centered perspective is crucial not only in attending to other people, but in attending to everything. Weil proposes the imitation of the divine perspective—or quasi-perspective, to be precise—from which everything, including the most abhorrent human misery, is capable of being loved because it is the result of God’s love. By changing our perspective, we learn to love God. Although it is perhaps inappropriate to include the love of God in the purpose of education (especially school education), the claim that we need to learn to change our perspective and read (in Weil’s language) reality better is still compelling. To learn to love is to change how we read. Through proper apprenticeship, we learn to create a comprehensive reading and read reality better. This is achieved through the contemplation of contradictions. Thus, education is apprenticeship in reading and the learning of the method of contemplation. I conceive of Weil’s thesis as a comprehensive response to the question in Plato’s Meno: “Can Virtue be Taught?” Replacing the term “virtue” with “attention,” Weil responds that it can be taught and it should be the sole purpose of education. Like Plato, Weil considers education to be the conversion of the soul to the Good, while attention is the orientation of the soul to the Good (or God). As we turn to see the contradictions between the transcendent Good and the reality in this world, we need to contemplate the without losing the love of the Good in life’s bitterness and confusion. By learning to contemplate, reading better, and changing perspectives, one could learn to love better. Weil claims that this should be the sole purpose of education. This grand vision of education may re-kindle the meaning of education and suggests a compelling alternative to the now dominating instrumental view of education. It might then save the downcast situation of education observed in teachers, schoolchildren, their parents, college professors, and our society as a whole.