Non-institutionalized education and institutionalized education
According to the degree of normalization of the education system itself, the forms of education can be divided into "non-institutionalized education" and "institutionalized education". Non-institutionalized education refers to those forms of education that fail to form a relatively independent one. This kind of education is highly integrated with production or life, and has not been divorced from daily production or life, but has become a relatively independent social institution and its institutionalized behavior. Education before the emergence of human schools belongs to this kind of non-institutionalized education. Even in today's highly complex network of human schools, non-institutionalized education still exists, but its position and role in individual development and the whole education system are very limited.
Institutionalized education evolved from non-institutionalized education, which refers to a form of education composed of specialized educators, institutions and their operating systems. Institutionalized education is an advanced form of human education. Its appearance is a great progress of human education civilization, and it also greatly promotes the progress of human civilization as a whole. All kinds of "education" and "educational reform" discussed today basically refer to this institutionalized education.
(2) Family education, school education and social education.
According to the spatial characteristics of the education system, education forms can be divided into three types: family education, school education and social education.
Family education refers to the educational activities carried out by the family as a unit; School education refers to the educational activities carried out by the school as a unit; Social education refers to educational activities carried out in a wide range of social life and production processes. This division is well known, leaving no theoretical problems. What is significant is the historical changes of these three forms of education and their relations. For most of human history, the family, as a basic social unit, has undertaken a lot of educational tasks. Educating the younger generation is also an important function of the family in the traditional sense. In the west, many educational works, even the crystallization of the author's family education experience. In China, the traditional "family learning" has also played an important role in the preservation and development of China culture. Only after the industrial revolution, the educational function of the family began to weaken like the economic function of the family, giving way to public school education. However, even today, the educational role of the family is still very important, especially in the education of cultivating teenagers' sound personality, which is irreplaceable by the school.
As a form of education, school education has its own advantages, including specialized educational institutions, specially trained teachers, relatively abundant educational funds and well-designed courses and teaching plans, thus becoming a leading modern educational form. However, since the emergence of this school, thinkers have never stopped criticizing it. Their criticism warns us that not all schools are conducive to the development of the younger generation; For the healthy development of young people from generation to generation, we must constantly improve our school.
As a form of education, social education has existed since ancient times. All kinds of ceremonies or religious activities held by people in primitive society have the significance of social education. Extensively speaking, social education mainly includes different types such as "social tradition education", "social system education" and "social activities or events education". Social traditional education refers to the educational function of a society's traditional fashion on individual development. What people usually call "nationality" is mainly shaped by the social tradition of a country or nation. Social system education means that the current social, political, economic and cultural systems also have a shaping effect on individuals' attitudes, behaviors and beliefs. It is easy to understand that a good social system in all aspects contributes to the formation and development of personal virtue. The education of social activities or events refers to the education that individuals get from various social activities. In today's era of lifelong education, social education is undergoing qualitative changes in both connotation and extension.
(3) Education in agricultural society, education in industrial society and education in information society.
To grasp the characteristics of these three educational forms, we must first grasp the characteristics of productivity, economic form and superstructure of their times. To understand the changes of these three forms of education, we must first understand the social changes behind them. Secondly, education in agricultural society is not equal to "agricultural education", education in industrial society is not equal to "industrial education" and education in information society is not equal to "information education". The former refers to the form of basic education, while the latter refers to the type of specialized education. Third, all three forms of education are based on the former one, so the educational objectives, contents, methods, management and other aspects always contain criticism, revision and reconstruction of the former one, and there is historical continuity between them.