Education in My Milieu In line with Dewey’s statement, “the ultimate aim of education is not simply about teaching the content for academic excellence, but the creation of complete human beings through continued education for mindful growth”.

 

Education in My Milieu In line with Dewey’s statement, “the ultimate aim of education is not simply about teaching the content for academic excellence, but the creation of complete human beings through continued education for mindful growth”.

Author: Santosh Kumar Biswa, Sr. Teacher, Damphu CS, Tsirang, Bhutan

 

In the words of Dewey (1916/1980), the ultimate aim of education is not simply about teaching the content for academic excellence, but the creation of complete human beings through continued education for mindful growth.

In line with Dewey’s statement above, education in my milieu does not align with the traditional ways of teaching but is aligned with child-centered education that promotes learning by doing which is exactly similar to Schiro’s (2013) learner Center Ideology that allows the 21st-century experience to all students. These skills prepare students in today’s world for more complex life and working environments (BattelleforKids, 2019). During the course, they will learn to assemble and handle tools meaningfully for knowledge and skills development through the 4Cs such as creativity, critical thinking ability, collaboration, and communication, so that they can meet their unique needs for positive outcomes in life in productive manners (Ledward and Hirata, 2011).

On the other hand, education in my milieu also focuses on universal education including the concept of Green School in which the role of education is based on the needs of society, in socializing people through the transmission of common values in life and the social control at a point a time in line with Schiro’s (2013) Social Efficiency Ideology and Social Reconstruction Ideology. In such a case, the learning experience that each child gets isn’t within the four walls but to the extent of his home or even the larger society (Olusegun, 2019). Such theory advocates liberty rights through individualism whereby the learner experiences competition gaining social and self-esteem. It addresses the very purpose of education in my milieu and fulfills the needs of society in the context of Gross National Happiness in terms of social integration and placement, socialization in the community, professional development training, and finally cultural innovation. Moreover, students through the different teaching subjects are trained with the norms and values of society to build a better community in the near future. As education is able to fulfill the various needs of society, the concept of socialization is infused through various value-integrated lessons in our context because our education is based on the concept of Gross National Happiness.

Finally, in my milieu, the purpose of education for cerebral development aligns with that of Schiro’s (2013) scholarly academic ideology. In my milieu, in order to meet the cerebral development of students, students are engaged through independent or group research learning, learning through inquiry, project writing, etc., which are integrated into the learning process, and critically analyzing the contents making connections to real-life situations, and deriving values for them. The infusion of 21st-century skills enabled teachers to produce high performers to a greater extent and observed better academic performance over the period. By doing so, not only the academic but also the behaviors of students have drastically improved due to positive motivation to learn, and greater commitment from students’ side is seen. Mostly, students do their work by themselves through collaboration and turn to the teacher just for guidance.

One best ideology that meets the needs of learners in my context is Learned-centered Ideology extensively. The main ideology of transformation of individual learners through self-exposure is focused, where the role of the teacher shifts from the facilitator to the visionary leader of changing times through the collaborative process (Roy, 2020). It is because students try to discover and learn themselves through skills like critical thinking, creative thinking, cooperative and collaborative learning, interaction skills, information literacy, media literacy, technology literacy, flexibility, leadership, initiative, productivity, social skills, formative and continuous assessment, etc.

The further modifications that I would like to propose in order to best meet the needs in my milieu involve students learning through intensive research learning and learning through self-reflection by teachers and critical reflection by teachers.

It is because they can think beyond the process in which they are involved in identifying, questioning, and assessing their deeply-held assumptions such as their knowledge, beliefs, feelings, and actions, and the way they perceive any events and issues they confront within their context. It enables them to compare the theories derived based on the present practices to come up with solutions to the problems (The University of Waterloo, n.d.). It allows them to set their goals before their past experiences so that in the future their implementation process goes smoothly. According to John Dewey, he stated that Critical reflection is the link between how we think and do things in transformative manners (Dewey, 1916/1944).

The 21st-century education system should provide students and teachers with modern tools effectively so that they can unleash their talent for successful learning.

 

 

Reference

BattelleforKids. (2019). Framework for 21st Century Learning. Retrieved August 2, 2021 from http://static.battelleforkids.org/documents/p21/P21_Framework_Brief.pdf

Dewey, J. (1916/1980). Democracy and education: An introduction to philosophy of education. In J. A. Boydston (Ed.), The middle works: 1899–1924, volume 9, 1916 (pp. 1–370). Carbondale/Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

Ledward, B. C. and Hirata, D. (2011). An Overview of 21st Century Skills. Retrieved August 2, 2021, from https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/1278354/mod_book/chapter/285964/

             21stCenturySkills.pdf?time=1580594765055

Olusegun, M. H. (2019). What is the importance of sociology of education to a teacher and why? Retrieved 16 July 2021 from https://www.quora.com/profile/Mohammed-Hazzan-Olusegun

Roy, S. (2020). 11 Guiding Principles of 21st Century Education. Retrieved August 2, 2021, from https://blog.onelxp.com/11-guiding-principles-of-21st-century-education-f80ea5aeccc3

Schiro, M. S. (2013). Curriculum theory: Conflicting visions and enduring concerns (2nd  ed.).  Sage Publications, Inc.  https://talkcurriculum.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/schiro-m-2013-introduction-to-the-curriculum-ideologies.pdf